Ron Grainer

Ron Grainer was one of the outstanding composers of music for British television. He was born in a small town called Atherton, Queensland, Australia on 11th August 1922, where his father owned the local milk bar. His mother played piano and Ron was on the keyboard from the age of two and considered a child genius, playing concerts for the local community by the age of six. He also showed the first sign of his versatility at the tender age of four when he began to learn the violin, practicing for two hours before and after school. In order to develop this talent further, he also studied the piano to such a level that, by his early teens he was a proficient performer on both instruments. He was never allowed to play any games which might injure his fingers so led a pretty lonely life. During these years he was an excellent scholar who also had to complete homework assignments. Maths was his special subject, which helped enormously in his orchestrations later on. Read more ...

Bobby Byrne Orchestra

Orchestra leader Bobby Byrne is best remembered for his romantic but forceful trombone style. He was and is considered by many critics to be the definitive trombonist of his era. ''Brilliant'' and ''amazing'' were words often used to describe his playing. Byrne's one fault, though, was that he tried too hard. He was serious and dedicated, and he was a perfectionist. His band was capable of producing some of the best music of the swing era but was often held back by the tension Byrne created in his drive for exactitude.

A child prodigy on his instrument, Byrne was hired by the Dorsey Brothers in 1934 at only 16 years of age. When Tommy Dorsey walked out on the band and formed his own orchestra Byrne remained with Jimmy and took over as lead trombone. He soon began to receive great critical acclaim for his musicianship, and in 1939, with Jimmy's backing, he formed his own orchestra.

Byrne's group struggled at first. His big break finally came in 1941 when the orchestra landed a spot at the Glen Island Casino. Meadowbrook owner Frank Dailey, always ready to one up the Casino, heard about the booking and immediately offered Byrne a spot at his ballroom prior to the Casino engagement. Suddenly Byrne was hot property. Regular radio broadcasts opened the door to more bookings and a record contract with Decca.

Problems plagued the group, however. Its talented female vocalist, Dorothy Claire, left in 1941 to replace Marion Hutton in Glenn Miller's band, and Byrne himself was forced to take time off due to severe appendicitis during an engagement at the Strand Theater in New York. In danger of losing his booking, other area bandleaders came to the rescue and took turns fronting his orchestra in their free time. Things eventually began to turn around, however, when Claire returned in April 1942. The very capable Stuart Wade was also brought in on vocals, and Don Redman joined the orchestra to provide arrangements.

However, despite all the talent that graced his band Byrne was never satisfied with his musicians or himself. He was a tense and dedicated orchestra leader. He worked his men seven days a week and would not tolerate wrong notes. Instead of having the desired effect of producing a perfect band his methods and personality kept his orchestra from achieving true success. This tendency to overachieve also prevented him from fully integrating Redman's complicated and relaxed charts. He soon fired him and brought in Sid Brantley, who wrote simpler yet still strong arrangements that better fit Byrne's method of bandleading. Powered by Brantley's charts the group finally seemed to be hitting its stride when in late 1942 Byrne disbanded it to accept a commission in the Army Air Force. He had long expressed an interest in flying and served as both a bandleader and a pilot during the war.

Upon his discharge in 1945 Byrne began freelancing around the New York City area, often working with cornetist Bobby Hackett. He also formed a new orchestra in 1946, which featured saxophonist Larry Elgart. The group lasted only a few years however. Byrne himself remained active as both a musician and bandleader up through the 1970s. He worked often on television, leading a dixieland combo on Steve Allen's program from 1952 to 1954, appearing on The Lucky Strike Hit Parade, and performing on the shows of Milton Berle, Perry Como, and Patti Page. He also served as A&R director for Command Records and often performed as a studio musician for that label.

Two of your 60's records : Made in Paris and Promise Her Anything (1966)

In the early 1970s Byrne completely left the music industry for the business world, though he occasionally continued to perform. He retired permanently in the late 1980s. Aside from his trombone work, Bobby Byrne was a gifted musician on several instruments.

Speedy West

Wesley Webb West (January 25, 1924 – November 15, 2003), better known as Speedy West, was an American pedal steel guitarist and record producer. He frequently played with Jimmy Bryant, both in their own duo and as part of the regular Capitol Records backing band for Tennessee Ernie Ford and many others. He also played on Loretta Lynn's first single.

Born Wesley Webb West January 25, 1924 in Springfield, Missouri to parents, Finley G. and Sue Arthur West. Finley was a Linotype operator at a gospel publishing company, and in his spare time, played guitar and sang gospel songs.

At age nine, Wesley became interested in music because of his friends and neighbors, the Cline's boys, three brothers. One played steel guitar, another banjo and the other played guitar. The boys' parents suggested to Wesley's father, that he should buy him an inexpensive $12 Hawaiian guitar. Wesley spent all the time he could learning to play the instrument with the help of the Cline's as well as his father.

