Blog

Missing Barry, always, but meanwhile, life goes on…

In the spring term I was asked back to do a couple of workshops at East 15, one for the postgrad actors and one for the postgrad directors. Both went well. The actors worked on the use of the singing voice in improvised situations, and the directors explored Brecht’s use of music and song.

I played for the Buster Keaton silent film Steamboat Bill Jr at the “Club for Acts and Actors” in Covent Garden. A cracking film with brilliant set pieces but also a good overarching narrative. A delight to do, and I had a very receptive audience.                    

My old English teacher, Chris Lowe, still hale and hearty, is a writer of witty verse, some of which I set to music last year. We sent the results to a couple of choirs who asked if they could add the songs to their repertoires. Following these efforts Chris penned the words of an oratorio – the Primary Schools Oratorio – which I’m currently setting and which will be available for Year 6s in primary schools (and indeed anyone) to use via the Primary Schools Oratorio website, which goes live soon.

Barry was a pillar of the Bristol Slapstick Festival and at the end of March they created a weekend of celebration of his life and work.

I was part of an afternoon’s conversation and reminiscence at the Redgrave Theatre in Clifton. Hosted by Les Dennis, the panel was Barry’s son Bob Cryer, Graeme Garden and myself. We paid tribute to Barry, spending over an hour just chatting about the great man. Many chums also contributed video reminiscences. The big celebration for him will be on 13^th June at the Lyric, Shaftesbury Avenue.

The next series of Clue will happen over May, June and July, and the good news is that Graeme Garden is returning to do a couple of the shows. We’re recording at the Royal Albert Hall, Malvern and Nottingham.

The charity performances of Trial & Error, which take place annually in Court No. 1 of the Old Bailey, entertained a packed court room for four nights in March, raising money for Pan Intercultural Arts and the Sheriffs’ and Recorders’ Fund. Old trials were as usual used from verbatim accounts, varying from heavy to light in content. I rewrite relevant words to well-known tunes and provide musical links, sitting, as always, at an electric keyboard up on the judges’ bench. High status or what?

My good friend Chris Honer left us back in the autumn. I learned an infinite amount as a theatre composer and musical director working for him back in the ‘70s and ‘80s, when he was director in charge of the Gateway, Chester and the Library Theatre, Manchester. A fellow Croydonian, he was blest not only with great directorial instincts and insights but also with a lovely sense of humour. I’ll be attending the celebration of his life in Manchester in May.

We did the stage tour of I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue mainly round East Anglia and the West Country during February and March. Those involved were Rory Bremner, Tony Hawks, Pippa Evans, Marcus Brigstocke and Miles Jupp, with, as ever, Jack Dee chairing. It was highly successful and enjoyable, and played to packed houses.

The tour was of course overshadowed by our losing Barry Cryer in January. I’d known Baz since I first started working on Clue  in 1975, and then was fortunate enough to be asked to play for his stage show with Willie Rushton, Two Old Farts in the Night, and soon after for his own one-person stage show which changed titles regularly but which was each time, as Barry put it, “same meat, different gravy”.

His shows were a pleasure and a privilege to do, and we never once had a duff night. Barry would walk on stage at the top and I could feel the warmth and affection pouring off the audience for him. He was of course very funny, he had an endless store of anecdotes, he was fascinated by people in all walks of life, and most of all he was always a firm friend of mine. I miss the shows, I miss the phone calls, I miss the deep, Consulate-filled guffaw.