West Cumbrian music producer Tom Tyson is on the move – selling his hugely popular Music Farm near Egremont and downsizing to a new home at Hackthorpe.
Cumbria Crack’s John Walsh went along for a chat about Tom’s time in music, which if he was writing a book might be entitled From Windermere Road to the Savoy.
Basically it’s a tale of the Whitehaven lad brought up on a council estate who started playing guitar at the Zodiac Club in Whitehaven and who ended up staying at the Savoy in London while working for comedian Freddie Starr.
Starr sacked him three times, taking him back twice, and after the third time he was offered a job with Gene Pitney, playing on tours of the UK, Ireland and the Channel Islands, which he accepted.
It was like getting back to sanity after working in a lunatic asylum.
But during his time with Freddie, Tom rubbed shoulders with celebrities of the time like Little and Large, Barbara Windsor, Diana Dors, Paul McCartney and dozens of others.
The conversation could have been three or four times as long, but is a snapshot of Tom’s memorable career in popular music.
