My Other Family: The London Philharmonic Orchestra

Laurie Watt is a lawyer and an amateur French horn player. He is a product of a highly musical family. His mother was an alumna of the Royal Academy, and his father took up the bagpipes in self-defense, which he practised at the local school for the deaf in Basingstoke. So, music, mainly, but not all, the classical kind, has kept Laurie more or less sane for all his life so far. In the 1970's, he was fortunate to be around and available when asked, to defending a simple unfair dismissal claim on behalf of the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Well, not that simple, as the principles established in that case and one that followed rippled through the years for the benefit of a large body of freelance orchestral players throughout the United Kingdom. In the process, Laurie became close to the LPO and became a mentor for many things. He was travelling a lot for his work and so was able to sow the seeds and set up tours in Australia and South Africa with the LPO and also happened to be around and closely involved when other momentous, even scandalous, issues arose. Laurie came to know many of the orchestral players and conductors who worked with the LPO and he writes about them and some of his musical experiences with the Orchestra.