EUGENE - Sax, Clarinet

Well what can we say here except age holds no boundaries as we say, 82 years young and still going strong. Lots of history behind this man, came from Poland in 1943, joined the British Army, the 8th Army Monty's boys, he was a wireless operator in the field dodging the bullets etc, he was there when the casino was taken in Italy, which was a stronghold at the time for the Germans, many lives were lost taking this, fortunately Eugene lives on to tell the story, any way, self taught player and a fine one at that to, his rendering of stranger on the shore at the end of the show on his clarinet never fails to bring the house to their feet, fantastic, over the years he has played for a number of dance bands especially around the 50's + 60's one of them being the Harry Troumans big band who i believe were very big in the midlands at the time, he also played for the Rover company's big band, etc and other's here and there, now he plays for us and once again I am very pleased to have him on board.

March 26th 1926 - Nov 26th 2007

Pat the Sax

What can I say about this guy of Irish decent, he has played for many a top bands over the years, one of them being the great "Johny Lamb" and his orchestra in the 70's who could be heard regularly on the BBC, again played on the boats, the QE2. Pat also played for a circus, when they used to have a live band, i.e. "The Robert Brothers" + "Bully Smarts", a guy with a great sense of humour, always got a pass on to you whenever you met up, a family man with a wife and a daughter and grand children to boot so has had a great life and still with us to tell the tale, he still does the odd gig with us now and then.

Ken

What can I say "Herman The German" he joined me in 1996 as "Men in Shorts" but we were in the same band as "The Munich Bierkeller Men" for many years and this is how I came to know of Ken, and found him to be an honest and genuine person, and someone of who you could rely on, which is very important in the music business.

Originally Born in Walthamstow East London, but met his wife Iris one summer season at Bridlington. He was in the pit as a band member and Iris was a dancer, so Ken was looking up to her every night of the season and obviously liked what he saw. She came from Birmingham and so Ken decided to setup home there, and has lived there ever since, Ken has had the pleasure of playing all over the world all because of being able to play his instrument, the trombone, of which he learnt to play by himself and ended up playing on the QE2, and Camberon, just to name a couple of great ships, it's not a bad life hey, but, he's a very clever guy and has turned his hands to many a things over the years to support his family, i.e. working in the car industry for Land Rover for many years etc, all this to keep a rod over his head and feed his family etc, so I take my hat off to him, and have been grateful to have known this guy and very much look up to him, I am saddened to know that he has had throat cancer which called an end to his playing days but he is still with us, and I wish him and his family all the best, I'll keep you in touch with his health.