“What is the worst that can happen?” He explains his decisions that led him to leave his native England and make subsequent career choices. “You can’t let fear control your life and keep you from pursuing your dreams.” He doesn’t discount the role of fate in his life, however. Prior to World War Two, his father, Jack, was the drummer in a Southwest England band - the Grey Newbery Band - and became engaged to the singer, Charlotte Goodfellow, but the relationship ended. Charlotte married a GI and Philip’s father married an evacuee from London, a former violinist who had studied at the Royal College of Music and performed at Royal Albert Hall. After the war, the elder Newbery purchased the car hire business that had been his brother-in-law’s, and Philip joined him. The business was based in Axminster, Devon, a popular train station for travelers arriving for tourist locations nearby. Pattie Boyd, the first wife of Beatle George Harrison, often hired Newbery when she visited her mother’s thatched cottage which had been a gift from Harrison and generously sent Newbery an early record of Harrison’s “Something.” “’Something’ was written for Pattie,” Newbery explains, “all music tells a story. You have to listen to the lyrics as well as the melody.” Decades after the war, the two Newberys were summoned to the train station to pick up clients. Philip Newbery was surprised to see his dad hugging a woman . . .it was Charlotte Goodfellow Rhodes, the band singer from Jack’s past, who by then had lived in Williamsburg for decades. She had arrived with her daughters, Charlotte and Vicky. The families would become friends, visiting back and forth across the Atlantic, and Charlotte would later provide a temporary home when Newbery decided to explore the possibility of relocating permanently to Virginia after being laid off from three jobs in a year during the UK’s recession. Vicky, too, would be pivotal in Newbery’s life when one evening she introduced the family’s houseguest to her longtime friend, Brook Levitt. Brook walked through the door of Moody’s Tavern at Kingsmill where Vicky and Newbery were enjoying the resident Smith-Wade Band (still a favorite of Newbery’s - he even worked as a “roadie,” helping with equipment, on band trips up and down the East Coast and to Chicago), and Vicky called her over to meet Newbery. Philip and Brook Newbery will soon celebrate their 18th anniversary. Meeting Brook meant Newbery’s trial move to Williamsburg was definitely going to be permanent. While he waited for his green card, Newbery had to travel to England every six months to renew his visa. Brook knew he would return . . .but she held on to a beloved
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possession of his as insurance! Newbery’s career path, however, had begun in Axminster on September 30, 1967. The BBC didn’t play pop music, so “pirate” stations, moored in international waters in the North Sea, provided the sound of pop with Americanized DJs. When the BBC stopped the pirate stations, it had to give in to the pop music craze and began providing the genre. BBC Radio One awakened young Philip Newbery on that morning in September with the voice of former pirate station DJ Tony Blackburn. The first two songs, Newbery distinctly remembers were “Flowers in the Rain” by The Move and “Massachusetts” by the Bee Gees. “I want to do that, I want to be a DJ,” he recalls thinking. Eventually, he would realize his dream, but first he used his selftaught carpentry skills in partnership with a friend, then as Philip Newbery Contracting. Meanwhile he checked radio stations in the area, seeking a possible position. Five years ago, Gil Grainger offered him the chance to do a tryout in the two to four p.m. time slot, then the permanent job from eight until 10 a.m. Newbery had achieved his dream! Indeed, in 2013, he was chosen Best Morning Show by the Virginia Broadcasting Association, and his show finished second last year. Newbery enjoys the local involvement the show provides: the Tuesday introduction of a Heritage Humane Society pet who is then featured on the station’s website (he likes to follow up and be told the “guest” has been adopted); acting as MC at functions; and interviewing performers such as Peter Noon of Herman’s Hermits when Noon appeared at Busch Gardens, James Torme’, Bonnie Bowen who performed with Brasil 66, Maureen McGovern, Andrea McCardle, and opera singer Jane Monheit. Being invited to be the guest celebrity on a Queen Mary cruises to benefit Wounded Warriors was a great thrill and honor. Boston, Newport, Bar Harbor, Halifax and Quebec City were stops and the captain not only invited the Newberys to join him for dinner but also for a visit to the bridge. He noted that George and Barbara Bush had been the last guests invited to the bridge. Home in Williamsburg - and Newbery now has considered Williamsburg, not Axminster “home” for nearly two decades Newbery plays a combination of 60s and 70s pop, disco, Big Bands, jazz, and iconic performers such as Frank Sinatra. “I get a lot of submissions,” he notes, “but I listen very carefully to the lyrics before I play them. One very nice song got tossed due to an offensive phrase at the end.” Newbery chooses the (good!) music . . .Williamsburg area fans listen.
Retirement Living September 2015