I'm not doing bad for a
ninety year old.
I started out as a child. Then when I grew up I became a music publisher. That
was 1931. People were poor. I wasn't but I needed a job to satisfy the terms
laid down by the trustees.
Heady days eh what.
With the outbreak of war, and being non-British but stuck in Hampstead with
Ruskies and Krauts stomping all over the castle grounds, I took a mobile amplifier
and speaker unit around to munitions factories and played gramophones very loud.
At tea break I used to lead sing alongs with my ukulele.
They told me that war was over and that I had to return to Nostalgia. I wasn't
having any of that, I'm not stupid, I know the war is still on.
So since then I've made my way with one sideshow after another, returning whenever
I can to my air-raid shelter in Hampstead. My youthful appearance is achieved by my strict wartime diet of dried eggs, condensed milk and gallons of tea.
The Duke of Nostalgia plays obscure music-hall songs nostalgic songs and jazz tunes written before 1946, a street performer with over 20 years experience his cabaret act has featured in a number of Invisible Circus shows. The Duke plays ukulele with The Hot Potato Syncopators
He has also played with The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain.