Johnny Morris & David Haslam – Signed Northern Sinfonia Concert Programme (Leeds Town Hall, 9 February 1980) Complete 4‑page A4 stiff‑paper programme – dual signatures – manuscript “1980” at foot

Original Northern Sinfonia concert programme for the Leeds Town Hall performance on Saturday 9 February 1980, printed in A4 format on stiff paper / thin card stock. This is the complete 4‑page programme, not a flyer or handout.

The front cover carries two clear ink signatures:

• Johnny Morris – BBC presenter, narrator, and long‑running children’s television figure
• David Haslam – Assistant Conductor and Programme Consultant of the Northern Sinfonia

At the foot of the cover, the year “1980” is written in manuscript, confirming contemporaneous dating.

Inside pages include:

• Biographical notes on Johnny Morris and George MacDonald
• Full personnel list for the Northern Sinfonia
• Detailed programme notes for Rossini (Italian Girl in Algiers), Ibert (Concertino for Alto Saxophone), Dvořák (Suite Op.39 – “The Czech”), and Malcolm Arnold (Sinfonietta No.1)

The final page features the original Morris/Haslam item “Juanita the Spanish Lobster”, explicitly noted as “to be introduced by Johnny Morris”. This confirms Morris’s active performance role, delivering one of his trademark humorous animal‑character narratives with orchestral accompaniment — a format he used only rarely in concert halls.

A scarce dual‑signed example of a Northern Sinfonia programme, especially desirable for collectors of Johnny Morris, Leeds Town Hall ephemera, regional orchestral history, and 1980s British light‑music performance.

Provenance: 

From a single owner collection of 3,000+ items. A chaotic uncatalogued miscellany of items from 17th to 20th Century. 

Containing, amongst many other things: ALSs (Autograph Letters Signed); Signed Photos, Posters, Ephemera, Album pages; Clipped Signatures; Signed Free Fronts; Misc Manuscript Items; etc, etc.  

Ernest John Morris (Jun 1916 – May 1999) was a British television presenter and actor. He was known for his children’s programmes for the BBC on the topic of zoology, most notably Animal Magic, and for narrating the Tales of the Riverbank series of stories.

David Haslam (b 1940) is the Artistic Director and Conductor of the English Philharmonic Orchestra