VOLTAROL'S RADIO PROGRAMME PLAYLISTS

Here, as promised on the radio last week, are the playlists for the programmes so far. Unfortunately I haven't got time to annotate them with links but if you are interested then a quick 'google' will give you most information - but you know that already or you wouldn't be reading this! If you want to know more about anything that I play on the show then by all means contact me via the blog. Happy listening!

p.s.Normal service on the blog will be resumed as soon as possible. I'll be back with more of the John McCartney story in the near future

ADVENTURES IN THE DIN TRADE – Programme 1. Friday 29^th April 2011

This programme was repeated on Friday May 6^th.

Intro: AIRTO MOREIRA – Andei (I Walked)

1. NOTENSTOCK – Itapemirim 5.40

2. JORGE BEN – Taj Mahal 3.05

3. SERGIO MENDES AND BRAZIL 77 – Pomba Gira 2.30

4. CANNONALL ADDERLEY – Batida Diferente 3.24

5. DOM UM ROMÃO – Caravan 5.09

6. WEATHER REPORT – Rockin’ in Rhythm 3.02

7. STEPS AHEAD – Pools 11.15
8. ELIANE ELIAS – Manha de Carnaval 6.40
9. JACK DE JOHNETTE’S SPECIAL EDITION – Third World Anthem 10.46
10. PAT METHENY GROUP Goin’ Ahead. As Falls Wichita etc. 16.20
11. QUARTETO NOVO – Misturada 4.16
12. QUARTETO NOVO –Vim de Santana 5.09
13. EDU LÔBO – Casa Forte 3.06
14. AIRTO – Papa Furado 3.29
15. 1HERALDO DO MONTE – Nosso Boi 3.06
16.  THEO DE BARROS – Angola 4.09
17.  HERMETO PASCOAL – Viva Jackson de Pandeiro 2.23

ADVENTURES IN THE DIN TRADE – Programme 2. Friday 13^th May 2011

1. RENATO MARTINS – Boca Suja 1.42
2.  FRIENDSHIP – Bullet Train 5.23
3. JOÃO BOSCO – Expresso 2222 5.13
4.  RICHARD BONA – Balemba Na Bwemba 4.58
5. SERGIO MENDES & BRASIL 77 – After Sunrise 3.27
6. KIRSTY MACCOLL– In These Shoes? 3.27
7. THE JIM ALL TRIO – Down From Antigua 6.38
8. LYNNE ARRIALE TRIO – Calypso 5.13
9.  MARIA RITA – Pagu 3.52 
10. DAVY GRAHAM – Cry Me a River 2.1
11.  MICHEL COLUMBIER – Dreamland 4.17
12.  RICHARD GALLIANO – Mr Clifton 3.48
13.  CESAR CAMARGO MARIANO & ROMERO LUBAMBO – Joy Spring 4.32
14.  SAM BUSH – Sailin Shoes 3.38
15.  MUMADJI – Preto E Branco 9.13
16.  GIL GOLDSTEIN & ROMERO LUBAMBO – The Phonecians 6.52
17.  IAN DURY AND THE BLOCKHEADS – You’ll See Glimpses 3.40
18. CHARLIE HADEN & PAT METHENY – The Precious Jewel 3.45

ADVENTURES IN THE DIN TRADE – programme 3. Friday May 20^th.

