At the end of the war my eldest brother bought a
self-changing radiogram with his demob gratuity and every week would come back
from town with an eclectic selection of 78s everything from grand opera to
Spike Jones. My favourite pastime was playing the B side of the popular
records, Fats Wallers Moppin’ & Boppin’, Shortnin’
Bread and Dinah and Pee Wee Hunt’s Somebody
Else Not Me, are still fondly remembered.
Saturday evenings in the Men’s Institute listening to
the football results followed by Jazz Club with the likes of Harry Parry and
Freddy Randall and later in the week listening at home with ear pressed up
against the speaker to catch Kenny Baker’s Dozen on Let’s Settle for
Music. By then I thought I knew what jazz was all about after buying Rex
Harris’ Penguin book on jazz but really the eye opener came on a visit to the
Oxford Galleries to hear Freddy Randall who’s 7 piece band just about blew the
roof off with not a piece of music in sight.
The direction of my interest was now set for life,
listening to local and national bands and record buying. Then the highlight of
my life, the appearance of Louis Armstrong at the City Hall. Like a lot of
others there that night the hairs stood up on the back of my neck and the 25
bob for the ticket was the best spend of my life. The succeeding concerts by
the legends and the newer stars of jazz just embedded the music that far into my
soul that even marriage, family, mortgage, work and other interests could never
dispel. In my 85th year and as Duke said “Don’t Get Around
Much Anymore” my love for the music is still as much alive in me as it was
70 years ago.
Miles Watson
4 comments :
Great stuff Miles and how similar are my own early memories. Louis at the City Hall, Kenny Baker and, like yourself, most of all, Freddy Randall. I was 15 or so and heard the band at Seaburn Hall. I remember Betty Smith on tenor, leaning back on her high heels and blowing some great Bud Freeman/Eddie Miller tenor. Strangely, Betty is rarely given her due when the current in theme - women in jazz - is brought up.
I digress. When I floated out of Seaburn Hall the last buses and trains had gone and I had to get a taxi home which didn't please my parents who had to fork out!
For me the Randall band was the best of the lot. Far more exciting than Humph or the trad/pop bands that followed. Only Alex Welsh compared and his personnel were mainly ex-Randall.
Miles, what's a 'self-changing' radiogram?
Perhaps one that drops the records sequentially one on top of the other when the previous one has finished playing?
They were popular in the 78rpm era just after the war when electrically powered turntables replaced the old wind-up ones. You could stack 8-10 discs giving you 30+ minutes of music - in theory. In practice it wasn't all that simple. The first record played fine as the turntable had a material surface that prevented the discs from slipping. After that when it was shellac upon shellac the discs did tend to slip. Plus the weight of 7 records on 1 probably caused the turntable to slow down. The advent of the vinyl LP was welcomed by all except those who didn't want to have to buy 8 or 12 tracks in case they didn't like all of them!
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