Harmonica players of all styles have recorded many great renditions of seasonal Christmas music. Here are some collections of music played on many types of harmonica.
Chromatic Harmonicas at Christmas – Seasonal Christmas music played by chromatic harmonica artists. Robert Bonfiglio, Sigmund Groven, Chris Bauer, Tommy Morgan, Jacob Venndt, Tommy Reilly and Charlie McCoy.
Blues Harps at Christmas – Blues harmonica players and their bands performing songs about Christmas. Carey Bell, Paul Oscher, Paul Butterfield, Sonny Boy Williamson II, Little Charlie and the Nightcats, G Love, Sonny Boy Williamson, Canned Heat, Richard Sleigh, Eddie C Campbell, Mark Doyle and the Maniacs.
Harmonica Groups at Christmas – Seasonal Christmas music played by Harmonica Groups – chromatic, chord and bass harmonicas – The Harmonica Men, The New Don Les Harmonicats, Harmonicas International (James Hughes/Rob Janssen), Chris Bauer, Charlie McCoy and Pete Pedersen.
Jazzy Harmonica Arrangements at Christmas – Arrangements of Seasonal Christmas Music featuring harmonica players, Toots Thielemans, Jason Keene, Stevie Wonder, Tommy Morgan, Norton Buffalo, Rob Paparozzi, Tollack Ollestad and Chris Bauer.
Harmonica Christmas Stocking Fillers – This extra Collection is made up of contributions sent in by artists like Will Galison, Madcat Ruth, Mike Caldwell, A J Fedor… and recordings that did not quite make it into the earlier Collections. As the title suggests, it covers many styles and even a bit of tremolo. It should have a few surprises just like a Christmas stocking for a harmonica lover. Stay with it to the end – variety is the spice of life.
HarmonicaUK started life as a Hohner marketing activity in 1935 and remained so until it was handed over to the members in 1981. It was first called the Hohner National Song Band League(SBL), then the National Harmonica League (NHL) in 1982 and finally HarmonicaUK in 2021.
Roger Trobridge takes over from Colin Mort and John Walton
The new millennium, 2000, brought about a rebirth of the National Harmonica League. John Walton and then Colin Mort had created and kept the now independent NHL running since 1981, but at a personal cost to themselves. The membership of about 300 was not growing and many of the members who had helped to run and inspire it had stood down or died.
The friction between the John and Colin and their respective organisations, the IHO and the NHL, was not helping. The successful International Millennium Festival in Bournemouth run by John Walton marked the end of the IHO and Colin asked me to take over as Chairman of the NHL. Apparently my experience developing Mars/Dove ice cream made up for my inability to play the harmonica. Larry Adler died in 2001 and Paul Jones agreed to take over as President.
Moving into the digital age
Times had changed and I was familiar with the (then) new world of the Internet and I had already started integrating our activities into a website packed with information about what we did, plus educational resources and forums to bring the membership together. The improved communication by Skype and email also meant that meetings no longer had to be held face to face and documents could be shared instantly rather than sent by post. Another effect was that the committee could now function with members based in their home. Administration costs almost disappeared.
Other things had changed. The older members had been mainly chromatic players but younger diatonic blues players were getting involved. I am a researcher at heart and it was apparent that there was no archive of what had been achieved so I set about collecting what I could from previous Chairmen (John Tyler, John Walton and Colin Mort) as well as Steve Proctor (Sutherland Trading) who was part of Hohner at that time, and collectors like John Bryan and Brian Holland. These showed that the tremolo and traditional music, particularly English music, were not really represented in the NHL. A meeting with Ernie Gordon and his friendship with Will Atkinson was instrumental in remedying this.
The expanded annual festivals
In 2001, I attended the SPAH Convention in Denver and the World Harmonica Festival (WHF/Hohner) in Trossingen, Germany.
Both of them lasted for four days and showed the value of “total immersion” festivals.
The contacts I made with artists, enthusiasts and administrators turned out to be vital as the NHL began to evolve and grow its range of activities.
We needed to find a way to do the same and we were very fortunate that Ben Hewlett was teaching at the Folk House, in Bristol. In 2001 we convinced them to hire out the whole building to us from Friday night to Sunday afternoon and we established a long running, tolerant, agreement with Jurys (The Bristol Hotel), and as they say, the rest is history.
Taking part in the official side of the SPAH and WHF festivals showed that we were a member of the international harmonica community.
