Trivia

Pianist, violinist and singer

In 1937, she began working regularly with bandleader Jack Payne, appearing together at the 1938 Royal Variety Performance. Though both were married, they established a close personal as well as professional relationship.[.

In the later 1920s and early 1930s, she featured regularly on BBC radio, and in cabaret with William Walker and Patrick Waddington, as That Certain Trio (and with Waddington as That Certain Pair after Walker left the act).

Once asked why she gave up classical music and moved into other areas, she said: "More money was to be had (and less hard work) playing and singing popular music".

After Payne's death, Cochrane published an autobiography, We Said it with Music - the Story of Peggy Cochrane and Jack Payne, in 1979.

She made her first broadcasts on BBC radio in 1924, in violin recitals.

She played both violin and piano, and broadcast and performed successfully from the 1920s to the 1950s.

In 1933, she gave her first performances on television, and the following year started a regular radio slot, "A Tune A Minute", in which she would play 15 tunes in 15 minutes.

She won a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music aged eight and won open competitions on both violin and piano on the same day, aged 14.

She composed and performed short pieces for children, and was able to move from playing a classical violin concerto in concert during the day, to performing on piano in hotel cabarets in the evening, occasionally with cellist Gwen Farrar.