Raymond Gubbay

Desert Island Discs: Archive 2005-2010

BBC

Society & Culture, Personal Journals

4.4 • 804 Ratings

🗓️ 3 December 2006

⏱️ 39 minutes

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Summary

Kirsty Young's castaway this week is the music impresario Raymond Gubbay. For 40 years he has brought popular classics and opera to the masses. His name has become synonymous with glittering evenings based on classical favourites with concerts often topped off with lasers, fireworks and light displays. He's worked with everyone from Pavarotti to Ray Charles and, while snooty critics dismiss it as 'middle-brow music for Middle England', it attracts audiences in their droves; two million people have now attended his 'Classical Spectacular' evenings.

It's a long way from his early days, when he toured the country with a small troupe of singers and a pianist. Then, venues would pay him 84 guineas to put on a Viennese evening or a Gilbert and Sullivan night and he had to pay the musicians and cover the cost of transport and hotels before he earned a penny. He says he gives people what they want, "tunes they can hum" and more often than not, he gets it right. But in 2004, for once, he misjudged his audience: he wanted to open a third opera house in London offering cheaper seats to a wider audience, but even before the curtain rose for the first time he knew they weren't selling enough tickets to stay open. He says it's been the biggest disappointment of his career, but he doesn't rule out another attempt to bring opera to the West End.

[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]

Favourite track: Final movement of Emperor piano concerto by Ludwig van Beethoven Book: Unabridged Collins/Robert/ English /French dictionary Luxury: An espresso coffee machine with coffee

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, it's Nicola Cochlin. Young people have been making history for years, but we don't often hear about them. My brand new series on BBC Sounds sets out to put this right. In history's youngest heroes, I'll be revealing the fascinating stories of 12 young people who've played a major role in history and who've helped shape our world. Like Audrey Hepburn, Nelson Mandela, Louis Braille and Lady Jane Grey.
0:24.7	History's youngest heroes with me, Nicola Cochlin.
0:27.8	Listen on BBC Sounds.
0:30.3	Hello, I'm Krista Young, and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Discs Archive.
0:35.3	For rights reasons, we've had to shorten the music.
0:38.4	The program was originally broadcast in 2006.
1:01.7	Music My castaway this week is the music impresario Raymond Gubbe.
1:06.9	For the last 40 years he's organised opera, ballet and classical music concerts and has worked with everyone from Pavarotti to Ray Charles,
1:15.0	proclaiming that audiences want tunes they can hum, and that's what I give them.
1:22.4	While his own musical talents are limited, he failed his grade one piano, he's been described as a maestro to Middle England.
1:28.1	But his marketing pizzazz and straight talking have often seen him at loggerheads with the musical establishment.
1:32.7	He started his own business with 50 quid from his dad and 50 quid from the bank and fumes at the subsidies doled out by the Arts Council.
1:36.6	I don't think the people at Covent Garden have the first clue as to what it's like to sink your own money into a project
1:41.3	and then nervously study the ticket sales to see if you're
1:44.5	going to survive, he says. Well, you have more than survived to Raymond Gubby without any of that
1:49.6	Arts Council money. What's your formula? I've always believed in putting on what people want to hear,
1:54.8	what they want to go and see, and things that I kind of like, things that I know myself.
1:59.8	So that's been the way I followed things from the word go, and it's always seemed to work.
2:04.3	What is it that you think people want to come and see?
2:07.3	Basically, people want to go out to be entertained to, in my case, with my sort of events,
2:12.2	to hear music that they know and love, and that's what I hope I give them.
2:16.0	It's very significant that in what you do, not only are you good at balancing the books
	...

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