1. JOHN ABERCROMBIE – Ethereggae 8.23

2. HOWARD ALDEN / GEORGE VAN EPS – Just You, Just Me 5.18

3. LAURINDO ALMEIDA / BUD SHANK – Atábaque 2.48

4. BADI ASSAD – Rua Harmonia 5.14

5. SERGIO & ODAIR ASSAD – Deciso 4.39

6. BADEN POWELL – O Astonauta 2.32

7. BADEN POWELL – O Pastorinhas 6.11

8. RUSS BARENBERG – Cowboy Calypso 3.52

9. RUSS BARENBERG – Halloween Rehearsal 4.16

10. GEORGE BARNES - Love is Just Around the Corner 2.30

11. GEORGE BARNES – Intricacies of a Threshing Machine 1.37

12. RUBY BRAFF / GEORGE BARNES QUARTET – Liza 4.22

13. PAULO BELLINATI Lamento do Morro 2.26

14. PAULO BELLINATI & MONICA SALMASO - Cordão de Ouro / Berimbau 4.26

15. PAU BRASIL – Pulo do Gato 8.00

16. VICTOR BIGLEONE BRAZILIAN QUARTET – Cai Dentro 5.11

17. VICTOR BIGLEONE – Tommy Medley 4.04

19. LUIZ BONFA – Manha de Carnaval 2.27

ADVENTURES IN THE DIN TRADE – programme 4. Friday May 27^th.

1. STAN GETZ QUINTET – Cool Mix 3.03

2. JAY & KAI TROMBONE OCTET – The Surrey with the Fringe on Top 2.05

3. JACK TEAGARDEN – Rose of Washington Square 2.54

4. PAULO MOURA - ‘Chorinho pra Você’ 7.32

5. ZÉ DA VELHA – Ainda Me Recorda 3.58

6. PAGODE JAZZ SARDINHA’S CLUB – Transmestiço 6.09

7. CARLA BLEY - The Lord is Listening to Ya, Hallelujah! 7.11

8. ANDY SHEPPARD – Sofa Safari 13.16

9. ROLAND PERRIN – The First Word 6.38

10. JAY AND KAI – Alone Together 3.33

11. JUNE CHRISTY – The Kissing Bug 2.41

12. RAUL DE SOUZA St Remy 5.41

13. BOCATO – Samba de Zamba 6.01

14. BOCATO – Nossos Momentos 5.59

15. MICHEL PETRUCCIANI – Brazilian Like 4.47

15. STAN GETZ QUINTET- Erudition 3.08

Friday afternoon and Saturday evening…

No, I know it’s not as catchy as Alan Sillitoe’s book title but sometimes you just have to go with what you’ve got. So – what I’ve got is Voltarol on the radio again on Friday afternoon (see link under 'Voltarol Recommends...) with ‘Adventures in the Din Trade, the radio show’ - the printed word in Spoke (apologies to Spike Milligan for that theft) and Que Belo Castelo at the Four Winds Inn, Falmouth on Saturday evening. And who are Que Belo Castelo, I hear you cry? Well, regular readers of these postings will remember one from November last year called A man of constant Choro. Those rehearsals bear their first fruits on Saturday night with that group now bearing a name which is in fact the Portuguese translation of an impersonation of a goldfish…don’t ask – it’s a long story…

Anyway, we’ve added to the range of the material and gained another musician along the way. The musician is clarinettist Dan Hughes who is a regular member of the Cornwall based world music group 

Dan Hughes

Braga Tanga, and the expanded range of material now includes sambas, bossa novas, Cuban tunes, jazz standards, South African tunes and original material.  If you live in Cornwall in the Falmouth area and you fancy a meal and an evening of eclectic music with a strong Brazilian flavour then here are the details.

Saturday May 14th

The Four Winds Inn

Dracaena Avenue, Falmouth

Que Belo Castelo

Kate Blackmore: Flute, Sam Norman: Double Bass, Pete Turner: Percussion, Pete Kubryk Townsend: 7 String Guitar
with Dan Hughes: Clarinet

Tickets £12 - includes hot and cold buffet

Doors open 7 p.m. Food served from 8 p.m. Music commences 9 p.m.

