Category: Tremolo

The History of HarmonicaUK (Part 8, from 2000)

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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.

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The History of HarmonicaUK (Part 7, 1986-2000)

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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.

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Forward to The History of HarmonicaUK – Part 8

The History of HarmonicaUK (Part 6, 1981-1986)

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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.

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Forward to The History of HarmonicaUK – Part 7

The History of HarmonicaUK (Part 4, 1959-1974)

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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.

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Forward to The History of HarmonicaUK – Part 5

The History of HarmonicaUK (Part 3, 1950-1959)

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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…

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Forward to The History of HarmonicaUK – Part 4

The History of HarmonicaUK Home Page (1930-Present)

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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 harmonica video archives on YouTube and Vimeo

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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,

Martin Brinsford – Traditional Tremolo Harmonica Player

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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.

Return to my blog page on British traditional harmonica players.

Terry Potter – Traditional Tremolo Harmonica Player

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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.

These are included in my blog page on British traditional harmonica players.

It is work in progress.

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.

You can see glimpses of Terry in the first part of a video documentary about ‘The Albion Band‘.

Here is a link to the 1974 John Peel session with the Etchingham Steam Band.

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‘.

Track 1, A, Walpole Cottage

Track 2, A, Cumberland Reel/Rosin the Bow

Track 3, B, Acre of Land

Track 4, A, Cross of Arboe

Track 5, A, Michael Turner’s Trip to Cheltenham

Track 6, C, Three Morris Tunes

Track 7, B, April Morning

Track 8, A, Austrian Pottery

Track 9, A, Portsmouth/New Rigged Ship

Track 10, B, Dark Eyed Dinah

Track 11, A, Three Sea Captains

Track 12, A, Salmon Tails/Maggie in the Woods

Track 13, C, Shelter

Track 14, A, Bonnets so Blue

Track 15, D, Orange in Bloom

Track 16, B, Soldiers Glory/Brothers in York

Track 17, A, The Guilded Cage

Track 18, A, The Fyket and Bainbridge Girls

Log Cabin/Lisa Jane

Big Corral/Kemo Kimo (Sing Song Kitty)

Kitty McGee/Paddy Cary

Return to my blog page on British traditional harmonica players.

English Traditional Harmonica Players

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Whilst there is a lot of information on the use of the harmonica in Scottish and Irish Traditional music, little has been written about its use in England. This reflects the lower profile of traditional music in England and the relative isolation of most of the harmonica/mouth organ players. Musicians usually use tremolo or diatonic harmonicas. Here is a brief summary of what we could find. More details will follow about specific players from England. This is work in progress.

This review was written by Roger Trobridge with the help of Katie Howson. Thanks also to Jane Bird and others for their input.

Northumberland shares a border and many cultural links with Scotland, especially musical ones. It’s mainly rural location in the North of England has helped it to retain its musical traditions when other regions have struggled to do so.

The Northumberland Moothie Tradition

Will Atkinson (1908-2003) from Northumberland is the best known English traditional harmonica player. Will came from a musical family and was a shepherd for most of his life. He played mouthorgan and melodeon as a child before moving to the accordion and playing in a local group. Later in his life he returned to the tremolo harmonica. Will knew and played with many of the musicians like Jimmy Shand at musical festivals in the Scottish Borders. His repertoire included a very large number of local and Scottish tunes and he was renowned for precision of his playing. There are several CDs of him playing solo or with The Shepherds (Joe Hutton and Willie Taylor).

Ernie Gordon (The Geordie Jock) from Alnwick was a friend of Will’s and spent a lot of time with him, learning many of Will’s tunes. He is a fine musician who also plays the pipes and drums as well as music from countries like Greece where he lived for a few years. Ernie has been a big supporter of HarmonicaUK for 20 years which has help to raise the profile of the moothie. He has recorded one CD. You can see many videos of Ernie Gordon and Will Atkinson here.

Roy Hugman is another Geordie moothie player from Morpeth, who has promoted music from Northumberland and taught tremolo for HarmonicaUK is . He plays locally with his band and has an active YouTube and Facebook page.

Jimmy Little is a prominent moothie player from the Alnwick area who has released a couple of CDs.

Jimmy Hunter was recorded by collector Peter Kennedy in 1954 at his home at Haydon Bridge, Northumberland, England, when Kennedy was working for the BBC’s Folk Music & Dialect Recording Scheme.

Other Geordie moothie players include Anita James and Rob Say.

Other Regional Traditional Players

Some other areas, particularly East Anglia and the West Country also held onto their traditional music, including harmonica players. Here are some who have been picked up by collectors and local clubs.

