Peter Gammond

He won a scholarship to Manchester College of Art, having at the time an ambition to be a cartoonist,[3] but at the age of 18 in 1943 was called up and served in the Royal Armoured Corps as a tank driver mainly in the Far East and India, ending with the 25th Dragoons, which was involved in the Hindu-Muslim conflict prior to Indian independence in 1947.

During his time at Oxford, he composed and produced an operetta, Love and Learning,[4] and played trombone in a university jazz band led by John Postgate.

So influential was his contribution in this area that The Times dedicated a leading article to Gammond on his death, celebrating the way in which 'the pioneer of talking off the top of your head enriched the national conversation'.

[6] As editor of Audio Record Review, Gammond instigated the annual 'Audio Awards', later the Hi-Fi News & Record Review Audio Awards', for 'services to the gramophone', which were the first of their kind for many years; recipients included Sir Neville Marriner,[7] Sir Peter Pears, Dame Joan Sutherland, and Dame Janet Baker.

From his early days, but in particular during his time with Decca, Audio Record Review and Hi-Fi News, as well as in connexion with adjudicating the Grand Prix du Disque, Gammond encountered many of the most prominent musicians of the post-war decades.

Sir Yehudi Menuhin provided the preface to Gammond's The Meaning and Magic of Music,[13] and he counted among his friends Daniel Barenboim and Jacqueline du Pré.

He was a long-standing and frequent contributor to The Friends of Torbay's annual 'Torbay Musical Weekend' at the Palace Hotel, Torquay since its inauguration in 1970 until 2007; he was appointed its vice-president in 2009 and served as president from 2014.

[15] Taking place in the environs of Shepperton, Sunbury-on-Thames, Walton-on-Thames, Chertsey, Weybridge, and Woking, the meetings explore the musical repertoire through recordings and live performances.