LONG before a grumpy but very wealthy businessman cornered the ‘Sir Alan’ market through The Apprentice TV programme, another ‘Sir Alan’ had become something of a legend in Worcestershire.

Alan Buckley has been known to wear a set of drums on his head – but sadly is not a real ‘sir’ at all.

He was knighted long ago by some Germans who couldn’t get their tongues around the word Alan and on the basis that if you dig into any Englishman’s past you’ll find a link to nobility. Which is not necessarily true.

“There is no word in the German language that corresponds to Alan,”

he said. “French, yes, but German, no. So they found it easier to put a ‘Sir’ in front and it’s stuck.”

‘Sir’ Alan was in Germany at the time playing drums in a jazz band and it’s his passion for the music and his ability to enthuse others which has made his name in Middle England.

He has organised more than 45 major jazz festivals, including 27 at Upton-upon-Severn and eight in Malvern and is currently preparing for his second in the Herefordshire market town of Bromyard, called, with a touch of typical flamboyance, Bromyard Carnival of Jazz 2012.

If that sounds a bit like Rio then there will be burlesque girls, but the Falcon Hotel is not Copacabana Beach and the crowd will run into the hundreds rather than the thousands.

“I want to keep Bromyard small at present,” said the organiser. “I’d rather have 500 people packed into venue with a great atmosphere than spread about. If you try too much too soon, it often doesn’t work.”

At Upton, more than 5,000 music fans descend for the weekend festival and the eccentric ‘Sir’ Alan is a familiar sight among the crowds, a gangly figure, 74 years old now, but still with long silver hair and often wearing an unusual line in headgear.

“I’ve always had long hair,” he said. “When I did my National Service they cut it and found my school cap underneath.”

It’s a good joke, but not entirely true, because while he may give the outward appearance of being away with the fairies, Alan Buckley is anything but.

For a good part of his middle life, he was a successful businessman with neat hair and an organising mind. He knows what makes things tick and how organisations run. That’s why his festivals have invariably been successful.

For 20 years, his parents ran the post office and garage at Beckford, south of Evesham, and Alan inherited his flair for business from his mother. His father, who was a very good jazz piano player, supplied the musical gene. Buckley senior wanted his son to follow suit on the keyboards and lessons started at the age of six.

However, Buckley junior had his heart set on playing drums and eventually dad gave in.

The result has been a musical career spread over several continents and even more decades and has led to Alan Buckley amassing probably the best drum collection in the world.

It comprises the major part of the Classic Drum Museum and includes 110 full drum kits and more than 300 snare drums, plus catalogues and books.

He began his jazz festival organising in Worcestershire when he returned to England in the mid- 1980s after eight years playing with jazz bands in Germany.

“I wanted to put on a continentalstyle jazz festival over here,” he said. “Not big names, but a lot of good, lesser-known bands.”

At the time his parents were living in a bungalow at Welland, near Malvern. Wandering around the nearby riverside town of Uptonupon- Severn, Alan found his location. “Upton was ideal,” he said. “It had a great setting by the river and there were lots of little pubs and other places. It was also a bit of a ghost town and needed something happening.”

Finance was a problem though.

‘He couldn’t get any. “No one would help us,” he said.

“The only person who did was Mike Cresswell, who was tourist information officer with the Heart of England Tourist Board in Malvern. They couldn’t give us money, but helped with postage and things like that.”

It is no coincidence the same Mike Cresswell is now town clerk of Bromyard, where the newest Buckley festival is digging in and raising the area’s profile.

“He asked if I could help organise something and I was glad to give it a go,” said the jazzman.

Bromyard Carnival of Jazz will take place from Friday to Sunday, August 17 to 19, and will see a wide variety of bands playing a broad spectrum of music.

There will be a New Orleans-style marching parade through the town on the Saturday and a church service on the Sunday. For more details, call 01885 483034.

Alan will be there with his own band – ‘Sir’ Alan’s Hot Groovers – who aim to sizzle in the summer sunshine and lay down a beat as sweet as sugar. See opening paragraph for link.