We became more outward looking both in the magazine and the many overseas artists we invited to our annual festivals, including a young Greg Szlap and Rachelle Plas, and established artists like Joe Filisko, Willi Berger, Will Galison, Pete ‘Madcat’ Ruth, Fata Morgana and Antonio Serrano. Howard Levy gave a workshop and concert in London.
The new committee members
Colin Mort and Frank Eatwell stayed on to help the new committee which was fortunate to pick up some very useful members. Pete Wheat had great contacts with the European Blues Association, Gerry Ezard combined a business background with a lifetime playing chromatic at the highest level. Phil Leiwy kept a tight grip on the finances and Dave Hambley modernised the membership systems. Barbara Tate looked after our IT needs. Many others helped where they could especially at the annual festival which Ben Hewlett organised. The membership rose steadily to over 600.
The Chromatic Weekend and Blue Saturdays
By 2005 it was clear that we needed to provide support for chromatic players as we had been doing with Blue Saturday tuition days for diatonic players.
We decided to run a weekend residential course in Birmingham partly for the location but also to be near to Jim Hughes and Philip Achille. The Chromatic Weekend started up in June in 2006 and following work by Gerry Ezard, Steve Dooley, Colin Mort, Neil Warren, David Hambley, Davina Brazier, and Hilvert Scheper. It is still running and is now located at the Hillscourt Hotel.
The NHL becomes a Charity
The NHL had wanted to be officially recognised as a charity like many other similar organisations, for a long time. In 2009 the NHL was granted Charity Status in recognition of the work it does. This had financial implications but it also is a public record of status of the organisation.
Ben Hewlett takes over as Chairman
I stood down as Chairman in 2012 and Ben Hewlett took over.
This the end of the history as I need to tell it.
I stayed on as editor of the magazine which I had edited since 2002 and continued its development as the modern, international magazine that it had become.
Pete Hewitt becomes Chairman
Ben kept the NHL moving and tackled the three major problems he inherited. How to find a new editor for the magazine as I was long past retirement age, what to do about the name of the organisation, and to find successor to run the organisation? Dave Taylor took over as editor in 2019. The name change took a few years to happen but finally he solved his biggest problem when he persuaded Pete Hewitt to take over as Chairman in 2020.
Pete has revolutionised and reinvigorated the organisation using his management and people skills to find and entrap many new volunteers. The responsibilities are now spread more broadly making the organisation more resilient, as shown by its reaction to Covid restrictions. A series of On-line Festivals, regular workshops and a coffee morning were established to expand the contact with members. Barry Elms, Dave Colclough and Steve Pardue brought a totally professional approach to the magazine.
Working with Richard Taylor, Pete oversaw an impressive brand relaunch program which has resulted in the official change in name to HarmonicaUK. A set of brand images and core values which have been applied to the new web site, the magazine and all other activities like the Outreach programme.
Into the Future with Barry Elms and Dave Colclough
HarmonicaUK has a secure and developing future, building on it’s deep roots in harmonica history.
Barry Elms took over as Chairman in 2022 and Dave Colclough succeeded him in 2023.
HarmonicaUK started life as a Hohner marketing activity in 1935 and remained so until it was handed over to the members in 1981. It was first called the Hohner National Song Band League(SBL), then the National Harmonica League (NHL) in 1982 and finally HarmonicaUK in 2021.
In the Part 6, John Walton stood down as President of the National Harmonica League having tried to build up a sustainable organisation. His move to a more International, monthly A4 magazine in 1986 had resulted in both his personal company, Able Music Ltd, and the NHL becoming unprofitable. Colin Mort agreed to take over as President in 1987, and he began a series of loans needed to keep the NHL running. John Walton became the Secretary, Treasure and Magazine Editor.
Colin needed to make more fundamental changes to the organisation to help it break even. John’s A4 glossy magazine was soon replaced by a much simpler and cheaper A5 version. Larry Adler agreed to become President of the NHL with Norm Dobson remaining as Vice President. Colin became Chairman and he invited more people onto the committee to share the load and make it more democratic. Dave Beckford, David Michelsen Pat Missin, Jim Hughes, Victor Brooks, Tony Perry, and Ken Howell are just some of the ones who helped over the years. Steve Jennings edited the magazine until 1995 when Colin took it over. John Walton became more involved with the International Harmonica Organisation (IHO) and when its President, Peter Janssen, died in 1993, John replaced him.
The winners of the 1987 Open Competition took part in The First Harmonica World Championships organised and run in Jersey by Jim Hughes with support from some NHL members.
