Roy Budd was a brilliant, self-taught jazz pianist, but is probably most familiar to the public as the composer of over 50 film scores, amongst them Get Carter, Fear is the Key and The Stone Killer.

Roy's composition Mr Rose, recorded with the Tony Hatch Orchestra, was released as a single in '67. It will be remembered as the theme from the eponymous Granada TV crime drama series, starring William Mervyn (1967/8). Tony Hatch produced Roy's 1967 album, Pick Yourself Up!!! This is Roy Budd. (Photo from sleeve, top left) In the sleevenotes, Tony writes: "One evening in February 1967 I was casually watching television (The David Frost Show, to be precise) when twenty-year-old Roy Budd made his first noteworthy appearance. One number... was enough to convince me that here was a young man with exceptional technique..."

Mark Roman recalls how Roy used to attend London parties with the guys from Big L, where he would enhance their enjoyment of saucy films by providing musical accompaniment in the style of a silent movie pianist! (Keen listeners will discern a passing similarity between Birth of the Budd and the Big Lil theme.)

Roy formed his own jazz trio with drummer Chris Karan and Peter McGurk on bass (the same musicians who were two-thirds of the Dudley Moore Trio). Peter McGurk's bass was a main feature of Sounds Orchestral's hits. Producer John Schroeder named Tony Reeves as the bass player on Cast Your Fate to the Wind, but Peter McGurk played on the B-side, To Wendy With Love.

Making a number or recordngs, with many of them having never been rereleased, Roy Budd sometimes used the name John Brown Junior.

Chris and I (Mary), with Alan Hardy, were privileged to see the Roy Budd Trio perform one Sunday at the Bull's Head in Barnes. At the interval, I spoke to Roy and asked if he would play On Green Dolphin Street for Chris, which he kindly did.

Sadly, Roy died in August 1993, aged 46. The Official Roy Budd website has the full story of his amazing muiscal talents.