Harmonica star who played on the Last of the Summer Wine theme tune and Groovin' With Mr Bloe dies aged 91

A self-taught musician who played harmonica on hit records and the theme tune to Last of the Summer Wine has died after a musical career spanning seven decades.

Harry Pitch, who lived in the Riverside area, first took up the harmonica when he was 14 and living in London with his family.

He taught himself to play, before picking up the trumpet as an evacuee in Peterborough during the Second World War. Once back in the capital, he joined the brass sections of bands.

His wife, Ruby, says that in the war years there was a shortage of harmonicas, because the best ones were German made.

She bought him one in 1947, and he began playing again, earning work on adverts for the likes of Oxo and Milky Bar.

He appeared on Frank Ifield’s ‘I remember you’, Petula Clark’s ‘Sailor’, and Val Doonican’s ‘Walk Tall’. He also played harmonica on ‘Groovin’ With Mr Bloe’, which reached number two on the charts in 1970.

He played the theme for a cowboy character on ‘Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines’, and had a cameo in EastEnders, playing a busker.

Perhaps Harry’s most memorable work was playing the theme for the Last of the Summer Wine.

His son Ian says the music director, Ronnie Hazlehurst, wanted someone who could sight read ‘tricky’ cues in a single recording session. Harry was his man, and he worked with the series for 30 years.

Harry and Ruby moved to Maidenhead in the 1970s, settling in the Riverside area, which enabled them to be near their boat.

Ruby said music was her husband’s ‘life’.

She said: “I always say to him it was a gift, because he never had any music lessons in his life. It’s a gift that he had, he didn’t know where it came from. It’s amazing, really.”

Harry died on Wednesday, July 15, aged 91.

He is survived by Ruby, their son Ian, daughter Gill, five grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.