The NHL settled into an annual cycle of events with a small informal Spring Hoolie, an Open National Harmonica Championships and a weekend Convention/AGM. This broke down after a dispute at the 1994 Open Championships when the judges decided that none of the chromatic players reached the standard expected of a National Champion and the prizes were not awarded. The competition restarted two years later but as a best on the day event rolled into the annual festival and AGM.
Mike Sadler ran courses in the Victoria Adult Education Centre in Gravesend using his own method to teach harmonica and he formed a group called The Blowhards. Derek Yorke and Dave Bedford were members. The only recent UK quartet, Four in Accord, started there. Colin Mort set up Southern Harmonics for players in the Hampshire area.
About the same time, 1989, Norman Ives was introducing the scouts in the 5th St Mary’s Group in Great Yarmouth to all types of harmonica. David Michelsen joined to provide more teaching and with financial support from NHL members and its own magazine, Kiddin’ Around.
This group of children progressed over the next 6 years from beginners to performing at Glastonbury, playing for Disney in the USA and appearing at numerous festivals and TV shows. Known as Harp Start, they achieved a very high standard of solo and group playing, including winning World Championships in Trossingen, Germany in 1993. Unfortunately the activity had to stop.
Norman Ives ran the best known harmonica shop in the UK with the tag line – You can get one of those from Norman. Along with David Michelsen he held a popular series of Residential Blues Tuition Weekends in Caister from 1994-96. David then worked with Steve Jennings and later, Pat Missin, to develop a one day event which could be held anywhere. This was called a Blue Saturday and the first one took place in Corby in July 1996, They continued up to 1999 and Johnny Mars and Colin Mort assisted at some of them. The experiences learned from the Blue Saturday events led to similar events being run by other players around the country. Another off-shoot of this activity was the attempt to provide certification for harmonica teachers, The Harmonica Teachers Accreditation Board (HTAB). This is no longer active.
After 1995 Colin found himself short of volunteers and he was doing much of the committee work himself. I joined the committee in 1999 as Colin tried to find a way to pass on the control to someone else. My role was to build an Internet presence for the NHL which we did very successfully that year, with the harmonica.co.uk website (now harmonica.uk) and an email based forum for members. Volunteers were found for some of the other roles.
There had always been a strained relationship between the IHO and the NHL despite there having been a shared Hoolie festival in 1994. Some players were members of both organisations. Things came to a head when the IHO decided to hold an International Centennial Festival in Bournemouth in 2000. John Walton wanted to run it with financial support from the NHL, but Colin had worked hard to make the NHL sustainable and he wanted assurances about financial liabilities.
Colin did not get them so John Walton went ahead alone. John pulled it off but both he and Colin were worn out. The IHO organisation had also run out of steam and when Colin asked me if I would take over as Chairman said I would do the job if the infighting stopped.
Next time we will see what the new century would bring.
HarmonicaUK started life as a Hohner marketing activity in 1935 and remained so until it was handed over to the members in 1981. It was first called the Hohner National Song Band League(SBL), then the National Harmonica League (NHL) in 1982 and finally HarmonicaUK in 2021.
Life after Hohner
We left Part 5 in our history at the point where Hohner had enlisted a prominent NHL member, John Tyler, to reinvigorate their organisation, the NHL. Things came to a head in 1980 when John Tyler felt he had done all he could and the Hohner management decided that they could not continue to promote the NHL in the way they had done for the previous 50 years. They needed a way forward.
John Walton was born in South Africa in 1940. He was a successful chromatic harmonica player and entertainer who had met many of the top performers.
John had worked in Variety and on cruise ships before moving to the UK in 1978. He settled in Bournemouth with his family and immediately got involved with the NHL.
John Walton was born in South Africa in 1940. He was a successful chromatic harmonica player and entertainer who had met many of the top performers. John had worked in Variety and on cruise ships before moving to the UK in 1978. He settled in Bournemouth with his family and immediately got involved with the NHL.
In 1981 John had meetings with John Tyler who had decided to step down and dedicate more time to his job as a headmaster. John Walton agreed to take over as Director in 1982. He had always wanted to start a harmonica club – now he had one and he set out to make it successful. A new membership card and a lapel badge was produced.
At the time of the handover, the membership of the NHL was over 2000 but the majority of them had paid £1 to receive the magazine. Once Hohner decided to withdraw its financial support for the NHL, John had to raise the membership fee to £6 to cover the forecast running costs, and the membership fell to a couple of hundred.
Initially Hohner continued to edit, print and distribute Harmonica News and John Walton provided the content. John became frustrated when Hohner edited his writing and controlled some non-Hohner content.
