Two other shop sketches take us out of the world of hardware and in to the almost as sticky quagmire of music. Record, HiFi and instrument shops were not the most welcoming of places to an outsider. Often thick with smoke (usually roll-ups), with (delete as appropriate) Shostakovich/Grateful Dead/Ornette Coleman playing at unnecessary volume, these places seemed to make themselves deliberately forbidding.

Jasper Carrott’s Getting Old observations form 1982’s Carrott’s Lib has a fantastic piece about record shops. Unfortunately I cannot find it online anywhere and only have it on appropriately elderly vinyl! The gist of the piece played on the fear of being humiliated by the “way too cool” staff who would be there for the sole purpose of mocking your musical taste. And how all the records you wanted were in the bargain dump bins, the punchline being along the lines of: “you know when you’re getting old when you walk out of a record shop with an armful of LP’s and still have change from a fiver”!

Taking this ritual of humiliation by shop staff several steps further was the Not the Nine O’Clock News team’s HiFi Shop sketch.

In this sketch, Griff Rhys Jones and Rowan Atkinson mercilessly attack the older customer played by Mel Smith who has the temerity to enter their store without the required level of knowledge of modern HiFi equipment. Unlike the Jasper Carrot piece, where you laugh with Carrott at himself, here, the real attack of the comedy is against the mocking, juvenile bullies who are the protagonists of the piece. All this sketch really required at the end wasn’t to come until several years later when Patsy in Absolutely Fabulous uttered the immortal words that every victim of a sneering shop assistant cheered: “You only work in a shop you know, you can drop the attitude”! Game, Set and Match to wronged customers everywhere!

Having worked in shops from a very young age, the more observational sketches have always appealed to me. Also, having a dad who had been a carpenter and was a keen DIY man, the world of the hardware shop was not the mystery to me as it was for many. Knowing these places from a young age, it came as no surprise to learn the Two Ronnies original sketch came from stories sent in by staff in a genuine hardware store. The building trade, and by natural extension, the hardware store has long been rife with leg pulling and banter. Apprentices would be sent to the foreman for a “long weight/wait” or to the stores for “Sky Hooks” or “Striped Paint”. A school friend who worked in one such shop in a South London street market once had a young girl from one of the market stalls come in with a length of knotted string. The knots where there to prevent the clothes hangers from slipping, and the clothes bunching up on display. “Sorry”, he said, “we only have plain string, we don’t do the knotted stuff”. After the girl pondered this for a few seconds “you’d better check with your boss first – we don’t do refunds”. The girl left only to return some 10 minutes later completely unaware of any wind up and said “the boss says plain string will do”!

With this in mind, it how that there is an element of plausibility in the Fork Handles sketch – OK, a small element, but there is the possibility that, on their own, any of the misunderstandings in the sketch could have, at some point happened. It is this that lifts it up into its rightful place among the most loved British comedy sketches of all time. It is this careful observational skill that Ronnie Barker then took into Open All Hours. Amid all the ribaldry and slapstick was just enough reality to elevate this sit-com above many of its rivals of the time.

The 70’s saw more film work including two Oscar nominations, and Morley was brought in to take over from Malcolm Williamson who could not complete Watership Down. Although Morley wrote the vast majority of the score she was very upset on Williamson’s behalf when his credit only read “with additional music by” whereas she generously felt his work was the driving force for the whole score.  Moving to LA, Morley once again took up a huge workload writing and arranging for TV shows including Dynasty, Dallas, Cagney & Lacey and Wonderwoman. She also assisted John Williams with orchestrations on some of the greatest film scores from the latter part of the 20^th Century – Star Wars, ET, The Empire Strikes Back and Superman. She also worked with Williams on his work with the Boston Pops Orchestra. Later she also helped on the scores of Hook, Home Alone and Schindler’s List.

Angela Morley was still working into her late 70’s/early 80’s, recording a series of CD’s of her own music, lecturing at the University of Southern California and being a member of the Music Executive Committee of the Academy of Motion Pictures, Art and Sciences.

Fork Handles set out to write about the music of The Goon Shows, looking mainly at the work of Max Geldray and Ray Ellington. They were the ones I remember, listening to re-runs with my parents in the 1970’s, blissfully ignorant about the true genius behind it all. I then went and discovered this amazing story, covered only by a few nice obituaries and a very concise biog on Morley’s own website. Fork Handles would love to know more about these two incredible lives of this one exceptional person! If anyone has any pearls of wisdom about Stott/Morley, please share them.

