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About Memory Lane
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What others have said about Memory Lane Now let us introduce you to those who who regularly write for Memory Lane. The period from 1925 to 1950 might well be described as ‘the Golden Age of Popular Music’. This was the era in which the Gershwins, Cole Porter, Jerome Kern, Irving Berlin, Noel Coward and countless others regularly wrote classic songs that are frequently played and sung today. It was also the era of the 78-rpm record, a period during which millions tuned in to the BBC’s radio broadcasts and a time when sales of sheet music determined which song was ‘top of the pops’. It was also the age of the bandleader who stood, immaculately attired in front of his orchestra, and effortlessly provided the popular tunes and rhythms of the day. Ambrose, who counted princes among his personal friends, the genial Carroll Gibbons who enthralled the clientele of the Savoy for virtually the whole of this period, Jack Payne and Henry Hall who, with their BBC Orchestras, were top attractions on the radio, and the irrepressible Harry Roy, who set toes tapping wherever he played. And there were many others, such as Roy Fox, Ray Noble and Lew Stone, whose orchestras were hallmarks of sheer musical excellence On the other side of the Atlantic, big band legends such as Duke Ellington, Glenn Miller, Artie Shaw, Tommy Dorsey, Benny Goodman and many others were giving the world swing music. And, already making their mark were the ‘crooners’, for this was the era in which Bing Crosby, Al Bowlly, Denny Dennis and many other band singers started to set young girls’ hearts fluttering. It was, in short, a time when music could be enjoyed by everyone, when the Saturday evening dance with live music was the high spot of the week, when an evening at the variety theatre or music hall invariably involved one of the big show bands with full supporting cast, when the leaders of the top bands were celebrities, drove Rolls Royces and were mobbed by fans at stage doors. Those days may have passed but the melodies and the memories linger on through Memory Lane, a magazine dedicated to the personalities and the music of this ‘Golden Age’. It is an independent magazine founded in 1968 for enthusiasts of music of the "78-rpm" era - principally the dance bands, big bands, instrumentalists, jazz stars and personalities from the 1920s through to the 1950s. Each quality-printed edition is packed with informative and entertaining features with many rare and interesting photographs. Memory Lane has a team of top writers and journalists many of whom are experts in their own field. They combine with the editor to provide unrivalled coverage. Each issue contains biographical articles, full reviews of new CDs and cassettes remastered from 78-rpm records, related book reviews and news of the vintage music scene today. We publish advertisements of great interest to our readers who rely on Memory Lane to find suppliers of both new releases as well as original 78-rpms. We also offer low cost advertising to registered subscribers who find it an ideal medium for advertising their wants and disposals. Memory Lane is essential for collectors of reissue cassettes and CDs, 78-rpm records and anything to do with them. Only available by subscription, Memory Lane is published quarterly and distributed to dedicated nostalgia enthusiasts throughout the United Kingdom and worldwide. Our readers come from all walks of life and span all age groups. Enhance your musical enjoyment and play your part in preserving and propagating our musical heritage by subscribing to Memory Lane. Click the link to "Subscribe to Memory Lane", above, to enter your subscription.
What others have said about Memory Lane I wish I had known about Memory Lane years ago.
I go straight to the CD Pages and make my selections.
I enjoy the readers’ letters and often write in myself.
Memory Lane opened a whole new interest for me.
I like to read the biographies of the artistes I hear on record.
As a collector of 78-rpm records, I find the discographical information essential.
As a life long nostalgia fan, Memory Lane never ceases to amaze, entertain and educate me.
Memory Lane is unique in this world; I am so pleased I am part of it.
I have made a lot of friends through Memory Lane.
It adds a new dimension to the enjoyment of music
Memory Lane brings sanity to a mad, mad, world!
When Memory Lane comes though my letterbox – it makes my day.
