{"id":306,"date":"2013-03-27T12:08:29","date_gmt":"2013-03-27T12:08:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/farnboroughjazz.co.uk\/?page_id=306"},"modified":"2019-07-05T15:22:17","modified_gmt":"2019-07-05T15:22:17","slug":"warwick-leadlay","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/farnboroughjazz.co.uk\/?page_id=306","title":{"rendered":"WARWICK LEADLAY – Jazz Promoter"},"content":{"rendered":"

TRIBUTE<\/strong><\/span> TO WARWICK LEADLAY<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

29th November 1929-16th February 2013<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

What blizzardous weather conditions the morning brought, with the snow being blown sideways by strong winds and feeling bitterly cold. It was 11th March 2013 and Warwick\u2019s funeral was set for 11.00 am. However, despite the weather, the little chapel at Eltham Crematorium was packed solid.\u00a0 I am guessing there was about 300 people who had turned up to give Warwick the wonderful send-off he so deserved.<\/p>\n

His coffin was draped with The White Ensign, with his famous fedora hat sitting proudly on top.\u00a0 There was a huge photo of Warwick. The music playing was that of \u201cTom Bowling\u201d, music written by Charles Dibdin and sung by Robert Tear.\u00a0 Quite a fitting sailors\u2019 epitaph also played at the last night of The Proms and I\u2019m sure chosen by Warwick, as he was such a devotee of commemorating the life and achievements of Admiral Lord Nelson.<\/p>\n

The humanist funeral service was conducted by humanist celebrant, Denis Cobell.\u00a0 Denis had conducted George Webb\u2019s funeral service three years ago, almost to the day, so it was a nice connection. Warwick had become such a big jazz promoter since holding jazz weekend festivals at his lovely Starborough Castle home in Kent.\u00a0 The service card was so beautifully put together with photos showing Warwick through his ages, plus his wife, Julia and children, Isabel, Jerome and Susannah.<\/p>\n

Jerome delivered the first tribute.\u00a0 He was so warm about his father, relating how Warwick was quite strict, but soft, saying he must have been a real hand-full for his parents.\u00a0 He also said they\u2019d had a very happy up-bringing. Warwick\u2019s long term friend Maurice Johnson gave his tribute next.\u00a0 Maurice had been a close friend since their youth and related to the many fun times they had.\u00a0 At this point, the jazz music of Count Basie and The Kansas City 7 gave us time to reflect with the song \u2018Lester Leaps In\u2019. Annie Dolan stepped up with her tribute. Annie had become very close to Warwick over the last 10 years.\u00a0 She gave a marvellously well spoken, well put together speech and she should feel proud of herself.\u00a0 It was Anthony Cross, who completed the tributes.\u00a0 Anthony told us he had started off working for Warwick in 1978, became manager and then became his partner at the Warwick Leadlay Gallery in Nelson Arcade, Greenwich.\u00a0 They worked well together and were obviously great friends. He then told us of The Sultan of Turkey\u2019s award to Admiral Lord Nelson, called a Chelengk (\u2019Plume of Triumph\u2019).\u00a0 Warwick and he would wear a copy to all annual Dinner Do\u2019s\u2019 held in honour of Lord Nelson.\u00a0 Anthony then placed Warwick\u2019s one on his coffin.\u00a0\u00a0 It is always so hard to speak about someone you care for, when you are feeling so emotional, but everyone coped so fantastically and Warwick would have been so proud of such tributes.<\/p>\n

The service ended with the music of Neil Diamond, singing \u2018Beautiful Noise\u2019.\u00a0 A lovely song to complete a lovely service.<\/p>\n

