Musical movemer at concert pitch
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by Norman Riley
Among the thousands of commercial vehicle drivers in this country there are between 40 and 50 specialists whose virtues remain unsung though every celebrity concert and broadcast depends on them to a degree unsuspected by audiences.
This exclusive little band of drivers what an inadequate word for them — has been hand-picked by the big orchestras. Its members used to be called porters, which was an even poorer, more misleading title for them. -Orchestral attendants" was another label that hardly did justice to those whose behind-the-scenes work is as vital to every concert as the opening downbeat of the conductor.
At the end of the list of players in every programme of the New Philharmonia Orchestra there appears among the "credits" this entry: Orchestral Transport Anthony Farnell Derek Beckley In other words, this self-governing orchestra pays its own tribute to them though they have never in their lives played a single note with the New Philharmonia.
Between them they run one of the strangest pantechnicon services in the world. Their veteran Bedford van will soon be pensioned off and replaced by a bigger Mercedes on a motor coach chassis with special springing, insulated walls and air conditioning for the greater care and safety of the precious load of instruments and assorted equipment inside. Most instruments are as sensitive, as humans to abrupt changes in temperature, and a steady average of about 13°C (55°F) inside the van, in all weathers at home and abroad, is the ideal.
Percussion
Farnell and Beckley's new treasure measures 34ft by 8ft by 111/2ft high. It will soon be seen all over the United Kingdom and most parts of Europe, by a lot of people who must wonder what on earth an hgv has to do with Beethoven and suchlike, forgetting that on crowded public transport a big bass drum is about as welcome as a rogue elephant.
A normal load in the New Philharmonia's van can include: Anything from two to six timpani; Whiplashes — one; Birch brushes — one; Double basses — eight; Cellos — eight; Bells — various (cow, jingle, tubular, Soccer supporter's-type rattles — one; Harps — one (sometimes two); Music stands by the score (for the concert halls which don't provide them); Celestes, marimbas, xylophones — one each; Podiums, conductor's, for the use of — one; and a guard rail to go with it where there is an extremely athletic or aged conductor liable occasionally to finish up on somebody's lap in the front row of the stalls.
Packing the van — nearly always against the clock — isn't just a simple last-in, first-out job according to the delivery schedule.
Treble
The van is a three-storey affair. On top floor go the double basses in bags on their backs. Next come the cellos in substantial cases — on their sides. Below them, as individualist as ever, in its case 71/4 ft high, is the harp — upright alongside tall stools for the double-bass players and the boards used by cellists and double bassists for ig themselves better to slippery S.
!.stral Transport" in the profor the concert sometimes membering the conductor who 200 extra feet of electrical iis own special light, the other likes an ashtray on a stand at 'when he smokes at rehearsals. concert or broadcast in one a rehearsal or recording riles away in another on the r, the New Philharmonia .;uliar cargo may have to be .:hecked, unloaded, checked ed exactle on the right spots on orm or in the studio, collected, and stevedored and on its way in one day.
tal value of the load must for easons-remain a secret. But any would-be hijacker who m'anaged by some freak to get round a series of safety devices and automatic alarms would still find, if he got the engine to start, that the van would move only round and round in the same narrow circle.
When we go abroad," said Farnell and Beckley, -by sea and road it's sealed at this end by the customs officers, and nobody except us touches it until we reach Warsaw or Barcelona or wherever. The drill's different if 36 seats have to be taken out of an aircraft to make room for all the gear."
Harmony
Even when the van is parked, empty, near the artistes' entrance or loading bay of a theatre or concert hall, these two New Philharmonic custodians, like professional Siamese twins, are never far away either from the van or the music. (The. conductor,may, for the first time ever, suddenly decide he wants chairs for the four, soloists on his left instead of two on each side of him).
Do Farttell and Beckley, losing count of the number of programmes they've sat through, like music?
Farnell's tastes are catholic — from Mozart to some Prokofiev. Beckley says: reckon I'm in two worlds. I like the old stuff the 1812 Overture, some of the standard symphonies and concertos. But there's a lot to be said for some of the new electronic sounds."
On some of the more formidable avant garde stuff they hear regularly their silence N as eloquent and diplomatic as the sealed lips of many of their colleagues in the orchestra.