The Memory Lane Party Night is the high spot in my diary
Now let us introduce you to those who who regularly write for Memory Lane. One of our more recent contributors was kind enough to say that the ML team of writers are unequalled anywhere. We must admit that we are very proud to be able to offer subscribers regular features compiled by writers of the highest class and we feel it is about time you knew a little more about them. And we must not forget the ‘back-room’ team without whom the magazine just would not appear at all! We hope these short profiles will add to your enjoyment of what we feel is the most entertaining and informative magazine covering nostalgic music. A veteran of these pages, Doug Wilkins, surprised us by admitting that supermarkets loom very large in his life. He was born (in 1917) in a police sub-station in Worthing and his first school was a local junior one. In both cases those establishments are now supermarkets! Just so long as this coincidence does not extend to Hove cricket ground Doug will be happy. With the exception of the war years Doug’s working life was spent in local government. The need to find relaxation was met by his twin loves of Music and Cricket. With regard to the latter, Doug regards his skill with both bat and ball to be of the lowest order so his pleasure came from watching and performing administratively. Due to his job at the Town Hall, he was called upon to organize Worthing Cricket Week during the final years of its existence (1960 to 1964). As with cricket, so with music, as Doug’s performances were limited to a brief period of piano tuition. But his musical appreciation is quite varied: dance, light and classical music – in fact the whole spectrum except the extremes, jazz and chamber music. When in reflective mood, Doug finds it sad to contrast the music of today with that of yesterday. Equally disappointing to him is the bad behaviour and lack of sportsmanship that has now pervaded what was once our national game. For all that Doug fully enjoys life, which has been enriched by his wife Phyl, their children and grandchildren. Vocalist, music critic, editor and author, Arthur Jackson has many talents. He entered the band business in 1941 in his home town of South Shields as vocalist with a semi-pro band, and now at the age of 80 is still interested in ‘our’ music. He began writing for an RAF newspaper between flying duties, also singing with the station band, and came out of the services hoping to make his name as a singer. He didn’t quite make it, despite joining the George Mitchell Swing Choir singing in ITMA and with Geraldo and Stanley Black, so eventually gave it up in favour of writing. While popular music critic with several record magazines he was also manager of Chappell’s Recorded Music Library, working with people like Peter Yorke, Vivian Ellis, Robert Farnon and Sidney Torch. By 1963 Arthur had had enough of London and moved to Cornwall to become associate editor of Audio & Record Review and Jazz Monthly, then produced The New Records and The Gramophone Popular Catalogue. Since then Arthur has written various show business books including his own Book of Musicals and World of Big Bands, and has also contributed greatly to many other major works on popular music. His interests in music are wide-ranging, from Noble to Kenton, and from Mozart to Ravel. He has been associated for 25 years with Memory Lane, which he thinks is doing a great job and he still contributes regularly to This England, Evergreen, etc., as well as being currently active in the production of CD liner notes…and he is supposed to have retired 15 years ago! Arthur and Jeannine have a married daughter living not too far away, and celebrate their Golden Wedding in 2002. Bob Deal is another who was faithful to one type of work throughout his career although at ML we are more than grateful that he is willing to turn his hand to almost anything! Bob became addicted to dance band music when hearing Jack Payne on the wireless in 1928 (aged 10). Among his early favourites were Ambrose, Fox, Stone, Roy, Browne, Bowlly, Crosby and Columbo. Later his taste extended to Goodman, Shaw, Dorsey, Miller, Fitzgerald, Forrest, Day, Sinatra and Haymes. He joined ML in 1976 when his wife spotted an advertisement in the Evening Standard and his first article appeared two years later. Bob considers himself fortunate to have met and written about more than twenty personalities in the