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Memories of a Birmingham Musician (Drummer)!

Totally agree, Smudger. Everything being bought up by oil rich Sheiks, Russian obligarchs, and now the wealthy Indians and Chinese are getting in on the act. Is that the correct spelling for obligarch? Not in the dictionary!!

Would you believe it! Just seen a Christmas ad for incontinent pants!!! Absolutely true.

"Tinkle, tinkle, little star, by Wet, Wet, Wet. Thought that might be a good backing theme tune.

Eddie
 
Totally agree, Smudger. Everything being bought up by oil rich Sheiks, Russian obligarchs, and now the wealthy Indians and Chinese are getting in on the act. Is that the correct spelling for obligarch? Not in the dictionary!!

Would you believe it! Just seen a Christmas ad for incontinent pants!!! Absolutely true.

"Tinkle, tinkle, little star, by Wet, Wet, Wet. Thought that might be a good backing theme tune.

Eddie

Eddie, I think it`s Oligarchs but we all know what you mean. Can`t say i`ve seen the incontinent pants ad but nothing surprises me these days. I guess we`re all old grumpies who think the modern ways just aint cool. We`re going off topic & we`ll be in for some detention!!
 
My favourite 12 songs mostly have an association with a member of my family. So here goes, in no particular order:
1) Cheek to Cheek. Fred Astaire.
2) Pick Yourself Up. Fred Astaire.
3) Something tells me something's gonna happen tonight. Cilla Black.
4) Some enchanted evening. From South Pacific.
5) All I have to do is Dream. Everley Brothers.
6) Why. Anthony Newley.
7) California here I come. Al Jolson.
8) April Showers. Al Jolson.
9) What do you Want. Adam Faith.
10) There is a Green Hill Far Away. Hymn
11) I Believe. Frankie Laine.
12) Imagine all the People. John Lennon

Plus the Harry Lime theme from the Third Man, and the soundtrack to the film Genevieve. Dave
I like all of those too. I couldn't list my favourites, it would be endless. The songs that family members I recall singing the most were, Summertime, The Alphabet Song, Perry Como, Where Did You Get That Hat, Daddy Don't go down the Mine, Up in My Bonny Balloon, Just Loving You - Anita Harris, Second Hand Rose, Barbara Streisand.The Archers Theme -Barwick Green? The Isle of Capri - Gracie Fields, Excerpt From a Teenage Opera, Who Will Buy from Oliver, You'll Never Know, Rosemary Clooney, Somewhere my Love Theme Dr Shivago, I was Kaiser Bill's Batman (whistle) Love Is A Many Splendoured Thing.
Va Pensiero with the Words Changed and words to Colonel Bogey. It's endless, made me laugh remembering though, thank you!
 
As an ex-musician, and I'm sure this is true for most musicians, my top ten favourites vary from month to month and it has nothing to do with what is in the hit parade. In fact, I have very little interest in pop music, particularly the last 30 years. I will tend to listen intensely to one particular song and then explore other songs by that same artiste. A month later I have probably moved on to an entirely different artiste. It's even the same with classical music that may be several hundred years old. If you were to ask me for my top thousand then you might be in with a chance after a lot of thought!

Maurice
 
Ditto. Nothing new really grabs me anymore and holds my attention long enough or gives me a chill. Re the family links I forgot The Merry Widow Waltz and Home Sweet Home.
 
Funny thing about the list of songs. The Isle of Capri, Gracie Fields. In 1956 Robin Kendall and I went to Italy riding our bikes, We rode down the Amalfi coast, Then over to The Isle of Capri, even went in the Blue Groto In Capri we even found the house where Gracie Fields lived at that time, We knocked on the door NO one home, I often thought what we would have said if she had been home?
 
