faıth - matt monro weekend 14.3.20... · cmyk dailymailweekend 14march national cashingin...

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14 MarCh national

cashing in Despite the name, Robin Hood never visited Yorkshire’s Robin Hood’s Bay – the name comes from a ballad

It was for the celebs of differentbeliefs who trekked an Ottomantrail in a new series of Pilgrimage

Wh en M ich e l eMonro’s motherwas dying, theMacmillan can-cer nurses tried

to arrange to replace her bed at homewith a hospital bed. ‘She refused,’says Michele. ‘She said her bed wasthe one she’d shared with her hus-band, and wouldn’t get rid of it.’

Nor had she ever considered mar-rying again. ‘She wouldn’t even goout for lunch with another man. Sheused to say, “I am Mrs Matt Monro,and I will always be Mrs Matt Mon-ro”, and that’s all there was to it.’

Unforgettable love songs wereMatt Monro’s professional legacy,of course. He was famous for hitslike Portrait Of My Love and MyKind Of Girl. But his daughterMichele describes the real-liferomance between her parents as‘one hell of a love story’ – and it is.Both Mickie Schuller and MattMonro were unhappily married toother people when they met. Mickie,a German Jew, had escaped the Naziregime when evacuated to Britainas par t of theKindertransportprogramme in1938. She waswork ing for aLondon musicpublisher whenshe met Matt, aformer bus driverwho was tryingto get h is bigbreak in the music biz.

He’d had some success, landing arecord deal in themid-50s, but by theend of the decade his star had wanedand his earnings (including those forsinging a jingle for a Camay soap TVadvert) weren’t enough to live on. HeandMickiemarried in 1959 andweretogether until Matt’s death, aged just54, in 1985, and Michele insists thathad it not been for Mickie, Matt’ssinging career would never haveproperly taken off.

‘Without her there wouldn’t havebeen a “him”. They got married 13days after I was born, and aroundthen Dad had an interview for asales rep job with a paintbrush firm.He’d already had every job underthe sun – lorry driver, bus driver,milkman, cement layer – becausehe had to bring money in whilewaiting for his big break.

‘Mum said, “Enough”, and toldhim he had to dress and act the partof a singer, because he needed to beready for the break when it came.They were so hard up. They bought alittle second-hand car and he’d sleepin it after gigs. Once, he had to bor-row £7 so they could eat for a week.But Mum believed in him.’

That big break came when he col-laborated with George Martin, soonto become the producer for The

Beatles, and his 1960 single PortraitOf My Love reached No 3. AmongMatt’s many subsequent successeswere songs in three big films – thetitle tracks from From Russia WithLove andBorn Free, and the openingsong from The Italian Job, On DaysLike These. He also came second inthe 1964 Eurovision Song Contestwith I Love The Little Things. Intotal, Matt, who became known asthe Man with the Golden Voice, soldmore than 100 million records.

Other global stars were fallingover themselves to express awe at hisvoice and talent. Frank Sinatra (towhom Matt was constantly com-pared) rated him highly, and oncesaid he was the only British singer helistened to. Paul McCartney was afriend as well as an admirer of histalent. ‘Matt was a great artist,’ hesaid after his death. ‘He was alwaysa pleasure to be with.’ Cilla Blackcalled herself ‘an everlasting fan’.

Now, 60 years after his first hit,comes a new Matt Monro release,Stranger In Paradise. The album fea-tures ‘lost’ renditions of Broadway

songs recorded inNew York in1966, as well asMatt’s greatesthits.Michele saysher father record-ed many songsthat were neverreleased. ‘I’l lnever put some ofthose out because

he hated them. Others, he just wasn’thappywith how theywere put togeth-er. With the New York sessions, hedid the recording and thought thatwas that, but then orchestral backingwas added, and they butchered it. Hehated it. This version strips it allback, so it’s quite intimate.’

Matt counted some of the biggestnames in British showbiz as hisfriends – and as a child Michelethought it was normal to have peo-ple such as Morecambe and Wise orBruce Forsyth popping round fortea. His social circle included come-dians Spike Milligan and DaveAllen, and entertainers such as Jim-my Tarbuck and Bernie Winters.