music business. At the end of 1979 Bob retired from a long career (too long, feels Bob!) in local government. Married in 1950 (the family now includes one daughter and two grandchildren), Bob immediately dodged the chores by becoming player/secretary of his local cricket club. He met Benny Lee and Bruce Trent over forty years ago when fixing charity matches against the Water Rats. Cricket remains a weakness and Bob is an enthusiastic Surrey supporter, having first visited The Oval in the late 1920s. During the winter football takes over and Bob is a season ticket holder at Chelsea and Kingstonian, and a member of Hampton & Richmond FC. Bob joined the Coda Club when it was founded in 1987, later becoming tie and ticket salesman! He also penned several articles for Nostalgia. He now wonders whether Memory Lane will move more into the 1950s and eventually the 60s ‘as time goes by’. Bob does a lot of work behind the scenes and another stalwart in this area is our chief proofreader, Ken Pitt. Ken was born in 1922; five days before broadcasting began by the BBC. His father built his own wireless receiver and so, very early in life, Ken was absorbing the sounds of dance music, from Marius B Winter to Henry Hall. Much later, during army service, he stumbled across Glenn Miller, Rainbow Corner, Eric Winstone, Julie Dawn and Frank Sinatra. In late 1946 Ken went to the Evening Standard under Lord Beaverbrook’s training scheme for returning servicemen. Beaverbrook took a personal interest in him and he quickly learnt the basics of journalism and newspaper production. He then sent Ken to his flagship newspaper, the Daily Express. One day Ken wandered into the Whitcombe Street office of Fanfare, the music magazine run by George Evans, the saxophonist/arranger, and Jack Baverstock, ex-pianist with the Blue Rockets Dance Band. Jack asked Ken if he would do some part-time work for him, handling layout, proofreading and writing an occasional article. This he did until the magazine closed in 1948, George becoming ill and Jack accepting a post with a record company. Ken went on to become a publicist and over the course of time his clients included Geraldo, Paul Weston, Stanley Black, Ted Heath, Count Basie, Jack Parnell, Johnny Dankworth and singers Frank Sinatra, Billy Eckstine, Mel Torme, Frankie Laine, Cleo Laine and Alan Dean. Ken has been reading Memory Lane for several years and now, in retirement, he finds pleasure from giving it and its Editor some practical assistance. Ken, of course, also writes features for Memory Lane, the last one being about Sophie Tucker in issue 133. Memory Lane’s own "Mr Show Business" is Bert Wilcox. Bert has been promoting music since he was a schoolboy when he cut his teeth on dances organised to aid Boy Scout funds. He still remembers paying that first four-piece band 30 shillings (£1.50) for a three hour dance at the Church Hall. By 1935 he was active promoting dances throughout the London area and along the way organised several Melody Maker Dance Band Contests. His monthly "Celebrity Balls" were extremely popular and Bert booked top vocalists such as Al Bowlly (for the enormous fee of £35.00), Sam Browne, Elsie Carlisle, Phyllis Robbins and many others. When the war came Bert joined the RAF, being trained as aircrew. But wherever he was posted he found himself arranging station dances or putting on ENSA shows. He hardly had time to be a war hero, but he was, finishing his flying career with the Pathfinder Force and collecting both the DFC and DFM. Back in civvy street Bert became attracted to jazz music and founded the London Jazz Club at which most of the famous names played. The BBC’s Jazz Club frequently did live shows from his premises. His desire to give the public what they wanted ended with Bert appearing in court when he was found to be ‘smuggling’ in top American performers against the wishes of the Musicians’ Union. In 1954 Bert started his Band Agency and also founded the glossy magazine, Jazz Illustrated. The latter was ahead of its time and folded after twelve months. But Bert’s agency career went from strength to strength and he booked the top bands to appear at the Talk of the Town, The Royal Festival Hall and many other prestigious locations. He even had an office on New York’s Broadway, next door to that of Duke Ellington’s. As Memory Laners will know, Bert has never retired, and for twenty five years has organised the Memory Lane Party Nights. The list