By the time of John’s first NHL event, The Convention, at the Guildhall in Southampton in Nov 1982 he had decided on some major changes. At the AGM it was agreed that the name of the magazine would be changed to Harmonica World because Harmonica News was registered to Hohner. Operating costs had to be brought under control so they reduced the magazine size from A4 to A5, and the Walton family printed and posted out the magazine themselves.
The NHL was fully independent of Hohner but controlled by John Walton. John became President with his wife Jeanette as Secretary. Norm Dobson (US) was appointed as Chairman and Area Secretaries were set up to encourage local activities.
The Convention became the NHL’s main annual event with the 1983 event being held in the Queen Elizabeth Hall, Stratford upon Avon. John held a competition for the Young Harmonica Player of the Year, which was won in 1982 and 1983 by Rowena Gelling (now Millar). She was awarded the Fred Southern Trophy. Many familiar names were members at this time – Frank Eatwell, Colin Mort, Jim Hughes, Doug Tate, Ken Howell, Jimmy English, Alf Clay, Windsor Carlisle and a future Chairman, Pete Hewitt.
The Convention became the NHL’s main annual event with the 1983 event being held in the Queen Elizabeth Hall, Stratford upon Avon. John held a competition for the Young Harmonica Player of the Year, which was won in 1982 and 1983 by Rowena Gelling (now Millar). She was awarded the Fred Southern Trophy. Many familiar names were members at this time – Frank Eatwell, Colin Mort, Jim Hughes, Doug Tate, Ken Howell, Jimmy English, Alf Clay, Windsor Carlisle and the current Chairman, Pete Hewitt.
Subsequent Conventions were held in Westcliff-on-Sea (1984), Blenheim Palace (1985), Bournemouth (1986) and Western-Super-Mare (1987).
An additional event was added to the calendar in 1986 when Frank Eatwell held the Open Harmonica Championship in Banbury. Jim Hughes organised a similar British Harmonica Championship and Gala Concert in Shirley, Birmingham in 1987. Later that year, Jim produced the first genuine World Championships in Jersey (Channel Islands) which was the template on which the subsequent Hohner four yearly festivals were based.
John Walton always wanted the NHL to be an international organisation and he travelled to many overseas harmonica events. In 1984 he visited SPAH with this family harmonica group, the Harmonaires, and in 1985 he took a party of NHL members, including Jim Hughes, to a week long HarmonicaFest run jointly with the renowned chromatic player, Cham’ber Huang, in Silver Bay in Upstate New York.
Towards the end of 1985 John Walton made a big decision. He changed the focus of Harmonica World and renamed it Harmonica World International. The simple, quarterly A5, personally printed magazine became a new glossy, monthly A4, international harmonica magazine printed by his family company, Able Music. John continued to feature NHL News but he opened it up to all harmonica clubs around the world. He had wanted to build a world wide harmonica magazine with up to date news, but he was about thirty years too soon. It would need the Internet and live, online digital magazines before this could be done profitably.
At the same time that John changed the magazine he became a founder member and Treasurer of the new International Harmonica Organisation (IHO) set up by Peter Janssen from Holland. The IHO decided to use Harmonica World International as their official organ. NHL members were encouraged to join both organisations.
John Walton stepped down as President at the AGM at the end of 1986, having agreed that Colin Mort would take over. John stayed on as Treasurer/Secretary. He had achieved a lot in his 5 years in charge, raising standards and building up the organisation, but a new approach was needed. The losses incurred by the new magazine had become too great and the 18th issue in June 1987 was the final one.
The next part of our history will cover the move to a true members’ organisation and the recovery of the NHL finances.
HarmonicaUK started life as a Hohner marketing activity in 1935 and remained so until it was handed over to the members in 1981. It was first called the Hohner National Song Band League(SBL), then the National Harmonica League (NHL) in 1982 and finally HarmonicaUK in 2021.
After the Golden Age
The 1950s was the “Golden Age” of the harmonica on Radio, TV and the Theatre, but the decreasing enthusiasm for the harmonica bands and the increasing popularity of the guitar meant that Hohner could no longer continue to support the National Harmonica League as a separate organisation after 1958. Their solution was to move the harmonica into the much bigger National Accordion Association (NAO).
Prominent harmonica players like Douglas Tate, Brian Chaplin and John Tyler took up senior positions on the NAO committee. The change meant that harmonica meetings and competitions could continue alongside those for the accordion. The Accordion Day had been running as a national event since 1935.
