" HELLS BELLS, do I really sound like that ".
Recalling a family Christmas party get together around the mid 1950's.
My youngest brother introduced his latest pride and joy into the parties fun and games. It was an impressive box cased
' reel to reel tape recorder '. I guess he must have been saving his money up for sometime for it because at that time these recorders were fairly new on the market and were pretty expensive.
Anyway, once the party had got underway we ' set up' the recorder in the little Bathroom situated next to the Kitchen.
The invitation then was, for anyone wanting to ' have a go', that they could go into into the bathroom, shut the door, start the recorder and provide a little ' party piece ' without anyone else hearing their performance. I recall that it took a bit of persuasion to get some of the family members to have a go but ( eventually after a few glasses of Ansells ) most of the party began to participate one way or another.
A bit later on the recorder was brought into the living room and we all quiet downed a bit to listen to the results of the individual vocal efforts which included jokes, speeches, a harmonica performance, whistling and of course ' songs '.
It turned out to be great fun and plenty of laughs resulted from it.
The one overriding thing that seemed to emerge from it though was that almost everyone appeared to be totally surprised at the play back sound of their own voice and the Brummie accent that they had developed but hadn't realised how dominant it had become.
Some of the ' performances' were really good and if they were nor, it gave everyone a good old laugh anyway.
I recall the attempt that I made for my recording contribution. A ' Nat King Cole' impression. " Wakling my baby back home ". I really thought that I could sing just like him. Came out absolutely terrible. Took him out of my ' bathroom ' singing repertoire a bit sharpish.
It was all great fun but if you could have put all the individuals comments, about themselves, into one expression it would have been :
" Hells Bells, do I really sound like that "
Photo : The Recorder type.