Bennerley

57011 and here a penny for gooin'

Goingll, back to the Newcastle Arms and Johnny Hobbs with Maurice Colman, I remember it well, a Selmar amp, an old dance band arch top guitar and the piano, what a sound! I heared something to the effect that they were let go because they attracted too many people, a rumour maybe, but a rumour I like to believe. I remember seeing Johnny play at the Imperial on St James street, he did a tune, St James Infirmary with just clarinet and Bill Cole on bass! Absolutely brilliant. Little did I know then that soon I would be singing and playing blues harmonica with the great man fairly regularly at

The two Gibson basses I owned were American and so was the Epiphone, I suppose to match the Epiphone Casino six string, I'm pretty sure the Epi's had a slightly less powered hum bucking pickup, simpler controls and a poorer finish, I think all Epi's are now made in SE Asia. The Epiphone Texan was a great acoustic guitar, I always wanted one! I ended up having a custom made acoustic that was modelled on the Texan and made by a guy called Al Gormley a local guitar maker.

Someone can dump a Burns Split Sonic or Bison Bass my way any time!!!!!! I had a Split Sonic played it until it took a fall at the Horse and Jockey, Bulwell, Knocked the headstock clean of! the funeral was a private quiet affair! I did have it repaired, a really great job but they never seem to play the same. Apart from the Gibson EB2 basses I've owned, two and one Epiphone version [love em' cab crushing monsters that they are] the best guitar I ever owned was a jap built Fender Strat re-issue, it knocked spots of any yank Strat! it had such a tonal range the top end would break windows and

I'm playing a forty year old jap made Fender F95 acoustic guitar I,ve had it from new, a present. I never actually liked it but it did service as a spare guitar with a Schaller pick-up attached or tuned permanently in open G for slide guitar when I was gigging. I now love this guitar, especially as it turns out it is a bit of a collectors item, when it was new the Fender F95 sold for $10 dollars more than a Fender Strat! below is the original guff, it has the feel and sound verging on a Martin, of course it's well made of real wood and after years of playing it has as they say "played in" I'd

How do I delete a post if I'm not happy withith - i.e. If the subject needs more research . Still haven't got the hang of images, does copy and paste work with Flicr. ?

'Fraid not Ian.

I just posted about Jimmy Gamble

Some interesting stuff here. I have worked for three haulage company's in Nottingham, James Gamble and Son at Carlton, Brickyard Road, I think, I used to cycle up from Snienton to Bakersfield and cut through somewhere near St. Johns church. I was just turned fifteen and worked as a grease monkey, cleaning and maintaining the trucks, Atkinson's, AEC's, Leyland's etc. Jimmy had a contract with British Gypsum at Gotham, I learned to reverse trailers down there. Back at base drivers used to come into the yard eager for a cuppa in the on site café, I use to drive the trucks to the diesel pump and

Chulla, I too paid Johnny a couple of visits at Newdigate Road and talked about the old days, did you know with The Stompers he had cut a record in Derby ? I can't recall him ever playing it to me, he probably wasn't fond of it! He also gave me an ancient record deck, power amp, pre-amp and a large speaker cabinet containing a 12" speaker, it must have been a full 30 "proper" watts, it was so loud, although it was mono I used it for years. Most of all he taught me a lot about jazz and blues, a great man.

Well Chulla, I must apologise for misspelling Jyll's name, I knew it was wrong, I was hoping to put it right before anyone noticed. I remember the W11 siren and I loved the boogie woogie piano, I used to spend a lot of time down at the shop and Johnny gave me piano tips mostly for left hand boogie patterns and also records of various sorts, probably ones he didn't like or had too many of. Can you remember the "piano Battle" in the back room at the fox on parliament Street ? two pianos on stage and if I'm correct a drummer in the middle. There was Johnny himself and quite a few well respected

Harmony House on Oakdale Road was my record shop, I was not really a singles fan I always preferred LP's the first two LP's I bought were Hank Williams, Hits and Buddy Holly, The Chirping Crickets, followed by Duane Eddy, The Twangs The Thang, The Buddy Holly Story and Hank Snow, the lady let me pay a couple of bob a week out of my paper round money! things carried on this way until one day she told me she had a brand new country and western artist in stock, there it lay on the counter with just the words Bob Dylan on it, I actually thought it was pronounced Dilon! and that folks was when my

Did anyone ever see Johnny Hobbs play at The Newcastle Arms somewhere behind Mansfield Road. On stage was a piano with an old guitar amp perched on it and two mic. stands hold dubious looking microphones, Johnny played piano and clarinet, his partner Maurice Colman played guitar and they both sang. The used to bring the house down with renditions of boogie woogie, blues and jazz on clarinet and Maurice singing old songs from the likes of Cole Porter and Fats Waller. There was a rumour that they were sacked for pulling in too many punters that were difficult to get out when time was called!

Albert was just one of many, many characters that frequented Yates's, he was just the most obvious!!! I tried busking in there, me on guitar and a fiddler, jigs, reels and slow airs, no one seemed to notice, we played a few tunes then James the fiddler played a slow air and I went round with the pint pot, they had noticed and filled the pot with coins and stuffed a couple of notes down my jumper! we went out and across the square to The Trip and tried the same routine playing a the tree in the garden, it was a bit nerve racking, the place was full of bikers, but we filled a pint pot again!

Don't forget the little guy sat behind the desk, he never missed anything! and the visits from PC Dennis [Tug] Wilson and his mate, he put me in a taxi once and paid the driver to get me home to Snienton - he knew my dad, I was in the army at that time and I may have forgotten most of that evening but I didn't forget to go back to find Tug and give him his ten bob, or whatever it was, back!