The annual Harmonica Championships continued as before but as a part Accordion Day, initially in a major London venue and later in the De Montfort Hall in Leicester. The successful players continued to represent the UK in the FIH World Championships.
Harmonica News was also discontinued and some harmonica content was included into Accordion Times from January 1959. It was not much but it covered the National and International Championships. As before the majority of harmonica content was related to chromatic performers and harmonica groups. There was some tuition material and the Three Monarchs had a regular column There was little mention of the British Blues Boom apart from a piece about Manfred Mann: 5-4-3-2-1.
1967 was a significant year.
Dr Otto Meyer, who had set up and run the Hohner UK offices and teaching organisations since the early 1930s, retired,
Douglas Tate won the FIH World Championship in Karlsruhe, and Jim Hughes, Brian Chaplin, John Tyler and Carol Axford (Bloxham) all did well.
Much of the success in the late 1960s came from teaching led by Tommy Reilly. He was disappointed by what was happening and he produced a teaching course for beginners which was sold as a booklet with 2xLPs or a tape cassette. He also established the Tommy Reilly International Club, (TRIC), to raise the standards. This was really for top players and was outside of the NAO organisation.
Tommy bought a 14 bedroom house, Hammonds Wood, in Frencham, Surrey, which is where the teaching was carried out. Lessons were one to one and also residential. There is a great video by Norwegian Television of a musical weekend at the house with the Reilly family, Sigmund Groven. Jim Hughes, Carol Axford, Brian Chaplin and James Moody.
Chromatic players from around the world became members of TRIC and visited Hammonds Wood. Unfortunately TRIC was not sustainable and ended in 1972.
From the late 60s The Accordion Day was held at venues around the UK, and continued to send harmonica players to the FIH World Championships until the last one in Brighton in 1974. Hohner could no longer sustain its support for the Accordion Times and it ceased publication in the same year leaving harmonica players with no magazine or functioning organisation. Accordion Day continues to this day and Accordion Times was restarted in 1981 for accordionists by Francis Wright.
Blues harp players take over
Hohner did not encourage blues and folk music in the NAO organisation during this period but the Beatles had featured harmonica on their recordings and the UK Blues Boom was underway. Cyril Davies and Alexis Korner moved from acoustic blues at the Round House pub in London’s Soho to the launch their electric Blues Incorporated band on an unsuspecting public in Ealing Club opposite Ealing Broadway Tube Station, in London in March, 1962. This lit the fuse for the take-off of The Rolling Stones, Manfred Mann, Savoy Brown, The Pretty Things … all featuring harmonica players. Cyril’s 1963 harmonica instrumental “Country Line Special” introduced the UK’s R&B scene to a wider pop audience.
Hohner featured these harmonica players in many advertisements in the popular music press. The biggest harmonica instrumental was the crossover hit, Groovin’ with Mr Bloe by the late Harry Pitch in 1970.
As the decade came to a close, another acoustic scene was developing in the folk clubs. Country blues and Jug Band music was becoming popular and several well known blues harp players, like Steve Rye and Duster Bennett, got their start in them.
Things were to change markedly in the next few years but you will have to wait for Part 5 to find out exactly what that was.
HarmonicaUK started life as a Hohner marketing activity in 1935 and remained so until it was handed over to the members in 1981. It was first called the Hohner Song Band League, then the National Harmonica League and finally HarmonicaUK.
The Golden Age of the Harmonica
The end of WW2 produced major changes in society. Soldiers returning home wanted change and they returned to a different Britain. One part of the change was the rebuilding of the Entertainment Industry as musicians and artists looking for work as the rebuilding of the country got underway. We will see the secondary effect of the opening up of education when we get to the 1960s.
The 1950s saw the high point for the harmonica. The soloists (Ronald Chesney, Larry Adler, Tommy Reilly and Max Geldray) gained National and International status and the harmonica groups (The Three Monarchs and The Morton Fraser Harmonica Gang) enjoyed lots of success in Music Hall, initially on BBC Radio and then TV brought them into homes all over the country.
Ronald Chesney had demonstrated the potential of the chromatic harmonica when he gave a solo performance in the Royal Albert Hall in 1946. Larry Adler had toured the world, stared in films and composers began to write music for the harmonica. In 1952 Larry performed the ‘Romance in D flat for Harmonica’, composed for him by Ralph Vaughan Williams, in the BBC Proms. Tommy Reilly moved from the Music Hall to the concert stage with compositions by Spivakovsky, Gordon Jacobs and his long term accompanist, James Moody. Max Geldray continued in the jazz clubs and Variety.