The musical celebrations took place at The Trafalgar Pub, situated next to the River Thames (opposite the Royal Naval College).\u00a0 Some of the people who had been present at the funeral were unable to go to the pub, but many more people joined us at the pub, so I\u2019m guessing that some 400 people in total had managed to say goodbye to Warwick in one way or another.\u00a0 The music at The Trafalgar was presented by, of course, TJ Johnson (piano, drums & vocals), Sky Murphy (trombone), Adrian Cox (clarinet), Jonny Boston (sax & vocals) and Tony Pitt (guitar\/banjo).\u00a0 They are such stars (all of them) it goes without saying they were brilliant.\u00a0 Nick Singer (banjo & vocals) and two others singers had a sit-in too and a pianist friend played during the interval. There was dancing and plenty of applause and again, I have to say Warwick would have been chuffed to bits.\u00a0 His family had supplied plenty of good food and drink to toast Warwick and all in all, such a true jazz send-off.<\/p>\n

Before I close, I would just like to relate some of my own memories with Warwick.\u00a0 I recall Warwick saying to me, out of the blue, he had a chance to buy a castle and what did I think?\u00a0 Not the sort of question one is asked every day.\u00a0 I said to him that with a name like his, he had to buy it!<\/p>\n

Another recollection was at the first jazz festival at his Starborough Castle (yes he did buy it).\u00a0 Phil Mason, his wife Hanna, Martin Bennett and his wife Sue, were all staying at the castle (Sue & Martin actually sleeping in the narrow boat on the moat).\u00a0 When the festival had finished, Keith and I took them all to the local pub (crammed into my little car).\u00a0 When we returned, the gate was locked, so they all had to climb over the rather large fence to get in (both girls being small!), such a funny sight with everyone so much the worse for drink.\u00a0 The next morning, I told Warwick all about it, to which he told me, the gate had not been locked at all, we just needed to press the button!<\/p>\n

My last recollection I would like to share with you, is when Keith and I visited him one cold winter\u2019s morning.\u00a0 Keith had painted a picture of the castle.\u00a0 Warwick said he was about to feed the swans and to come and see.\u00a0 The moat was covered over with ice. Warwick threw some bread over to them and one swan tried to walk on the ice, but with much difficulty.\u00a0 His body\u2019s undercarriage was low over the ice, with his neck stretched out in front of him, his feet sliding all over the place.\u00a0 At this point, another swan walked over with no trouble at all (upright), picked up the piece of bread and waltzed off with it.\u00a0 The first swan was so obviously livid, grabbed hold of the tail of the other and would not let go.\u00a0 You have never seen anything so funny as the swan frantically trying to get away (Keith presented another painting of this scene).<\/p>\n

Warwick was a larger than life character.\u00a0 There are a few people who have an aura of sparkle about them, which you can actually feel when they enter a room.\u00a0 Warwick was one of those people, although he never realised it himself.\u00a0 He was a very approachable man, who so loved his jazz and art.\u00a0 Keith and I have so many wonderful memories of him over the 25-30 years we have known him, especially the jazz weekends he held at his Starborough Castle home.\u00a0 When he moved back to Greenwich (due to his failing eyesight), he held many lovely soirees in his home there.\u00a0 He became more involved with the jazz held on Thursday afternoons in The Lord Hood Pub.\u00a0 The jazz world in particular will definitely miss this lovely Yorkshire man, as we will too.\u00a0 Our love goes out to his family.<\/p>\n

Diane and Keith<\/p>\n

Farnborough Jazz Club<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TRIBUTE TO WARWICK LEADLAY 29th November 1929-16th February 2013 What blizzardous weather conditions the morning brought, with the snow being blown sideways by strong winds and feeling bitterly cold. It was 11th March 2013 and Warwick\u2019s funeral was set for 11.00 am. However, despite the weather, the little chapel at Eltham Crematorium was packed solid.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":302,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-306","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/farnboroughjazz.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/306","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/farnboroughjazz.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/farnboroughjazz.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farnboroughjazz.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farnboroughjazz.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=306"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/farnboroughjazz.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/306\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6018,"href":"https:\/\/farnboroughjazz.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/306\/revisions\/6018"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farnboroughjazz.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/farnboroughjazz.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}