Wesley's interest in music continued to grow and he yearned for a more expensive instrument, namely, a National steel-bodied resonator model costing $125, which the West family could not afford. In order to give Wesley what he so desperately wanted, his father sold his own guitar in order to buy the National. In the 9th grade he won a prize in a school amateur contest. During a jam session sponsored by KWTO-AM, Slim Wilson introduced young Wesley as Speedy West and the name stuck.

Capitol Records and Jimmy Bryant

In 1948, West was working at Murphy's Club, located in the skidrow area of Los Angeles, when he first met Jimmy Bryant. Bryant was working down the street from Murphy's, at the Fargo Club. One night Bryant came to see West play and said to him: "I really like your playing -- why don't you come down to the Fargo Club and dig me". West was so impressed by Bryant's talent that he said, "he couldn't believe what he was hearing". That was the beginning of their long professional and personal relationship.

After 1956, Bryant was dropped by Capitol Records, so West cut a solo LP in 1958 called West of Hawaiï, and then teamed up with guitarist, Roy Lanham. Roy, along with Billy Strange, Billy Liebert and drummer Earl Palmer, played on West's last Capitol album in 1962, Guitar Spectacular, including the tracks "Double or Nothing", "Afternoon of a Swan" and "Reflections from the Moon". Strange and Lanham alternated on lead guitar.
Capitol Records and Jimmy Bryant

In 1948, West was working at Murphy's Club, located in the skidrow area of Los Angeles, when he first met Jimmy Bryant. Bryant was working down the street from Murphy's, at the Fargo Club. One night Bryant came to see West play and said to him: "I really like your playing -- why don't you come down to the Fargo Club and dig me". West was so impressed by Bryant's talent that he said, "he couldn't believe what he was hearing". That was the beginning of their long professional and personal relationship.

After 1956, Bryant was dropped by Capitol Records, so West cut a solo LP in 1958 called West of Hawaiï, and then teamed up with guitarist, Roy Lanham. Roy, along with Billy Strange, Billy Liebert and drummer Earl Palmer, played on West's last Capitol album in 1962, Guitar Spectacular, including the tracks "Double or Nothing", "Afternoon of a Swan" and "Reflections from the Moon". Strange and Lanham alternated on lead guitar.

On November 15, 2003, at the age of 79, West died in his home in Tulsa due to long term health complications. He was preceded in death by his eldest son Don, and was survived by his wife Mary; son Gary who is also a musician and goes by the name Speedy West Jr.; his daughters Tauni and DeAnn; several grandchildren; and ex-wife Opal Mae.

The great hits of Speedy West : Afternoon of a swan, West of Samoa, Yodeling Guitar

Speedy West Jr. die - in may of 2011

The showroom staff wouldn't let him in to see the band because of the holes in his jeans.

The Tulsa guitarist, who had traveled to Oklahoma City after hearing that keyboardist Steve Hardin was looking for a Tulsa guitar player for his band, could see and hear, however, from where he was standing - the band already had a guitarist.

West almost turned around and walked out.
But he didn't, and when the band came out for a break, he introduced himself, told them who he had played with in Tulsa and who his father was.
"They fired their guitarist that night, and I got the best job in town," West told the Tulsa World years later.
West, better known by his stage name, Speedy West Jr., was on his way to establishing himself on a much wider stage.

The son of late steel-guitar legend and Broken Arrow resident Speedy West, Gary West, who graduated from Webster High School, died Wednesday in Oklahoma City of complications from lung cancer. He was 58.
A memorial service is set for 3 p.m. May 11 at St. Luke's United Methodist Church in Oklahoma City under the direction of Buchanan Funeral Service of Oklahoma City.

In the early 1990s, West, who grew up in Tulsa, started his own band, the Speedy West Jr. Band, and played local venues frequently.

His father, Speedy West, had been associated with a uniquely identifiable country sound, but Gary West went his own way musically, building a legacy grounded in rock and power blues.

Born in Hollywood, Calif., during his father's prolific days as a Capitol Records musician, West was 5 when he got his first guitar - a gift from legendary guitar innovator Leo Fender, a close friend of his father's.

Weary of the showroom circuit, Speedy West later moved to the Tulsa area and became the manager of a Fender guitar warehouse.

Gary West learned the guitar and played with various Tulsa groups, including the Sweat Band, before moving on.

After his introduction to Oklahoma City through Hardin, he later caught on with Maya, one of the city's top show bands.

He played lead guitar with Maya from 1976 to 1992, when he left to start his own band. Later he played with Wild Oats and, more recently, with the house band at Friends Restaurant and Club in Oklahoma City.

Although they differed in styles, Gary West, who also sang vocals, and his father had great respect for one another.

The elder West once offered his assessment of his son's skills:

"He's a real good player. He plays so clean," he told the Tulsa World. "He plays too damn loud, like the rest of 'em, but he sure plays clean."