Funny thing about the list of songs. The Isle of Capri, Gracie Fields. In 1956 Robin Kendall and I went to Italy riding our bikes, We rode down the Amalfi coast, Then over to The Isle of Capri, even went in the Blue Groto In Capri we even found the house where Gracie Fields lived at that time, We knocked on the door NO one home, I often thought what we would have said if she had been home?
Hello Gracie,
Have you seen Sally, pride of our alley? My alltime favourite songs......Don`t be Cruel & Can`t help falling in Love (Elvis) & a couple of classical pieces......Canon in D (Pachelbel) Nimrod (Elgar) Greensleeves (Henry V111 ? )
 
Hello Gracie,
Have you seen Sally, pride of our alley? My alltime favourite songs......Don`t be Cruel & Can`t help falling in Love (Elvis) & a couple of classical pieces......Canon in D (Pachelbel) Nimrod (Elgar) Greensleeves (Henry V111 ? )
Henry VIII's favourite song was "I'm Getting Married in the Morning" and he sang it on 6 separate occasions. Dave
 
Only three weeks ago on this thread I mentioned comedy actor Nicholas Smith, who played Mr Rumbold in "Are You Being Served", in post #421. Now I see that he has passed away at the age of 81. Sadly another familiar face has gone. RIP Nicholas.

Maurice
 
Only three weeks ago on this thread I mentioned comedy actor Nicholas Smith, who played Mr Rumbold in "Are You Being Served", in post #421. Now I see that he has passed away at the age of 81. Sadly another familiar face has gone. RIP Nicholas.

Maurice

Thanks Maurice, on the news today. As you rightly say, he was the last surviving member of the original cast.

Interestingly, Wendy Richard, who was also famous for her role in East Enders, and in many other roles over the years, should also have appeared in The Beatles film HELP, but it was cut out. Wendy was the youngest member of the AYBS cast, when she died aged 65.

I first recall Wendy when she was featured, with Mike Sarne, on the hit record COME OUTSIDE.

Eddie
 
Eddie,

Your memory is better than mine! I vaguely remember "Come Outside", but can't remember the performers in it. The 1960s were regarded as being somewhat revolutionary, yet looking back it seems a lot more relaxed time than it is today, where no one trusts anyone else, or so the media would have us believe. Whilst Birmingham was the city of our birth and the environment in which we grew up, it is a relief to not live in a city, any city, any longer with all the apparent "friction" and insecurity.

Last Saturday we staged our pantomime "Jack & the Beanstalk" in the little agricultural town of Neapoli before an audience of a mere 210 people. Jan, my other half, had several parts including a fairy (Fairy Liquid) and a dwarf, whilst Yours Truly just had a few seconds, walk-on part with nothing to say, though I was responsible for building some of the props. Of course, the Greeks wondered what the Hell we were doing it for, but those who took part said they'd had a thoroughly enjoyable time, and it did raise a substantial amount for the poor children of the area. We even managed half a dozen carols to polish the evening off.

Such is culture in rural Crete! But a lot of hard work and many rehearsals went into it, and everyone enjoyed themselves. We can now coast slowly down to a quiet Christmas. Some photographs and a video are expected to be available in due course - I will see if I can post some snippets when they do!

Maurice
 
Wonderful to see and hear ELO fronted by our local lad Jeff Lynne on the Royal Variety Show last night.
Took me back 40 years.
 
Alberta,

I don't see any British TV, apart from odd programmes digitized for me by British friends, so I missed that. A much changed band from the original I gather?

Maurice
 
I first recall Wendy Richard when she was featured, with Mike Sarne, on the hit record COME OUTSIDE.
Eddie

Talking of Mike Sarne.

There is an interesting TV channel on Sky called Talking Pictures (ch 343). I believe it may also be available on Freeview ch 81.

It shows old movies, many of which have not been shown on TV for years. They work with the BFI to rescue old films and reshow them.

The films range from the 1920s right up to the 1970s and 1980s, but they shown many from the 1950s and 1960s.

It is a great channel for spotting stars before they were famous, as many people appeared in films in the 1950s and 1960s and went on to have careers on TV. For example I saw Terry Scott playing a small part as a policeman in one old movie, and Michael Caine in a bit part in another movie.

They showed an old movie from 1964 the other day called "Every Day's a holiday"

It was a "teenager" film with a wide ranging cast including Mike Sarne. It also had John Leyton, Freddie and the Dreamers, Ron Moody, Liz Frazer, Nicholas Parsons and so on.

