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David George Bashford - Guitar and Banjo
playing
Jazz me Blues recorded at the
Theatre Royal,Margate,Kent,UK
11thFeb 2006
with the Bill Barnacle Jazz Band playing Jazz me Blues,rest of
the band: Bill Barnacle crnt, Sean Maple tmb, Chris Rumsey clt
Colin Hodges bass, Mike Marsh drms and Dave
Sadly no longer with us, a great and well loved guy
17th May 1939 - 5th May 2006
I started playing music while still at school (about 15years
old) when I aquired a ukelele banjo for half-a-crown (12.5p) I learned to
play from the song sheets of the day where the chords are shown in little
diagrams, tunes like Swannee River, when I'm Cleaning Windows etc. My mother
was not a great music lover and I used to practise in a nearby field where
my first groupies were a herd of cows who used to
form a circle around me and sway to the rhythms of the uke! One day there
was a knock on the door and the visitor said he had heard that I was a banjo
player and would I like to join his jazz band. At the time I thought jazz
was Ted Heath! That band was known as the Tishomingo Stompers and eventually
became reasonable proficient and popular in the East Kent area particularly
at the Bear and Key, Whitstable, Kent where we ran our own club. I then went
to college to study chemistry continuing to play including a stint with the
college band. I moved up to London, sold my banjo until approached to join a
band managed by Harold Davidson to cash in on the Trad boom (about 1960). I
was auditioned on my only instrument at the time, a classical Spanish guitar
where I had to play Sruttin with Some Barbeque. I got the job, bought
another banjo and away we went, where being the only driver in the band I
got £5 a week extra for driving . That band folded and I gave up playing
jazz, got married, pursued a career etc. Years later (1975) the Mo Hovery
Jazzmen needed a guitarist for a job on a boat. I did the gig, joined the
band and away we go again. Since then I've played in a lot of Kentish bands - Invicta, Preservation Stompers ,Pete Rose Jazz Band, Bill Barnacle Jazz, Dave
Link's Band culminating with several years touring the highways and byways
of Europe with Max Collie until forced to give up the heavy duty travelling
due to ill health. Now taking it easy with local bands and also Bob Dwyer's
Hot Seven band.
Dave had a wonderful send off, here are some of the photos at the
church and at the golf club, his favourite watering hole:
Click
on to above picture/writing
to
see
video
of Church
The funeral took
place at St Alphege Church, High Street, Whitstable, Kent. It was estimated
about L to
R Dave Bone, Mo Hovery
600 friends and
family wished him a great farewell, Dave would have loved it.16th May 2006 Sean Maple and Bill Barnacle
Dave's family and friends with the band behind
On the 30th November Mel had a thank you, combined birthday party, for her
friends who have been so kind to her
since the loss of her husband David. Here are a few photos and a video of
the Bill Barnacle Band playing etc:
The packed dancing
area
Vanessa and Samantha
Samantha
Vanessa
David's daughters
Dave Corsby, Pete Rose and Dave Bone
Video of The Bill Barnacle Band Bill's band playing
Beale Street Blues
playing
Tuxedo Junction
with Colin Hodges on vocal
click on the title to watch
click on title to hear
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George Webb, jazz pianist and bandleader, was born
on October 8, 1917. He died on March 11, 2010, aged 92
Great Pic of George Webbs Dixielanders 1943 - 1948 and the lads L/R
Buddy Vallis bnj, George Webb piano, Owen Brice tpt, Roy Wykes drs, Wally
Fawkes clt,
Reg Rigden, Eddie Harvey tmb and Art Streetfield sousa.
The
movement Webb created, which grew steadily in the late 1940s, led directly
to the "trad boom" of the late 1950s and early 1960s in which he also played
a leading part, first as pianist and bandleader and later as agent and
promoter.
George Horace Webb was born in Camberwell, south London, on October 8 1917,
the son of a music hall artiste. His earliest memories were of his father
and uncle (the "Brothers Webb") rehearsing their act at home. The family
later moved to Belvedere, Kent, and Webb took a job at the Vickers Armstrong
armaments factory in nearby Dartford.