The format of the early radio shows opened up many opportunities for entertainers. Shows like ‘Variety Bandbox’ and ‘Workers Playtime’ on the BBC Light Programme provided spots for soloists and the groups but the popular long running comedy programmes like “The Goon Show” and “Educating Archie” featured musical breaks in the story which were filled by Max Geldray and Ronald Chesney respectively. Ronald went on to write the scripts for Educating Archie.
Harmonicas also turned up on themes for radio programs and films.
Tommy Reilly can be heard on Dixon of Dock Green and The Navy Lark.
Larry Adler had a big success with his music for the film “Genevieve”.
Ronald Chesney appeared on Educating Archie.
In addition to the home grown talent, the Harmonicats’ recording of “Peg O’ My Heart” was proving very popular and Borrah Minevitch had moved ‘The Harmonica Rascals’ to France. Interest in the harmonica was at its peak.
The National Harmonica League restarts
Hohner had started rebuilding their organisation after the war and in 1949 they established the National Accordion Organisation (NAO) and relaunched their magazine, “Accordion Times”.
In 1951, Hohner restarted the Hohner National Song Band League (HNSBL) and began the publication of Harmonica News.
This was in part a reaction to the increase in popularity of the harmonica in the UK, but also a result of Hohner setting up the Federation Internationale de l’Harmonica (FIH) with Dr Otto Meyer (GB) as President. This was an umbrella organisation covering most European countries and S Africa which went on to organise the World Harmonica Championships starting in Duisbourg in 1953 and then moving around European cities in subsequent years.
The new organisation had Ronald Chesney as its President and Larry Adler, The Three Monarchs and Tommy Reilly were active in events and writing for the magazine. At the start of 1953 Hohner changed the name of the organisation to the National Harmonica League (NHL). This was less of a mouthful and reflected the increased emphasis on individual players, not bands.
Competition for the NHL Championship was fierce, with regional heats and then a final which was held in the Central Hall, Westminster in London. The three winners then took part in the FIH World Championships. As the event developed, competition classes were held for chromatic soloists, groups and diatonic harmonicas (not blues harp!).
Several of the winners of these early competitions have been active in the NHL in recent years. Douglas Tate, Jim Hughes, Gerry Ezard and Dave Beckford are probably the best known, but even more went on to join the Morton Fraser Harmonica Rascals. Local harmonica bands and groups continued into the 1950s, but the increasing popularity of the guitar based rock and skiffle groups led to a steady decline in their numbers.
The peak of the NHL’s success was in the mid 1950s but by 1958 the interest was waning and Hohner could no longer afford to support the magazine. In 1959, Harmonica News ceased publication and harmonica items were moved into the Accordion Times. The Council of the National Harmonica League agreed to transfer its activities into the larger and more active National Accordion Organisation (NAO). The activities of the NHL continued under the wing of the NAO.
Away from these organisations something was stirring.
Deep in Soho in The Round House pub on Wardour Street, Cyril Davies (harmonica) and Alexis Korner (guitar) were running a club which was progressing from playing early country blues, Woody Guthrie and Leadbelly music, to barrel house and blues.
Touring American blues musicians visited the club and Sonny Terry and Brownie McGee were the club Presidents. Following Muddy Waters visit to the club in 1958, the move to electric Chicago blues music was underway, but that has to wait for the next part of the story…
HarmonicaUK started life as a Hohner marketing activity in 1935 and remained so until it was handed over to the members in 1981. It was first called the Hohner National Song Band League(SBL), then the National Harmonica League (NHL) in 1982 and finally HarmonicaUK in 2021. (Work in progress)
This multi-part history was published in Harmonica World, the magazine which is distributed to members of HarmonicaUK, between 2020 and 2021. It is in 8 parts.
My uploaded harmonica video archives can be found in several places.
YouTube – My first attempts at video production were to capture the annual National Harmonica League (NHL, now HarmonicaUK) concerts in the Folk House in Bristol, starting in 2001 until they were moved after 2018. I also began to digitise some earlier NHL concerts from VHS tapes and early camcorder tapes mainly from recordings by Victor Brooks. Around 230 videos can be viewed on my YouTube site.
Here is the video introduction for this channel.
Vimeo – I prefer the videos to be viewed without ads, and I like the control that a paid Vimeo account allows. The downloading and embedding of the videos can be specified and if a video needs updating or editing it can be uploaded over the original without affecting the original link/url.
My more recent harmonica videos have been uploaded to Vimeo where they can be linked to my websites like this blog. There are over 75. You can view them here
The videos are organised into Showcases where similar videos are grouped together.
Playing the Thing – One group of the Vimeo videos is part of a project to reverse engineer a harmonica film from 1972 – ‘Playing the Thing‘ – directed by Chris Morphet. These are now embedded on a dedicated web site for this project which is recreating the original interviews which were edited to create the original film – Larry Adler, Sonny Terry, James Cotton, Cham-Ber Huang, Duster Bennet, Bill Dicey, Andy Paskas, Hohner’s Factory, Dutch Harmonica Championship … You can watch the original film here,
I first heard about Martin Brinsford when Eddie Upton came to the NHL festival in Bristol in 2008, and we discussed the place of the tremolo harmonica in English Folk dance music. This is covered in full on my blog page on British traditional harmonica players.
Martin was busy at the time with Brass Monkey but eventually he agreed to play at the H2017 and H2018 festivals in Bristol. This is based on his workshops and subsequent communications.
This is work in progress.
Martin was born in 1947 and was given a Hohner Chromatic harmonica when he was 10 years old. He still owns it although he has played tremolo harmonica for the last 50 years. He took up the drums in 1962.
In 1972 he bought a copy of ‘Morris On‘, a folk rock interpretation of Morris dance tunes featuring John Kirkpartrick and members of Fairport Convention, and fell in love with the music. That year, after moving to Cheltenham, he joined the newly formed and subsequently legendary Old Spot Morris dancers where he met Rod Stradling, an influential melodeon player and evangelist for the traditional music of England. Rod gave Martin at least 6 hours of cassette tape recordings of traditional musicians which he listened to religiously whilst working as a carpenter on building sites, much to the bemusement of the rest of the workforce!
Rod also introduced Martin to the Romany Traveller tradition of simultaneous mouth organ and tambourine playing.
The Old Swan Band, England’s premier country dance band, was formed in 1974 with Rod, Martin and other local musicians, playing tremolo and and percussion. It is still playing and they had a 40th anniversary concert tour in 2014.
Martin’s first recording was in 1976 on squeeze box virtuoso John Kirkpartrick’s album Plain Capers and in 1977 the Old Swan Band released the first of many LPs and CDs
Martin Carthy and John Kirkpatrick set up Brass Monkey in 1981 and invited Martin Brinsford to join. They toured and recorded extensively but intermittently for over 30 years. Martin is pretty confident he was in the only band to play at the Albert Hall and his local pub, The Prince Albert, in Stroud. Here is a video featuring Martin playing ‘Happy Hours‘ with them.
Martin played with several other bands like The Tangent Band, and Edward II and the Red Hot Polkas as well as taking part in many recording sessions on harmonica, saxophone and percussion.
He has also recorded with the English country dance band ‘The Mellstock Band‘, ‘The Steve Ashley Band‘, ‘Phoenix‘, and ‘Grand Union‘, on on harmonica, saxophone and percussion. He even played on ‘Grandson of Morris On‘ a third generation follow up to the record which inspired him all those years before.
An unusual part of Martin’s style is his gypsy style harmonica and tambourine playing. He discussed this in a workshop at the NHL H2017 festival. He also demonstrated his interest in performing a wide range of world music.
Currently he is playing with The Pigeon Swing who specialise in vintage Québécois dance music, and who are planning to record later this year.
Martin and Katie Howson played together for a few years, but now it is on an occasional basis.
Martin’s most recent CD, ‘Next Slide Please‘ has lots of mainly Irish/American tunes and was recorded with Keith Ryan and Gareth Kiddier.
I learned about Terry Potter from Eddie Upton in 2008. Eddie ran Folk South West when he came to the National Harmonica League festival. He was able to give me the names of some harmonica players who were active in the English folk music scene.
Terry Potter is a tremolo player who has been active since the 1960s with the modern traditional musicians like Ashley Hutchings (‘The Compleat Dancing Master‘, ‘Kicking Up The Sawdust‘) as well as playing with the Etchingham Steam Band, Potters Wheel and his family group, Cousins and Sons.
Along with Richard Taylor, I interviewed Terry Potter in his home in Sussex in 2009. I am using this and subsequent written communication to write this blog.
Terry was born in 1935 and is a traditional folk musician. He first became involved after his extended National Service in Germany, when he attended a local folk club in 1957, in the Free Christian Hall, in Horsham, West Sussex, where he still lives. It was run by his parents and he joined in all the dancing. He wanted to play this sort of music and remembered he had some old mouth organs at home. His father had played mouth organ and Terry had played a few pop songs – but not in public! Both his father, Charlie, and mother, Marjorie sang folk songs and were recorded by local collectors in the 1950s. Their original songbook was presented to the Horsham Museum.
