As it was meant to be heard...

Tomorrow James Last gives his final performance at the Albert Hall.

It's going to be almost impossible to refer to his final performance without using a terrible or brilliant pun on the word Last but I'm going to try.

But why should I?

I didn't like his music.

A lot of people hated him. 

He was a clown.

His were the albums that were always mixed up with the other albums. 

Either side of top of the Pops 1979 and 1975, you might easily find half a dozen James Last albums.

And he didn't even play. He was a conductor. Prancing around like a flocking moron in sequins

And prolific isn't the word.

He was producing around two albums every month. MONTH

He probably deserved much of the criticism he got.

But it is gently interesting to look on the penultimate day of his career in the news and see an audience of happy people. Selected by the edit of course, but you don't play the Albert Hall if you are only going to fill the front row.

Can there in history ever have been someone in the world of entertainment that delivered something so purely crassly commercial?

Usually I like commercial. It is honest and I'm cheap. Low rent. And I certainly don't begrudge it in others.

But the thing that occurs to me, is that he has left no harm. (Joking aside, no serious harm). So his column of negatives is so slight, that his positives shine.

We should all go through life with the aim of cashing out at a similar level.

(Of course cashing out is what has been accused of... but again, you find me in forgiving mood).

He made people happy. There's simply nothing wrong with that. But it is a little more than that.

Becauss there's nothing wrong with it. And everything right with it. It's a double word score.

There's nothing wrong with giving the people what they want (generally)

There's nothing wrong with Bread and Circuses as long as it doesn't do any harm.

The Romans of course had a few nasty habits. And not the modern nasty habits that they've developed like stiffing you on the amount of pepperoni. No, the old ones where they fed you to the big cats.

So James Lasts's concept was what? Can we call it Classical Pops and all agree not to throw up? 

His concept got poshed up of course.

John Williams playing Toccata .....yes that one, the one in D minor by Bach...Jese.... How many toccatas do you know...are you messing with me? .... his Toccata made it to number one. For quite a period of time I seem to remember. 

We all loved it. All of us. Without exception.  

The people who love what he did love him. Love what he did. Love what he tortured his orchestra with (ahh, maybe he did a bit of harm there.. musicians are not the most stable of people are they?)

It didn't bother the rest of us that he was doing it.

If you'd told me he died 30 years ago I wouldn't have been shocked. He hasn't been on my radar since I discovered Eurovision.

Life is a tally. Because of what he chose, his tally appears well stacked.

He is having the Last laugh after all.

Oh bugger!