John MALCOLM
(real name Malcolm John Batt)
Non Stop (arr. Ivor Slaney)
L’Orchestre Devereaux/Georges Devereaux
Jack BEAVER
Main Line
Danish State Radio Orchestra/Robert
Farnon
John ADDISON
"Reach For The Sky" Film Theme
Sidney Torch and his orchestra
William Hill BOWEN
Paris Metro
The Melachrino Orchestra/George Melachrino
Robert FARNON
and Philip BUCHEL
Jockey On The Carousel
Danish State Radio Orchestra/Robert
Farnon
Herbert SPENCER
and Earle HAGEN
Side Car
Spencer-Hagen Orchestra
Bobby PAGAN
Cycling Chimp
L’Orchestre Devereaux/Georges Devereaux
King PALMER
Jogging Along
Louis Voss and his orchestra
Leslie BEGUELEY
Canyon Canter
Charles Williams and his concert orchestra
Len STEVENS
"Airways" Suite
New Century Orchestra/Sidney Torch
Walter STOTT
Travelling Along
Danish State Radio Orchestra/Robert
Farnon
K and W LESLIE
(real names Kermit Levinsky & Walter
Levinsky)
Walking On Ice
Kermit Leslie and his orchestra
Alfonso D’ARTEGA
and Harry SYRACUSE
Drifting On A Cloud
Billy Vaughan and his orchestra
Richard HAYMAN
Skipping Along
Richard Hayman and his orchestra
Johnny STEGGERDA
Sleepwalker Of Amsterdam
Guy Luypaerts and his orchestra
Jack LAWRENCE
and Georges Van
PARYS
Merry Go Round (La Complainte de la
Butte)
Eddie Barclay and his orchestra
Ivor SLANEY
Donkey Doodle
Ivor Slaney and his orchestra
Ray MARTIN
Waltzing Bugle Boy (arr. Wally Stott)
Wally Stott and his orchestra
STANTON
(real name Reginald Armitage)
Flanagan’s Mare (arr. Anthony Fones)
Harry Davidson and his orchestra
Sidney TORCH
Bicycle Belles
Sidney Torch and his orchestra
Dolf van der LINDEN
Blow The Horn
Dolf van der Linden and his orchestra
Domenico SAVINO
Holiday Express
Roma-Sympho-Pop Orchestra/Domenico Savino
F G CHARROSIN
Hiker’s Highway
Louis Voss and his orchestra
Roger ROGER
Horse And Buggy
Roger Roger and his Champs Elysees orchestra
Eric JUPP
Bob Sleigh
New Concert Orchestra/Frederic Curzon
Otto CESANA
Night Train
Otto Cesana and his orchestra
King PALMER
Busy Street
Dolf van der Linden and his orchestra
Gilbert VINTNER
Air Display
Stuttgart Radio Orchestra/Kurt Rehfeld
Jack BEAVER
Spaceways
Danish State Radio Orchestra/Robert
Farnon
The peg on which this
particular Guild release is hung is
movement – in all its forms. It could
be a carousel, or drifting on a cloud;
then again you can journey via the Paris
metro or take off on a jet plane. There’s
room on this highway for buggy, hiker
and cyclist; in the air you could meet
clouds or voyage into space.
This flag of convenience
harbours a wide cargo. Did you know
that Malcolm John Batt alias John Malcolm
was a mere seventeen when he penned
Non Stop, the theme tune for
Britain’s then brand-new 1955 ITV News.
It began life as a piano piece in 1946
and was arranged some years later by
Ivor Slaney; it was apparently chosen
by ITN’s editor after some advice from
the visiting John Barbirolli. But there
is an array of talent here – some justly
well known and others unjustly overlooked.
Of the former John Addison’s theme for
the film Reach for the Sky must
be one of the most well remembered.
It’s played with no little dash by Sidney
Torch and his orchestra for Parlophone
in 1956.
Side Car has
some heraldic whoops of excitement and
is a brassy and athletic salute. There
are some whimsicalities in Bobby Pagan’s
Cycling Chimp as one might predict
but much more impressive is Leslie Bagueley’s
Canyon Canter – with its wide
open vistas and muted brass. There are
some evocative things in the excitement
of mass air travel exemplified by Len
Stevens’s Airways Suite
– Stevens knows how to be immediately
descriptive and how to paint colourfully
with those aerial flutes and cumulus-evoking
sonorities.
Then too there are
the "icy pizzicatos" of Walking
on Ice and the bluesy moments of
the Sleepwalker of Amsterdam. There
are amusing genre things as well – the
Waltzing Bugle Boy and Flanagan’s
Mare not excluded. Better is the
feminine vitesse of Torch’s Bicycle
Belles played by the composer with
comprehensive wit. Then there’s the
bustle and elegance of Otto Cesana’s
Night Train and the insouciance
of Roger Roger’s Horse and Buggy.
And don’t forget the spooky last track
where Farnon and his Danish orchestra
do the honours.
The Light Music vaults
are still pretty full and Guild is the
company to do the rummaging, collate
the themes, research the notes, effect
the transfers and serve up to a new
public.
Jonathan Woolf
GUILD LIGHT MUSIC GLCD 5131 [78:37]