Jim Small (1913-n.d.) Learned to play from his father and played for folkdancing at school as a teenager, growing up near the Mendips in Somerset. He was involved in national radio broadcasts from 1938 to the mid 1950s, playing mostly folk dance music, and was then rediscovered by the revivalists of English traditional music in the 1970s. He was featured on a cassette / CD on Peter Kennedy’s Folktrax label, which sadly, no longer exists.

Alfie Butler was a Gloucestershire gypsy who played harmonica as well as piano accordion.

Bill Elsom and Jasper Smith were Travellers recorded in southern England; the latter can be heard on the CD “My Father’s the King of the Gypsies” on the Topic label.

Peter Roud, from Hampshire, was the subject of an article in EDS Spring 2011. He made a few recordings which are held by his family.

Sam Bond, again in Hampshire, played polkas, step dances, marches, singalong tunes etc, and recorded a cassette on the Forest Tracks label.

Stan Seaman was, a Hampshire melodeon player who also plays harmonica who made some recordings.

Dave Williams (1934-1997) was a harmonica, melodeon and banjo player in the New Forest area, who performed with Stan Seaman on many occasions, and was part of the Forest Tracks record label which recorded both Stan and Sam Bond.

Two more Hampshire players, Jimmy Dixon and Ron Whatmore can be heard on the Topic CD: “Rig-A-Jig-Jig – Dance Music of the South of England”.

John Cole played chromatic with a few of the folk song and skiffle groups in the London area in the 1950s before moving to Spain.

Bill Train of Teignmouth recorded a selection of old song tunes, polkas hornpipes and a nice jig.

The musical and dance traditions from the Dartmoor area have been well documented through the twentieth century.

Jack Rice (1915-1994) and Les Rice (1912-1996), cousins from Chagford, Dartmoor, played harmonica, concertina and accordion in the pubs, and for dancing. There is a CD of their playing available, called “Merrymaking” on Veteran (VT144CD).

Bill Murch played in the Dartmoor Pixie Band from 1973 to 1992 and can be heard on their CD “A Dartmoor Country Dance Party” – VT113.

Mike Bond (1943-2014) was a real enthusiast and inspired everyone he met, and there’s a nice interview with him here: https://www.flaxey-green.co.uk/Devon%20Folk/pdf/WA%20archive/WA87.pdf

The county of Suffolk has been well covered by folk music collectors throughout the course of the 20th century and just a cursory scan of the sources produces: Albert Smith, Tom Thurston, Harry Fleet, Charlie Philpots, Fred Pearce and George Ling in the coastal village: some of these can be read about on the “Sing Say and Play” pages on the Musical Traditions website – https://www.mustrad.org.uk/ssp . In Mid Suffolk there are even more names to be found including George Wade, Glyn Griffiths, Clemmie Pearson, Tom Williams, Lubbidy Rice, Jack Pearson, Bill Smith and Reg Pyett, who are all featured on the double CD “Many A Good Horseman” on the Veteran label. Others including fiddler Fred Whiting, melodeon players Walter Read and Fred List were known to play the harmonica as well. Most of these men played in the their local pubs on a Saturday night and for outings with darts and quoits teams, and their repertoire would include sing-a-long songs as well as hornpipes and polkas for stepdancing.

Harold Covill (1910-1993) from March in Cambridgeshire started by playing his father’s mouthorgan and played all his life for local entertainments and dances. In later life he featured on Topic Records’ 1974 LP “English Country Music from East Anglia”. He also taught children through a local youth club.

Jack Hyde played for Abingdon Traditional Morris Dancers (now Oxfordshire, but then Berkshire). There are tracks of him on two CDs on the Topic label: “You Lazy Lot of Boneshakers” and “Rig-A-Jig-Jig – Dance Music of the South of England”.

Players In English Ceilidh Bands etc.

Martin Brinsford (b. 1947) started playing drums in 1962 and then discovered traditional English dance and music and took up playing tremolo harmonica. He was a founder member of Old Swan Band, England’s premier country dance band, and Brass Monkey with Martin Carthy and John Kirkpatrick. He has played in many other bands and recording sessions He plays a wide range of music drawn from around the world as well as England. currently plays vintage Québécois dance music with The Pigeon Swing. He has played at HarmonicaUK festivals. You can read more here.

Terry Potter (b. 1935) is another tremolo player who has been active since the 1960s with the modern tradition 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. You can read more here.

John Tams (b.1949) is a multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter, composer and actor. He is known locally in Derbyshire for his work with the Derbyshire Volunteers, but is known worldwide as the driving force behind such hugely influential groups such as Home Service and the Albion Band and also for his creative input into productions such as “War Horse” and “Lark Rise to Candleford” at the National Theatre, and for composing TV and film music including “Sharpe”.

