When Spike Milligan
passed away in 2002, it would have been
reasonable to think that we had heard
the last of the three great men who
made up the Goons. But no! Who would
have thought that hidden in Spike Milligan’s
attic would be a tape of the three Goons
performing a group of British folksong
arrangements of Britten and Vaughan
Williams? And performing them seriously!
After the seventh series
finished – The Histories of Pliny
the Elder was the last episode in
the 1956/7 series, broadcast on 28 March
1957 – the cast met a few days later
for an end-of-series party. For some
reason which history hasn’t recorded,
Harry Secombe had with him a folder
of sheet music, containing a collection
of folksongs in arrangements by Vaughan
Williams and Britten. Spike Milligan
took his trumpet to every Goon Show
recording and rehearsal, presumably
to add to the general riotous atmosphere.
History also hasn’t
documented who suggested that the three
not only perform the songs, but also
record the event. Fifty years on, those
of us for whom The Goon Show was a considerable
influence in their adolescence can only
be grateful. Unfortunately, no photographs
of the event apparently remain.
The five Vaughan Williams
arrangements are from a set of fifteen
collected from the Eastern Counties,
while the Britten songs are from his
two volumes of British folksong arrangements.
While originally arranged for voice
and piano, Milligan, not wanting to
be left out, doubled the voice part
on trumpet. Yes, that seems a totally
unlikely combination, but it does, for
the most part, work.
How does one judge
this musically? The Britten arrangements
have been recorded many times in the
past by many great singers (Pears, Terfel,
Keenleyside and Bostridge, for example).
These particular Vaughan Williams arrangements
are not on record to the best of my
knowledge, and that in itself begs the
questions: why not? It would be clearly
pointless to compare these versions
to those in front of me now. While Secombe’s
qualities as a tenor are well known,
Milligan’s trumpet playing and Sellers’
pianistic abilities are rather less
so.
To their credit, and
the listener’s amazement, the three
perform the works in all seriousness,
despite the presence of the other partygoers,
who are heard very prominently in the
first two songs, but quieten down as
they realise that something quite special
is happening. The contribution of Milligan
on trumpet, is surprisingly restrained,
only occasionally threatening to overwhelm
Secombe. For Sellers to accompany them
from sight suggests that he was a far
more accomplished pianist than generally
given credit for.
It would be unimaginable
for the three Goons to remain in "serious"
mode for an extended period - it must
be said that there are occasional muffled
giggles from Secombe throughout - and
so the "recital" finishes
with Milligan’s Ying Tong song.
The audience joins in lustily if not
particularly harmoniously, and there
are contributions from Neddy Seagoon,
Bluebottle, Bloodnok, Grytpype-Thynne,
Eccles and the other great characters.
This CD is an unbelievable
document of another side of three men
who changed the face of English comedy
forever.
David J Barker
Harry Secombe (tenor), Peter Sellers (piano),
Spike Milligan (trumpet) 
