Meet Michael and Pam Frye.
Michael and Pam met when they were teenagers in 1966 while both performing in the same orchestra in Liverpool. When Michael's musical career took him to Scotland Pam followed and started work as a proof-reader in a large publishing house. They married in 1969 when Michael was invited to join the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London and by 1972 he was being pursued by André Previn to accept the role of principal percussionist in the London Symphony Orchestra where he had the honour to meet Stravinsky and perform with Bernstein, Karajan, Levine, Mehta, Solti and the now famous John Williams, to mention but a few. Concertos were written for him and he took Master Classes around the world. Michael became Commercial Director of the LSO and was instrumental in the Shell/LSO Young Musicians competition that has produced many of today's star players.
He enjoyed a parallel career in commercial music which involved performing on over 100 albums, singles and soundtracks, receiving gold discs and awards culminating in co-writing the world-wide hit single Family Man for Daryl Hall and John Oates. Michael's discography includes Sir Paul McCartney, Sir Elton John, The Who, Kate Bush, Barbra Streisand, Frank Zappa and many, many more.
In his capacity as performer/director he helped negotiate many famous series of film recordings and was at the embryonic stages of Steven Speilberg's Star Wars trilogy, Superman, Indiana Jones, Aliens and others. He toured extensively with the LSO and performed in every major concert hall, in every major city in the world.
It was while travelling the world and experiencing other cultures that Michael became more and more aware of the wonderful history and culture that his own country had to offer and decided to make a major change in his life in order to explore his new interest and spend more time with his family.
They made a fantastic team: Michael with his great ideas and Pam putting them on paper and turning them into a reality and so in 1989 British Heritage Chauffeur Tours was born. (BHCT)
They wanted to make sure that the service BHCT offered was second to none and that the places visited really reflected British History and Culture. In the beginning it was Michael who drove the clients while Pam did all the administration. But it wasn't long before their reputation grew and they realised they would have to enlist the help of other driver guides to cope with the demand.
BHCT has gone from strength to strength over the last ten years and now, after more than thirty years in charge of the business, Pam and Michael are sharing the increased administration with John Calthorpe. (Go to the meet the team tab)
