| Ray, born in Wembley in North
London, is the son-in-law of the famous French chanteur, the late
Boby Lapointe. Over the past quarter century Ray and his wife
Martine (Ticha) have made their home in the Languedoc, in southern
France. Here he has made a name for himself as a singer, jazz
musician, local personality and all-round eccentric. |
| Ray - whose extravagant
moustachios and generally dishevelled appearance have earned him
the description "a cross between Asterix the Gaul and an
unmade bed" - is a former bricklayer, merchant seaman, stuntman,
Twickenham rugby player and Borstal boy. "I've had a colourful
career," he admits cheerfully, "and I'm not ashamed
of any of it, including my tearaway youth." |
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On the musical scene, Ray is known
from the Languedoc to Switzerland. No local fete is complete without
his own special brand of comedy and music which captivates audiences
even as they stuff their ears with cotton wool. |
Although Ray had no formal singing training, he was certainly
judged good enough to sing in the choir at his school - Alperton
Secondary Modern. It gave him enough of a taste for the limelight
to go on and train with The Wembley Dramatic Arts centre.After
leaving school, Ray sang jazz and played percussion with The Grand
Union Canal Skiffle Group. They used to play working men's clubs
- in the interval - and came second in a West London skiffle competition
in the late 1950s. |
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| He did occasional gigs both in
the UK - he played the Moist Hoist in Ealing, an early haunt of
another band, called The Rolling Stones - and in the United States,
but it wasn't until he went to France in the 1970s that his musical
career really took off. After meeting pianist Roland Goddard (who
gave Ray a new name - Ray Trop (which means 'Ray Too Much' and
is also a pun on 'retro') they toured together playing jazz in
such illustrious spots as Papagayo Chez Regine in St Tropez and
Le Duc de Lombard in Paris. |
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Ray is also a leading light of his local Cercle Occitan - a group
which meets regularly to revive and sustain the traditional language
and culture of the Languedoc |
Ray's stunt work ranges from riding to fighting and falling, from
television to film in both the UK and France. |
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He appeared in the Cliff Richard
film 'The Leather Boys' riding a motor bike. This was filmed in
and around the "infamous" Ace Cafe, and on horseback
as a Napoleonic doctor in the French television series 'Lucien
Creveche'. |
| He has been seen
in the film 'Wojeck' and in the 1960s television series 'The Saint',
where he once fell out of a window as stunt double for Roger Moore. |
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Ray and his band Ray Trop (a French pun on the word rétro)
can be heard regularly singing in the streets and in the salles
de fetes of local towns and villages.
He is also a regular featured guest singer
with the band Hot Strings, with whom he has released the CD 'I
Saw Stars' (produced by Jazzology of New Orleans). They have toured
Switzerland together every year for the past ten years. |
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The idea of setting out on a solo horseback trek is a long-held
dream for Ray. He has been riding since childhood: "My sister
and I used to go out to Denham and take lessons from a Mr. Bounds,"
he recalls. |
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The idea of a ride in aid of autism came to
him in Paris when he met Buffo the clown - otherwise known as
Howard Buten - who was giving a performance for this cause. Howard
Buten, pictured left, a clinical psychologist, is the founding
clinical director of an institution in France. |
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Ray Everitt, le troubadour,
et son cheval blanc Black partent en croisade au bénéfice
des autistes |
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