Tameside pays tribute to legendary composer

Dukinfield Town Hall, 19th April 2009, 2.30pm

The latest Tameside blue plaque will pay tribute to Dukinfield born composer Ronnie Hazlehurst.

Ronnie, who wrote the theme tunes for some of TV’s great entertainment shows; Last of the Summer Wine, To the Manor Born, Yes Minister and The Two Ronnies was born at Lodge Lane in Dukinfield in 1928.

The plaque will be unveiled on Sunday 19 April and serve as a permanent tribute to Ronnie’s life as a musician and composer.

His huge list of theme and incidental music for TV also included The Rise and Fall of Reginald Perrin, Only Fools and Horses, Three Up, Two Down, Butterflies, Sorry!, Just Good Friends and many more.

Son of a railway worker and piano teacher, Ronnie grew up in Dukinfield and went to St. John’s Church of England Primary School and Hyde County Grammar School. He left school at 14 to work as a clerk in a cotton mill and began his career in show business playing the trumpet.

It was during the fifties his musical career began as he became a session musician playing in nightclubs and working for the BBC in London.

He had a long association with the Eurovision Song Contest, on which he served as Britain’s musical director three times. In 1977 he conducted both the German disco troupe Silver Convention and the British entry, Lyndsey de Paul and Mike Moran, performing Rock Bottom. Dressed in a bowler hat, and conducting with a rolled-up umbrella instead of a baton, Ronnie helped the duo to second place.

Ronnie moved from Hendon, north London, to Guernsey in 1997. He is survived by his partner, Jean Fitzgerald, and by two sons from his second marriage.

Ronnie died after a stroke on 1st October 2007, aged 79.

People are welcome to come along and watch the unveiling.

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