October 2024

Richard here again whilst Michele is on the high seas!

There isn’t an enormous amount of Monro news around at the moment. I do hope you all enjoyed the addition to the YouTube channel of the extremely rare Pebble Mill performance. This comes from a VHS off air recording as the BBC did not retain the recording – and may nat have recorded it in the first place as it went out live. We don’t even have the VHS tape anymore, so had to rely on a DVD copy, but I hope you’ll agree Aviator did a really good job restoring the footage to something watchable.

Next upload will be in December to coincide with Matt’s Birthday. It seems incredible that will mark 4 years since we released The Boy From Shoreditch.

Michele and I are currently toying with the idea of a podcast. We are going to attempt a pilot next month – not for issue, just as a test and see if us too nattering away about Matt for 30 minutes would be interesting at all to anyone but us! If it is, we’ll look at launching it for real in December, with roughly one a month from then on (until people get sick of us). If anyone has any ideas about what they would like to hear in a podcast – bearing in mind copyright restrictions prevents us including much in the way of music – please feel free to leave us message on the forum, Facebook page or email richard@mattmonro.com

A few months ago Michele mentioned issuing a new recording by Matt. At present this hasn’t been finalised, but we are looking at what we could do with the remaining recordings in Matt’s archive that either don’t survive in great quality or are unlikely to find a place on any future collections. This includes TV soundtracks, Radio performances and live recordings. I know many of you would prefer physical releases, but the market for CD copies of Matt’s rarer material appears to be limited. Sales of Operation Santa – Live in Hong Kong 1962 haven’t been good. In the 8 or 9 years since this was released, I still have an enormous number of unsold copies, Live in Australia hasn’t faired much better.

Also in our plans is the reissue of the long-deleted Heart of The Man and Yesterday – The Legendary Manila Concert on digital platforms. Of course, if and when these come to fruition, you’ll hear it here first!

I mentioned last month the frustration about not finding any interest with TV companies about Matt’s life story. It would make a really good series or film even about anyone. Born in to poverty in the east end, living in war torn London, early childhood illnesses, evacuation, joining the army, becoming a success in Hong Kong, then plunged in to being an unknown again back in the UK and so on – all of that before Matt was even 25. There is so much to his story.

It’s not the first time we’ve been disappointed either. About 15 years ago, Michele was approached by a major film company about making a film. They had some interesting ideas and said they would look at developing something and come back to us. Needless to say, we never heard from them again! Likewise the recent contact by a production company about making a new documentary, and an author with a book idea from a year or so ago, have also come to nothing. Needless to say, we take any of these ideas with a pinch of salt these days. However, if you are an enterprising tv or film producer or executive of any kind and like the idea of making a biopic, do get in touch! (no breath holding involved on our part though!)

I think it will be me back again next month, so until then

All the best

Richard