Inheritance

Geoff Love at Boots, Victoria Centre, 23 June 1972 (Image from Boots News, 26 July 1972)

On 23 June 1972, the Victoria Centre branch of Boots was graced by the presence of Geoff Love, who was in town to sign copies of some of his latest records. The store had only opened a few weeks previously, following the closure of the 'old and rambling' Pelham Street branch.

The photograph above appeared in Boots' staff magazine alongside a short article which recorded, with a lamentable shortage of punctuation, that 'Sales in an hour-and-a-half amounted to over 100 records (more than one a minute) this seeming to indicate that as the Beatles found in order to sell records in really big numbers "all you need is Love."' Ouch.

On the table in front of Geoff, we can see the covers of the Geoff Love & His Orchestra albums Love With Love (1972), Great T.V. Western Themes (1970), Your Top TV Themes (1972), Big War Movie Themes (1971) and Big Western Movie Themes (1969) - all released on the late and mildly lamented British budget-price record label Music for Pleasure.

There were plenty more albums where they came from - a veritable feast of easy listening vinyl. Big Love Movie Themes, Big Suspense Movie Themes, Big Musical Movie Themes, Big Bond Movie Themes, Big Terror Movie Themes... the list is not far short of endless.

Geoff Love (his real name) was a respected figure in the music industry. An article on the Abbey Road Studios website describes him as 'a musician, band leader, composer, conductor' whose 'contribution to British music...can't be underplayed' (pun possibly not intended).

Born in Todmorden, Yorkshire in 1917 to an African American father and English mother, Love worked with many of the most famous artists of the era and was also a well-known personality himself. The albums mentioned earlier represent just one part of a wide body of work, with the experimental Mandingo project being perhaps the great man's most exhilarating and left field endeavour. Love died in 1991 and I think it is fair to say that he is a largely forgotten figure today.

Two Geoff Love & His Orchestra albums are guilty pleasures of mine - the previously-mentioned Big War Movie Themes, and the disco-inflected Star Wars and Other Space Themes. The former contains stirring versions of triumphalist tunes such as 633 Squadron and The Dambusters March (penned by Hucknall alumnus Eric Coates), while the latter's groovy takes on a series of well-known film and TV sci-fi themes are nigh-on irresistible for anyone raised in the seventies.

These aural treasures were originally discovered courtesy of my parents' record collection, with my dad's musical tastes eventually proving to have a not-inconsiderable influence on my own.

My dad and I were part of each other's lives for 53 years, but in many ways I suspect that what I know about him doesn't even begin to touch the surface of who he was.

Listening to those Geoff Love & His Orchestra albums, or even just gazing at their iconic covers, never fails to bring him to mind, and for that alone I am grateful.