Slough Writers welcome band leader Ronnie Smith

Slough Writers welcome band leader Ronnie Smith (2008-10-12 13:36:03)

Being arrested for driving the wrong way round Trafalgar Square and having to admit your name is Smith and that your profession is an underwater pianist is not likely to placate an arresting office. This was one of the colourful highlights that band leader Ronnie Smith revealed about his life to twenty-five members of Slough Writers at their meeting on Monday night in The Greyhound in Eton Wick.

Ronnie Smith with Slough Writers:

(Photo by Mike Pearcy of Words&Pictures.)

"It got worse," explained Mr smith, "when I had to tell the same story to the judge the next morning. But it was true. My best trick at private parties was to sink a piano in the pool and then release special weights so that I would float to the surface playing the host’s favourite song."

Among the self-mockery Ronnie Smith revealed an impressive career as a musician starting in the Army school of music where he studied classical music and the piano. He later studied jazz under the great Dill Jones and went on to become a successful band leader at the age of 23 and later musical director of The Rank Organisation.

But his career was never conventional: "I don’t know how it happened but I was a film stunt man for a time with the young Mike Reed. I worked with Gerri Halliwell at the start of her career, Rick Wakeman has become a great friend of mine through music and with my own big band I have performed with many stars including Bob Monkhouse, Lesley Crowther, Jon Pertwee, Cliff Richard, Tommy Steele and Jimmy Young. Plus Terry Wogan’s and Dave Lee Travers's shows on BBC Radio One."

Ronnie Smith revealed a spiritual side to his life when he talked about his passion for swimming with dolphins and the time he made a film in which he played the piano under water to Willie the Whale at Windsor Safari Park. "They are beautiful creatures," he said.

Ronnie Smith started life as a teenage gang leader in Ladbrook Grove when it was one of the toughest areas in London and went on to write his own symphony which was recorded by Prague Philharmonic Orchestra in 2004.

"My father was a classical violinist so my symphony was written for him," Mr Smith said. "I started it in 1988 and it was not performed until 2004 but that was one of the proudest moments of my life. It’s called Four Seasons of Woman and having been married three times I’ve leaned to appreciate all the aspects of womanhood." Ronnie Smith cannot speak for long without making a joke.

Chairman of the Slough Writers Terry Adlam thanked Mr Smith for a facinating evening and explained where these events fit into the group's activities: "We like to have a wide range of speakers because as writers we need to try and understand what makes people tick. We’ve had ex-policemen, firemen and a talk about the air ambulance recently. If Ronnie doesn’t inspire us to write it’s hard to think who could."