“I’ve had one hell of a career,” says David Conway, who has played alongside such stars as Des O’Connor, Morecambe and Wise and the Black and White Minstrels and performed three times at the London Palladium.

Now 75 and still performing, the harmonica virtuoso entertainer proves that the old saying ‘age is just a number’ is no lie.

Born in a nursing home in Coventry, David intended on training to become a draughtsman, but accepted a job at a toy and model railway store whilst waiting to begin his apprenticeship.

Every morning David would listen to his manager playing the harmonica. And one day he was offered an opportunity that would change his life.

“Buy one and I’ll teach you how to play,” the manager told him. He bought his first chromatic harmonica at a cost of a week’s wage of 30 shillings.

And in a short amount of time, he found he had a talent for music and decided to pursue his newly-discovered dream of playing music professionally.

Even so, it wasn’t until 1957, aged 21, that he broke into the industry.

Four years on – after a successful few years performing at the summer season on the BBC’s Children’s Caravan and other locations – unbeknownst to David he was being watched by the wife of a Three Monarchs member, Paddy Yorke, who was searching for a replacement band member.

Eric Yorke later called him and offered him the chance to be in a comedy harmonica trio, not letting on that the trio in question was the Three Monarchs.

But David said ‘no’, stating he could do well enough as a solo act. That November David was rehearsing to join the Combined Forces Entertainment, a seven-week tour allowing him to perform whilst travelling to Africa and the Persian Gulf.

Midway through the session he spotted Eric Yorke watching from the back of the hall and nodded immediately, realising the blunder he’d made during that earlier phone call.

His first summer season performance with the Three Monarchs came shortly after joining the trio, playing alongside Dickie Henderson and the Beverly Sisters in Bournemouth’s Winter Gardens on July 3, 50 years ago this year.

Their trio consisted of David, Eric Yorke and Henry Leslie (who was known under the stage name Cedric).

“The act revolved around Cedric’s squeaky voice; he was very funny,” David recalled.

“It was fast-paced, and there was dancing and trumpets.”

He remained with the group for five-years, before leaving the Three Monarchs, believing that he could make more money as a solo performer.

A year later he met a West End dancer called Pauline and they got married two years later.

The world was their oyster as their husband and wife partnership, united through their love of the stage, they soared to fame.

They toured with unforgettable household names such as Bob Monkhouse, Cliff Richard, Ken Dodd and Tommy Cooper, as well as working on cruise ships.

“David and Pauline Conway proved that Larry Adler and Bob Dylan are not the only people who know how to play the proverbial fist of dynamite,” one review stated.

Having recently decelerated their careers feeling they had “nothing left to prove”, the couple, who have now been married for 43 years, split their time between their homes off the Gulf Coast in Florida and in Christchurch, playing about 60 or so one-off performances a year.

David donates his performance fees to charity.

“They made the effort to come and see me then, so I’m making the effort now,” he said.

Still a keen performer and proud of their achievements, David’s study wall boasts 21 framed posters and box-office tickets from their performances of yesteryear.

“It’s all the wife will allow me to put up,” he admits.