A life-changing event happened when TC was 13, and he saw Monty Sunshine playing clarinet with Chris Barber's Jazz Band at Birmingham Town Hall. He pestered his dad for a clarinet, and one was duly provided, leading to TC not only becoming proficient on it, but adding saxophone and flute to his arsenal. By the time he was 16, he was skilled enough to turn professional. He played in a wide range of situations, most notably on the SS Oriana, and also becoming a key member of the Midlands Radio Orchestra. It was with this orchestra that he recorded Ronald Binge's well-known "Sailing By", TC's recording of which found fame as the music for the late-night Shipping Forecast on the radio. He toured Germany for a number of years with the Paul Gunther Band, learning enough German to stand him in good stead when he found himself revisiting manybof his old haunts as a member of the Big Chris Barber Band many years later.

He was also a member of Chico Arnez's Latin-style band which was hugely popular in the UK in the 1960s and early 70s. TC infact inherited the band's library, and was always threatening to put the band back together again - which alas, never came to pass.
Tony Godwin's wonderful Palm Court Theatre Orchestra were also lucky enough to count TC as one of their regular players.

A slump in the big band scene led to TC becoming at various times, a travelling electric-heater salesman, a teacher, and most notably a Fish and Chip Shop owner! TC was a great "foodie" and I never had any difficulty imagining him in his chef-whites behind the counter of his own chippy! Being such a big "foodie" also meant he was very critical of other people's cooking. I have never known anybody to send as many plates of food back to the kitchen as TC used to. There were some members of the Barber band who would not go out to eat with him because they found this trait of his a bit uncomfortable. Yet one such person would regularly snap his fingers at a waiter demanding attention, and boss them about in a most unpleasant way - this outrageous behaviour was apparently perfectly acceptable!

I first met TC when he used to dep for Zoltan Sagi in the excellent Charleston Chasers. At the time Zoltan was a school headmaster and couldn't easily get time off for either daytime gigs, or gigs that necessitated a long journey, so TC would step in. Being an excellent reader, and also a good jazzer made him the perfect dep. He and I hit it off instantly, and so what was to become a rest-of-the-life long friendship began.

As a result of his work with the Chasers, I also introduced TC to Harry Strutters Hot Rhythm Orchestra, as a replacement for Tony Jack - a position that TC continued to hold right up until his illness caused him to stop playing. I also began to use him in my own band, either on the lead alto chair, or the tenor/clarinet chair - such was his versatility.

When Chris Barber asked me to join forces with him to enlarge his Jazz and Blues Band for a series of concerts in order to play his beloved Ellington material more effectively, I initially used Nik Payton, my regular lead alto, myself, and Mike 'Magic' Henry to add weight to Barber's frontline. I had assumed TC would not be interested in what amounted to just playing half the show, and not even doing full tours. After a year or so, this all changed, and Barber decided he wanted to make the 11-piece permanent, and have us play the full show, and all the gigs - which back in 2000 was over 300 a year! The band name changed to The Big Chris Barber Band, and at the same time Nik ducked out, marrying a multi-millionairess, and going to live in Rio!
At this point I thought I'd risk calling TC, and he as good as bit my hand off! He didn't even want time to think about it, discuss it with his wife or anything! And so the so-called "First Eleven" was born.
For the record, it comprised Pat Halcox and Magic on trumpets, with me playing cornet too here and there; Myself and Chris on trombones; TC, John Crocker and John Deferary on saxes and clarinets; Paul Sealey, banjo and guitar; John Slaughter on blues guitar; Vic Pitt on bass and Colin Miller, drums. And a splendid band it was too!
As far as travelling about was concerned, Magic elected to drive with Barry Walker, the Sound Engineer, leaving TC and I to travel with Barber himself, thus leaving the other two cars with the original seven guys as they were.

Driving with Barber was, shall we say, an experience. A "would-be" racing driver, he took full advantage of the zero speed-limit on the majority of German Autobahns. He would ensure we were the last car to leave hotel "A" but we had to be the first to check into hotel "B". This led to some fairly hair-raising journeys, and TC had a great way of coping with it - sit in the back, and sleep!

Because of these travel arrangements I was automatically in TC's company more than anybody else's, and our already good friendship really blossomed in that band. On the rare days off we had on tour, TC and I would invariably get on a train and go to some nearby place of interest - very often visiting places that he had played back in his days with Paul Gunther in the early 60s.

Some of my fondest memories centre around food! I mentioned TC's love of grub earlier. There was one time we found an Italian place that was open after we finished the show. We told the rest we would make our own way back to the hotel and the two of us descended upon this restaurant. It was one of those small family run affairs, quite common in Germany, but becoming rare in the increasingly Americanised corporate UK. Empowered, no doubt, by copious amounts of Italian red wine we got a taxi back to the hotel and proceeded to chat up the two young ladies behind the reception desk. I can still see TC's face in reaction to the girls' response, "don't you think we are a little too young for you?"
Much hilarity ensued, at least!
Another time in Sweden, we had a night off, and found a Greek place, by a bridge on a river. I'm pretty sure we were in Uppsala.
This place was superb, the setting was great, and we sat outside by this river, and stayed there for the entire evening TC had a Kleftiko, and I had a double helping of lamb cutlets, my go-to greek scoff at the time! - We consumed bottle after bottle of Retsina, and also the plentiful supply of free ouzo they kep us. It was probably a good job the hotel was only over the road! I've often wondered where the others went that night, since going to a Greek was the band's default setting (Barber didn't like Greek grub, so we were safe from a "Barbering") Maybe they found another one elsewhere in the town... Neither of these evenings involved TC sending food back to the kitchen, so maybe that's why I remember them so fondly... or perhaps it was just the retsina!

Another foible of his regarded his neck wear. You rarely saw him without a tie, bow or cravat. Once, when Barber called for open neck shirts, TC refused. This led to open-neck apparel being referred to as "going TC".

Above all, he was great company. He had an almost childlike sense of fun, and farting loudly in public was histerically funny to him - a reaction not always shared by certain more po-faced members of the band.

We always used to meet in the hotel bar before leaving for the gig - this tradition became the "Taste at five-thirty" and even today, though I haven't touched a drop of alcohol for well over a year, I still think of TC around five-thirty... I guess I always will.
So-long my old friend, the world's a little less fun without you in it.