Private passions: I am the music man

Ewan Murray is best known as the long-standing public relations manager for UK merchant The Wine Society. Outside office hours his pursuits are less alcoholic, helping hundreds of youngsters step onto the stage in an array of musical performances as UK technical advisor of the Scouting Association. For the past three decades Murray has been working to ensure the production of some of Scouting’s biggest musical shows up and down the country, as well as those of his own district – Harpenden and Wheathampstead in Hertfordshire – as musical director of Harpenden Gang Show. While the Harpenden Gang Show is his home, he is also the Scout Association’s technical advisor for staged performances for the entire organisation, on hand to advise the country’s 115 Scout-led Gang Shows about stage direction and production. Taking his musical endeavours further Murray is also, as many in the trade will know, a key member of Chapter Eight – a function band in which Murray sings and strikes the keys – and are regulars on the UK drinks trade event circuit, weddings and award shows. Here, he recalls his early days as a Cub Scout, conducting a choir before the Queen, and why the DYB DYB DOB days are long gone.

Ewan as a young Cub scout

What first brought you into the world of Scouting?

I joined the Cub Scouts aged eight, although I attempted to do so two years previously, such was my eagerness to be a Scout (there was no such thing as Beaver Scouts in those days). The leader allowed me to come for three weeks and then bade me a fond farewell and told me to come back in two years’ time, which I duly did.

What are your earliest memories of Scouting?

I remember my first Cub Camp, five miles away from home – it was great fun, and we didn’t sleep a wink! I also remember the first time I trod the boards at the Harpenden Gang Show, aged 10. The buzz you get from performing and then receiving applause just can’t be beaten.

Tell us a little more about your role as musical director of the Harpenden Gang Show, which is run by the Harpenden and Wheathampstead District Scouts.

I performed in this show for 11 years, became a Venture Scout Leader and helped with the show. I became musical director in 1989, and then became the show’s producer in 1994. It takes up a lot of my spare time (Six months of preparation and four months of rehearsal every year) but is so worthwhile.

Ever felt like you might have discovered a star in the making?

Several of the Harpenden Gang members have gone on to stage / dance school. Quite a few now work backstage in professional theatres. Our most illustrious alumnus to date is probably the actor Peter Sullivan (very often playing a policeman – Backup, The Bill, Cuffs and most recently Silent Witness – and he also played the cardinal in the TV Series The Borgias). Elsewhere Paul Cattermole (S Club 7) was in the St Albans Gang Show, and Lucie Jones (X Factor, Eurovision 2017) was in the Cardiff Gang Show.

What has been your most memorable production to date and why?

In 2007 the Scouts celebrated their centenary. One of the events was a national show with a cast of 2,500 Scouts that took place at The O2. I was deputy producer of the show, as well as choreographing the opening sequence and playing keyboards in the orchestra. Preparations took a year, and we played to two audiences totalling over 30,000 people. Have never been involved with something that big, and unlikely to be again! Following the show, I became The Scout Association’s national adviser for staged performances – a role I still hold.

Biggest stage-based disaster?

I guess the most embarrassing was when, as a teenager in front of a packed house of 400 people, my kilt fell off while performing a Highland Fling. The most exciting was in my very first Gang Show when the sound effects team rigged up a ‘small’ stage mortar to simulate a cannon firing. They trialled it at the dress rehearsal. After the dust had settled, we Cubs could peer down through the hole in the stage floor into the dressing room below!

Best prank played?

Not Gang Show-based, but my favourite was when singing Handel’s ‘Messiah’ in a choir. A friend and I deliberately took a deep breath four bars before we normally came in, as if ready to sing loudly. The singer between us panicked and started singing lustily. Needless to say the conductor was not a happy bunny.

What is your favourite musical of all time?

So many that I could call my favourite, but for sheer vibrancy, bounce and feel-good factor, it has to be ‘Five Guys Named Moe’.

I hear you are also in a band. What is it called and what do you play?

I’m in Chapter Eight, a function band that’s been going since 1978 and that I’ve been in since 1986. We have played at the Catey Awards, at The Benevolent Ball and at weddings of the rich and famous (well, a couple of wine trade friends, anyway!). I play keyboard and I sing too. I was also one of the vocalists at the first (and penultimate) Skin Côntact gig.

Do you ever attend Scout, or even stage, camp?

I haven’t camped in years, but as Venture Scout Leaders in the 80s and 90s Claire (my wife) and I took groups of up to 100 teenagers to Ireland, Switzerland, France, Austria and Italy, but these days I leave that side of things to folk younger than me.

Ewan with action man, and Chief Scout, Bear Grylls

What’s the food and wine offer like on such an excursions?

The food was always good and wholesome. Sadly, travelling with under-18s, the wine was limited. I did once host a wine-tasting (with the parents’ sign-up) for 15- to 17-year-olds, naively expecting them to spit!

What has been your biggest camp-based disaster?

In the early 1980s around 120 Venture Scouts went to Orsières, near Verbier, on their summer expedition. During the fortnight 80% of them went down with gastro-enteritis. The dormitories were like a war zone!

What would be the biggest surprise about the world of Scouting to those on the outside?

How modern, dynamic and relevant to today’s world it is. The worn-out ‘DYB DYB DYB’ shorts-and-hat-wearing stereotypes are simply not valid anymore – otherwise there wouldn’t be thousands of young people on the waiting list to join. Scouting gives chances to young people that normal family and school life cannot give. They try their hand at new things, building their self-confidence, learning new skills, helping others and growing into adults who can play a constructive role in society.

And finally, what has been your most memorable moment of Scouting over the past 30 years?

So many to choose from! Can I have three? 1. Bear Grylls dropping in on a Gang Show rehearsal; 2. Conducting a Scout choir singing for The Queen; 3. The messages I regularly get from parents telling me how their children have grown in self-confidence due to Gang Show.

Harpenden Gang Show in action – Back stage 13th January 2016