Organ players

Published in 18th–19th - Century History, 20th-century / Contemporary History, Features, General, Issue 2 (March/April 2013), Volume 21

Tommy Dando—the last organist to work at the theatre. (David Knaggs)

Tommy Dando—the last organist to work at the theatre. (David Knaggs)

Of the Theatre Royal’s organ-players (Alban Chambers, Gordon Spicer, Norman Metcalfe and Tommy Dando), Norman Metcalfe’s career spanned a trajectory from church organ to cine-variety to television, where he worked on the RTÉ quiz show Quicksilver. The prototype for that quiz, Double or Nothing, was first staged at the Theatre Royal in 1942. The Englishman Tommy Dando, best known for his signature tune Keep Your Sunny Side Up, was the last organist to work at the theatre. His colleague Jimmy Campbell, from Durham, was a popular conductor of the Theatre Royal orchestra for most of its 27 years.

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