Mel Danser(I)
- Animation Department
Singer - Bandleader - Illustrator/ Live action and animation storyboard and layout artist plus Advertising TV Art Direction. Mel has given thanks all his life to his mother, who with her foresight and common sense, took him away from grammar school early at the age of 15, so that she could get him apprenticed to an advertising agency art department and at the same time attend on a part time basis, St. Martin's School of Art.
Although he was a very shy lad at school where he was often bullied, getting out into the big commercial world gave him confidence and self respect and the incentive to join an am dram group, 'The Beaumont Operatic Society' where he could develop his other natural talent, singing.
His first appearance at 16 was as a member of the chorus in 'Annie Get Your Gun' and he went on to play 'Curly' the lead in 'Oklahoma' at the age of 20, at 'The Peoples Palace' theatre, in the Mile End Road. The BBC used to do live broadcasts from there in the good old radio days, e.g. 'Variety Bandbox' and 'Band Parade', featuring all the great big bands of that time. As a young boy Mel was a keen and constant member of the invited audience.
When one of the girls in the Beaumont group invited Mel to her wedding and persuaded the band-leader to ask Mel to sing a song for her, this resulted in that band-leader, Max Lewis, asking Mel to sing for him on a regular basis at functions and dances all over London.
At approximately the same time, Mel had been getting up to sing at a club opposite the am dram rehearsals, where sax and clarinet player Ronnie Findon, headed up a swing group consisting of Johnny Hemsworth on piano, Johnny Bromberg bass and Jimmy Kavanagh on drums.
The boys suggested that Mel should come along to Hornsey Town Hall on Saturday, where they played, in order for him to enter a singing contest being judged by their resident vocalist, Terry Parsons.
Mel won the contest and as a result was offered the position of boy singer with Harry Pitch and his big band, also resident at the venue. Hornsey Town Hall was a very popular dance venue in those days, where smartly dressed boys and girls would line up around the block in order to gain admission every Saturday night.
Mel learnt a great deal by working alongside all the professional musicians who regularly played at the venue and in particular, watching and listening to Terry Parsons, himself a very experienced performer, being that much older and having sung on radio in the far east where he was stationed in his national service days.
Within a couple of years a minor miracle occurred, when in spite of the fast emerging pop climate, Terry was discovered by Winifred Atwell and overnight his name was changed to Matt Munro and the rest is history.
Although Matt went on to achieve and deserve great acclaim, in those early days his diary was not always as full as it should have been and as a result he would make surprise visits to Hornsey Town Hall on Saturdays and toward the end of the evening he and Mel would sit side by side on stools centre stage and sing in segue, a chorus each of the current swingers from the American song book. This, Mel says, is one of those great memories he stores from those early days.
As Mel developed into a confident and professional performer, he was offered work which entailed much travelling and also resident positions away from home, but as his father had died suddenly at a young age when Mel was just 22, as an only child, he could not leave his mother, he was now the breadwinner and in any case he had developed a parallel situation in the creative world and by now he was earning a salary that far surpassed the weekly wage of a working musician. He worked for the Rank Organisation, designing for the rostrum camera, which held him in good stead later for his position as storyboard and layout artist for Hanna Barbera's TV cartoon series, 'The Jackson Five', 'The Osmond Brothers' and 'The Adams Family' and in the advertising industry he had worked on famous TV campaigns such as the PG Tips Chimps commercials.
So the two worlds continued to run concurrently for several years including the forming of his own band at the age of 23 and playing in many of the big London hotels and banqueting suites for functions and charity dances.
The band was very successful and eventually became 'The Mel Danser Showband and Singers', competing with the likes of Ray McVay, Andy Ross, Johnny Howard etc. on the London and home counties circuit. As a result Mel took the plunge and went full time pro with the band and his singing appearances.
In 1978 Mel won ATV's 'New Faces' singing 'Send In The Clowns'
Over the years many great musicians, singers and entertainers have worked for and with Mel, Geoff Carter-tenor- clari, Harry Burn-trumpet, Fred Jameson-trumpet-horn, Digby Fairweather - trumpet, Bill Suet-alto-bari, Ziggy Ludvigson-tenor, Harry Klein-alto-bari, Len Skeat-bass, Pete Holder-bass, Eddie Freeborne-drums, Pete Bray-drums, Woody Ray-keyboards, Jack Emblow-accordian, Tony Compton-accordion, Brian Dexter-keyboards, Buddy Kaye-keyboards, Brian Dee-keyboards, Alan Ferner-keyboards, Bobby Worth-drums, Don Lawson-drums, Jack Chilkes-tenor, Martin Drew-drums, Tom McQuator jnr.-guitar vocals, Tom Mcquator snr.-trumpet, Andre Mesada-bass, Ray Kent-guitar vocals, Brian Johnson-drums, Lawry Larkey-drums, Don Lang-trombone, Barry Francis-piano, Don Hunt-piano, Debbie Lee-vocals, Jan Mesada-vocals, Lee Gibson-vocals, Val Miller-vocals, John China-piano, Roger Cuphey-bass, Mark Cecil-drums, Tim Huskisson-clari/piano, Chris Gower-trombone, Paul Eshelby-trumpet, Martin Koch-arranger MD, Frankie Vaughn, Bob Monkhouse and man,many,many,many more wonderful pros.
Nowadays Mel is still singing at a few well chosen gigs like his guest appearances with The Thames TV Big Band, performing to those fabulous arrangements that Nelson Riddle and Billy May did for Frank Sinatra and he now paints just for his own pleasure. He lives a more relaxed life in his apartment on the seafront in Westcliff-on-Sea, just down the road from Buddy Greco, no less. Hey, don't knock it, there's a kind of magic going on, on 'The Essex Riviera'.
