Dear Fred,
Thanks to your efforts, I have recently managed to trace the whereabouts of two
of my former sidemen, namely Bob Right and "Big Sid Catlett" Smith.
Now I have a more difficult request. In 1951 I was in the RN and on a
course at the Joint Services School for Linguists (JSSL). Also there was
an RAF man named (as far as my failing memory can recall) Tony Cash. The
NAAFI canteen at JSSL Bodmin possessed the usual beer-proof piano, to which I
naturally gravitated. The noise attracted said Mr Cash, who produced a
metal clarinet. The only metal clarinet I had previously encountered
belonged to Monty Sunshine.
We jammed together regularly, and played some gigs at the NCO's Mess, until the
course ended, when we went our separate ways.
I have a vague recollection through an alcoholic haze of meeting him again in
about 1961 in, I think, the Mardi Gras Liverpool (though it might have been
Quaintways Wall City in Chester). As we were playing opposite sets, we
didn't have a chance to talk. Whether he was still playing a metal clarinet I
have no idea, but I am fairly certain he was a member of Mike Cotton's band.
Does anyone know of his present whereabouts?
Ralph Watmough
This may be old news by now. Tony Cash was in the R.N. too - but at Coulsdon from October 1952 till September 1953 and not Bodmin at all. Yes, he had a metal Simple System clarinet, which he took with him to Oxford after the Navy. He was in London for a time thereafter.
Ron Gilbertson 29/09/06
Please thank Mr Gilbertson for his help. In fact, I was contacted by Tony Cash at the time of the original enquiry. However, it turned out, by an incredible coincidence, to be a different TC, metal clarinet notwithstanding. Maybe I mixed up the surname, and he was Tony Something Else.. So if anyone out there recalls an RAF jazz metal clarinet player named Tony ? stationed at Bodmin, please let me know.
Ralph Watmough 29/09/06
Terry Moore-Scott writes,
"Fred, I served as a National Serviceman in the Navy from 1950-53 and was at Coulsden for the first six months where I played in an informal trad jazz group that included a metal clarinet playing Tony Cash (I played guitar). I remember him as a gifted player even then and have often wondered where he got to. Somewhere I have photographs and other ephemera relating to that time which I could dig out for you if it was wanted. Apart from playing on the camp, largely for our own enjoyment, I do remember the group 'doing a gig' or two at the local pub opposite the neighbouring Guards barracks and just how unresponsive our sullen guardsmen audience were to our efforts! "
Yours, Terry Scott (as I was then)
05/03/07
I have some information
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