Fascinating film that was filmed at a Butlin's Clacton and it really evokes the period.

More here:

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0059691/

I know there are jazz fans on here, so I should mention they also showed Band Of Thieves, a film Acker Bilk (and his band) made in 1962 which is something of a rarity.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0055771/

It is a great TV channel for those interested in old (mostly British) movies.

Talking Pictures have a web site here

https://talkingpicturestv.co.uk/
.
 
In previous postings I have mentioned that we used to have late night/early morning jazz sessions at Tony's Ballroom, in Hurst Street, and next door to the Hippodrome Theatre.

One Saturday evening, after the ballroom had closed to the public, and the jazz session was in full swing, a young man walked in and asked if he might sit in on piano. Cautiously, we agreed. His jazz piano was wonderful. He told us his name was Dave Lee. He had just arrived in the U.K, from South Africa, as accompanist to Norman Wisdom, who was appearing at the Hippodrome.

Dave went on to join the great John Dankworth Band as pianist and arranger. Later he joined the BBC as leader and music arranger for That Was The Week That was ( TW3). He is seen in the centre of the photograph adjusting his tie. The drummer is my very dear old Kenny Clare at TWTWTW 001 - Copy.jpgbuddy, Kenny Clare.

Also with us on those wonderful sessions with wonderful musicians was Roy Reynolds, who worked with the Colin Hulme Band, playing tenor saxophone, at Tony's Ballroom. Roy was a broad 'Brummie', and I have already told the hilarious story of when Roy joined the Colin Hulme Band. Roy was also a big part of the late night sessions, and I can confirm that both Dave Lee and Roy Reynolds played together on one of these sessions. Roy left the U.K for the United States where he joined the great Stan Kenton band. In the following photograph is seen on the extreme left of the photograph.

Roy Reynolds 001.jpg

Eddie
 
Eddie,,

More great pictures and I remember Dave Lee being a regular name on the British jazz scene. Hadn't he used to play in the sessions at the Bull at Barnes Bridge? I know of Kenny Clare, of course, but have never worked with him.

Maurice
 
Eddie,

I hope you don't mind if I hitch a ride on your thread again, and as this is a pdf of a photocopy of a tattered Bournemouth Times write-up from the 1970s, at this stage I have no idea if it will be readable. But it is useful for a mention of some of the early guests we had, to which I later emember we had the Ronnie Scott Trio, Barbara Thompson & hubby Jon Hiseman, on several occasions the BBC Big Band led by trumper Dave Hancock under an assumed name due to copyright problems, and flautist Harold McNair, and many others that have slipped my memory.

With reference to the sea music suite, that never actually got written as landlord Alan Rigler sold the Parkstone and moved to Guernsey and the new owner had no interest in jazz, despite the fact that it had been filling the bar for several years and not costing the Parkstone a penny. Some people have strange business mentalities!

Maurice
Sweet_suite.jpg
 
Maurice: Delighted for the contribution. A lovely piece of jazz club nostalgia. Lovely memories of Jazz musicians that we both worked with.

There is a Birmingham link here.........Your drummer, John Gibson. I assume it is the same John Gibson who also worked with the Midland Radio Orchestra, out of Birmingham. However the 1978 date throws me. It is difficult for me to remember how John looked nearly 40 years ago!

John would come to the Midland All Stars Big Band concerts as a member of the audience, and for months he would pester me about selling him one of my cymbals which he loved the sound of. When I quit the band, to work in the U.S.A, with Zildjian, John was at the last concert that I played in. At the end of the evening I called John over, and gave him the cymbal he loved. That would have been around 1978.

In 2003, some 25 years later, I visited a jazz club in Stratford upon Avon. John was on drums, with John Patrick on piano, Collin Willetts on vibes, and a bass player, who name I do not recall, except that he worked with the C.B.S.O.

I said to John "Bet you do not have that cymbal any longer?" He went over to his cymbal case, and triumphantly pulled out the cymbal. "Would not sell it, it is one of the greatest cymbals I have ever heard".