of dance band and show business stars that have appeared at these events would fill the next few pages. Although most of our team are middle-aged or beyond this is by no means a requirement! One of our more recent contributors is Sunil Hiranandani who lives with his parents, Sue and Bhagwan, is unattached and still young enough to be under the minimum age to be President of the United States. His grandmother, Hilda Seaton, was in the Tiller Juvenile Troupe and Herbie Jackson’s Troupe, and danced in a Maurice Chevalier show. His Great-Aunt Lil worked with George and Beryl Formby, and father, Bhagwan, acted on Indian Radio and on the Bombay stage. Poetry is one of many interests and Sunil has had some of his read on the air by Tim Crook on LBC, Liz Mullen on BBC Essex and Paul Barnes on BBC Radio Norfolk. Additionally, he has had more than 85 ‘Turning the Tables’ quizzes broadcast by Clive Bull on LBC and has contributed questions to quizzes hosted by Pete Murray and Steve Allen, among others, on LBC, and to BBC Essex and BBC Radio Norfolk. The magazines Sunil has written for include The Hollywood Musical Society, Movie Memories, Music That Matters, Nostalgia, Perfectly Frank and Cine-Musical. His first article for Memory Lane was a profile of Malcolm Laycock published in 1996. He has had many letters published in journals ranging from the Harrow Observer to the Sunday Telegraph. Sunil claims to have U-Certificate tastes and loves collecting pieces of ‘trivia’. One of his favourites is that Dooley Wilson (of Casablanca’s "Play it again, Sam" fame) could not play the piano! Another poet amongst our midst is Peter Cliffe. Born in Manchester in 1930, Peter grew up in Lincolnshire, lived in Canada for nearly five years and then spent a year in Australia. Although he won the Liberty Magazine All-Canada essay competition in 1957, writing did not feature in his life until the early 1980s. By that time he was married to Marie, long settled in Hertfordshire, and UK Credit Manager for Armco Inc of Ohio. He has contributed articles to a variety of journals, including The Independent, The Lady, The Field, This England and Evergreen, and for years has had his poetry included in The Fireside Book, an annual anthology. Peter also wrote for musical magazines, his first Memory Lane article appearing in 1992. He has had two books published, Fascinating Rhythm (Egon 1990) and Somewhere A Voice is Calling (1997), and from February 1999 he has been writing Civil War articles on a regular basis for The Washington Times, of Washington, DC. Peter’s musical tastes are wide, including UK and US dance music, light orchestral music, swing or concert jazz, country music and South American songs and music. His interests also encompass American History, American small-town books, windmills, steam locomotives, paddle steamers and wild flowers. Peter claims that If you can derive equal enjoyment from hearing Val Rosing and Frank Sinatra, and like Penny Serenade as much as you do Artistry in Rhythm, then you will most likely agree with him: variety in all things but especially in music and books. Bert Booth by contrast definitely favours jazz and swing, and claims it all started in the early forties. He blames Duke Ellington and Johnny Hodges, as their recording of Drop Me Off At Harlem and Squatty Roo had a devastating effect on a twelve year old and truly hooked him into the jazz, swing and big band theme. The management of the Tivoli Theatre, Aberdeen, also have to take some of the responsibility, as their booking policy included dance bands fronted by such as Bertini, Herman Darewski and George Elrick, not to mention Stephane Grappelli whose quintet featured a very young George Shearing on piano. From his RAF service days Bert recalls wonderful performances by the Squadronaires, the George Evans Orchestra and also an early Ted Heath Sunday Swing Session at the London Palladium. In the twenty or so years before he retired, Bert was a Fleet Furnishing Manager with a major cruise line, and the travel involved enabled him to meet many top artistes, both as guest entertainers on the cruise ships and at jazz festivals and clubs. Names that stick in his memory are Bob Crosby, Les Brown, Harry and Beryl Davis, Stan Getz and Elaine Delmar. For some years Bert has contributed to the Harry James Society Magazine along with Memory Lane, but his main outlet has been regular features for the Count Basie Society. Despite being in his