This great skill of Stott’s found an ideal home with the Goons. Music was part of the very lifeblood of three of the members. Peter Sellers parents were variety artistes and his earliest entry into the world of show-business was as half of a musical double act and also worked as a drummer. Spike Milligan of course has a well documented musical past as a jazz trumpeter, guitarist and vocalist before, during and after the war. Harry Secombe became a much loved and hugely successful “bel-0canto” tenor (or Can Belto as he used to put it). This union of music and comedy is often used, however it is rarely as effective as it was in The Goon Shows. Disney and Looney tunes are good examples of the two working well, and the natural heir to Stott’s work with The Goons is possibly Alf Cleusen, whose work with The Simpsons echoes much of what Stott had been doing many years earlier. The enormous difference between what Stott was doing and these other examples is that he was doing it live; there with the orchestra, cast, studio audience and a live radio audience of millions! Any errors (and there must have been some) must have been seamlessly incorporated into the comedy – although, to be honest, with the mad-cap and (at the time) outrageous nature of those shows, it may have been hard to tell.

Fork Handles has read between the lines a little from the various sources available, the period after The Goon Shows seem to be a little bit of a lull for Stott. Although still very productive, with one or two notable exceptions his work was no longer at the forefront of popular culture; Recording for Readers Digest Records, arranging at the lighter end of Jazz and M.O.R. However, Stott was also re-visiting the long shunned feature film business and making inroads there. The highlights of this period must have been the hits he recorded with Dusty Springfield and the work he did with Scott Walker. The latter includes both the album of songs of Jacques Brel and Scott3, both of which are still held in the greatest esteem by music fans and critics today. “Working with Stott was like having Delius writing for you” is how Walker felt of his arranger.

To be continued…..

How many musicians can claim playing in Geraldo’s famous 1940’s orchestra, arranging and conducting countless hit records and live shows for acts as diverse as Shirley Bassey, Benny Goodman and Scott Walker, providing the musical interludes and all the incidental music for Hancock’s Half Hour and the Goon Show, writing and arranging film scores including Watership Down, working on the music of Dallas, Dynasty and Wonderwoman and helping John Williams with the huge task of orchestrating ET, Star Wars, Superman and The Empire Strikes Back? Just one remarkable person…..or should that be two?

For much of the first 48 years of his life, the owner of the above illustrious CV was known to most as Wally Stott. Walter Stott was born in Leeds in 1924 to musical parents. His father, a watch and clock repairer played ukulele-banjo and his mother sang. There were always records in the house and music being played. His father bought a piano when Stott was 8 and Wally was sent for piano lessons. Tragically, only months later his father died at the age of 39 and the piano lessons stopped. Stott remained musically curious as a child and managed to get and start to play an accordion. His mother must have been open minded about her son becoming a musician as when she was advised that the accordion was a bad choice and that it was wind players who got all the work these days she got him a clarinet. Apparently not a very good one, however, Stott played it well enough to be in the school orchestra, where another parent took pity on him and gave him an alto saxophone. It was with this instrument Stott’s real music education began. He soon joined (at the age of 11) the local semi-pro dance band and played (unpaid, naturally) at the Empress Ballroom in Mexborough, near Doncaster, Yorkshire. Aged 15, Stott moved on to playing full time in Archie’s Juvenile Band. It was here, under the guidance of the pianist, Eddie Taylor, that Stott progressed from the somewhat old fashioned style of Ambrose on to the more contemporary Tommy Dorsey and Benny Goodman.

The outbreak of the Second World War was Stott’s next and probably biggest break. At only 15 he was to young to join up, and as an experienced alto sax player he was in great demand. Up until the age of 17 he played with almost all of the British dance bands until he ended up with Oscar Rabin. It was with Rabin that Stott progressed from transcribing arrangements from records to writing his own, and getting paid for them! It was from here, in 1944, that Stott was snapped up by one of the most important British bands of the time – Geraldo & His Orchestra. The incredible demands on the orchestra at that time led to Stott honing his arranging skills. The Orchestra worked in many guises – from small combo to dance band to full orchestra and choir. There was a constant demand for orchestrations as the band were working on the radio several times a week along with constant live performances. As well as learning his craft this way it also prepared Stott for the exceptional workload he was going to take on after the war.

To be continued…..

At home we also had the LP “At The Drop of a Hat” which competed with the soundtrack to The Jungle Book as the family favourite. That this LP delighted all of our South London family equally – a very erudite and left wing dad, a very working class and poorly educated mum and two young boys- is testament to the all encompassing appeal of these two public school, evening dress clad, old world  “toffs”.