Eddie
 
Eddie,

I'm not exactly sure of that newspaper date, but I think it is 1975 or 1976 - or maybe much earlier. Harold McNair played with us a fortnight before he died and according to the web, he died on 7th March 1971 in London, but his death isn't on the GRO Deaths Index! Certainly by 1977, I had my own Trio in residency at Cotford Hall Hotel, with Roger Shore on bass guitar and Jeff Griffin on drums, and I wasn't free to do the Parkstone Jazz sessions on a Friday.

I last met up with John about 2007 when he was playing with the late Mike Burney on tenor sax - can't remember the bass guitar and keyboard player (maybe Kenny McCormick? - used to do Honky Tonk Train Blues as a party piece) - on an outdoor stand that had been erected outside the Rep in Broad Street, I think for some football event. We all later went for a drink in that pub in Cambridge Street.

When John left the Parkstone he initially moved up to Manchester - nice guy and a good drummer. He's living in Northfield now and whilst I have his address, I don't have an email for him. I think our original drummer, the late Ray Ball, came back for a short while after John left, and I can't remember who after that. Ray spent a lot of his time working with a band in Germany. And, of course, Colin Willetts also passed away some years ago too.

I last saw John Patrick about six years ago playing at a place in the Jewellery Quarter during the Birmingham Jazz Festival with a fretless bass guitar player, who I think was Hungarian, and who used to teach music at Loughborough University. I didn't know the drummer. We had a bit of a chat, but I haven't heard from him since. The thing that stands out in my mind about that gig was that it was an awful place for sound with masses of echo.

Lovely story about the cymbal though, and I'm sure that John appreciated it. Forty years ago is a long time and it's difficult to be exactly sure of exact dates now.

Maurice
 
Johnny Jones 001.jpgCharlie Hewitt MEET THE DEALER 001.jpg

Two very well known Birmingham music shop dealers.

Shown in the first photograph is, on the right, Johnny Jones, who owned Jones & Crossland music store, situated on Smallbrook Ringway. The man in the centre is the great Jim Marshall, with his wife. Jim, although a drummer, built and owned the world famous Marshall Amplifier Company.

I knew John from the early fifties. In those days he was a semi professional trumpet player, and together with Joe Crossland, they had a musical instrument repair business off Hurst Street. Their speciality was re lacquering and overhauling brass and woodwind instruments. Each week John would do the rounds of the Birmingham music stores, collecting and delivering instruments that had been overhauled, or needed overhauling. Joe was never a really fit man, and he would be smoking, coughing and spluttering as he worked, and I think he died before the music shop was opened. John went on to open his music shop in the sixties, and was very successful. Sadly he died around 1980, and I attended his funeral, together with many other music business personalities.

The second photograph, and short story is abut Charlie Hewitt, Manager at Yardley's, Snow Hill. Going down Snow Hill, from the city centre, Yardley's was on the right hand side. In the fifties the ground floor still retained some of its pawnbroker origins, and the music department, opened later, was on the first floor. When all the shops in Snow Hill were demolished for the inner ring road, Yardley's moved across to the corner of Gt. Charles Street, later to be known as Musical Exchange.

Eddie
 
Kathy Stobart and Barbara Thompson1980 001.jpg With Jon Hiseman 001.jpg

In an earlier post I talked about two very fine lady saxophone players, who I knew, and had worked with.

Came across this very nice photograph of the pair of them together!

Kathy Stobart on the left, who I accompanied on her jazz visits to Birmingham, and on the right, the lovely Barbara Thompson, who with her drummer husband Jon Hiseman, led a wonderful jazz/rock group called Colloseum.

Also, not a very good photograph of myself, with John Hiseman.

Eddie
 
Seeing Kathy Stobart, she played for Humph for quite a time. I saw her in the 1970s with the Ron Russell Band ( Digby, Pete Strange, Keith Ingham and Kathy deputised for Dave Jones of Midnight in Moscow Kenny Ball fame). She happily played Dixieland, As in fact they all play anything. Only us fans discriminate. She always seemed a nice lady

"Our Kid"
 
Eddie,

I remember Jones & Crossland when it was in Hurst Street, but I think I had left Brum by the time the shop opened.

