As well as the biography written by James Hogg and Robert
Sellers (my copy is on order) this Saturday sees the unveiling of a blue plaque
outside Kenny’s last home in Kensington. The event has been organised by the
British Comedy Society and includes a number of star names and some rare film
and audio clips (mixed together by Simon Hirst I believe) which hopefully will
get a wider release.
When Kenny moved from
the pirate ships and finally joined Auntie Beeb he introduced Light Programme
listeners to something they wouldn’t have been familiar with: jingles and
clever trailers rather than straight laced continuity announcements. All done with just a bit of tape and a razor
blade - no clever digital editing then.
To show you what I mean here’s what seems like a fairly
simple piece of audio that Kenny put together to promote the forthcoming Radio
247, obviously they hadn’t finally settled on the name Radio 1. It was only when I bought Nelson Riddle’s The Best of the Capital Years album that
I realised how Kenny had done it.
First we get his multi-tracked “247” jingle over a track called Then I’ll Be Happy.
“There’ll be Light” leads into the intro to You’re An Old Smoothie.
A quick burst of Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band is followed by some baroque string quartet piece that I can’t identify (anyone?).
Next we have The
Campbell’s are Coming and then under the bit about how Radio 247 will work
its back to The Beatles and Being for the
Benefit of Mr Kite.
“Music, music, music all day” is over the Irving Berlin
composed tune Let Yourself Go and
then a final cymbal crash.
All that in just under a minute!
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