HGSOM Howard Goodall-Story of Music
Finding a headline picture of Howard Goodall that is not taken from a low angle was something of an achievement. One may only presume that most pictures of Goodall are taken by acolytes kneeling before the maestro. However, in case you thought Goodall was all highbrow aeatheticism, try his 'I Like Trucking' song, written for 'Not the Nine o'Clock News' show, as revealed on a page for 'Saturdy Live' (and in the iPlayer recording of the show, where mercifully Goodall is the first guest). Goodall's choices for the 'Desert Island Discs' radio program were similarly eclectic.
The picture we chose shows Goodall inside the concert organ (the largest in the world, when built in 1871) at the Royal Albert Hall: the portrait—in shirt sleeves without the dark suit jacket—was taken by Claire Lim and was used in a Daily Telegraph review of the Goodall TV series 'Story of Music' By Ivan Hewitt. If you think our low-angle claim was fanciful, consider the following (every rule deserves a notable exception):
We sympathize that you will now be fretting obsessively over organ statistics such as the oldest, largest, loudest, and oddest construction materials. Who, you will be wondering, is the nut—we use the word advisedly—who installed a 10,000 cubic feet per minute 5/80 Wurlitzer Theatre Organ with 8,000 pipes, the largest theater organ in the world, in his residence?
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