Phone 01326 311369 for bookings

or email fourwindspub@yahoo.com

You may detect a faint resemblance between Pete Turner and Voltarol – pure coincidence, I assure you…

JOHN NIXON, Maestro of the English Concertina: 1927 - 2011

Earlier last month I learned that my good friend John Nixon had died at the age of 84. He had not been in the best of health for the last couple of years and finally succumbed to chronic anaemia and heart failure on March 4^th. He was a master musician who played alto saxophone and bass to a high standard, although he was best known for his English Concertina playing. John was a man who didn’t differentiate between genres of music: it was either good music, in which case it interested him, or it was bad music and therefore didn’t. As a consequence he saw nothing unusual about playing modern jazz or classical music on the concertina, which is normally seen as a purely ‘folk’ instrument. He was therefore much in demand for sessions and studio work.

Just over ten years ago John wrote a short autobiographical article for use by Rob Howard ( who also posted an obituary of John on Concertina.net in his four Volume work - The A-Z of the Accordion (and related instruments) and I have been given permission by John's widow, Margery, to reproduce it here.

THE ENGLISH CONNECTION

Recollections from John Nixon

My father, the late Jack Nixon, was one of five children who lived with their parents in a village just outside Bolton in Lancashire. The village (Lever Bridge) was surrounded by, on one side the church where I was christened, the Leverhulme Park, a river, Ramsden’s Pub, a very lofty railway viaduct and just beyond that, a monster canal aqueduct which, like the railway viaduct, crossed the valley high in the sky. Further round was a steep grassy bank on top of which was a terrace of cottages. In the centre of this terrace lived a man who was to have a big influence on my father’s life (and subsequently mine).

The man was a musician who played a Wheatstone Treble Aeola (which had glass keys) and other instruments such as Musical Glasses and a Musical Saw. I think his name was Abraham. My father, as a boy, used to climb the grassy bank and sit outside Abraham’s house to listen to his music. Abraham soon encouraged my dad into his home to listen properly and this led to dad being taught by Abraham to play the concertina.

My dad’s family were not interested in hearing a youth practicing scales in the house so dad had to practice in the coal shed outside. Of course, when his ability was recognised locally the family became very interested. Dad saved his money for many years until, at age 19, he bought a new Wheatstone Aeola Treble (the one I still play).

My father married and they set up home around the corner in Radcliffe Road in two rooms above a Butcher’s Shop (which is where I was born in January 1927) just a couple of hundred yards along the road from where Fred Dibnah lives today. The shop is currently a Chip Shop.

We moved to Bridgeman Street, Farnworth, which is where at my age of four dad taught me to play a Wheatstone Treble of the learners type, which had rosewood ends and white bone keys except C naturals, which were coloured red. I have a similar model still which, with reeds removed, has been used by a number of actors in various TV productions that I have played in. When I was almost six years old dad bought me a second-hand Wheatstone Aeola Baritone and that is the one I use mostly nowadays.

Dad took me along to a Bolton English Concertina Band rehearsal when I was six. This was in the basement of Queen Street Mission in Bolton and dad, who was the lead concertina, introduced me to the band’s conductor, Albert Jennings (who also conducted the Black Dyke Mills Brass Band) and it was agreed that I be allowed to join the band. I was handed a Wheatstone Baritone which had been tuned by the local expert (Dick Lord, I think his name was) so as to be playable from Horns in F parts directly using standard English fingering. I played in many concerts with the band and the highlight came on January18th 1935, one week before my eighth birthday. It was a broadcast from the BBC Manchester Studios in Piccadilly. I remember such programme items as a Selection from The Maid of the Mountains, Lustpiel Overture and The Entry of the Gladiators March. I can, for some obscure reason, remember that each player was paid 5 shillings except the Drummer (not part of the normal line-up) who received 7 shillings and 6 pence.

About this time dad formed his Quintet which enjoyed success with many concerts and broadcasts from Manchester. In those days the BBC used to audition folk in their own homes as well as the studios and I can recall a visit to our home in Bridgeman Street by BBC men Mr D.G. Bryson and a Mr McNair, who auditioned dad’s Quintet. Initially, the quintet consisted of dad leading on Treble, Wilf Wallace on Baritone, Bert Dingsdale on Double Bass and Jim Howarth on Cornet. Jim Howarth was later replaced by an excellent pianist called Arthur Prescott. The popular programmes they played included The Grasshopper’s Dance, Cuckoo Waltz, Old Comrades March, Belphegor March and, most popular of all, the Intermezzo from Cavalleira Rusticana.