I've worked with both the late Kath on several occasions and Barbara & Jon - always great nights. I'm glad to see that Barbara is back playing again - she seems to have her Parkinson's well under control, as does a friend of mine over here. Music definitely keeps you young! I love to see these old clippings, so keep 'em coming.

Maurice
 
Just to add my own tribute to Sir George Martin.

History will always associate Sir George Martin with The Beatles, but he was much more than that.

I do know that he graduated from the Guildhall School of Music on piano & oboe, the same instruments as our own daughter.

He was already well established before the Beatles were ever heard of. Not just as a record producer, but as a musician, composer, arranger, and even conductor.

He worked with, and recorded, many fine artistes, including Dudley Moore/Peter Cooke, The Goons, Peter Ustinov, Bruce Forsythe.

Bernard Cribbins ("Right said Fred" & "A Hole in the Road").

I was very fortunate to meet George Martin in the late seventies. early eighties. I was out for the day with Brian Bennett from The Shadows (who also recorded at Abbey Road). Brian had to call into Abbey Road to collect some music. We bumped into George Martin, Brian chatted to him, and introduced me. We talked for around ten minutes, then we left.

George Martin was a very gracious gentleman. The world of music owes him a great deal for his wonderful talent, and his gift of making good songwriters great.

R.I.P Sir George Martin O.B.E

Eddie
 
Also remembering another old friend who died three years ago today.

Joe Morello was the wonderful drummer with the Dave Brubeck Quartet. Before joining Brubeck Joe was already well established in the world of jazz music, but he rose to fame with his drumming on 'Take Five'. He rhythmical interpretations of odd time signatures was unequalled. He was a master drummer, technician and teacher.

I first met Joe in the 60's, and we met up again on three or four occasions in later years. Joe was a hilariously funny man, and he is greatly missed in the world of music.

R.I.P. Joe.

Eddie.

Joe Morello 001.jpg
 
Eddie,

I briefly met the Dave Brubeck Quartet in the Firebird in Carrs Lane when they came in to see Chris Padan, who ran it, but it was a brief meeting. And that was it apart from a meeting with Darius Brubeck, Dave's son, who was over here on a house hunting expedition, though he never did buy. He'd been living in South Africa for 15 years and we met via mutual friends who knew him in South Africa. But Joe was certainly a very fine drummer and is definitely missed.

Maurice
 
Sad to read the passing of Paul Daniels. He was a much joked about personality, but he was a very talented conjuror, and magician.

I can say from my own experience that he was a very professional man. Not only did I work with him on a couple of occasions, but in 1974 we booked him for the Premier Drum Company show at Batley Variety Club. His fee was £40. Later it was discovered that he would be on a summer season in Jersey, and because he did not wish to let us down, he flew over from Jersey, at his own expense. Paul was already doing very well on the club circuit, and I remember that in our programme notes we predicted great things for Paul in the future. We were proved correct.

I will not hear a bad word against Paul. He was a gentleman, and a wonderful entertainer.

His brother, Trevor Daniels, is also well known in the music industry, as a musician, and keyboard demonstrator.

R.I.P. Paul.

Eddie
 
Sad to read the passing of Paul Daniels. He was a much joked about personality, but he was a very talented conjuror, and magician.

I can say from my own experience that he was a very professional man. Not only did I work with him on a couple of occasions, but in 1974 we booked him for the Premier Drum Company show at Batley Variety Club. His fee was £40. Later it was discovered that he would be on a summer season in Jersey, and because he did not wish to let us down, he flew over from Jersey, at his own expense. Paul was already doing very well on the club circuit, and I remember that in our programme notes we predicted great things for Paul in the future. We were proved correct.

I will not hear a bad word against Paul. He was a gentleman, and a wonderful entertainer.

His brother, Trevor Daniels, is also well known in the music industry, as a musician, and keyboard demonstrator.

R.I.P. Paul.

Eddie


Eddie, I agree, he was a very talented magician & funny with it. I liked Paul, not a lot, but i liked him. Cliff Michelmore & Frank Sinatra jr have also popped their clogs.
 
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