Yet nobody explained why say Schubert didn’t work because Peter Snow was far too busy being
Yet nobody explained why, say, Schubert didn’t work, because Peter Snow was far too busy being gimmicky. When they played loud oompah Germanic marches, they sold two bottles of the German to one of the French: when they slid into corny accordions, it became five French to each German – yet no purchaser admitted to having been influenced by the band.That’s quite interesting, as is the fact that a Special Needs teacher facing the notoriously disruptive and aggressive Class 7D, brought about instant calm and spectacularly improved results by playing them Mozart Only Mozart will do it – and instrumental Mozart at that. In Music on the Brain (R4), Peter Snow conducted an investigation into the fearsome noise that bedevils every phone-call or shopping trip.It is not cheap, clearly, but mighty potent One supermarket had displays of French and German wine. There are people who actually compose background music and earn pounds 65m a year from it in royalties. You have to admire her staying-power – but she has some work to do on the poetry.Music is big business, and not just for successful singers. Before long, she was “discovered” by her father who, Ustinov thought, saw the talented tot as a meal-ticket and worked her too hard She’s a granny herself now and still in fine fettle. Mostly, she talked about herself, in the determinedly English accent also used by Julie Andrews and other singers who spend time in America.
A walk sounds like a Chinese cooking-pot in this voice, and “school” is almost two syllables And yet … it was curiously touching to hear her reminiscing dreamily about holidays in Wales, frolicking about on mountains and slag-heaps with her old Welsh granny The idyll didn’t last. Nice one, Sacha.At the beginning, people lined up to explain why they were there: “I’ve known Petula a very long time,” insisted Peter Ustinov, “and therefore my presence on this programme is entirely justified” But none of them had much to say after that. But “she went on forever, so I had to comfort a very sleepy audience”.
He first met her in a French theatre, when he followed her onto the stage. Distel was an odd choice as compere, being master of the snide anecdote. It’s much longer since what Sacha Distel unaccountably described as her “radio debewt” She was nine then, or 10, depending on who was talking. This uneven programme was a tribute to mark 50 years since her first record. This is what happens: “My anger will not let me sleep/ And, when my grief becomes too deep .. I sing!”
So she does It’s what she does best and she should probably stick to it. And when she is roused to fury by, say, the sight of suffering humanity her reaction is never to howl in protest, to rant, to lobby or to curse. ”
After the somethings old and new, there’s a little that’s borrowed but of course nothing blue Our Pet is never less than wholesome, even when indignant.
She read it on air, with great verve, but it’s pretty long so I can only offer you a couple of highlights. Broadly, it’s about the mysterious glamour of the theatre “and all those magic evenings with Lloyd Webber and the Bard/An old play by Whoever, something new by Tom Stoppard … Admittedly, it’s the kind that starts by rhyming rigorously, slips into free form and returns in a slightly different metre – but it’s a start. It’s time we had a female Poet Laureate.
How about Petula Clark? Yes, Our Pet (R2), currently hoofing it around America in Sunset Boulevard, has written a poem. It is an image from an utterly different advertising aesthetic, introduced by a gruesome bit of corporate-speak: “In association with Singapore Airlines, Australia’s most frequent visitor …” At this point modern Australia intrudes.. The Australian tourist people are obviously sharing the cost with Singapore Airlines, so the final frame is one of those Singapore Girls doing her submissive vamping number, made up and carefully lit. There is only a hint of Castlemaine XXXX, no sign of the girls from Cell Block- H and absolutely not a whisper of Dame Edna.There is one severely discordant note though – so often the way with a joint promotion.
