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Novello‘s Pianos


Luckily Dick partly redeemed himself by intro- ducing the group to Novello‘s (now Chappell‘s) musical showrooms in Wardour Street. The showrooms are housed in a wonderful building of the early 1900‘s and designed like a 17th cen- tury Hanseatic Town Hall by architect Frank Pearson (who had prudently married the daugh- ter of Novello‘s chairman beforehand). A won- derful oak staircase leads up to the fine wood panelled first floor recital room where, appropri- ately supervised by the busts of Handel and Bach, the most magnificent display of grand pi- ano‘s the group had ever seen was laid out. Here at last was a fair sample of the cultural treats that Dick was supposed to produce for us!


But that mood of calm satisfaction was not to last, for all to soon Dick took us into Brewer Street where the neon lights of the local strip bars and their female denizens lounging outside led inevitably to the sordid remains of the Ray- mond Revue bar.


It was at this point that, understandably, some of the more sensitive participants left the group,


leaving a few stragglers to continue on with Dick to Leicester Square and yet another warren of dens of iniquity. What an ending to our tour of Soho! Surely something needs to be done to improve the tone of Dick‘s meanderings in fu- ture – if he has a future as our London historian!


Anon March 2008


20


Elton John‘s Red Piano


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