The Savoy in full swing
QUESTION
Do any UK hotels still have a resident
orchestra? The Savoy i n the Strand, built by impresario Richard D’Oyly Carte with profits from the Gilbert and Sullivan operas, opened in 1889, and in the Twenties, it was renowned for its musical evenings featuring resident bands such as Carroll Gibbons’s Savoy Orpheans and Debroy Somers Orchestra.
By the Sixties, the tradition had largely died out, but cashing in on the success of period dramas such as Downton Abbey and Mr Selfridge, the Savoy revived its dinner dances in 2014.
The resident band today is the 11-piece Alex Mendham and his Orchestra (who has featured in the above TV programmes). Dinner dances are held at the end of each month and are fantastic.
The orchestra plays three sets in the Thames Foyer between 8.30pm and midnight, performing Savoy classics which have not been heard since the Twenties, including On The Air, Carroll Gibbons’s own theme tune. The first two sets are relatively quiet, to accompany the meal, but the band really swings in the final set.
Joanne McArthur, Millend, Oxon.
QUESTION
With vinyl records on the increase, are they still pressed in Britain or have we lost the manufacturing capability? Vinyl production still relies on the original technology, much of which had, unfortunately, been scrapped, and five years ago, vinyl records faced extinction.
But the past few years have seen a remarkable revival, with releases from artists such as Daft Punk, Arctic Monkeys and the late David Bowie.
By far europe’s largest producer is the Czech Republic-based GZ Media, originally called Gramofonove Zavody Lodenice and once the main producer of vinyl records for the eastern Bloc. As vinyl’s popularity fell, GZ Media decided to mothball rather than scrap its record-pressing machines. That was a stroke of luck, and with vinyl’s revival the presses went back into use, making more than 13.7 million records in 2014.
There are still specialist vinyl pressing companies in the UK. The Vinyl Factory creates handmade editions in limited quantities using the classic eMi 1400 Press at the original eMi pressing plant, at hayes, Middlesex, and presses more than half of the UK’s vinyl.
Other vinyl pressing companies include AGR Manufacturing in essex and Curved Pressings in north london.
James Field, Portsmouth.
QUESTION
Mel Gibson’s film The Patriot was originally planned as a biopic of Francis Marion. What was his story and why was he dropped? The exploits of American Revolutionary War (1775-83) hero Francis Marion, known as The Swamp Fox, have attained almost mythical status, largely thanks to M. l. ‘Parson’ Weems’s hagiography The life Of General Francis Marion.
More recent historians have been less appreciative: Christopher hibbert notoriously stated that Marion had ‘a reputation as a racist who hunted indians for sport and regularly raped his female slaves’. Such claims led to his name being dropped from the film in favour of a character called Benjamin Martin.
Marion was born at his family’s plantation in Berkeley County, South Carolina, probably in 1732, and was managing it when, aged 25, he was recruited into the French and indian War. in 1761, he took part against the Cherokee indians as a lieutenant of militia. Clearly, he was no saint: serving under Captain William Moultrie, he was part of the militia that destroyed many indian villages and burned crops to starve the indians into surrender, though Marion was clearly in two minds about these actions.
he later wrote: ‘The next morning we proceeded, by order of Colonel Grant, to burn down the indian cabins. Some of our men seemed to enjoy this cruel work, laughing very heartily at the curling flames as they mounted, loud-crackling, over the tops of the huts. But to me it appeared a shocking sight. “Poor creatures!” thought i, “we surely need not grudge you such miserable habitations.” ’
in this war, Marion learned guerilla tactics, using small forces, hitting and running, dispersing troops in one place and reforming them in another, and employing the element of surprise. When the campaign ended, he returned to farming.
his part in the American Revolutionary War began with an assignment guarding artillery and buildings at Fort Sullivan. in 1779, he joined the Siege of Savannah, which the Americans lost.
When Charleston fell in 1780, a vengeful Marion and his fighters — ‘a ragged band of both black and white volunteers’ — vanished into the bogs around the Pee Dee River and again adopted guerilla tactics.
Astride small, agile mounts called Carolina Marsh Tackies, the patriots rode where bigger British cavalry horses balked. Marion’s nocturnal cunning and superior intelligence network frustrated the British and loyalists.
he earned his nickname in november 1780. Following an unsuccessful pursuit of his quarry, British lt Col Banastre Tarleton cursed: ‘As for this damned old fox, the Devil himself could not catch him.’ The savage cat-and-mouse game between the two formed the basis for The Patriot.
After the war, Marion served in elected office, where he championed an amnesty for loyalists. he married and settled down at his Pine Bluff Plantation, today submerged under a lake that bears his name. he died in 1795, aged 63.
Marcus Chisolm, Harrow, Middx.
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