Katie Howson (b.1956) is known mainly for playing the English melodeon/ diatonic accordion but has in fact played tremolo harmonica for nearly as long. A member of several English ceilidh bands, including PolkaWorks, whose 2014 CD “Borrowed Shoes” features her harmonica playing.

Chris Taylor (b.1946) from Kent, played in the Oyster Ceilidh Band, Gas Mark V and Polkabilly. Gas Mark V released a number of recordings featuring his harmonica playing.

Simon Booth (b.1955) from Lancashire, plays tremolo harmonica and recorded with the Ran Tan Band.

Barry Parkes (b.1952) from Cheshire, plays tremolo harmonica and recorded with Dr Sunshine’s Pavement Show, All Blacked Up and The Ironmasters.

Des Miller whilst living in Norfolk played and recorded with the Old Hat Concert Party and Rig-a-Jig, both bands specialising in localised repertoire.

Jaime Gill was featured in “Harmonica World” playing his large Hohner “683” double sider with the Clog Morris Band. He plays in “The Bicton Inn” in Exmouth.

Steve Harrison played mouth organ (and melodeon) in a couple of barn dance bands around Halifax (Yorkshire) and occasionally further afield. He was a member of HarmonicaUK and played tremolo and later, diatonic, until his death in 2018.

Eddie Upton took up harmonica more seriously in the 1970s. He played and recorded with The Pump and Pluck Band and toured Internationally. He set up Folk South West in 1992 and he appeared at a HarmonicaUK festival.

Ted Crum (1947-2020) from Coventry played blues style harp to accompany folk songs with Somerville Gentlemen’s Band, and driving dance music with “rock ceilidh band” Peeping Tom and jazz-influenced Steamchicken.

Jon Fletcher plays diatonic, chromatic and tremolo harmonicas and is a guitarist and singer, performing both solo and with the band Magpie Lane.

Keith Holloway plays tremolo harmonica, although he better known as a melodeon and bass player in bands iincluding Random, The Old Chapel Band & Bosun Higgs.

The New Generation

Traditional music never stands still and young musicians will always find a way to keep it fresh and relevant for the new generation. Two in particular are very talented, original International performers who include traditional music in their compositions and performances, but in very different ways.

Will Pound comes from a folk music family and he has worked with other musicians like Dan Walsh (banjo) to develop his own style and repertoire. He has been nominated for the BBC Folk Awards ‘Musician of the Year’ and has released six varied CDs. You can find out more about him here and on his website.

Phillip Henry is one of the UK’s top guitarists as well as a harmonica player who has developed his own style of beatboxing and diatonic harmonica playing. He has been nominated for Instrumentalist of the Year in the FATEA Awards and has released several CDs alone and with collaborators like Hannah Martin (Edgelarks). You can read more about Phillip here and on his website.

Sean Spicer and Simon Joy are two younger players who are continuing in the tradition. Sean played in the National Youth Folk Ensemble and at Twickfolk and Simon looks after traditional music within HarmonicaUK.

Jane Bird plays diatonic and tremolo harmonicas, mainly in sessions. She also plays anglo concertina and is probably more widely known as a dance caller and event organiser.

Scottish Traditional Harmonica Players

Nigel Gatherer has a list of Scottish traditional recordings and musicians including moothie players

George Current has more background on the Scottish moothie players.

Irish Traditional Harmonica Players

Don Meade has written a very detailed document about The Harmonica and Irish Traditional Music which includes an Irish/Scottish/Quebecois Harmonica Discography.

Geoff Wallis’ The Irish Music Review has a slightly updated version of the list of players.

Dave Hynes has assembled a large gallery of images of Irish traditional harmonica players, as well as a list of the All Ireland Champions and BDs and DVDs of harmonica music.Additional Information

Additional Information

Will Atkinson – 3 CDs (2 were LPs) have been released – Mouth Organ (Solo), Harthorpe Burn (Joe Hutton, Willy Taylor and Will Atkinson), An Audience with the Shepherds (Joe Hutton, Willy Taylor and Will Atkinson). Will also plays on several CDs of Northumberland Traditional music. Here is a video from a concert at Morpeth Town Hall.

Martin Brinsford – He has recorded one CD under his own name, Next Slide Please (Keith Ryan with Gareth Kiddier) and he is present on several recordings with Brass Monkey. He has several videos on YouTube from the HarmonicaUK festivals.

Ernie Gordon – He has a privately recorded CD, The Geordie Jock and several YouTube videos including this Tribute to Will Atkinson from an HarmonicaUK concert in 2003. You can see many other videos of Ernie Gordon and Will on my Vimeo site.

Roy Hugman – Has several videos on Youtube including a moothie workshop for HarmonicaUK.