London Souvenir

Wally Stott, who later became Angela Morley, was one of the great unsung heroes of British popular music. During its 50s heyday, he established himself as one of the leading composers of light orchestral music. In the mid-60s, along with Reg Guest & Peter Knight, he wrote the Ecstatic string arrangements for Scott Walker''s momentous quartet of solo albums, Scott 1 to 4. Such eternal masterpieces as Montague Terrace (in Blue), When Joanna Loved Me, Such A Small Love, Jackie, Boy Child, On Your Own Again & almost all of Walker''s magnum opus, Scott 3, including It''s Raining Today, Copenhagen, Rosemary & Big Louise. His broad musical vocabulary made him the ideal collaborator & he proved breathtakingly successful in realising the dramatic orchestral settings in Walker''s head. The singer later commented that "Working with Wally Stott on Scott 3 was like having Delius writing for you." London Souvenir is Stott''s "tone picture" of London, which in its eclectic combination of nursery tunes, light music motifs & jazz, skilfully captures the mood of the capital in the late fifties & the prevailing sense of traditional meets the modern world, or establish-ment meets pop. The album is a mosaic of musical & cultural themes from St Paul''s Cathedral to the River Thames, a stylish musical portrait of a great city, sculpted by arguably Britain''s finest arranger.