Tom Jenkins and The Palm Court Orchestra - The Laughing Violin EP, HMV 7EG 8035

Tom Jenkins was born in Leeds in 1910 and at twenty-five joined the Hastings Municipal Orchestra at their conductor, Julius Harrison’s request. For the next few years he played the odd concerto engagement with the orchestra and followed the usual migratory travels for British orchestral musicians of the time; seasonal spa work and light music. In 1936 he joined J.H. Squire’s very popular Celeste Octet, a launching ground for many string talents, and his employer arranged for him to take lessons from the now London resident Carl Flesch (Jenkins had earlier studied with Edward Maude, leader of the Leeds Symphony Orchestra and with Charles Woodhouse, the long time leader of Henry Wood’s Proms). Jenkins was appointed to lead the orchestra of the Grand Hotel Eastbourne in 1938, which typically comprised a solo violin, two violins, viola, cello, bass, piano and organ/celeste. Prestigious positions followed with the BBC Salon Orchestra and the Grand Hotel, after Albert Sandler’s miserably early death, but the biggest move was a projected one to lead Beecham’s RPO, thwarted by Jenkins’ illness – a lung was removed and, weakened, he took a position as an orchestral player. He died in 1957, like Sandler before him still in his forties.

 

Carol Deene - Norman / On The Outside Looking In, His Master's Voice 45 POP 973

Carol Deene (born Carole Carver, 3 August 1944, Thurnscoe, Yorkshire, England) is an English former pop singer.

After appearing on Joan Regan's BBC TV programme Be My Guest in 1961, when she was 16, Deene was signed to the HMV label, and scored three Top 40 hits on the UK Singles Chart in 1962. "Norman" reached number 24 in January 1962, "Johnny Get Angry" reached number 32 in July, and "Some People" hit number 25 in August. Her first chart hit was "Sad Movies (Make Me Cry)", a number 44 entry in the UK chart in October 1961.

In 1962, Deene briefly hosted her own show on Radio Luxembourg. Despite a serious car accident in 1966, Deene continued to record throughout the 1960s and into 1970, and regularly toured the northern clubs. After another car crash in 1974, she only recorded sporadically for a number of labels until the late 1970s.