‘They were just Dad’s mates,’ saysMichele, now 60. ‘And he was neverremotely “showbiz”. He just wantedto sing. All his mates were people heworked with in summer seasons, and

TheSultan’s traiwas once amilitary route,a 16th-centurypath forgedby

Suleiman theMagnificentSultan of theottomanempire, to invadeBelgradeandhungary. thatwar-torn past is long behind itnow, and the 1,400-mileroute betweenViennaand istanbul has beenredesignated as a peacetrail, ameeting place forpeople of all faiths.

Which makes it theperfect location forBBC2’s Pilgrimage, backfor a third series with anew group of celebrities wwalk sections of the trail fromSerbia to istanbul, ending at themagnificentSuleymaniyeMosque.the format is the same, with amixture of faiths – and ‘non-faiths’ – represented among theseven pilgrims, allowing forreflection, lively discussion andalso, as former politician edwinaCurrie puts it, ‘a lot of fun’.

raisedanorthodox Jew, the73-year-old says she’s nowmoreculturally Jewish than spirituallyso. ‘i’mnot that religious,’ sheadmits. ‘But i amcurious to learn.’

Joining her are broadcasteradrian Chiles, 52, who convertedto Catholicism in his late 30s.‘Some days i think it gives mesomething else to feel guiltyabout, butmore often thanitfeelslikearefuge,’hesays.

alsoa ‘believer’ is formerjavelinworld championFatimaWhitbread, 59,whosaysSundayschool gavehera ‘beliefmechanism’thatwasacomfortduringtheearly yearsofher lifespent ina carehome.

PractisingMuslimMimShaikh, a28-year-oldactorandpresenter, hasan‘undeniable’ belief inGod.he’sbroughthis ten-year-oldprayermatwithhimandsayit giveshimcomfort. ‘youcaseeGodeverywhere,’ headd

entrepreneur andpresentamarlatif, 45, isalsoaMuslbut aquestioningone.he lost95%ofhis sight at theageof 18–and this has ironically provedhispassport to theworld after he setupa travel agency to joinblindand sightedpeople together onholidays. ‘Blindness hasallowedme to see theworld,’ he says.

Firmly in the atheist categoryis comedian Dom Joly, 52, whoserobust lack of belief was forgedby his upbringing in war-tornlebanon. his attitude to religionis summed up as ‘you can haveyours, just leave me out of it’, a

sentiment largely shared byactress Pauline Mclynn. Bestknown as Mrs Doyle in Fatherted, Pauline, 57, was raised aCatholic but, now secular, ishoping to use the show ‘to figureout where i stand in the world’.

their trip takes themthroughbreathtaking countryside andpicturesque villages scatteredwith fruit trees– leadingadriantoquip, ‘toryminister steals frompeasants,’ after edwinaplucks anapple froma tree. there’s noshortageof hospitality,with the

ms joininga feast on thetheSerbianorthodoxrch celebrates thebirth ofVirginMary. yet there areeringmoments too: atniscentrationCamp inSerbia,ereSerbs, romanies andwswereheld captive duringeGermanoccupationof41-1944, thepilgrims learnat 10,000prisoners areought tohavedied.yetdespitethearrayofagesndbackgrounds, the grouponded. ‘Wegot fedupwithachother fromtime to time;herewere complaints aboutnoring,’ says edwina,who

herself ‘thepensioner at theback . ‘Butmostlywehelpedeachother. itwas liketheCanterburytales.’ Domagrees. ‘i likearguments, so i wanted to arguewitha lotof religiouspeople. thatdidn’t happen as they all turnedout to be quite reasonable.’

But there’s no question it hada profound impact on them.‘this has been about self-growth, and itwill remain specialtome forever,’ says Fatima.n

Kathryn KnightPilgrimage: The Road To Istanbulwill air later this month on BBC2.

