[Dixielandjazz] jazz obits

[Steve Voce]

Spike was a fine trumpet/cornet soloist in the Bobby Hackett manner.
When he was in one of his "plays" at a Liverpool theatre for a week he arranged for me to
have a free seat each night. I went to the theatre at about 5 pm each evening, a couple of
hours before the play and went onstage behind the curtains with Spike and his pianist who played
cornet/piano duets for me for a quarter of an hour or so. Wonderful!
On the Friday night every seat in the house had been sold in advance and there was thus no seat
for me. Spike rang through to the manager's office and asked if he could help. He said not.
"Couldn't Steve stand alongside the stalls?" asked Spike.
The manager said no because safety and fire regulations wouldn't permit it. But eventually
Spike persuaded him to let me stand beside the stalls, against the wall about eight feet from the seats.
When the play opened Spike came onto a dimly-lit stage carrying a candle and wearing a nightgown
and nightcap. He held his hand to his forehead and peered around the auditorium. He saw me
standing against the wall, separate from the audience.
"Hello, mate," he said.
Then he turned to the audience, cupped his hand round his mouth and said confidingly
"B.O.!"

Steve Voce

On 22/01/2011 10:18, Pat Ladd wrote:

> I am dragging Spike Milligan into the jazz scene on the basis that he played trumpet in a dance band.
>
> Went to a concert of a  miscellany of Spikes stuff, including some of his music Ying Tong Song, Walking backwards for Christmas,last week>  It was put together by his daughter and in her  programme notes she said that when Spike died the family wanted to put `I told you I was ill` on his gravestone. The vicar vetoed this. Spike held an Irish passport so they carved it in Gaelic
>
> Just a thought.
>
> Pat
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