seventies, Bert still gets a kick out of researching and writing, and is always trying to find new topics or angles. His wife Gina, and their children and grandchildren are all convinced, with some justification, that Bert’s needle got stuck in the early forties! Conversely, Dave Cooper’s enthusiasm for music stretches over several decades and stems from a childhood exposed to records of all speeds from the big band era to the current pop scene. One of his early favourites was Greig’s ‘Peer Gynt’ Suite. He loves most things Art Deco, films, His Master’s Voice gramophones, the Spitfire, good music (especially that of Cole Porter) Doris Day, Carole Lombard and vocal harmony groups. Dave has penned books on Buddy Rich, edited a jazz magazine (the Artie Shaw Club) and provided articles for a number of others. He was pleased to assist Robert Levi with research for his award winning US-TV production on Duke Ellington (aired here on BBC 1). Dave has also contributed to LP and CD releases and has just completed a new book on ‘His Master’s Voice’ portable gramophones, which will be out next year. ‘Talking Shellac’ first appeared in issue 25 of Memory Lane in January 1975. A youthful 45, Dave married Rena twenty years ago and they have two sons, David aged 19 and Colin aged 15. Dave was a professional musician for the same number of years and travelled extensively. He still plays occasionally. Dave’s personal top ten records at the moment are headed by Bunny Berigan’s I Can’t Get Started and include two Buddy Rich numbers, the West Side Story soundtrack, Bobby Darin’s Mack The Knife, Artie Shaw, Tommy Dorsey, Gene Krupa and, by way of contrast Enrico Caruso and Nellie Melba duetting in 1907 and You’ll Never Find Another Love Like Mine from Lou Rawls. Despite being associated with Memory Lane for over 25 years, Phill Cruise is still only in his early fifties. As a record reviewer par excellence, Phill has helped countless ML readers build up impressive libraries of LPs, cassettes and CDs. Phill’s own collection also takes in original 78s and there is little he does not know about the recordings of the dance band days. Life for Phill started in Erith, Kent, but it was the Fulham area of London where he spent his formative years and went to school. He started work for London Transport at the age of 18, then moved to teaching before tying his hand as a civil servant in the Department of Trade & Industry. In 1975, however, he went back to teaching and has remained in the profession ever since. Outside interests include restoring old LT buses as part of the London Bus Preservation Trust, and sailing barges. Phill has constructed three model Thames Barges that actually sail. Phill’s musical interests are wide ranging but readers can hardly fail to have noticed his predilection for Carroll Gibbons and Anne Lenner. The more modern styles of the Carpenters and Andy Williams are also to be found in his collection. For the future Phill would desperately like to retire and spend his time doing what he wants in a stress free environment. Conversely, Gordon Howsden, who retired a few years ago after a career as a Company Secretary and Administrator, still rather misses the hurly burley of commercial life. Gordon’s interest in music started in his early teens with, perversely, the vocal stars who contributed to the demise of the dance band era. Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Rosemary Clooney, Doris Day and Jo Stafford were among his favourites. (Why so many girls?). The ‘trad’ revival stimulated the exploration of all forms of jazz and big band music - and Saturday night was not Saturday night in the Howsden household without a trip to the Wimbledon Palais and the music of the Oscar Rabin Band under the direction of David Ede. Alan Dell on the radio and the proliferation of LPs featuring the British dance bands re-awakened Gordon’s interest in ‘good’ music some 20 odd years ago. He expresses regret that he did not ‘discover’ Memory Lane sooner, and has been a subscriber for little more than ten years. As a newcomer to the team at Memory Lane, Gordon states that he has benefited greatly from the association with such experts as Ray Pallett, Phill Cruise, Chris Hayes, Peter Tanner, Doug Wilkins and the many other knowledgeable contributors. Gordon has recently reached the ripe old age of 60 and has been married to Gill for 35 years. They have a son and a granddaughter. Other than music Gordon’s main