Matt Monro Jnr
Matt Monro Jnr Sings Matt Monro
Matt Monro Jnr is an international recording artist (EMI) and thanks to modern technology has been able to fulfil the dream from that night in 1977 of one day to sing with his dad again. The album Matt sings Monro is a collection of many of the best known Matt Monro songs, done as duets with Matt Monro Jnr, following the example of Nat King Cole and Natalie Coles's version of "unforgettable".
The Matt Sings Monro show is a combination of nostalgia and memories of the great Matt Monro. Matt has a striking resemblance to his father, although he does not try to be his father in his tribute shoes. He sings his father's songs his own way, keeping the memory of his father and the songs alive, as well as the storied that go with the songs, stories only a person close to Matt Monro could relate, and which make the show a unique evening of music, warmth and love. Matt cannot disguise the similarities in his voice to his father though, and the people who were lucky enough to see Matt Monro Snr will not be able to help being taken back to Matt Monro in his days. Matt Monro Jnr is an artist in his own right, having earned his dues and made his father proud in the process.
Matt Monro Snr
Matt Monro started his music career as Terry Parsons, a name he kept up until his mid-thirties. From an early age he was singing, entering music completions and becoming very successful as an amateur singer/entertainer. He got a name built for himself whilst doing army-service in Hong Kong, but as this finished and he came back to the UK he found himself unable to live off the income from his entertaining. He took on a job as a bus driver (among many other odd jobs) and this could easily have been the end of Matt Monroe, if it hadn't been for one lady named Winifred Atwell. Winifred Atwell was at this time an established and successful pianist, and she came across Terry Parsons, liked his voice and recommended him to her own record company, Decca, who agreed to sign Terry up. Winifred was also the one to give Matt his stage name that we all know him as, Matt Monro. Matt after a journalist friend of Winifred that she held in high esteem and Monro after her father, whose first name was Monro.
Matt went on to do a lot of radio shows but nothing much came out of this. His big break came when EMI producer George Martin wanted Matt to do a spoof for Frank Sinatra for the Peter Sellers album "Songs for swinging Sellers", which Matt did. Upon hearing the tracks, Peter Sellers realised he was enable to improve on what Matt had done and made a decision to include Matt's tracks on his album as opposed to the original plan. Matt was originally recorded under the pseudonym of Fred Flange, but the word quickly got out who the real singer was, and Matt finally got his own, serious record-deal with Parlophone label. The success was almost instant: overnight the combination of Matt Monro with producer George Martin and arrange/conductor Johnnie Spence had their first hit with "Portrait of my Love", "Softly as I leave you", "From Russia with Love" and then "Walk Away".
Matt Monro is the picture of a man who worked hard to get to where he wanted to be. It took him half his life to actually make the dream come true, and even when it did, he never let it change him. He earned the title "the Singer's singer" as he was chosen by his own to be there favourite artist. Matt is remembered as a person as much as for his songs, never forgetting what it felt like to be "one in a crowd" and he remained as family man until his too sudden death in 1985, at the age of 54 years, when he was diagnosed with liver cancer, which he died of shortly after. As Matt was diagnosed, an attempt was to give him a liver transplant, but the disease had spread and there was nothing the doctors could do. Matt was determined to live to the full the time he had left though and he spent the last months of his life entertaining the crowds. To Matt they were everything and he was the happiest when he was on a stage with an audience.
People who never saw the Matt Monro performance might be surprised to know that he was also a very funny man. He shows were much more than just his great repertoire of classic songs, but instead a combination of these and funny entertainment material. Matt had that rare quality of making people smile and laugh, and he stayed true to his until the very end. The man might not be with us anymore but his memory lives on, not just in his songs, but as a person, 20 years after his death. Matt Monro is still remembered and missed, making him a true legend in his own right.