HIS JIG IN PUBLIC

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 124, 29 May 1933, Page 2

HIS JIG IN PUBLIC

SIR THOMAS BEECHAM

• There are at Dundalk, on the border between, tho Irish Free State and Northern Ireland, a few Customs officials, old women, and children who have seen Sir Thomas Beecham dance an Irish jig in the street while the London Philharmonic Orchestra stood round and played, says the London "Daily Telegraph." Sir Thomas and his orchestra were at the time travelling between Belfast and Dublin. It was on being turned out of their motor-coaches while the Customs officers searched them for firearms and contraband that the musicians struck up a dance which Sir Thomas led. ' , ■•;•■ ,'■ • . .;■.;-. The story was told by Sir Thomas himself at Glasgow, the intermediate point of his tour between Belfast and Perth. Interviewed in his : hotel, he said: "I was conductor, chorus, and ballet all in one." He described how first they had been stopped by: police, then by military police, and th%n by Customs men, and said that he thought the best way to convince them that the orchestra had no revolvers in their instruments was to play them a tune. . • "It was a.mixture of everything, but good enough to dance an Irish. -jig to. I whipped my conductor's stick out of my baggage, Goossens, our oboeist, and tho flautist started to play. The other members of the orchestra joined in, and, forming a circlo, I adopted the role of conductor, chorus, and -ballet what time, Mr. Harold Holt was trying to pacify the Customs men. "His face resembled a beetroot, and he tried to stop us by shouting, 'You're all under arrest.' "By this time I was just beginning to get warmed up with my dance, and the audience were most appreciative. The audience, by the way, were the most amusing I have ever performed to. They comprised a few children, a dozen old women, some mewing cats, barking dogs, and a few grunting pigs. "The fun continued until the Customs men realised that we were only travelling musicians, and when Goossens asked them to join in the dance they very nearly accepted." •Mr. Harold Holt, when interviewed, said: "I had the job to argue with the ■Customs men, so you can imagine how perturbed I was when I '■' heard the orchestra strike up a song on the highway, with Sir Thomas Beecham dancing a jig. I pictured us being placed under arrest and taken off to gap-"