GRAND hOTEL
Brian Reynolds
Posts: 1,198 Forum Member
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"Grand Hotel" was a light music series which ran from 1940 until the 1980s, finally bowing out in 1995. Unashamedly old-fashioned, it makes pleasant listening compared with much of what is on offer these days. Many people will be unaware that until the mid-sixties, much of the available air-time was given over to studio created (often live) instrumental music.
The Palm Court Orchestra was a section of the BBC's London Studio Players and was directed by a succession of acclaimed musicians - notably Reginald Leopold who directed it for 17 years.
Reginald Leopold is at the helm on a 1972 broadcast which I have put on my website http://mastersofmelody.co.uk/ Leopold also announces the items.
Do give it a listen - you may be pleasantly surprised.!
The Palm Court Orchestra was a section of the BBC's London Studio Players and was directed by a succession of acclaimed musicians - notably Reginald Leopold who directed it for 17 years.
Reginald Leopold is at the helm on a 1972 broadcast which I have put on my website http://mastersofmelody.co.uk/ Leopold also announces the items.
Do give it a listen - you may be pleasantly surprised.!
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Comments
This is an amazing website, with biographies of so many bands and band leaders, and details of sample programmes including the running schedules as well as the actual recordings. It must have taken ages of dedicated work to compile the information - thank you !
I see from the latest comments in the guest book that you even have contact from a son of one of the band leaders, so the knowledge base is expanding all of the time !
It is a disappointment that live broadcasts began to die out in the mid 1960s, with so few these days; even the Proms and regular venues such as the Bridgewater Hall so often being "recorded live". It really used to give an edge to a performance when it was broadcast live. We miss out as audiences because of the BBC's procedure of doing this...
On BBC Radio London in the early 1970s, there used to be their own version of "Music While You Work" every weekday morning 11:00 to 11:30 - very enjoyable to listen to - half an hour of uninterrupted light music - but obviously from discs or tape. They did do some live broadcasts, though - I watched folk and C&W singer Brian Golbey perform live there ( when he sported lots of ginger hair and bushy beard, and drove a Mk I Escort, which he parked right outside the station - couldn't do that nowadays ! ).
But thanks for introducing us to your fascinating website - bookmarked for winter evenings fast approaching !
I have about 800 broadcasts of which over 600 are of Music While You Work.
You refer to the comment from a bandleader's son, in my guestbook. Actually, quite a number of relatives of featured musicians have made contact and, in a couple of cases, I have been able to reunite ageing conductors with their broadcasts of 50 years ago.
As light music is now officially banned on BBC radio, I feel a need to preserve it for posterity - possibly even introducing it to the many who have never heard it. I became hooked on it as a teenager, so there is no reason why others should not be similarly attracted to it. People haven't changed that much !
And light music is so powerful at creating a "mood" too...
I wanted to return to this thread because ( so often as one does ) I remembered a small addition overnight, about MWYW. Jack Dorsey and his orchestra ! That was one of the names that I was drawn to from your extensive list - and I realise why. As a teenager in the early 1960s, like others who have commented via your guest book, MWYW was "on" at home every day. I recall now that there was indeed one band on MWYW who had more "upbeat" arrangements; perhaps were more strident and more "up tempo". Those broadcasts were an exciting alternative to the others. I now realise that those were the Jack Dorsey broadcasts. Fantastic that your website has brought that memory back ! It is good, too, to read that Jack Dorsey has been enjoying a pleasant retirement on the Sussex coastal area.
Disappointing that the BBC has abandoned light music. We do realise on this forum that far too much is expected of one channel, Radio 2, to cover everything for over-25s. The BBC now have the technology to operate more channels to cover an expansion of music. Radio 2 may have an audience figure of 20 or 30 million - but what is the point ? Three channels each of 10 million would still be something that is admired.
And there is the emphasis on television too, that might have been essential in the 1960s and 1970s, but is nowadays pointless. Surely one really good TV channel, comprising of new material, would be what viewers would appreciate, with everything else available from the internet. That would free up BBC funds for more radio, and to bring back some of the broadcasting staff who have been dumped over recent years. When I went to see Brian Golbey at BBC Radio London in 1972, I was given a tour of the station by the lady who was deputy station manager. At the time she told me that the ENTIRE annual budget for BBC Radio London was £25,000 - the same amount spent on Christmas Night programmes on BBC1 and 2 ! Let's hope that the BBC will think further about the ratio of live TV to everything else.
Anyway, once again thank you !