Post-war fate
Following demobilisation in Italy, Aston moved to London in 1947, and took part in the Polish Parade show heard on the BBC Home Service that year, broadcast from the Granville Theatre. A year later, he emigrated to South Africa, where he sang in Johannesburg in the Polish club and cafe Rozenberga. Just as he had done in the pre-war period, at the same time as he was performing he worked as an agent of a company producing spirits, and later was appointed the director of a paper factory operating in the city.
At the same time, American Billboard magazine was running short articles in 1953 under its International column about Aston’s new releases, describing his ability to ‘handle the Polish lyric capably’ in songs which ‘should do okay with the Polish-speaking people.’ But these songs were actually not new at all –Billboard described them as mere ‘tuneful romantic ditties’, though they were actually re-releases of Aston’s pre-war Syrena hits from the thirties. One such song is the aching Najsłodsze tango (Sweetest Tango) originally from 1936 - a recollection of falling in love whilst dancing to the sound of the vibrant tango which was so ubiquitous in all the dancehalls and nightclubs of pre-war Poland. But now – the narrator explains – the individuals are lost, the movement has perished, and only the echoes of that beguiling tango sound are left. Aston sings:
Minęło tyle dni
Minęło tyle lat
I zaszło tyle zmian
I zmienił wygląd świat
A ja nie zapomniałem
Gdy noc okrywa świat
I księżyc blado lśni
Przy oknie siadam sam
I godzinami śnię
Wsłuchany w piosnkę tę
(It has been so many days
It has been so many years
And so many changes have taken place
And the world has changed
And I have not forgotten
When the night covers the world
And the moon is shining pale.
At the window, I sit by myself
And I sleep for hours, listening to the song.)
In 1959, Aston suffered a heart attack and retired, moving to London permanently in 1960. There, he gave singing recitals and performed in the Polish theatre Polonia, and became a member of ZASP.
In the mid-1960s he visited Warsaw and gave press interviews, as well as recording for Polish Radio, including a copy of the song ‘Piosenka o Warszawie’, written in the 1940s - as the legend goes, by Aston himself. The last lines are:
Potem obraz zanikać zaczyna
Coraz bardziej maleje, szarzeje
Tylko czasem odżywa na nowo
Echem znanych melodii sprzed lat.
(Then the image fades away
It is getting smaller and more grey
Only sometimes does it revive again,
The echo of well-known melodies from years ago.)
Four years later, when Aston had returned to London, it is alleged that he finally reunited with Henryk Wars, before the composer moved to America to continue his career. For Aston, however, the music was fading: he rarely gave concerts after the 1960s and, though his music continued to be released, styles were changing irrevocably. He never lost popularity, but his era had perished around him.
Aston’s haunting interwar Syrena song ‘Only You’ was produced as a cardboard record for TonPress in the 1970s, as cardboard records in Poland were often the cheapest and easiest option for those under Communism to have access to good music. Some of his pre-war works would eventually be released in cassette tape form in the 1990s.
But little is known in general about the thirty-odd years Aston spent in the United Kingdom. Despite a few resurgences of performances, it seems Aston – like many interwar stars – faded gradually into obscurity. By the time he died in 1993, aged 90 – with his wife Lucyna outliving him by nine years - there was no obituary, and no memorial, and even no plaque at Golders Green Crematorium, where his ashes were scattered. All that is left in the exact place where he is laid to rest are a cluster of perishing flowers.
As Aston sung in 1932:
Jesienne róże więdną już.
(Autumn roses are fading now’).