8:54am Monday 9th August 2010
By Sally Clifford
Robert Naylor – The Life And Times Of A Yorkshire Tenor by Bob Naylor
Bank House Books, £14.99
A fascination with his namesake led Bob Naylor on a literary journey of discovery.
Bob, an amateur musician and avid record collector, set about researching the life and times of Yorkshire tenor Robert Naylor, after discovering him while at school in Bradford during the 1950s.
“I see now, but didn’t then, that by an odd coincidence there was also in my class a boy named John McCormack. The teacher would often tease John and me in front of the other pupils about her having two famous opera singers in her class,” recalls Bob.
“At the time I felt awkward and largely unimpressed by this, for I hadn’t heard of either of them. In those days singers to me were Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly and, my particular favourites, the Everly Brothers.
“Nevertheless, the knowledge about my namesake, a well-known singer from the past, must have registered in my mind – although I would not recall this information until many years later.”
Thirty-five years after leaving school, a friend gave Bob a 78rpm record he found in a junk shop. “It was on the Parlophone label and under the song title it said ‘Robert Naylor – Tenor’,” he says.
Intrigued, Bob began his journey into the life and times of the man born in Luddenden Foot, near Halifax, who would become known as ‘The English Tauber.’ Standing in for Austrian tenor Richard Tauber, at what would have been the star’s London debut in 1931, began Robert’s rise to stardom.
Charting his namesake’s success, performing with a local church choir and eventually appearing as a famous opera star at Bradford’s Alhambra Theatre and in the West End, appears to have been a painstaking pilgrimage for the author.
Yet, after starting out with relatively scant information – Bob found no reference to his namesake in historical archives – he pieced together the tenor’s past, recording early performances in his home village, to rave reviews he received as his career progressed, leading him to top the bill at the London Palladium.
Robert’s radio broadcasts and records lead the author to recollect the technological advances of the music industry.
Bob’s book takes us back to a time when “the wireless became a technological marvel of the decade”. While iPods and the internet have expanded our access to music, some artists have become lost through time.
Hopefully, Bob’s book will introduce a new generation of opera-lovers to a man whose name, and fame, he is determined will never be forgotten.
The book is available from Waterstones and online through the publishers Bank House Books at bankhousebooks.com.
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