Desmond Lane

Known as 'The Penny Whistle Man' His mother bought him his first whistle when he was 3 and he soon found that he could play any tune on it and discovered that it was a stepping stone to woodwind instruments because of the similar fingering. He took up the tenor saxaphone at 18 and 3 weeks later landed his first professional job, While playing jazz during the war he was posted to the British Forces Network as a radio entertainer. After being demobbed he took up the clarinet and played country and western music. On a tv talent show he discovered that a well played penny whistle appealed to the public and never looked back continuing with the whistle he'd bought for 2 and 9 (about 29 pence) in 1947,