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find sad is that he and Mum had solittle time to enjoy that “success”phase,’ saysMichele. ‘She’d enduredso much of the rags part of the rags-to-riches, yet didn’t have much timeto enjoy the riches part, when wehad a nice house and she couldenjoy the money.’

The move to the States was to cap-italise on Matt’s popularity there, butthe regret was that he wasn’tembraced asmuch in theUK.Mickiewas particularly peeved, her daugh-ter recalls, that Matt never got therecognition he deserved in Britain.‘He didn’t get his own TV show,which a lot of people did,’ saysMichele. ‘Andhedidn’t get the invitesto do the big Royal Command Per-formance shows. Dad used to beannoyed that they’d want big Ameri-

ne them, whenhey had home-grown talent.Of course, latern life when heas invited, weere living ine States. It wascase of “it’s tooe now”.’In 2010, justore her mothered, Micheleo t e a bookut her father.e p r e p a r e dkie for the factbe a warts-and-

all book. ‘I was going looking for dirtin a way,’ she laughs. ‘I knew my dadwasn’t a saint. I just wanted to pre-pare Mum for that.’ But in the eventshe found no ‘dirt’, no salacious talesfrom groupies. ‘There was none ofthat. Everyone I spoke to just saidwhat a lovelymanhewas, and howmuch he adored Mum.’

Matt died from liver cancer,and he’d had alcohol issuesthroughout his life. Yet it neveraffected his performances. ‘He

wasn’t a drunk. No one ever sawDaddy drunk,’ says Michele. Andsurprisingly, given his velvet voice,Matt was also a heavy smoker. ‘I’vesmoked incessantly since I startedat nine on tea leaves,’ he once said.‘If they’re announcing, “Ladies andgentlemen – Matt Monro”, I’ll lighta cigarette because I know we’vegot two minutes of overture timeand I can have a puff.’

Mickie was with him when he gotinto the car for the last journey tohospital, where he died. He was frailby then and his wedding ringdropped off his finger. ‘She knewthen,’ says Michele. ‘And after Dad-dy died, she was heartbroken. Shenever really picked up after it. Shejust wanted to be with him.’n

Jenny JohnstonThe album Stranger In Paradise,released by UMC, is out now.

inwhich localpauperswere said tohave receivedpirate loot fromtheoutlaw(VillagesByTheSea,Thur, 7.30pm,BBC2)

can names to headlinthgOinwawethea clate

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that she wanted it to b

when he was withthem they revert-ed to childhood,maybe becausenone of themhad ever had achildhood because ofthewar. Theywere naughtyschoolboys again.’

Matt had three children.Mitchell, his son from hisfirst marriage, died aged 47 in 2003.Michele and Matthew, her youngerbrother, have continued to promotetheir father’s work. Matthew, also asinger, has toured performing hisfather’s songs. Michele jokes thatshe can’t sing but has been instru-

mental in archiving her father’swork, and re-releasing some of it.

In the late 60s Matt moved hisfamily to the States, where theyenjoyed the high life, but it had beena long journey to get there. ‘What I

Main:Mattsinging on TV in

1975. Above left:withwifeMickie

and daughterMichele in 1960.

Above right:Matt (right)withproducer George

Martin (left)and anothercollaborator

in 1969

goldenVoICe

the manwIth the

He sold 100 millionrecords and Sinatraloved him, now MattMonro’s daughter tellswhy she’s releasinghis forgotten songs

MicheleMonro’s favouriterecordingbyher father is, perhapsunderstandably,Michelle,Matt’s1973 cover version of theBeatlesclassic which he sang whileholding her hand in the studio.‘it was the first time i’d beento the studio with him,’ sherecalls. ‘he was just singingtome. i had no idea he was

actually recording the track, sothat’s a special memory.‘everything justwent quiet in

the studio. i’ll never forget it. i justhave to put it on to be transportedback, but just after Daddied icouldn’t listen to it. once it cameonwhen iwas in a hotel lift and ifreaked out. itwas like hearing aghost. But now it’s a comfort.’

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