A note or two on who played the humble kazoo

Peter Mortimer

- BEYOND PLANET CORONA

WHAT has happened to the kazoo? This may not be a question you often ask.

The kazoo (a strange word when you think about it) is also known as 'the eunuch flute' and is a kind of musical instrument for people who have no idea how to play a musical instrument.

Not that you really 'play' the kazoo; there are no notes or chords or skill involved; you hum into it (anyone can hum) and this humming vibrates a membrane that amplifies the humming sound.

Thus anyone can 'play' a kazoo and its status in the world of musical instruments is zero.

There is no concerto written for a kazoo and you will never see one on the stage of a 'proper' orchestra, nor hardly ever in the ranks of a rock band.

It is also probably the only musical instrument you can buy for little more than a quid and is at the other end of the price scale to say, a Stradivarius violin.

A kazoo is usually plastic, or tin.

Why are you babbling on in this manner, you may well ask. Only because this week I watched the late night showing of the 1971 British film Get Carter with Michael Caine as the eponymous Jack Carter travelling up to Tyneside from London to take revenge on whoever killed his brother.