Clive Lythgoe (9 April 1927 – 4 September 2006), was a leading British classical pianist of the 1950s and 1960s, popular in the UK and the United States, where he was considered to be "Britain's answer to Liberace" Early life He was born in Colchester, Essex, on 9 April 1927, the son of a Royal Army Medical Corps sergeant major. He grew up at Wimbledon, where he sang in the church choir, and disappointed his parents by shunning a career in law or accountancy. At seven years of age he was entranced by the piano player in a Carmen Miranda film. Some years later, he won a piano scholarship to the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, which marked the start of his musical career. Towards the end of World War II, he joined the RAF. By the 1950s, he had become a regular fixture on the concert circuit. UK career Lythgoe was a protégé of Myra Hess, for whom he turned pages. His career breakthrough was under Arthur Bliss in 1954, performing the conductor's own Piano Concerto in B-flat at the first of what were to be many performances at the annual Royal Albert Hall Proms. He consolidated his reputation when he performed the premiere of Malcolm Williamson's piano concerto at the 1958 Cheltenham Music Festival. He appeared as a soloist with all the leading British orchestras, under conductors including Sir Colin Davis, Sir John Barbirolli, and Zubin Mehta. In the 1960s, he was the first classical pianist to abandon formal concert attire. The stylish collarless suit which Pierre Cardin designed for him attracted the attention of Brian Epstein, who asked if the Beatles could adopt the same style. He owned a six-bedroom house in Surrey, a hand-built Bristol 405 sports car, but became increasingly depressive. By the early 1970s, Lythgoe was relying heavily on drugs to get him through performances. During World War II, a bomb had landed in his back garden, decapitating the girl next door and ripping off his piano teacher's arm. Decades later, he claimed to still wake up screaming at the memory. US career His 1973 Carnegie Hall debut was critically acclaimed, but Lythgoe spent the two days between the recital and the reviews on Valium. In 1976, five hours of back-to-back recitals in New York almost finished him off, and when Herbert von Karajan offered an engagement playing Brahms' second piano concerto with