pastime is collecting and researching cigarette cards. He has written a book on the subject and currently edits the Cartophilic Society’s bi-monthly magazine. If Gordon is a comparative newcomer to the magazine Frank Wappat, as the founder of Memory Lane and the Al Bowlly Circle, is the original ‘old timer’! Frank is a Geordie, born in Hebburn, County Durham, and educated at nearby Jarrow Grammar School. Frank accomplished so much at an early age in the music field that it is difficult to know where to start. He was probably the youngest ballroom promoter in the UK, a bandleader, instrumentalist, vocalist, youth choir leader, arranger and much, much more. Parallel with all this, Frank obtained a degree in Practical and Applied Psychology and studied for the Church. Head hunted by an Independent Evangelical Group, Frank was offered the Pastorship, chapel and social hall of their organisation. It was there that he founded the Al Bowlly Circle, Golden Years magazine, Memory Lane magazine, British Band-Leaders Club (Lew Stone was the Chairman of this Club) and The Thirties Club. By 1982, Frank was Superintendent Minister of the largest and best attended Church in the North, in which he placed the only memorial to Al Bowlly. As the only Minister in the UK to marry folk from all nationalities, creeds and colours, the Jewish Community planted a tree in the Royal Forest in Israel, with Frank’s name attached, for his work in promoting racial and religious harmony. Frank is also a pre-eminent broadcaster, having been offered in 1970 a post at the forthcoming Radio Newcastle. Frank has already won two Sony Awards for his radio shows and is currently working on a third. He broadcasts weekly on nine local radio stations, with a further four programmes from Shropshire, Liverpool and Newcastle Stations. He does a mini-programme on British dance bands for an American Network of 70 radio stations. Frank is married to Susan, who he has known for 30 years. She broadcasts on all of his shows, manning the help lines too, as well as working as a Manager/Valuer of an estate agency group. And now for the man who puts it all together, and without whom there would be no Memory Lane, Ray Pallett. Ray is a comparative youngster, having been born in 1947 in Luton. His interest in records started when he was about five years of age; Ray was out with his mother and they passed a second hand shop in which there was gramophone and pile of records for £1. For some reason this fascinated young Ray. A few weeks later he was delighted to be given the gramophone and records as a birthday present. Interest in contemporary music started to wane in the late 1960s and, remembering those 78s, Ray started playing them again. He found he was being drawn to what he now fully appreciates was sophisticated dance music...Ambrose, Ray Noble, Lew Stone. It was while playing these old records that Ray discovered Al Bowlly. Something about Al’s voice appealed to him and his enthusiasm later developed to such an extent that he went on to write Al’s biography, which was published under the title Goodnight Sweetheart. Ray discovered Memory Lane in the early 70s. The then editor, Frank Wappat, was having difficulty in running the magazine so Ray travelled all the way from Leigh-on-Sea to Newcastle-upon-Tyne to see how he could help. This resulted in Frank handing over the publishing side and at a later date the editing as well. So, since1975 Ray has had the distinction of running Memory Lane on his own but modestly acknowledges that several people have helped him along the way. Ray is always thinking of how Memory Lane might be improved and his latest project has been the setting up of the Memory Lane web site. Ray says that designing, creating and maintaining the site has given him another string to his bow. By day, Ray works for the Government in Southend-on-Sea and in the spare time he has after running Memory Lane and tending the needs of the 3 females in his household (wife Jeanette and two daughters Bryony and Rosanna) he enjoys listening to various kinds of music, dining out, playing chess and going for walks. Ray’s favourite artistes are the more sophisticated English dance bands, plus singers like Bing Crosby, Ruth Etting, Nat King Cole, Ella Fitzgerald and, of course, Al. As contemporary pop music degenerates, he now is beginning to think that Ol’ Blue Eyes wasn’t really so bad after all!
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