Max Bygraves has died - Another bit of the fabric of the fifties and sixties gone.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-19449724
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A very superior pub singer with an engaging manner. Never seemed to take himself seriously and sang a few comic songs... 'Why does everybody call me Bighead, Why do they take the mickey out of me...' Anyone else remember that one?
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Indeed - IIRC a favourite of Tony Blackburn's on 'Junior Choice' in the 80s?
Last edited by: Focus on Sat 1 Sep 12 at 16:31
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Mmm... although I would have been at least 16 then...
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Thank you CGN. I was 15 when that record came out. Not one of his best though.
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I remember him singing Tulips from Amsterdam.Wife's late father never liked Max don't know why.>:)
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If you like tulip based entertainment you will love this. :-)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=skU-jBFzXl0
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I thought he'd snuffed it years ago.
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Always sad when a "character" passes. And like older cars, I do think that character is more important than bland inoffensiveness which is what we seem to get in both cars and performers these days.
I'm not sure what three illegitimate children born from affairs say about his character as a person though. Or his ability to understand contraception.
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>> I'm not sure what three illegitimate children born from affairs say about his character as
>> a person though. Or his ability to understand contraception.
>>
Come off it Mark, if the worlds greatest rock & roller can't put it about a bit, who can?
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Funnily enough I am less troubled about his immorality in having the affairs, thats between two adults.
However, the irresponsiblity towards the child, and the *repeated* stupidity about contraception does grate.
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The worlds greatest rock and roller? come off it.
He could do a good line in very blue jokes tho.
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>> Or his ability to understand contraception.
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He never seemed withdrawn............
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I guess a few skeletons will come rattling out now.
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>> I guess a few skeletons will come rattling out now.
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Just so long as some loon at the local radio station doesn't decide to start playing his records again, as a tribute, then I'm happy.
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Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!
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>> I thought he'd snuffed it years ago.
It's an age thing Dog. The Lad heard of Max's decease on the ferry back from France this aft. Mrs B and I both thought him long gone. Same reaction when Westpig reported Rhodes Boyson's death. Some interest in the latter as I missed being a constituent by the width of the Kenton Road and also IIRC my father knew him when they were both lefties in Rochdale.
But Dad died a leftie at 75.
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Even my wyfe thought he'd already 'passed over', and she's compos mentis (compared to I)
Then we started to think we'd confused him with someone of a similar ilk perhaps?
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>> Then we started to think we'd confused him with someone of a similar ilk perhaps?
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People like him are always dying. They don't make them like that any more.
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>> People like him are always dying. They don't make them like that any more.
Thank the lord. I have lived for 58 years, and at no time has he appealed to my generation, for entertainers like that, his audience died out long before he did. Thats why everyone thinks he was already dead.
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I don't think Max was ever trendy and not my cup of tea but he was very astute and knew his market. Sold his "sing a long a Max" records by the millions in the seventies and bought the score to "Oliver" for a few quid and made a fortune.
Like a lot of the entertainers of his era you had to see them live to appreciate their ability to manage an audience, something a lot of modern entertainers struggle with as they lack the experience of appearing day in and day out.
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Everyone always thought he was corny. But he had an engaging stage presence and could sing well when he chose.
I too hadn't thought of him for years and would have assumed he was dead if I had. He'd made his pile and retired to Australia where he sank below the surface.
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>> Like a lot of the entertainers of his era you had to see them live
>> to appreciate their ability to manage an audience, something a lot of modern entertainers struggle
>> with as they lack the experience of appearing day in and day out.
They needed the right audience tho, even the old pros can screw it up. I was once at a corporate do, where Nicholas Parsons was the main after dinner entertainment. He bombed, really painfully and badly, so badly he reached for the lewd blue jokes. He sunk further and It was embarrassing for him and us.
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his audience died out long before he
>> did. Thats why everyone thinks he was already dead.
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I like that. It's a sort of philosophical definition of death - when you realise your audience has vanished.
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>> >>
>> his audience died out long before he
>> >> did. Thats why everyone thinks he was already dead.
>> >>
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>> I like that. It's a sort of philosophical definition of death - when you realise
>> your audience has vanished.
Just gently fade off peoples consciousness radar.
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>>Just gently fade off peoples consciousness radar.
IIRC someone here did that. Can't remember their name.
;>)
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Max (Walter William actually) was bjorn in Rotherhithe sowf lunden and lived in a 2 room council flat with his 5 sibs.
His father was a professional flyweight boxer known as Battling Tom Smith.
He became a messenger for an advertising agency in Fleet Street, before serving as a fitter in the RAF in World War II.
He changed his name to Max in honour of comedian Max Miller.
Not a lotta peeps know that see.
Wiki.
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Max disappeared from view due to ill health, and there are probably many others in a similar position. Old stagers like Bruce Forsyth (84) are the exception.
A band I used to play in regularly did a gig at an old people's home in Farnborough, and one year I was surprised to see Arthur English in the audience. Not as big a star as Max; possibly best known for being an 'Are you being served' regular (the cleaner).
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_English
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Here's the geezer what taught me to speek propa: www.youtube.com/watch?v=QspUG7Xg-fs
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I once saw Bob Monkhouse live at a business "do". Brilliant there: on TV, dire.
Saw the American singer, Jack Jones, live at another business "conference" in Georgetown, Penang, Utterly awful and not just my opinion!
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Even Ronnie Corbett mentioned Max's penchant for the ladies in the Telegraph article yesterday .....
Max had Alzheimers and went to Oz to prolong his ailing health and career.
I just felt sorry for Max's long suffering wife , apparently he said he was confident that she had been faithful to him for the 60 odd years they were married while he had as stated above had the pants off every chorus girl he could ( allegedly) and fathered at least three illegitimate children..
SWMBO , whose father was on the same bill once in the 50's remembers seeing Max as a little girl and according to her he did have great charisma....
Bruce , Ronnie C and Doddy are about the only ones of that Variety era left.
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>>went to Oz to prolong his ailing health and career.
I think they went for his wife's health, actually.
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>> Old stagers like Bruce Forsyth (84) are the exception.
Now added to Guinness Book of Records as having the longest career as a male entertainer - 72 years!
www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-19516385
Amazing achievement, and still entertaining. However, as Frank Skinner said, watching Bruce Forsyth wend his way through a joke towards the punchline is like watching an elderly waiter cross a restaurant floor with a full tray of drinks. You don't want to look, but you can't look away :)
(that quote of his quote came from
spurs-suchsmallportions.blogspot.co.uk/2011/01/history-of-world-in-100-inanimate.html )
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Goodbye Max - Armel Coussine
