Scrolling through the musical birthdays today, I notice the name of Ian Wallace. Does anyone else remember “My Music?”
“My Music” was a ridiculously entertaining BBC game show, I suppose (what else to call it?) that pit two teams of two panelists each against one another for a half-hour of musical trivia, song, and droll digression. I don’t think anyone ever really cared who won, least of all the contestants, who returned week after week anyway.
Ian Wallace (1919-2009), a bass-baritone, broadcaster, and entertainer, appeared regularly, alongside comedy writers Denis Norden (1922-2018) and Frank Muir (1920-1998). At the point I was listening they were usually joined by broadcaster and music critic John Amis (1922-2013). Other contestants over the years included singers David Franklin and Owen Brannigan. The show was hosted for its entire run by Steve Race (1921-2009). Wallace and Race appeared in all 502 episodes. Race, also a pianist, accompanied each of the contestants in zany novelty songs and music hall numbers. The non-singers had no voices at all, but that only lent to the fun.
Even though the show ran from 1967 to 1993 (with rebroadcasts continuing until 2011), the production always had something of an early ‘70s vibe, kind of like if Dick Cavett had hosted a revival of “Name That Tune” produced by Chuck Barris. There was also a TV show that ran from 1977 to 1983. Even without seeing these guys, I just knew they were wearing very wide lapels.
I listened to it for years on our radio station, which carried it from the BBC World Service, by way of the WFMT Fine Arts Network, when it aired on Saturday evenings. At the start, I would listen for the pure enjoyment of it – I always admire the breadth and width of experience of seasoned music-lovers, and these guys had clearly been around and seen and heard it all – whether it be classical, jazz, popular, or music hall.
Week after week, I’d listen and try to play along, and every once in a while I’d know an answer, but any one of these guys could have mopped the floor with me. Little did I realize I was like one of those bumbling apprentices in a kung fu movie, subject to repeated failure and humiliation, only to realize at the climactic showdown that, through observation and the wise tutelage of a sly master, I had inadvertently been attaining mastery myself! Seemingly all at once, the day came when I could actually answer most of the questions. Then, of course, the distributors finally pulled the plug.
Of course, no matter how much of the trivia I knew, there is no way I would ever acquire the same kind of experience these gentlemen did, all of them having lived through the Great Depression and World War II. All of them had seen and heard so much. And, of course, they were all outstanding raconteurs.
I confess I’m just using Wallace’s birthday as an excuse to write about this, as earlier this summer I came across some television broadcasts of the program on YouTube, and I’d been biding my time to post about it.
I admit that not every 30 year-old would find “My Music” entertaining, but I was always a little unusual. This would have been the era during which I had to rise at 3 or 4:00 in order to turn on the transmitter before my morning air shifts. If I heard the start of “Distant Mirror” at 10 p.m., I knew I was up too late! Since I always lived in student-heavy neighborhoods and apartment buildings, parties would often rage well into the night. I had very little sleep on weekends for 19 years. Perhaps this aged me sufficiently so that I was on the same wavelength as “My Music!”
I do miss these guys. Accumulated knowledge like theirs, much of it time-specific, is irreplaceable. As each generation passes, we lose so much. And their like will not come again.
“My Music” television broadcast – with smaller lapels and less garish colors than I would have ever imagined!
PHOTO (left to right): Ian Wallace, Denis Norden, Frank Muir, and John Amis; at the piano, Steve Race
