Robert Farnon (1917-2005) Flying High!

For several weeks the world has been in lockdown as a result of the Coronavirus pandemic. Under this measure, unnecessary travel was banned. This clearly included short and long-haul flights as well as restrictions on visiting local beauty spots and much else besides. I noticed from my garden that vapour trails from the transatlantic flight paths tp Manchester Airport had virtually ceased. In a contrary manner, it got me thinking about holidays past and present, both to the United States and to those nearer to home such as Sunny Spain and Romantic Rome.

Although I saw Concorde on several occasions, I was never blessed with a trip: I have never flown supersonic.

Only recently I discovered that the great ‘light’ music composer Robert Farnon made a timely musical celebration of this iconic aircraft’s inaugural journey.  On 9 April 1969, Concorde flew the few short miles from Filton Aerodrome, near Bristol to RAF Fairford in Oxfordshire. British Airways had commissioned this spirited march to ‘mark the launch of Concorde, the first passenger supersonic airliner, a great feat of engineering and an emblem of the power of Anglo-French co-operation.’

The Concorde March was issued by CRD (Continental Record Distributors) on a 7-inch vinyl single and was coupled with Farnon’s equally bubbly Holiday Flight which had been reworked for the occasion. 

The Concorde March is more in the style of Farnon’s film and concert hall music than his usual ‘light’ idiom. It is bold and brash from the first to the last note. Yet, there is not such a great contrast between the main march music and the ‘trio’ as might be expected. On the other hand, it certainly deserves to have more than a single recording in the CD catalogues.

We are in more familiar Farnon style with Holiday Flight composed around 1958. This piece is full of nineteen-fifties optimism for foreign travel. The destination here is most likely to be Mallorca or the Costa Blanca rather than Rio or New York. This is cheerful music that reflects all the excitement and possibilities of post-War ‘continental’ holidays.

For interest these two pieces were recorded in West Ham Central Mission (now the Plaistow Memorial Community Church). The London Symphony Orchestra was conducted by the composer. In 2019, CRD reissued this on CD to commemorate the half-centenary of this remarkable event.

MusicWeb International has explained that these two pieces were originally re-released by Nimbus as digital only singles, but several aviation museums requested hard copy CDs for their gift shops.

Both pieces have been uploaded to YouTube: Concorde March and Holiday Flight (Accessed April 2020)