I N T ERV I EW
MY FIRST LONDON HOME
JULIAN LLOYD WEBBER The musician talks to Jane Slade about his ‘bohemian’ childhood and why he can’t stand music in restaurants pianist John Lill came – he was like a second brother to me. We were very free as children – too much in a way. My wife [cellist Jiaxin Cheng, pictured below] and I don’t let our 10-year-old daughter cross the road to go to school on her own. When I was nine I visited every station on the Underground. It was something I wanted to do. I was badly abused on one journey. It was a horrible experience. But I have always loved the underground. I was the first busker in 2001. In 1973 we moved because Harrington Court was being redeveloped into luxury flats. We were sitting tenants. My parents weren’t wealthy. My mother would totter around the streets on her bike with her basket full of music going to pupils’ houses to give piano lessons.
My earliest memories are of Harrington Court in Harrington Road in South Kensington. My parents had two flats links together via a balcony. My grandmother lived in the smaller one and we had the larger. My bedroom doubled as the family sitting room. My bed came down from the wall. The room was just over the taxi rank. It was so noisy I couldn’t sleep. I always kept my cello in the room where I was sleeping. I didn’t want it out of my sight. It was a big flat but there was a lot of people in it. First it was my
24 The London Magazine
mother and father and my older brother Andrew then later on other people came to stay. It was a very bohemian. My mother would teach pupils there.
We moved to two flats in a block in Old Brompton Road and I still live in one of them. I took over the rent at aged 21 when I started playing professionally. I was practising six hours a day and a lady below started complaining.
In the Sixties Tim Rice moved in during his collaboration with Andrew and then the concert
In the Seventies and Eighties London was the classical music capital of the world and the best
place for a young musician to be. I could walk to the Royal College of Music and the Royal Albert Hall where I loved playing. I saw my name in a book published recently about the RAH for its 150th anniversary – and saw that I had played 42 solo concerts there. Now I have been able to enjoy London differently. I’ve discovered a lovely family-owned Italian restaurant called Frantoio down the World’s End of King’s Road. Best of all it has no music. I can’t stand music in restaurants. I enjoy Tate Modern. My favourite painter is Kandinsky – who I recently discovered was a cellist. He related colours to sound. I find it difficult going to concerts. It’s what I did for so long and I miss that audience contact. But I have taken my daughter Jasmine to see my brother’s musical Cinderella. Even though I don’t play the cello any more [Lloyd Webber retired as a cellist in 2014 due to a herniated disc in his neck which reduced the power in his bowing arm] I want to stay involved with music education. When I was at the Royal College most of the students came from state schools. I was in a small minority. That has changed which is really sad. Music teaches so much. It should not be seen as a privilege. L Julian Lloyd Webber – The Singing Strad (A 70th birthday collection) CD Box Set is out now
