Matt Monro Forum

You know, three or four years ago, before this site started, I was a big fan of Matts and hungry for anything on him, but there was absolutley nowt about. Don Blacks book was about the first thing that came out, then this site, then with the wonderful efforts of Michelle and Co, we now have a nice resourse of stuff about Matt(obviously not enough!) Now on of my other favourite artists is Max Bygraves. Now Max is what I would call a 'Marmite' artist, but I am amazed at how little there is about him. He does have a website that rarely gets updated, and he has writted a few books, but this man, if you remember was a massive star on our T.V. for years. Every christmas he was on telly, and had scores of his own shows, backed by Ted Heath, Geoff Love etc. on records. Even if you look on the famous'YouTube' there is next to nothing on there, two clips with Judith Durham, and that's about it.Now if you say his name to anyone they just say 'Oh him,he's dead, isn't he?'if they know him at all.(He isn't dead,by the way, a sprightly 83,I belive) Now most people know his big novelty records like, Pink toothbrush,Hands, Gilly,gilly ossenfeffer etc, but Max also recorded some really nice records aswell, like 'Out of Town,Your'e my everything, Who made the morning and so on. but above all, Max was, and is a great ENTERTAINER!
Now in Britain,we, or rather, television and the press have a habit of always striving for 'the next big thing' and forgets about the wealth of talent that we have in this country, until they die, then gushing on about how wonderful they were. With the exeption of perhaps Bruce Forsythe, who desevedly so, is still at the top of his game. Why aren't there any big variety shows on 'telly, they always seem to quote cost as the main reason, but I have a sneaking suspiton that they realise that the pool of talent that is there and being promoted(What exactly does Vernon Kay do exactly?)hasn't got the talent to entertain us for ten minutes, let alone an hour show, for weeks!
Anyway, before I went off on my rant, I was saying how much I liked Max. Is there anyone else who likes this likable entertainer, as I feel as though I'm all on my own with Max! As when I tell people I like Matt, Dean,Frank I usually get an agreement, or acknowledgement, but if I mention that I like Max Bygraves, most people act like i've got some kind of hideous ailment, and they start backing away slowly!

Hi John, yes I like Max Bygraves, although I only have a few of his recordings. In fact, a year or two ago he came to Blackpool, but I didn't realise he was on until the actual day and I had something else planned, otherwise I would have liked to have seen him. My favourite is "Out Of Town".

John, we have several Max Bygraves LPs, although it's a time now since they had an airing, but his songs have been foremost for many of our family parties.
We have his video when he celebrated 50 years in showbusiness.
Max has performed alongside many of the greats such as Judy Garland, Gracie Fields, Bob Hope Bing Crosby, to name a few.
Max now lives in Australia. He did come back to the UK Three or Four years ago to do a show with The Beverley Sisters, and according to his sister who regularly guests on Eric Halls programme, Max now at the age of 85 is enjoying life and in excellent health .

I quite like Max Bygraves. One thing I always noticed about him was that he never seemed to get any older! He was a good entertainer in his day and always looked cheerful too.
Marian

A few years ago, me and my wife( she wasn't my wife then) went for a day out driving, and for some reason ended up in Cleethorpes were we saw a poster proclaiming 'next Thursday appearing live: Max Bygraves' So the next Thursday came, and off we set, after work, at breakneck speed to Cleethorpes. we got there, paid our £15 each for our tickets and took our seats. We thorougly enjoyed the show, then got back in the car, grabbed a burger, and drove home again. We got in at about two o'clock in the morning. It was a round trip of about three hundered miles,and with the fuel, meal and tickets and 'jetlag'(Mini-lag,actually)It was an expensive, and tiring night. Next day at work was matchsticks under the eyes! Anyway, the next few weeks passed and I was telling this tale to someone in the club, and they lokked at us puzzled and said"but why did you do that, he was on last week opening the new bingo club on Oldham Rd, it was only 50p to get in." I was a bit miffed.

Great story John. I'm sure you wouldn't have enjoyed such a good show at the opening of a bingo hall anyway!
Marian

Hope it was in the Summer months when you visited Cleethorpes John. Harry's Two brothers live in Cleethorpes, and remembering our last visit there not too long ago, we recommend Cleethorpes in the winter as a perfect training ground if your going to visit Antarctica.
It was f-f-f freezing and that's putting it mildly.

Johnny Walker has been getting his sidekick 'Deadly' to sing along to various songs whilst sitting in for Terry Wogan this week. One of them was 'Tulips from Amsterdam', and the response has been amazing.

Listeners have been texting, email and ringing in their hundreds saying how much they've enjoyed it! I have been singing along loudly on my new commute up to Solihull every day. It gets the day off to a great start!

I'm off to i-tunes to download it as we speak