Boogie woogie pianist’s radio slot (From Evesham Journal)

Boogie woogie pianist’s radio slot

8:00am Saturday 27th October 2012 in Evesham By Sarah Taylor

HER honky-tonk music has been the soundtrack to many a night out in the Vale.

And since her big break on Opportunity Knocks in 1989, she has been praised for her talented tinkling of the ivories by names such as Bob Monkhouse and Simon Cowell.

Now the music and musings of Eunice Rhymes from Honeybourne can be heard on BBC Coventry and Warwickshire as she has her own weekly slot at about 3.40pm on a Monday.

The Vic Minett Show offered Mrs Rhymes the slot after they met when casting her as the ghost of well known boogie woogie pianist Mrs Mills.

“The producer rang me and they wanted my music and for me to be Mrs Mills’ ghost,” she said. “I said I have been some things but not somebody’s ghost. Then they asked if I would do a question time.”

Mrs Rhymes’ career began many years earlier and spans 60 years. “It all started on Opportunity Knocks,” she said. “I had been playing all my life but that is when time changed for me.”

In 1992 disaster struck for Mrs Rhymes when she had a fall and broke her shoulder.

“I couldn’t move my left hand, which I use for playing my boogie woogie music,” she said. “But I kept one competition to aim for and propped my hand on a stack of books and played.

“My daughters Enid and Elaine told me, you won’t be able to do it. I had to carry on. Even when my husband died in 1977 I carried on.”

During her long career Mrs Rhymes has released one album, which she entitled Magic Fingers, after Bob Monkhouse.

“After I played he said to me ‘Eunice, you have magic fingers’,” remembers Mrs Rhymes. “I auditioned for Britain’s Got Talent. Simon Cowell said I was a very fiesty lady and a very accomplished pianist but they were looking for a singer. I am very proud of what I have done