Into the MELODY MAKER offices last week breezed famous West End bandleader
of pre-war days, Bert Firman, and if I say that I had a shock when I saw
him (writes Ray Sonin) that is putting it mildly.
page 3
Melody Maker June 2nd, 1945
Into the MELODY MAKER offices last week breezed famous West End bandleader
of pre-war days, Bert Firman, and if I say that I had a shock when I saw
him (writes Ray Sonin) that is putting it mildly.
Gone was the famous "night-club tan " and the rather dejected air of the bandeader who has to keep too late hours and always looks as if he needs more sleep. Bert looked younger, fitter, and more cheerful than I have ever seen him, and while there is no truth in the rumour that he is to be made the subject of a recruiting film to show what Army life does for harassed bandleaders, he might well do so!
Giving up his big engagement at the Cafe de Paris in 1940, Bert volunterred
for the Army and joined the South Staffordshire Regiment. Some time
afterwards the "Stars In Battledress" were formed, and Bert became one of its
original members.
Playing his usual good fiddle and also becoming an actor in sketches,
Bert was in charge of an all-man, two and a half hour show which toured the
whole of Egypt, Syrla, Palestine, Persia, and almost to India.
For a year and a half they travelled wherever there were troops to be
entertained, and in many cases gave shows for small garrisons who had
previously not seen a bit of live entertainment since the war.
Back to England they came, but not to rest. They immediately went off
with the B.L.A., and Bert says positively that he and his "Stars In Battledress"
were the first entertainment party to make the crossing of the Rhine which
they did with the 51st Division (pretty good company if I may say so!). They
performed as far as Bremen, and were playing on the outskirts of that town
under real front-line conditions before it fell to the Allies.
After the long strain of continual travel and work, the principle comic
of the company had a nervous breakdown at Bremen and the boys were brought
back.
Now they are, for the moment, in this country awaiting a new job, but
Bert, of course, is hankering after getting his band together again and
leading once more in the West End.
The pictures on this page were taken by Jack Marshall while I was
interviewing Bert Firman, and here is a verbatim report of what Bert told me.
"You want to know when I started in this business? Don't remind me!
I was seventeen years of age when I led my first band at the 'Midnight
Follies' of the Metropole Hotel, London. Heavens, that was twenty-two years
ago! It makes me feel very old."
"Then I went to the Carlton Hotel. There I started broadcasting on 2LO,
and afterwards opened Devonshire House.
"The next important news about me? Let me see. I went to America to
broadcast with my own band on NBC for just over a year. Then I came back
to France and did the usual lovely round of engagements that made that
country a bandleader's paradise in those days-you know Paris, Monte Carlo, Cannes,
and the Riviera. Returning to London, I took over at the Cafe Anglais, and then went
to the London Casino, where I had what I really consider my best band with
boys like George Melachrino, Freddy Gardner, Cecil Norman, BilIy Farrell,
Reg Pink, etc. in the line-up. That was a terrific job but just as war
started I went over to the Cafe de Paris, where I finally decided to change
my dinner suit - into a uniform of a rather more drab colour."
I then asked him about his plans for the future and he said,
Sidney Lipton and I were talking about the future only recently and
we were wondering if we would be 'forgotten men ' of this business when we
came out of khaki. We hope not but, whatever the fight, I am going to get
my band together again and, from what I have seen of the hotels and
restaurants in this town, I say that we have got to bring good music back
to London".
"Personally, I will do my best for the men who have been in the Services,
and I say to the profession as a whole, in all sincerity, that the musicians
who are coming out of the Forces have got to be looked after".
A sentiment with which we entirely concur, Bert!
Ray Sonin, Melody Maker June 2nd, 1945
this page first published by John Wright, 15 July 1999
last update 15 July 1999vintage@jabw.demon.co.uk
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