The Xtra Diary - Music industry mourns session drummer Chris Dagley - 38 year old killed in motorcycle accident

Published: 30 July, 2010

THE shocking death of Ronnie Scott’s drummer Chris Dagley in a motorcycle crash has robbed British jazz of one of its most respected and best-liked performers.

Chris died following a collision on the A40 near White City on Tuesday night as he rode home from a gig. He was 38 years old.

Exceptional, propulsive – a prodigy since the age of 12 – he rose to fame with the National Youth Jazz Orchestra and went on to work with some of the greatest musicians ever to play in this country.

Not just jazz stars – Benny Golson, Randy Brecker, Jim Mullen, Don Weller – but also the BBC Big Band and big pop stars including Liza Minnelli, Bette Midler, Lionel Ritchie, Gary Barlow, Westlife, Take That, Will Young, Jamiroquai and The Osmonds.

Add to that Ella Fitzgerald, Eric Clapton, Van Morrison and you get the picture of the loss being felt in the music industry this week.

Simon Cooke, managing director of Ronnie Scott’s, told Diary: “Chris was a great guy, part of the heart and soul of the club. His contribution and dedication to the continuing musical legacy of Ronnie Scott’s was hugely significant.

“He was very popular with both the staff and the audiences and his passing is a massive loss to us all.

“He will be greatly missed by both those who knew him and the legions of musicians whom he inspired through his music.

“Our deepest condolences go out to his family at this time.”

Chris lived in Ruislip, Middlesex, and leaves a widow and three young children.

Meet the new Whitehall Tsar who listens (for £66k a year)

NO one likes to feel the world is against them and their voice is not being heard.

But have top bosses at Westminster Council developed an inferiority complex? Or were the Samaritans engaged?

There seems no coherent explanation for the latest highly paid appointment at City Hall – the “Whitehall Tsar”.

Council leader Colin Barrow told Diary the post was set up to ensure Westminster’s “voice is heard” in parliament, on matters ranging from the Olympics to housing benefit.

Is this not the job of an MP?

The new “head of government relations” is Giles Roca, former head of Essex communications department.

Mr Roca will be exerting his considerable influence over Whitehall civil servants and lobbying government ministers on behalf of Westminster City Council.

He is costing Westminster taxpayers £5,500 a month – or £66,000 a year – making him higher paid than Conservative MP Mark Field and Labour’s Karen Buck.

Perhaps Westminster feel that Ms Buck, now in opposition, and Mr Field – sat firmly on the backbenches – do not hold enough sway for such a prestigious local authority.

Paradoxically, council leader Colin Barrow said funding for the man tasked with making the council’s voice heard would be met by swingeing cuts to the communications department – the traditional means of expressing council PR.

“This is not a new permanent post and we will review the role after three months,” he added. With the council spending £4.2million a year on “communications”, reviewing posts such as the “Whitehall Tsar” seems like a good place to start.

La Bohème: ‘Up Close’, and definitely not elitist

Memo to hacks: don’t describe Opera Up Close’s earthy interpretation of Puccini’s opera La Bohème – now playing at the Soho Theatre – as “unusual”.

True, it’s multi-extended, sell-out run at a small above-a-pub theatre surprised a few people, as well as helping the theatre in question, Kilburn’s Cock Tavern, scoop a much-coveted award.

But director Robin Norton-Hale told Diary that her production’s appeal to the masses was what opera is all about.

“The media is responsible for perpetuating this view that opera is just for a particular kind of person,” she said.

“‘Opera is usually very elitist but...’ – I must have read that sentence 20 times so it can’t always be that elitist.”

Ms Norton-Hale insists the production has not “gone upmarket” despite its relocation to Soho.

“Actually in Soho you’ve got extreme deprivation as well as posh media offices,” she said.

“All over London you’ve got posh areas next to council estates, refugees who’ve just arrived and who’ve got nothing next to someone who earns £20,000 a year.

“Our production is about people now, and there were people who hadn’t been to the opera before who realised it could be about people like them. A lot of people have said it is the most truthful La Bohème they have ever seen.”

• La Bohème is at the Soho Theatre, 21 Dean Street, W1 until September 4. To book call 020 7478 0100.