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| Thank you for the music | Thank you for the music |
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| BEEN AND GONE By Helen Morgan-Wynne BBC News Profiles Unit | BEEN AND GONE By Helen Morgan-Wynne BBC News Profiles Unit |
| Our regular column covering the passing of significant - but lesser-reported - characters of the past month. | Our regular column covering the passing of significant - but lesser-reported - characters of the past month. |
| Mud's sound danced to Dave Mount's beat• Johnny Hutch once said he liked to start the day by walking on his hands - quite a remarkable thing for a man in his late seventies. But his was a life dominated by extraordinary physical feats. He was born in 1913 in Middlesborough, and joined a troupe of acrobats at the age of 14. He became a star and performed at the London Palladium. During the war he put his skills to use by training soldiers to jump from aeroplanes. Later he returned to circus life, travelling all over the world with a series of different troupes. At the age of 64, he won the World Circus Championships. Later he appeared as the little man in the Benny Hill show, worked with Richard Attenborough and helped to create the Teletubbies. | Mud's sound danced to Dave Mount's beat• Johnny Hutch once said he liked to start the day by walking on his hands - quite a remarkable thing for a man in his late seventies. But his was a life dominated by extraordinary physical feats. He was born in 1913 in Middlesborough, and joined a troupe of acrobats at the age of 14. He became a star and performed at the London Palladium. During the war he put his skills to use by training soldiers to jump from aeroplanes. Later he returned to circus life, travelling all over the world with a series of different troupes. At the age of 64, he won the World Circus Championships. Later he appeared as the little man in the Benny Hill show, worked with Richard Attenborough and helped to create the Teletubbies. |
| • Fancy footwork was something Dave Mount knew a great deal about. As the drummer in the early 1970s band Mud, he could lay claim to having helped define their sound. Their hit single, Tiger Feet, which spent four weeks at number one in 1974 was typical of the band - a simple beat bashed out on Mount's floor toms. Mud had 15 Top 40 hits, including Dynamite and the Cat Crept In, which featured Mount's footwork. The band split in 1977 but he continued to tour in an oldies band with the vocalist, Les Gray - who died three years' ago. | |
| Electronic music fascinated Briscoe | Electronic music fascinated Briscoe |
| • The creation of sound in all its forms was what made Desmond Briscoe tick. He was a pioneering sound engineer who helped found, and then ran, the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, a hugely influential department until its closure in 1998. Briscoe was fascinated by electronic music - manipulating natural sounds and those he generated to make original soundtracks. He created the ground-breaking music for Samuel Beckett's first radio play All That Fall and the unearthly noises for the science-fiction TV series Quatermass and the Pit. | • The creation of sound in all its forms was what made Desmond Briscoe tick. He was a pioneering sound engineer who helped found, and then ran, the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, a hugely influential department until its closure in 1998. Briscoe was fascinated by electronic music - manipulating natural sounds and those he generated to make original soundtracks. He created the ground-breaking music for Samuel Beckett's first radio play All That Fall and the unearthly noises for the science-fiction TV series Quatermass and the Pit. |
| • William Salcer was also an inventor - although his skills were put to more prosaic use than music making. Born to a wealthy Jewish family in Czechoslovakia, he was forced to live in a ghetto during the war and helped repair tanks. Later he was taken to a concentration camp in Austria but survived and fled to what was Palestine. He helped design and build tanks and then started a rubber factory with the help of the Israeli government. Moving to the United States in the 1950s, he began thinking up ideas for new products. He settled on the plastic lace tablecloth, a plastic display stand for earrings and a hockey puck - all of which made him wealthy. | • William Salcer was also an inventor - although his skills were put to more prosaic use than music making. Born to a wealthy Jewish family in Czechoslovakia, he was forced to live in a ghetto during the war and helped repair tanks. Later he was taken to a concentration camp in Austria but survived and fled to what was Palestine. He helped design and build tanks and then started a rubber factory with the help of the Israeli government. Moving to the United States in the 1950s, he began thinking up ideas for new products. He settled on the plastic lace tablecloth, a plastic display stand for earrings and a hockey puck - all of which made him wealthy. |
| • The Ukrainian born chess-grandmaster David Bronstein, who also died this month at the age of 82, obviously had a scientific bent - but apparently combined it with a more artistic temperament, allegedly dreaming up new moves which he claims to have written down once awake. He competed for the world championship against the Soviet player Mikhail Botvinnik in Moscow in 1951 but drew the match, allowing his opponent to keep the title. He'd been ahead towards the end of play, prompting suggestions that he'd been forced to throw the game by the Soviet authorities. In later life he spoke of the "strong psychological pressure" he'd been under. | • The Ukrainian born chess-grandmaster David Bronstein, who also died this month at the age of 82, obviously had a scientific bent - but apparently combined it with a more artistic temperament, allegedly dreaming up new moves which he claims to have written down once awake. He competed for the world championship against the Soviet player Mikhail Botvinnik in Moscow in 1951 but drew the match, allowing his opponent to keep the title. He'd been ahead towards the end of play, prompting suggestions that he'd been forced to throw the game by the Soviet authorities. In later life he spoke of the "strong psychological pressure" he'd been under. |
| • The children's author Philippa Pearce also appeared to have believed in the power of dreams. She made her name with the novel, Tom's Midnight Garden, which tells the story of a small boy who dreams of meeting a girl from late Victorian times in an enchanted garden. When it came out in 1958, the book won critical acclaim and has since been turned into a play and a film. She produced many other stories, winning the Whitbread Children's Book Award in 1978 for The Battle of Bubble and Squeak. She was appointed OBE in 1997 for her services to literature. | • The children's author Philippa Pearce also appeared to have believed in the power of dreams. She made her name with the novel, Tom's Midnight Garden, which tells the story of a small boy who dreams of meeting a girl from late Victorian times in an enchanted garden. When it came out in 1958, the book won critical acclaim and has since been turned into a play and a film. She produced many other stories, winning the Whitbread Children's Book Award in 1978 for The Battle of Bubble and Squeak. She was appointed OBE in 1997 for her services to literature. |
| Others who have died in December include: the former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein; the former US President Gerald Ford; the former Chile leader Augusto Pinochet; the former BBC chairman of governors Marmaduke Hussey; the comedian Charlie Drake; the American soul singer James Brown; and the animator Joseph Barbera. | Others who have died in December include: the former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein; the former US President Gerald Ford; the former Chile leader Augusto Pinochet; the former BBC chairman of governors Marmaduke Hussey; the comedian Charlie Drake; the American soul singer James Brown; and the animator Joseph Barbera. |