Which brings me neatly to the crux of the matter – have Flanders and Swann just been quietly neglected and faded from our collective memory or have they been actively rejected by those that followed? Were they swamped by the popularity of television, or, was there just too little material on which to build a lasting legacy?

Although not the originators of their simple two men with a piano musical comedy style, at their peak in the early 1960’s, Flanders and Swann were undoubtedly the leading exponents of this style of entertainment. Many of the great double acts since have used a similar vehicle – the closest in style and time were Peter Cook and Dudley Moore who featured such a spot in every episode of Not Only but Also, complete with evening dress. There is also, in my opinion, a fair nod their way in some of the musical interludes from Smith & Jones – this in particular: It Begins With Hay! Something in the way Flanders used to gently mock Swann’s musical pedigree. The surprising one is Fry and Laurie. If there ever was a double act more suited to pay homage to Flanders and Swann it surely would be these two. In Hugh Laurie we have a fantastic pianist and perfect foil for his partner – by no means a straight man, but always slightly the under-dog. In Fry we have another master wordsmith who surely must have delighted in the linguistic dexterity of Michael Flanders? And yet not a whimper – not a passing reference (unless I blinked and missed it)!

There have been a few live shows – either full on revivals or incorporated into other shows. Kit and the Widow are long time holders of the, while Tim FitzHigham and Duncan Walsh Atkins were have been touring their tribute,  At the Drop of a Hippopotamus as recently as November 2011. The latest and most high profile revival however, comes in courtesy of such an outrageous parody that it is sometimes difficult to tell whether it is a loving homage or really sticking the knife in. This is, of course, the wonderful re-imagining of the duo as Brabbins and Fyffe by Alexander Armstrong and Ben Miller. See Here I would love to know what the originals would make of this new version of themselves. As a fan of both acts, I would love to think that Flanders and Swann would relish the absurdity and outlandishness of the parody, but I have this horrible feeling they would in fact disprove!

Many vintage acts that had previously been left by the wayside in the aftermath of Alternative Comedy have now been re-appraised and once more afforded the affection they always deserved.   Paul Merton has saluted his silent film heroes, Frank Skinner has learnt to play the banjolele in honour of George Formby. Ronnie Corbett has rightly been re-installed at the top table courtesy of Rob Rydon. Lets hope, with or without their posthumous approval, Brabbins and Fyffe do the same for our wonderful Hat Droppers.

British comedy is enjoying unprecedented levels of popularity today, with the widest range of styles being seen by huge live audiences, with DVD sales outstripping other genres and TV audiences now scattered around the world watching on Youtube, iPlayer and illegal downloads, making total viewing figures impossible to calculate.

Unlike the alternative comedy revolution of the 80′s, which, with a strong political will fighting against the twin evils of Thatcherism and old school sexist, racist stand-up, and like Punk Rock before it, eschewed all that went before, today’s comedy stars celebrate the huge breadth of our comedy heritagewith roots firmly in both camps. Once again, the likes of the Two Ronnies, Morcambe and Wise, the Goons and Hancock are being celebrated for the comedy greats that they were.

I arrived at the door of Vintage British Comedy late in life. Having not had television at home as a child, BBC Radio 2 and 4 provided the comedy in our hoouse. Re-runs of the Goons and the radio version of the Goodies, Hello Cheeky were particular favourites.  We also had comedy records – Peter Sellers “Songs For Swinging Sellers” and Flanders & Swann “At the Drop of Another Hat” were well worn LP’s and the library was a great source of much more.

A little later on I started going to alternative comedy gigs – Alexi Sayle and Keith Allen at the old Albany Empire in Deptford, Ade Edmonson and Rick Mayall at the Comic Strip, Jeremy Hardy at the South Bank Poly Student Union Bar, plus some lesser known acts – the Fabulous Trimmer and Jenkins, a brilliant musical comedy act, and one I’ll always remember – W&Z (Wacky and Zany) – a man whose life ambition was to be a supply teacher, and ambition fulfilled the year after I left school when he became a long term supply music teacher there!

I bought our first television when Channel 4 started up, with the sole reason of watching The Young Ones. In my opinion, well worth the price of a 12″ black & white set alone. However, it was this act that also opened my eyes to the vast wealth of classic material I had never previously seen (Imagine now being late teens/early 20′s and never seen Andrew Preview)! This was also my introduction to the wonders of Ealing Comedies, with favourites being The Titfield Thunderbolt, Passport to Pimlico and The Lavender Hill Mob.

So that, in a nutshell, is me, and why this site exists. Coming soon, the great delights of master wordsmiths Michael Flanders and Donald Swann, but that is after we have tested the fire safety curtain!