Dr Watson

Dr Watson was a duo featuring Phil (violin) and George (acoustic guitar and vocals). They performed around the city of Prague in 1997. Many of their live performances took place halfway across the river Vltava on the famous Charles Bridge where they frequently drew large crowds. They also performed in Scarlett O’Hara’s and St Nicholas’ Bar in Malostranska and Cafe Gulu Gulu in Staromestska, among other places.

Their set featured various Dark Company songs as well as some tunes that later became part of the Flicker set, such as Aeroplane and One Place. They covered a gypsy-style rendition of the standard Black Eyes, a few of George’s songs from other eras and they also played a couple of originals written specially for their set.

There were several groups of musicians on the scene who would only play songs by The Beatles. It was extraordinary how many of the locals and tourists loved the Liverpool four-piece and how ubiquitous their music was, almost 30 years after the band’s demise.

One day as George was walking along a street to Phil’s with guitar in hand, a passer-by stopped and asked him, “Excuse me, but can you play Let It Be by The Beatles?”

“Yes,” replied George, and he carried on walking.

Phil had previously been employed as a teacher at the school where George now worked and his family were living in Dunsford, a small village just outside of Exeter on the edge of Dartmoor. Phil had previously been a violin soloist for the Royal London Philharmonic Orchestra after graduating with an MA in Music.

One of Phil’s two Czech stepsons began taking an interest in music as Dr Watson continued to perform around the city, and he started learning the drums. One of the last performances the band gave was on the Charles Bridge with 10-year-old Daniel whacking his snare drum along to the beat. A tourist left an American dollar in the fiddle case and the band gave this to Daniel, who was thrilled.

Dr Watson started during the Easter break of 1997 and ended when George reluctantly returned to England for mostly family reasons on 1st July 1997.