December 2024

What do Bette Midler, Woody Allen and Matt Monro all have in common – well they all celebrated the same birthday. Yes, it’s here again and on the first day of this month dad would have been 94 and to celebrate, as always, I always make sure the Christmas lights are up for his special day.

I looked up the 1^st December on Google and it said it was the 335^th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar and some of the holidays that fall on the day is National Cookie Cutter Day and rather aptly National Xmas Lights Day.

Dad loved the yule season and he made a point of always being with the family at Christmas, even if not in England. If he was offered a gig over the holidays there would be a family conference and he would say “I’ve been asked to work New Year’s Eve in Jakarta, what do you think?” And Matt Jnr and I would always say “let’s go”. We all loved to travel and what was special that particular year was that dad had it stipulated in his contract that we all spend Christmas in Hong Kong beforehand. It was wonderful. I’d wanted to go there for years and dad organized it without telling us. He told us that we had to change planes in Honkers, we had no idea that we were going to spend the holidays there and he took us to all his favourite haunts stemming back to his army days. It was magical.

Christmas without mum, dad and Mitch will never be the same but we celebrate it in their memory and I’ve always instilled it in Max how important that time of year is and bless him, he always gets his tree and lights up for dad’s birthday. That is the only reason I have never worked on the big day as Max would never forgive me. He always says the family must be together and I do hope you all get to spend the holidays with loved ones and friends.

Last month was difficult, not only losing Jack Jones but then the legend that is Quincy Jones. Not only a gifted record producer, but also a composer, arranger, conductor, trumpeter and bandleader and he worked with dad on the fabulous movie The Italian Job. Quincy was a regular at dad’s concerts in America and they became great friends. In fact, when Richard and I worked on a four-part audio documentary, ‘The Boy From Shoreditch’  to celebrate dad’s 90^th birthday, Quincy was the first one to send a video message across which we attached to the documentary on our YouTube channel.

Talking of which. if you haven’t done so already, head there right now as we have a premiere of a full-length interview dad did on Saturday Night at the Mill, which I’m sure you will all love. Also, in honour of his special day Richard and I dabbled with our first Matt Monro Podcast (Matt’s Kind of Music) which also went up. If you enjoy it, then please let either of us know, similarly if you have any questions or debates you would like to listen to, drop us a line.

Don’t forget to visit dad’s very own YouTube channel – https://www.youtube.com/c/MattMonroOfficial

Frequently we feature a rare television performance of dad and the channel still has all the ones you may have missed by not visiting yet. It’s all totally free and if you register, the site will send you a reminder every time something new is added.

I know you’ve all heard this before but in light of a new Argentina interview dad did which has only just landed on our desks, please, please let us know if you have any rare footage, (even if you taped it illegally, lol), jingles or photos of dad. I ranted on for years on every radio interview I did trying to trace dad’s original Camay jingle and 18 years later a fan sent it in. Asking why she had held it back for so long, she replied “I thought you would already have it”.

While I can understand that in the old days recording shows by the public was difficult, I cannot believe that there is no recording of dad’s Barbican concert from 1985, one of the last he did. There are also dozens of jingles still to be found although they are hard to find as the artist is not accredited to the product. Richard and I have spent months and months listening to product jingles that we know that dad was involved in and we, well to be honest Richard, has found several over the years so come on all you diehard fans, take a look in your attics, even if you have reel tapes we have the equipment to listen to it. Fingers crossed.

As Richard told you last month, I had a wonderful cruising season on Ambassador’s Ambition and Ambience this year. I spend a lot of my time on deck 12 and although the pool deck, I didn’t dip my toes into the water, much preferring to view the antics of those brave enough to take the plunge. Fabulously appointed with a great coffee shop next to the comfortable settees framing the deck, I happily took in the ambience (forgive the pun) and chatted with old and new friends alike.

As you know I don’t usually go into the dining room on any ship but the buffet’s food was amazing. With a huge choice that would satisfy the pickiest of eaters, there wasn’t a day when the food was anything less than wonderful and I loved the burger bar.

Both Captains were a delight and always a visible presence on deck, sadly something missing on other notable cruise lines. They happily chatted to guests and posed for the obligatory photographs. I could rave and rave about the offerings onboard both ships from the lounges with talented musicians to entertain you to the theatre with brilliant cast shows and featured guest artists but suffice to say I love cruising.

Excitedly next year I am boarding Ambassador’s Ambience on 5 May (Treasures of the Mediterranean) and then staying on for a back-to-back working cruise which starts on 7 June (Midnight Sun Marvels). I would love to see some of you onboard and if you take the plunge do come up and say hello.

Apologies to everyone that came and asked me for one of my books on my last cruise but I was actually on holiday and only stepped in when someone went ill so I didn’t have any merchandise on me, but I promise I will next year but unashamedly I still had the opportunity of plugging both the best-selling book on dad’s like “The Singer’s Singer and my latest offering “The Autonomous Cruiser: The Complete Guide to Cruising For and with Disabled Travellers”.