I posted a review of The Tony Currie’s Orchestra album earlier and have re-posted it to give this interview more context.
PHIL: What inspired you to produce an album of orchestral ‘pop’ if I may call it that?
TONY: After my wife died in January 2023, I could very easily have given up, and exist on whisky, pot noodle and black and white movies on TV. Instead, I decided to do something big. I re-established Pye Records Ltd (the original company having been dissolved in the 80s), instigated the necessary legal action to acquire the trademarks, and set about relaunching the label with the kind of thing Pye did best in the 60s and 70s - a big pop orchestra. It had to be as good, if not better, than the orchestras of Laurie Johnson, Tony Hatch, Cyril Stapleton, John Schroeder and many others.
PHIL: I am very sorry to hear that. It must have been a difficult job choosing the numbers for the album, considering the amount of music you must have listened to over the years. How did you decide?
TONY: I sat down and shortlisted 500 tracks then whittled it down to ten! All have some personal connection for me.
PHIL: 500 tracks! Please talk us though how it all came together, and tell us something about those who were involved in the project.
TONY: I asked my friends Callum Au (a very much in demand arranger these days) and Gavin Sutherland (principal guest conductor at English National Ballet) if they would like to be involved. Both jumped at it. Gavin transcribed Johnny Harris' original arrangement of 'Downtown' which had been for a spot on Lulu's BBC TV series in 1969, for which Johnny was MD and allowed a solo orchestral item each week. Richard Niles (who has arranged and conducted for most of the big names in music - he's Paul McCartney's favourite arranger) took on the new arrangement of 'Run to Me', originally written for the Montanas but released as an instrumental by the Tony Hatch Orchestra. I've used that recording as the theme tune for my weekly 'Lively Lounge' radio show, and I felt it was time to give it a new sound. Richard played the lead guitar line on the track. Amongst us we chose the principal players we wanted in the orchestra - Louis Dowdeswell on trumpet was my first choice and the rest all fell into place. We recorded at the Lady Eleanor Hollis school in Hampton Court in London, where there are three adjacent studios so that we could put drums in one, strings in the second and brass and piano in the third. Chris Traves came on board as sound engineer and we mixed the album in his studio in south London.
PHIL: Of course, I know you through your alternative show on Radio Six. Obviously, you have a very broad taste in music. Gong’s music, for example, has been mentioned in dispatches. What were your own particular personal tastes in alternative music, and are there any memories of your time DJing alternative music that you’d like to share?
TONY: I was invited to dinner by Kraftwerk, to thank me for breaking them in the US. My wife Karin and I arrived as one of the band was telling a somewhat fruity joke in German in a particularly heavy local dialect. We sat down and the joke continued. When the laughter had died down, Karin said (in German and in exactly the same dialect) "I don't think that's very funny!" The band didn't speak to us again for the entire evening.
PHIL: Are you still presenting on Radio Six and what are your immediate future hopes and plans?
TONY: Yes, still on Radio Six International. I own and run the station and it's a pretty full-time job keeping it on the air. We're listened to in 209 countries online, and we're on shortwave worldwide and FM in New Zealand. If we can shift the current stock of Tony Currie Orchestra albums, we'll take on a second one. I am already working out the repertoire for it!
Thanks to Tony for answering our questions. I can thoroughly recommend the album. The link for Radio Six is www.radiosix.com
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