When war broke out in 1939, he was already a skilled machine-gun fitter and
thus exempt from the call-up. A keen jazz enthusiast and self-taught amateur
pianist, Webb helped organise entertainment in the factory canteen and, in
1940, began assembling a group of like-minded young jazz lovers with the aim
of forming a band. The intention was to play in the style of the early jazz
masters, whose music they knew well from records
In 1941, the band acquired a name: "George Webb's
Dixielanders", and a regular place to play – the downstairs bar of the Red
Barn pub in nearby Barnehurst. Modelled on King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band of
1922 to 1924, their music sounded alien, even barbaric, to ears brought up
on crooners and English dance bands.
Webb was fond of recalling the band's first appearance at the Red Barn: "By
the time we had finished the first number we were playing to about ten
people, the other 50 having fled to the saloon bar upstairs." A sometimes
pugnacious character, he once defended the band's honour from a mocking
onlooker by striding off-stage mid-performance, landing a heavy blow, then
returning to the keyboard.
But the word gradually spread, and over the next six years jazz devotees
converged upon their unlikely suburban stage to enjoy the unique experience
of hearing jazz in the classic style played live.
One such visitor was Humphrey Lyttelton, newly demobbed Grenadier Guards
officer, first-year art student and aspiring jazz trumpeter. He sat in with
the Dixielanders and was soon invited to become a permanent member.
As the style took off in the postwar years, a growing network of venues,
along the lines of the Red Barn, became established around Britain. There
were features in the music press, occasional radio broadcasts, and even
recordings.
In 1948, with its members scattering in search of employment, the
Dixielanders folded and Webb joined Lyttelton's newly-formed band as
pianist. Partly as a result of Webb's pioneering work, Lyttelton quickly
found a new audience among the growing student population. In place of the
beer-sipping aficionados of the Red Barn, his band played for crowds of
youthful dancers at venues in central London, and later around the country.
It also recorded prolifically, with Webb's effervescent piano often
featured. He was a small man, with tiny hands, which Lyttelton said reminded
him of a pair of kittens, scampering up and down the keyboard.
In 1951, observing the growing popularity of revivalist jazz, Webb thought
it a good moment to branch out into promoting jazz events. The most
successful of these were the Sunday night sessions at the Shakespeare Hotel,
Woolwich, which played to packed houses until the early 1960s. In 1955, Webb
joined the staff of Jazzshows Promotions, booking bands and singers for the
ever-expanding club and concert circuit. Leaving Jazzshows after 10 years,
he set up his own management and agency business, numbering rhythm and blues
groups as well as jazz bands among his clients.
Webb barely touched the piano during these years, but returned to playing in
the early 1970s. He toured Europe as accompanist to the singer Jo Starr and,
in 1973, briefly formed a new version of the Dixielanders. In 1974 he took
the tenancy of a pub at Stansted, Essex, a move which enabled him combine
all his various activities. He ran the bar, booked the entertainment and sat
in with visiting bands whenever he felt like it.
In 1985 Webb gave up his tenancy and moved back to Belvedere, close to the
scene of his early triumphs. On July 4 of that year he was guest of honour
at the unveiling of a plaque at the Red Barn, commemorating his contribution
to British jazz. Although officially retired, he resumed playing with gusto.
He appeared as guest artist with many bands, formed several temporary
outfits of his own, and was always the first to volunteer to perform at a
charity event.
In 1998 he took a prominent role in the celebrations of Humphrey Lyttelton's
half-century as a bandleader. He continued to play occasionally until the
end of his long life and was due to appear, in May, at a show to celebrate
the 70th anniversary of his first venture in band leading.