He was allowed to join in at the next dance and soon learned to play a number of tunes, like ”Joe the Carrier Lad‘, from three ladies, The Benacre Band, who came to the club. They invited him to play with their band. He played his first concert that year which lead to to his first band, ‘The Derrydowners Folk Band’ with Geoff Hedger (piano), Derrick Smith (accordion), George Whetton (banjo), Lionel Bounton and Tony Wales (drums). It played for Barn Dances throughout Sussex for over 25 years
Terry formed a folk club in Horsham in 1958 with Tony Wales called called Horsham Songswappers, and the Horsham Folk Club continues to this day. Folk musicians were a close knit group and Terry joined up with Paul Morris (guitar/banjo) and Mike Howley (accordion) and played with them at ‘The Troubadour‘ at the time of the London folk boom, and with ‘Benacre Band‘ at the Albert Hall, in London, in 1958. There was also ‘The ‘Pandemonium String Band‘ with Pete Marsden (fiddle, guitar and vocal) in 1958 and ‘Country Cousins‘ began in 1962. Terry collected folk albums and played in the Ceilidh, jazz and blues clubs in Dublin and made visits to Germany.
In 1970, Terry was in Martyn Wyndham-Read’s band, ‘No Man’s Band‘ and they were heard busking in Leicester Square, London. They were playing Ned Kelly songs outside the premier of the film ‘Ned Kelly‘, staring Mick Jagger, and they ended up playing them on the BBC2 late night TV show.
Terry met Ashley Hutchins in 1972 when he was recording an album of traditional tunes with well known folk musicians, ‘The Compleat Dancing Master‘.
Terry played on the three tracks below: First, ‘Haste to the Wedding‘ – 2:10 mins, ‘The Triumph‘ – 4:25, ‘Off She Goes‘.
Here are a couple of tracks from Shirley Collin’s 1974 album, ‘Adieu To Old England‘. First, ‘The Chiners‘ and then ‘Portsmouth‘.
From the 1970s, Terry played mouth organ occasionally with several progressive folk bands such as ‘The Albion Band‘, ‘Kicking up the Sawdust‘, ‘The Etchingham Steam Band‘, ‘Potters Wheel‘, and ‘No Man’s Band‘. These bands included great musicians Ashley Hutchins, Shirley Collins, Dave Mattocks, Simon Nicol, Martyn Wyndham-Read, John Kirkpatrick, Bob Cann, Grahame Taylor, Peter Bullock, Michael Gregory, John Tams, and John Rodd.
Here Terry is featured on ‘Speed the Plough‘ on the ‘Kicking up the Sawdust‘ LP.
Some of these bands became very popular and some of the musicians went full time and toured Europe. Terry had a job and could not continue so he stood down and continued to play locally. He had worked with Metal Box but later did a series of local jobs.
Terry had continued to play with his cousin, Ian Holder, and wife, Margaret, since 1963 with various musicians but the band finally settled into, literally, Cousins and Sons‘ when they were joined by their sons, James Potter and Gary Holder. In 1978, John Tyler included their gigs in Harmonica News. They played together for 50 years but no longer play regularly in public. Fortunately, Dave Arthur recorded the group in 1993 in Terry’s sitting room.
Terry does not read music so he has built up his large repertoire of music by learning by ear. He only plays a tremolo but this has all the diatonic notes and it lets him play in many styles of music besides folk, including popular and some jazz tunes for fun. The mouth organ’s musical range is similar to other instruments in the bands but he can play in the higher octaves to have a more distinctive voice. He also uses a small Hohner mic and amplifier when playing in the band. Like Sonny Terry he plays the mouth organ upside down (back to front) with the high notes on the left.
Terry has made lots of recordings but the financial rewards are slim. His checks of the Royalties website suggest he may have to wait a while before they reach the level where they start paying out. He plays music for the heart and still gets nervous when he performs.
Terry has a large collection of mouth organs but his favourite is a Golden Melody which he plays in the keys of C,G,A,D,E and F. Hohner liked to get value from their brand names and this is not the well loved blues harp, but a tremolo harp.
Terry has made a collection of tracks called “Terry’s Collection – 1974 to 2001” which illustrates the range of his musical performances with different groups.
A = ‘Country Cousins‘, B = ‘Potter’s Wheel‘, C = ‘No Man’s Band‘, and D = ‘Etchingham Steam Band‘.
