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Latest news about singer Matt Monro. Do you have news items you would like to share? Please use our Contact page.

New Albums

Matt Monro: ‘Stranger In Paradise – The Lost New York Sessions’ together with a new Best Of on 2CD and digital will be released by Capitol/Ume on March 13, 2020. “If I had to choose three of the finest male vocalists in the singing business, Matt would be one of them. His pitch was right on the nose; his word enunciations letter perfect; his understanding of a song thorough.” — Frank Sinatra

29 Febrary 2020

Matt Monro: ‘Stranger In Paradise – The Lost New York Sessions’ together with a new Best Of on 2CD and digital will be released by Capitol/Ume on March 13, 2020.

More here ….

Musical Genes – Matt Monro Jr

30 September 2019

Repeat of programme with Matt’s son – bbc radio 4 extra:

Last on Wed 18 Sep 2019

Series 1 Episode 3 of 4 (BBC website)

Tom Morton meets the professional musician son of legendary singer Matt Monro.

Series searching for the true story behind some of our best loved musicians.

Producer: Deirdre Waldie

First broadcast on BBC Radio Scotland in October 2008.

One More Time – documentary about 60s and 70s session players

April 18, 2019

One More Time is a work in progress documentary which tells the story of the musicians who worked on studio sessions during the sixties and seventies. Several former members of The JB7 have taken part.

Project director Alan Boyd would very much appreciate it if you would check out the website at

https://www.onemoretimedocumentary.com/

and also visit, like, and share the facebook page at

https://www.facebook.com/onemoretimedocumentary

https://jukeboxjury.uk/

We have started a new website https://jukeboxjury.uk/

04-04-2019

Juke Box Jury was one of the BBC’s flagship programmes, which introduced viewers to Saturday evening viewing during the sixties. The hope was that having started watching JBJ, viewers would enjoy it and continue to watch the BBC programmes that followed, such as Dixon of Dock Green, The Billy Cotton Band Show, Perry Mason, etc., for the rest of the evening.

Since the BBC carelessly wiped all but two episodes, our long-term aim is for this developing website to be able to include the relevant details of all 400-plus programmes. This will feature not only the panellists and the records on which they voted, but also the identity of every mystery guest. A slightly less easy goal is to indicate a hit or a miss decision for each record played and discussed.

Clearly, especially to begin with, certain detail will be missing so we welcome contributions from everybody who might be able to help, from those who took part in the shows, or were in the audience, but also from those who watched, avidly.

Book “Hit and Miss: The Story of The John Barry Seven” available

HitAndMiss 1000

17-10-2018

Our book “Hit and Miss: The Story of The John Barry Seven” is now available!

£22.50
(plus add postage for your region)

For postage and packing please add:
UK = £2.95 (2nd class mail)
Europe = £10.90
Rest of World (Excluding Australia) = £16.30

You can order now!

http://paypal.me/Geoffers007
Let us know if you aren’t able to do this and we’ll work out another way

The book’s cover price is £30
anybody ordering direct from us will receive a 25% discount
reducing the cost to £22.50.

We’ll also need your mailing address, of course!

Further discount if you want two or more copies – ask for details

We have a limited number of signed copies – let us know if you want one of these

Alternatively, send us an email message
and we will be in touch!

Thoroughly and painstakingly researched over a number of years, it will feature contributions from several ex-members of the band and from friends and relatives of John Barry.

Comprising of over 350 pages, it will also be packed with an array of rare photos of the band, and the singers they often supported, as well as some unique images of memorabilia and documentation from that era; some never previously published, many more seldom seen.

Even if you are not necessarily a devotee of The John Barry Seven per se, the book offers a fascinating historical insight into the British music scene of the period and, more importantly, provides an essential read for anybody remotely interested in discovering more about John Barry’s formative career.

It will be of great assistance to the authors if you would indicate an interest in purchasing a copy of the book *now*, without obligation. We will then be able to notify you as soon as the book is available with details of cost and how to order and pay.

Just send us an email message and we will be in touch in due course. Visit our dedicated web page here!

Obviously your personal details will be kept secure and not shared with anybody else.

Terry Parsons (Matt Monro) & Ned Sparks – Nine Dragons Club, Kowloon – 1952

14-01-2018

My husband Alan and I are great fans of Matt’s. Alan’s uncle Neddy Sparkes and Matt were best of friends when Neddy (Robert Sparkes) and Matt, then Terry Parsons was in the Royal Tank Regiment in Hong Kong together. Neddy was in the in the Royal Artillery.

Both sang in the NAFFI and and both eventually were stopped from taking part in singing competitions. Matt in the BBC documentary The Man With The Golden Voice says “I was banned from competing because I always won, they said it was because my best friend was master of ceremonies, so it was probably true”, jokingly. “Trouble was when I was MC Neddy won”. The reason he won and this comes from Neddy was he was the best.

