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| Jimmy Mesene and Al Bowlly |
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On the right is a brief account of events on the night before the untimely war time death of Al Bowlly in 1941. It has been extracted from a very much longer account by Ray Pallett on the Memory Lane website. Jimmy Mesene and Al Bowlly had formed a singing and guitar playing duo to work the music halls in 1940 at a time when both of their careers seemed stalled. They worked as 'The Radio Stars with Two Guitars' or 'The Anglo-Greek Ambassadors of Song'... Al Bowlly's untimely death may have been the last straw for Jimmy Mesene who would have seen his living disappear and had lost a friend as well as a partner. The week after Bowlly's death Jimmy continued alone with a week in Glasgow, changing his signature tune to "Brother can you spare a dime". This seems to have been phrophetic because the act did not last and Jimmy faded into obscurity. We have traced only one more recording by Jimmy made after Bowlly's death and shortly after he married his second wife and made the decision to quit the UK... 
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Al and his partner of the day Jimmy Mesene were booked for
one week to do "Cine Variety" at the Rex Theatre at High Wycombe starting Monday
14th April 1941. The engagement at the Rex, which was in Oxford
Street, High Wycombe, and which was closed some time after the war, turned out
to be Al’s last theatre date. The Rex Theatre was running Cine-variety that week, and the top-of-the-bill was Al Bowlly and Jimmy Mesene billed as "the Anglo-Greek Ambassadors of Song – Two voices and Guitars in Harmony". John Watsham, manager of the theatre recalled: Little did we guess what the week would have in store for us! After the second house on Wednesday night, 16th April, we were having a little private party in a nearby hostelry – Al, Jimmy, my manager Captain Talbot Bullock, my wife and myself. The night wore on, and it was a good party, Al ..... suddenly told us that he was leaving to catch the last train to London. He was adamant, despite all our efforts to make him change his mind. Little did we realize then that we should never see him again. Geoff Nash who was the projectionist at the Rex Theatre has his own memories of Al Bowlly: I must have been one of the last to talk to Al, which I remember clearly. Most artistes took the advantage of staying in High Wycombe for the week, in which way they could get a reasonable night’s sleep; things were not too hectic here. Al was the exception, as far as my memory allows, deciding to travel back to London on the last train, 10.34pm from High Wycombe station for Marylebone. That allowed just time for the night cap at the ‘Red Lion’, where Jimmy was staying. I well remember the last time talking through the carriage window, waiting until the train pulled out. ‘Cheerio, Al – see you tomorrow’, which for him never came. Jimmy Mesene later told the 'Melody Maker' that before catching the last train from High Wycombe he said to him "If anything happens to me, remember the Greek spirit"... So Bowlly returned to his flat in Dukes Court in the West End at a time when London was being bombed nightly, and fatally decided not to bother to go to the safety of an air raid shelter. Jimmy Mesene telephoned John Watsham at the Rex Theatre to break the news of Al Bowlly’s death. John’s instinct was the cancel the remainder of the show. However, Jimmy persuaded him to open again on the Friday with "A Tribute To Al Bowlly". Bowlly died in the early hours of 17th April 1941 and a tribute did not appear in the "Melody Maker" until the 25th which announced that his funeral would be on Saturday 26th at Westminster City Council Cemetery, Uxbridge Road, Hanwell. No special memorial for Bowlly exists, there was just one tombstone for the communal grave erected on what was then a barren piece of land. Although Jimmy Mesene had intended to erect a memorial he could not do it because he was unrelated to Bowlly and could not get the necessary permission. |