Church music in Romsey was slightly varied. The churches all had pipe organs, and the services were generally traditional, except when there was a “Youth service” – and they were frequent, when the new “20th Century Hymns” would be introduced, and a piano used. As mentioned there was a common Youth Fellowship for all the protestant churches, so the Youth Services moved from church to church. We formed a youth choir (I remember teaching them the processional march from “Olivet to Calvary”, which was easy … largely unison … but fairly spectacular), and they sang in the services. Inside the group, we used “Redemption Hymnal” in our own worship times, a quite different selection of songs than I had been used to; “Let the fire fall” was a favourite at the time, even if some of the more aware girls tended to choke over the line “we are waiting and expecting”.
But my main musical development while at Romsey was with the local Amateurs. I was in digs to start with, and my landlady’s daughter Beryl Knight was a leading light in the society (she was just a year or so older than I was); anyway, she encouraged me to go and join in, and before long I was involved as their musical director/accompanist (as well as taking part in some of their plays). The highlight was the annual pantomime; the producer was known as “Mac” (the first three letters of his surname, which I’m afraid I have now forgotten), and he and I got on very well – we had a common desire for a “clean, family-friendly, traditional pantomime”, and we got it, with very few lapses in the form of ad-libs from certain members of the cast. Indeed, kids outings from Bournemouth and Southampton, such as cubs and brownies, would travel to Romsey rather than going to the professional pantomimes in their own towns, for that reason. The scripts came from a professional writer in London, and needed very little amendment; sometimes we used his own songs, other times we replaced them with other music, but always fitting the song to the action. Beryl Knight was “principle boy”. The first year they had booked a professional pianist and drummer to play for the performances; after that they let me loose, and for “Cinderella” we hired a Hammond C3 electronic organ, on which I was able to produce all the sound effects from horses neighing to chimes and bells – great fun.
It wasn’t long in the Panto rehearsals when I first hear the remark “do you remember when”. The cast did remember, and shuddered – and this is why. The society’s patron was Lord Louis Mountbatten[78]; he (and when alive, his wife Edwina) took so full a share in the life of Romsey, and in particular supported us. He often would (when he was living at Broadlands) book a row of tickets for our shows in the village hall, and would sometimes bring with him some of his house-guests. Well, a year or two before I arrived, I was told, he had done that; just before curtain up, the message came backstage that he was here with guests – then at about one minute to go these guests were reported as being the Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Charles and Princess Anne. You can imagine the panic backstage! I have always thought that this incident above all shows the greatness of Lord Louis (or “Lordie”, as he was known to all in Romsey) – that he thought so highly of all the little societies in Romsey and considered them worthy of any of his guests.
I’ve said that I took part in one or two plays with them, but for the most memorable play I just provided (recorded) music; “Ring round the Moon” by Jean Anouilh, described in the script as “a play with music”; and I found just the thing – the introduction from “music from the spheres” by Strauss – as a curtain raiser, plus music composed by Richard Addinsell (composer of the “Warsaw Concerto” and of most of Joyce Grenfell’s songs) used during the play, that came on a tape from a theatrical agent in London. The play is simply wonderful – so we all were thrilled at the chance to see a professional production in London, on an eventful occasion I’ve already described.
The organ at Romsey Baptist was very small – if I remember correctly, one keyboard and no pedals – so I did not use it much. But I was able to get permission to play the organ in Romsey Abbey “for practice”, which I did every week or two for several months. The organ was fairly old, but comprehensive, and the building had a very long reverberation – taking my hands off the keys, I could hear the sound dying away for several seconds. It therefore made a “stunning effect”. For most services at the Baptist church, though, I preferred to use the piano.
My “programmes” collection[79] for the period included D’Oyly Carte at Southampton Gaumont (March 1968 – cast as 1963/4 but including Thomas Lawlor and Anne Sessions).
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