George Webb's wife predeceased him. He is survived by his daughter. Dave
Gelly
Friends
and George reminiscing of the war years click here
The Jazz World Says Goodbye to Geoege Webb on You Tube by John Petters click
here
Here are some rarely heard tunes from the Dixielanders given to me via a
friend and from George:
South
Smokey Mokes
Come Back Sweet Papa
Keystone Blues
Black Bottom Stomp
the above five tunes were recorded 1944 / 46 and band members are:
Owen Brice / Reg Rigden tps, Eddie Harvey tmb, Wally Fawkes clt,
Buddy Vallis bnj, Art Streatfield tuba, Roy Wykes drms and George piano
Original Jelly Roll Blues - this is with Humphrey Lyttleton
tpt,replacing Owen Brice and Reg Rigden
and Harry Brown tmb replacing Eddie Harvey
Riverboat Shuffle - this was recorded in 1976 with Dennis Fields tpt,
Terry Pitts tmb,
Sammy Rimington clt, Roy James bnj/gtr, Laurie Chescoe drms and George
on piano
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Chris Marney - Banjo
I first became interested in the music from the age of about
12 by an Acker Bilk LP bought by my Mum and Dad. Roy James has a lot to
answer for, in that his banjo playing with this band inspired me to
(eventually) take up the instrument. The wonderful swinging style of this
band, from the late fifties Pye Nixa recordings through to their hit singles
of the early sixties, became for me the main ingredient of what did, and
still does it for me.The first band I played for was the Pete Rose JB, soon
to become the Bill Barnacle JB, I have many happy memories of these times,
and I am very appreciative of the breadth of jazz styles that this band
intoduced me to. A 'Spider' Wellard recording of a session I did with a band
led by Roy King led to an invitation to play with Max Collie, an astonishing
thing to me, since the raucous, swinging sound of this band in its 70's
heyday was, and still is one of my favourite things. I happily played most
of the band's gigs between '92 and '98. Since then, I have played regularly
with the Gambit jazzmen through to the present day. I was fortunate enough
to be invited to play with Malcolm Walton's Blue Rhythm Kings whilst Dave
Bashford was indisposed a couple of years ago, and it is a delight to me to
continue doing the gig until he rightfully reclaims it ! Chris Marney
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Folkestone Music Festival, July 2006
Mick Morris –
Guitar & banjo
1956
- I was 12 years old and had always loved music but the lessons I'd had on
violin and piano hadn't quite done it for me. Then all of a sudden there was
skiffle and rock & roll and everything changed overnight. I wasn't sure
whether I wanted to be Lonnie Donegan or his guitarist Denny Wright - or
maybe Bill Haley or his guitarist Franny Beecher - but it was definitely one
of them. The following year I formed a skiffle group, The Asteroids, and
entered the Dover Carnival. That's where I first met Bod Bowles. His jazz
band was following us in the procession drowning out our feeble sounds! In
1958 the BBC started to broadcast 'Guitar Club' and I was inspired by the
playing of players new to me - Ken Sykora, Ike Isaacs, Dis Disley and many
others. The skiffle group folded and I joined first a local dance/jazz band
(The Melody Makers) and then the original Rolling Stones (the Dover-based
group which had started out as a skiffle & blues band in 1956).
Bod took over the Grapes (Louis Armstrong) and when the jazz
sessions started I'd go along and soak it up, eventually plucking up the
courage to join in. I guess that's when it finally dawned on me that it was
the instrument I'd fallen for rather than any one type of music. Next came
some years in the house band at Tofts Jazz Club, Folkestone, supporting and
playing alongside some great musicians like Georgie Fame, John Mayall,
Clapton etc. and also accompanying visiting variety artists. I was never a
'regular' member of Bod's band but often helped out, playing whatever they
were short of - usually either banjo, guitar bass or drums. That's how I met
Bill Barnacle and went on to play with him in both his own band (1975) and
in Whirligig (1977) whilst keeping my own outfits going throughout the 80s
and 90s. Since 2006 I've been reunited with Bill, playing banjo and guitar
in his band as well as with the Stour Valley Jazzmen. I still do a few other
things as well - some Irish banjo here and a bit of gypsy jazz there - and I
love it all as much today as when I first started out!
Mick with First guitar August 1957
The Asteroids, Dover Carnival August 1957
''Ole
Miss" The Bill Barnacle jazz band
"Nuages"
Mick Morris Trio
Recorded 19 Oct 2008 at the Louis Armstrong, Dover
Recorded 10 August 2007 St. Bart's Studios, Dover
Personnel: Bill Barnacle (cornet), Pete Rose (clarinet),
Personnel: Mick Morris (guitar), Jacques Bethencourt (rhythm guitar),
Sean Maple (trombone), Mick Morris (banjo),
Dave 'Spike' Jones (electric bass)
Colin Hodges (bass), Mike Marsh (drums)
"When
Sunny gets blue"
"The Revs"
Whirligig
Sybyl Talbot & Mick Morris
Recorded at Sybyl & Sean Talbot' home, December 1979
Recorded live at The Louis Armstrong, 1977 Personnel: Bill Barnacle
(cornet),
Personnel: Sybyl Talbot
(vocal), Mick Morris (acoustic guitar)
Walter Thatcher (tenor), George Sketcher (Soprano), Robin Basford (piano),
Mick Morris (guitar), Neil Basford (bass), Mike Marsh (drums)
Click on to the above titles to listen to the tracks
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