Any way we have some pictures of Matt and Neddy in Hong Kong together.

Jo Sparkes

The London Playlist

September 23, 2017

Every week BBC Radio London’s Robert Elms asks his listeners to pick their top London tunes.

Matt has been added too:

On Days Like These
Matt Monro
Listeners are invited to submit their choices. We don’t know whether the list is finite or perhaps it will go on for ever?

New images

September 16, 2017

We have received three new images of Matt, courtesy of Anthony Middleton who supplied them.

They are now on the Photos page.

Matt Monro   Matt Monro   Matt Monro

The Matt Monro Mystery Recordings – MQOS

15-06-2017

Over the past few years stories have circulated suggesting that John Barry did not arrange and conduct Matt Monro’s 1972 single comprising of “This Way Mary” & “Wish Now Was Then”, both based on themes from Mary, Queen of Scots.

The instigator of these stories may have been Richard Moore, the Audio Restoration specialist, in his book about the recordings of Matt Monro, which was part of a special edition of a biography of Matt written by his daughter, Michele.

Richard credited Colin Keyes as arranger/conductor on these recordings; despite the fact the original single credits JB; and EMI repeated the credit when providing me with “label copy” for the CD, The Don Black Songbook. In view of this, I asked Richard for more details, and his explanation is worth repeating in full.

“Yes this was a mystery solved in many ways. The original single doesn’t list an arranger or conductor and no paperwork for this session other than the “red form” (which was the session booking form) survives and this has no indication of who it was. However, as I’m sure you’re aware; Matt does not appear on the soundtrack of the film so it wasn’t clear if John Barry had any involvement.

As luck would then have it, whilst Michele was interviewing Colin he spoke of his first session – This Way Mary/Wish Now Was Then.

A short while later Michele uncovered some contemporary paperwork which listed arrangers and conductors of all recent material (dating from about 1973) which once again confirmed Colin as Arranger and Conductor.

Matt must have recorded the songs due to his long association with Don Black without John Barry’s involvement, in a similar vein to the Alice in Wonderland tracks in 1972 – also arranged and conducted by Colin.

All arrangers and conductors have been verified in the book and if I can find no documentation as to who it was (this only occurs two or three times and often to unreleased material) this is specified in the text.

There are no alternate versions of those tracks so I can only assume that EMI were simply guessing when they gave you that information as they did not know themselves – after all how many times has John Barry been credited as arranger (and even sometimes composer) of “From Russia With Love” (even to the point where Matt’s version appears on one John Barry compilation when the recording has no JB involvement at all!).”

On the face of it his explanation sounds plausible, but he makes some assumptions which are contradicted by other evidence.

Firstly, he states that “The original single doesn’t list an arranger or conductor” — but it does; see the photos, kindly supplied by Gareth Bramley, below. Richard may have seen an on-line demo version which contains no credits.

Secondly, there is a photo of John, Don Black & Matt at a recording session, which, looking at their appearance, is clearly taken in the early 70s. There is no other Matt Monro recording involving John & Don at which this could have been taken. The later Matt Monro single of “Curiouser & Curiouser” & “The Me I Never Knew” was arranged & conducted by Colin Keyes.

Don Black, Matt Monro, John Barry
Don Black, Matt Monro, John Barry, early 1970s.

Colin could easily have confused his session with the earlier one when asked about it by Michele — it was decades ago, after all.

Thirdly, the paperwork found by Michele “dating from about 1973” — could have been compiled some time after the 1972 recording, and if, as suggested above, the paperwork for the session is missing, somebody could merely have assumed Keyes was involved, based on his work on the tracks from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

Finally, I think we should also trust our own ears. If you listen to the two singles, it seems clear, at least to me and those with whom I’ve discussed it, that John was responsible for the MQOS recordings.

Hopefully, this will put the matter to rest!

Geoff Leonard

This Way Mary
This Way Mary
Wish Now Was Then

 

Wish Now Was Then
This Way Mary

 

This Way Mary
Wish Now Was Then

 

Wish Now Was Then

Articles added to site

3 April, 2017

While scanning for a new website called

http://www.ohboy.org.uk/thank-your-lucky-stars

I ran into several articles about Matt. We have posted them on our Articles page, at the bottom, for your convenience.

Polkadots and Moonbeams – The story of Matt Monro in words and music

January 1, 2015

Polkadots and Moonbeams – The story of Matt Monro in words and music

This affectionate tribute to the man and his music, on the 30th anniversary of his death is written by Andy Merriman and performed by Mark Hemmings with musical direction by Stephen Dickinson.

The Club for Acts and Actors, Covent Garden, London on Saturday 7 February 2015: two shows, no matinee.

Doors Open at 7:00PM
Starts at 7:30PM
Ticket Price: £15.00*

Doors Open at 8:45PM
Starts at 9:00PM
Ticket Price: £15.00*

Matt Monro - Polkadots & Moonbeams