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Humphrey Lyttelton played a concert at last year's festival but as it was in the Carbunkle it easily sold out; it should be in the Marlowe, I thought.
So last night I went to see Humph in the Marlowe. Row BB. Be careful what you wish for.
There was a very telling mix of ages when I saw Mitch Benn and Punt and Dennis at the Carbunkle - and it is that stripe of humanity known as the Radio 4 audience. (What's that line about "I don't know what effect they'll have on our enemy, but they sure as hell scare me"?) This, however, was not the same audience. I wasn't exactly the youngest person there. But the average age was clearly seventy-something.
The first half - of a hospice benefit gig - was something called The Ella Fitzgerald Songbook, which the deviser had performed over four hundred times in twenty years. This didn't seem like that often. This was soundbites about Ella interspersed with up to three singers interpreting Fitzgerald's versions of songs by Gershwin, Porter, Rodgers and so forth. None of them had the kind of voice that gets your hairs erect, but it was okay. I could have done without the audience's need to disucss their recognition of certain tracks, mind.
The second was Humph and his band, and a fine band it was. Humph mosttly played trumpet (I think there was also a clarinet at some point), and he has clearly been a great player. I think he was a victim of poor miking and poor acoustics which afflicted the first half. He told a few jokes, but nothing in the Sorry I Haven't A Clue league (Sample of his scripted double entendre: "Record researcher Samantha has made one of her customary visits to the gramaphone library, where she runs errands for the kindly old archivists, such as nipping out to fetch their sandwiches. There favourite treat is cheese with homemade chutney, but they never object when she palms them off with relish."] He did tell a Barry Cryer joke, mind:
A man walks into a bar and asks his mate: "Have You Ever Shoed a Horse?"
( Punchline )
There are moments where - like Richard Ingrams, Boris Johnson and Professor Bob in my local - where it's hard to tell what is senility and what is performed. But pretty impressive, and I must get hold of some of his recordings.
So last night I went to see Humph in the Marlowe. Row BB. Be careful what you wish for.
There was a very telling mix of ages when I saw Mitch Benn and Punt and Dennis at the Carbunkle - and it is that stripe of humanity known as the Radio 4 audience. (What's that line about "I don't know what effect they'll have on our enemy, but they sure as hell scare me"?) This, however, was not the same audience. I wasn't exactly the youngest person there. But the average age was clearly seventy-something.
The first half - of a hospice benefit gig - was something called The Ella Fitzgerald Songbook, which the deviser had performed over four hundred times in twenty years. This didn't seem like that often. This was soundbites about Ella interspersed with up to three singers interpreting Fitzgerald's versions of songs by Gershwin, Porter, Rodgers and so forth. None of them had the kind of voice that gets your hairs erect, but it was okay. I could have done without the audience's need to disucss their recognition of certain tracks, mind.
The second was Humph and his band, and a fine band it was. Humph mosttly played trumpet (I think there was also a clarinet at some point), and he has clearly been a great player. I think he was a victim of poor miking and poor acoustics which afflicted the first half. He told a few jokes, but nothing in the Sorry I Haven't A Clue league (Sample of his scripted double entendre: "Record researcher Samantha has made one of her customary visits to the gramaphone library, where she runs errands for the kindly old archivists, such as nipping out to fetch their sandwiches. There favourite treat is cheese with homemade chutney, but they never object when she palms them off with relish."] He did tell a Barry Cryer joke, mind:
A man walks into a bar and asks his mate: "Have You Ever Shoed a Horse?"
( Punchline )
There are moments where - like Richard Ingrams, Boris Johnson and Professor Bob in my local - where it's hard to tell what is senility and what is performed. But pretty impressive, and I must get hold of some of his recordings.
