Gary Husband - “Star Town” (TV talent show), Manchester, England, 1978

A tiny something to bring a smile (hopefully!) from my teenage years. 😎

So here I am aged 18 taking part in a TV talent show in the north of England. I’m one of a team representing the city I was born - Leeds. By the way we didn’t win! Didn’t hurt too much - I’m already in London at this point getting into all sorts of musical situations being kinda the new boy in town, as I was at that time.

So I’ve done a little arrangement of the Stevie Wonder classic “You Are The Sunshine Of My Life” for big band which I gave to my dad, who orchestrated it for the Granada TV band.

I’m on set - trying to put on on all the razzmatazz and hilarious entertainment affectations (which aren’t quite working!) - and I have no monitoring of the band at all. They’re packed away over in a distant corner of the studio, and I’m not hearing anything of any detail when playing piano - drums, forget it!!! So I’m playing the arrangement, and basically just hoping and praying they can hear me and connect with me!
Oh boy!

Anyway, here it is! It was an effort, but somehow we got through it!!! 😂
Lovely to see my second black Pearl Wood/Fibreglass kit there ... and, oh boy, I didn’t remember I was lefty leading just this year or so after my term with The Syd Lawrence Orchestra!