A collection of information about Tommy Reilly
This is work in progress
Growing up
Tommy’s father, Captain James Reilly, was a bandmaster at the Royal Military School of Music (RMSM), Kneller Hall in Twickenham, London. He left for Canada after WW1 to become the bandmaster of the Guelph Army Battalion and also the leader of the OAC Symphony Orchestra and a local choir. Tommy Reilly was born there in Aug 1919.
When the depression started in 1929, Captain Reilly moved to the local Elmdale Public School as custodian and in 1930 he started a harmonica band at the school. It was very successful. Tommy studied violin and also played harmonica and accordion.
In 1935, James Reilly returned to England with his family to become a Musical Director of Hohner’ new Harmonica Song Band League. Within a couple of years Tommy was performing in a circus troop as a musician and acrobat and touring in Europe. In 1939 he was studying violin in the Leipzig Conservatory when war was declared and he spent over 5 years in German POW camps. He used this time to develop his prodigious harmonica technique utilising his knowledge of the violin and the playing of Jascha Heifetz.
You can hear more details of Tommy’s early life in this video from the Elgin County Heritage Society, in Canada.
Life as a harmonica soloist
After the war, Tommy returned to the UK and began performing with John Still, a pianist he had met in the POW camps. He quickly built up links with the BBC and played regularly on radio shows like Variety Bandbox and Workers Playtime. Tommy joined the Clarkson Rose Music Hall Review, Twinkle, and met Ena, the Principle Girl. They married and had a son, David.
Tommy was a household name by 1950 and he started composing for himself and Production Music companies like Conway and recording 78rpm records for the popular music market. His producer was George Martin who had just been made head of EMI’s Parlophone label. His best known recording is probably the Jack Warner 78rpm – An Ordinary Copper (Dixon of Dock Green), heard on the TV show and released as a single in 1958. These 78 rpm singles were never re-released.
Writing for the Production Music Libraries was very profitable and several pieces became well known as themes for TV and radio programmes in several countries. In the UK the best known were Family Joke (The Grove Family) and Trade Wind Hornpipe (The Navy Lark). Tommy wrote under several pseudonyms – Max Martin and Dwight Barker – and also with James Moody and his son, David.
Tommy’s concerts included popular and classical music, usually transcribed for harmonica. His fame led to pieces being composed for him by Michael Spivakovsky, Robert Farnon, James Moody, Gordon Jacob, Fried Walter, Graham Whettam, Alan Langford and Sir George Martin. He also performed works written for the harmonica by Ralph Vaughan Williams, Malcolm Arnold, Arthur Benjamin, and Villa-Lobos.
Another area where Tommy was active was on film soundtracks, The Sundowners, Yokohama Holiday and most notably, Midnight Cowboy, which is the subject of another of my blogs.
Tommy Reilly International Club (TRIC)
Tommy was always interested in education and like his father, Captain James Reilly, he wrote several instruction books. Tommy went further and decided to teach harmonica at his new home, Hammonds Wood, in 1977. He started TRIC and several musical events were held with some top players from around the world. It proved unworkable and lasted only for a few years. This is covered in detail in another of my blogs.
Tommy Reilly International Club
Concerts and Workshops
Member of the Order of the British Empire – 1992
Queen Elizabeth presented Tommy Reilly with the MBE for ‘services to music’ in 1992.
Discography
Here are links to Tommy’s vast collection of audio recordings.
Singles and EPs 78/45rpm
LP Albums 33rpm
CDs and featured Artist Recordings
Music Library/Production Music