Jeremy Hardy on Humph
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/apr/28/radio.bbc
"Jeremy Hardy writes: I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue was something Humph did for fun, but fun was something he took very seriously. We all knew he was first and foremost a musician and that we were very lucky he spared us the time, because the show absolutely revolved around him, but there was no doubting his absolute commitment.
We have just finished a live tour, of which Humph missed only the last date. He was determined to carry on for as long as he could, and put his all into every second of every show. The climax of the evening came when the producer, Jon Naismith, brought Humph's trumpet on to the stage and he played We'll Meet Again. At the Hammersmith Apollo, there were 3,500 people in the audience, and many were weeping. There would always be a standing ovation - apart from in Harrogate, but they're weird - and it was for Humph.
He was furnished with great scripts by Britain's best jokewriter, Iain Pattinson, but only his delivery and persona could have done them justice: he would play around with lines and add flourishes of his own, maintaining his austere demeanour, but visibly delighted when something new went well. He would throw in ad libs that seemed to come from nowhere, emerging effortlessly from disdainful and impassive lips that soon wrinkled into a lovely smile.
Having spent so many hours in traffic surrounded by lorries, and being in possession of an irrepressibly energetic mind, he acquired the ability to read backwards very quickly, noticing on the way to Harrogate that Warburtons backwards is "snot rub raw". He was very pleased one night to read the word "stratagem" in the script and realise that written backwards it is "megatarts".
His telling us this seemed like the most elegant and erudite observation imaginable, but the real joy of it was seeing the pleasure it gave him. He was a beautiful man."
"Jeremy Hardy writes: I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue was something Humph did for fun, but fun was something he took very seriously. We all knew he was first and foremost a musician and that we were very lucky he spared us the time, because the show absolutely revolved around him, but there was no doubting his absolute commitment.
We have just finished a live tour, of which Humph missed only the last date. He was determined to carry on for as long as he could, and put his all into every second of every show. The climax of the evening came when the producer, Jon Naismith, brought Humph's trumpet on to the stage and he played We'll Meet Again. At the Hammersmith Apollo, there were 3,500 people in the audience, and many were weeping. There would always be a standing ovation - apart from in Harrogate, but they're weird - and it was for Humph.
He was furnished with great scripts by Britain's best jokewriter, Iain Pattinson, but only his delivery and persona could have done them justice: he would play around with lines and add flourishes of his own, maintaining his austere demeanour, but visibly delighted when something new went well. He would throw in ad libs that seemed to come from nowhere, emerging effortlessly from disdainful and impassive lips that soon wrinkled into a lovely smile.
Having spent so many hours in traffic surrounded by lorries, and being in possession of an irrepressibly energetic mind, he acquired the ability to read backwards very quickly, noticing on the way to Harrogate that Warburtons backwards is "snot rub raw". He was very pleased one night to read the word "stratagem" in the script and realise that written backwards it is "megatarts".
His telling us this seemed like the most elegant and erudite observation imaginable, but the real joy of it was seeing the pleasure it gave him. He was a beautiful man."