Page 29 - Fyne Times Spring 2014

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Angela Morley was born in Leeds in 1924.
Her early years were spent living above
her father’s watchmaking and jewellery
shop. He was a musical man and from her
earliest days she was helping him to tune
his ukulele-banjo with a pitch pipe. At the
age of eight, a piano arrived at the flat and
Angela started going to lessons. But there
was a sudden end to her musical tuition
when her father died after a short illness.
Her mother chose to move the family back
to her hometown of Rotherham and music
lessons were all but forgotten. However,
Angela was still keen to learn music and she
played any instruments she could get hold
of. First was a violin, then an accordion.
Finally she found her perfect instrument,
the alto saxophone.
Although still self-taught, her playing was
fantastic and with the outbreak of war, there
were plenty of empty seats in dance bands
across the country. She started as a novice
in the Oscar Rabin Band unpaid. But her
talents were soon spotted and she was
recruited to her first professional job playing
in the famous Geraldo Band. Around this
time she also took lessons in harmony,
which was quite a challenge due to her lack
of formal training, but she worked hard
and became good at it. The lessons paid off
and in 1953 she became the first musical
director of a brand new record company
called Philips Records. Her main job there
was to arrange and record covers of popular
American songs, but with British artists.
In her time at Philips she also worked with
Rosmary Clooney, Mel Tormé and Marlene
Dietrich. Angela started to write music for
television and film as well. One of her most
notable works of this part of her life was
the theme tune to Hancock’s Half Hour,
a melody that is still recognised by many
people today.
However, for most of her early life there
was a cloud hanging over Angela. She had
been born male and had tried to live a
man’s identity. But deep down she knew she
was female. She married and tried to settle
down with choral arranger Beryl Stott, but
the marriage did not last. Later she married
her second wife Christine Parker. She was
very supportive of Angela’s gender issues
and when she arrived back from a trip to
Scandinavia as a woman, Christine chose to
remain her partner.
Angela was certainly in the right industry
to undertake such a dramatic change in life.
The liberal and aware artistic community
continued to regard Angela as a leading
musician in her field. A while after her
gender change she moved to America and
worked on top television shows such as
Dallas, Dynasty and Wonder Woman. Her
film work continued as well and she was
nominated for Oscars for the soundtrack
of The Little Prince and Cinderella as well
as The Slipper and The Rose. She also
wrote the haunting soundtrack to the dark
children’s film Watership Down, although
the most famous track, Bright Eyes, was not
her work.
Life In LA started to wear on Angela. After
the riots came an earthquake which was a
turning point for her. Angela decided to
move to Arizona and spent a lot of her time
assisting John Williams in some of his epic
film scores such as Superman and Star Wars.
She died at the age of 84 from a heart attack
brought on by a fall.
Angela moved to Arizona
and spent a lot of her time
assisting John Williams in some
of his epic film scores such as
Superman and Star Wars.