Although he was a very shy lad at school where he was often bullied, getting out into the big commercial world gave him confidence and self respect and the incentive to join an am dram group, 'The Beaumont Operatic Society' where he could develop his other natural talent, singing.
His first appearance at 16 was as a member of the chorus in 'Annie Get Your Gun' and he went on to play 'Curly' the lead in 'Oklahoma' at the age of 20, at 'The Peoples Palace' theatre, in the Mile End Road. The BBC used to do live broadcasts from there in the good old radio days, e.g. 'Variety Bandbox' and 'Band Parade', featuring all the great big bands of that time. As a young boy Mel was a keen and constant member of the invited audience.
When one of the girls in the Beaumont group invited Mel to her wedding and persuaded the band-leader to ask Mel to sing a song for her, this resulted in that band-leader, Max Lewis, asking Mel to sing for him on a regular basis at functions and dances all over London.
At approximately the same time, Mel had been getting up to sing at a club opposite the am dram rehearsals, where sax and clarinet player Ronnie Findon, headed up a swing group consisting of Johnny Hemsworth on piano, Johnny Bromberg bass and Jimmy Kavanagh on drums.
The boys suggested that Mel should come along to Hornsey Town Hall on Saturday, where they played, in order for him to enter a singing contest being judged by their resident vocalist, Terry Parsons.
Mel won the contest and as a result was offered the position of boy singer with Harry Pitch and his big band, also resident at the venue. Hornsey Town Hall was a very popular dance venue in those days, where smartly dressed boys and girls would line up around the block in order to gain admission every Saturday night.
Mel learnt a great deal by working alongside all the professional musicians who regularly played at the venue and in particular, watching and listening to Terry Parsons, himself a very experienced performer, being that much older and having sung on radio in the far east where he was stationed in his national service days.
Within a couple of years a minor miracle occurred, when in spite of the fast emerging pop climate, Terry was discovered by Winifred Atwell and overnight his name was changed to Matt Munro and the rest is history.
Although Matt went on to achieve and deserve great acclaim, in those early days his diary was not always as full as it should have been and as a result he would make surprise visits to Hornsey Town Hall on Saturdays and toward the end of the evening he and Mel would sit side by side on stools centre stage and sing in segue, a chorus each of the current swingers from the American song book. This, Mel says, is one of those great memories he stores from those early days.
As Mel developed into a confident and professional performer, he was offered work which entailed much travelling and also resident positions away from home, but as his father had died suddenly at a young age when Mel was just 22, as an only child, he could not leave his mother, he was now the breadwinner and in any case he had developed a parallel situation in the creative world and by now he was earning a salary that far surpassed the weekly wage of a working musician. He worked for the Rank Organisation, designing for the rostrum camera, which held him in good stead later for his position as storyboard and layout artist for Hanna Barbera's TV cartoon series, 'The Jackson Five', 'The Osmond Brothers' and 'The Adams Family' and in the advertising industry he had worked on famous TV campaigns such as the PG Tips Chimps commercials.
So the two worlds continued to run concurrently for several years including the forming of his own band at the age of 23 and playing in many of the big London hotels and banqueting suites for functions and charity dances.
The band was very successful and eventually became 'The Mel Danser Showband and Singers', competing with the likes of Ray McVay, Andy Ross, Johnny Howard etc. on the London and home counties circuit. As a result Mel took the plunge and went full time pro with the band and his singing appearances.
In 1978 Mel won ATV's 'New Faces' singing 'Send In The Clowns'
Over the years many great musicians, singers and entertainers have worked for and with Mel, Geoff Carter-tenor- clari, Harry Burn-trumpet, Fred Jameson-trumpet-horn, Digby Fairweather - trumpet, Bill Suet-alto-bari, Ziggy Ludvigson-tenor, Harry Klein-alto-bari, Len Skeat-bass, Pete Holder-bass, Eddie Freeborne-drums, Pete Bray-drums, Woody Ray-keyboards, Jack Emblow-accordian, Tony Compton-accordion, Brian Dexter-keyboards, Buddy Kaye-keyboards, Brian Dee-keyboards, Alan Ferner-keyboards, Bobby Worth-drums, Don Lawson-drums, Jack Chilkes-tenor, Martin Drew-drums, Tom McQuator jnr.-guitar vocals, Tom Mcquator snr.-trumpet, Andre Mesada-bass, Ray Kent-guitar vocals, Brian Johnson-drums, Lawry Larkey-drums, Don Lang-trombone, Barry Francis-piano, Don Hunt-piano, Debbie Lee-vocals, Jan Mesada-vocals, Lee Gibson-vocals, Val Miller-vocals, John China-piano, Roger Cuphey-bass, Mark Cecil-drums, Tim Huskisson-clari/piano, Chris Gower-trombone, Paul Eshelby-trumpet, Martin Koch-arranger MD, Frankie Vaughn, Bob Monkhouse and man,many,many,many more wonderful pros.
Nowadays Mel is still singing at a few well chosen gigs like his guest appearances with The Thames TV Big Band, performing to those fabulous arrangements that Nelson Riddle and Billy May did for Frank Sinatra and he now paints just for his own pleasure. He lives a more relaxed life in his apartment on the seafront in Westcliff-on-Sea, just down the road from Buddy Greco, no less. Hey, don't knock it, there's a kind of magic going on, on 'The Essex Riviera'.