During the 30’s dad had also played many solo spots around Lancashire and Yorkshire, usually accompanied by a pianist. He eventually arranged the piano parts for me to play on my Baritone and as a duo we were quite busy during the late 30’s, playing in clubs, schools and pubs etc. Each year dad would book our one week holiday in Morecambe at Mr’s Law’s boarding house in Queen’s Square and he also arranged for he and I (sic) to play at the Phoenix Club in Lancaster for three evening spots. This engagement each year paid for our family holiday.

A very significant contribution to improving my sight reading came as a result of borrowing large volumes of complete pianoforte works of all the great composers from Farnworth Public Library. By now I had developed the ability to read the bass clef parts of piano music on my Baritone and each free evening after my father had bathed and eaten (his day job was of (sic) an Iron Moulder) we would play all the music available from the library, playing some of the more difficult parts over again until we were satisfied with our performance.

I was given an opportunity to go to the B.B.C. studios in Manchester to audition for the Children’s Hour Programmes and although I passed the audition I wasn’t allowed to broadcast until I was 12 years old and even then I had to have a licence from the local authority.Eventually in 1940 I did play the first of many solo spots on the Children’s Hour, accompanied by that fine musician, the late Violet Carson. I remember playing Tosselli’s Serenata, Heyke’s Standchen Serenade and The Stars and Stripes Forever March. I was also called upon to perform the musical parts of actors in a number of radio plays for the Children’s Hour. Just prior to this, in the late 30’s dad bought me a trumpet and I eventually played it with his Quintet and also with the local Salvation Army Band and the Farnworth Old Brass Band.

When the 2^nd World War came along members of the Bolton English Concertina Band and dad’s Quintet dispersed for the war effort and never reformed after the war ended. I sold my trumpet and borrowed money to buy an Alto Saxophone with the intention of getting the Concertina into a dance band. In fact the Saxophone (and Clarinet) took over as I was in demand to play Lead Saxophone at the (then) Bolton Palais. During the resident band’s holidays I took my own band into each ballroom for a fortnight.

Even though I had, you could say, made it with the Saxophone and Clarinet, I still wanted to push the Concertina forward to play with other different instruments and one evening, whilst playing for dancing with a quartet,  used the concertina for a waltz and played through the stand microphone so as to be heard above the other instruments. A man came to me and said that he could provide me with a much better sound with a personal amplifier and a small microphone fitted to each end of the Baritone. After he tried various combinations I was kitted out and that really opened up a whole new opportunity to develop my playing in Dance Bands and with Jazz Groups. I shortly afterwards moved to the South West and the amplified Baritone was seen and heard in just about every establishment in the Bath, Bristol and Warminster district, including the Radio and T.V. Studios of T.W.W. and B.B.C. I was very busy playing for dancing in large and small bands and became a regular member of the Tony Mockford Quintet at the Grand Spa Hotel in Bristol for some years. Tony loved the sound of the Baritone and wrote many special arrangements for it within the quintet. The guitarist with this band, Bill Parnham, had previously been a member of the Mantovani Orchestra.

I later moved to the West London district of New Denham and developed a long B.B.C. and I.T.V television connection for session work and also many engagements to play in orchestras for the recording of film scores, notably with the London Symphony and Wren Orchestras. The noted French composer Philippe Sarde first wrote for the English Concertina in his score for the Roman Polanski film ‘Tess’, and he said that he liked the sound of the Concertina because it was different. He scored for the Concertina in a further four films which were recorded in London or Paris.

I had the pleasure of playing alongside the great Jack Emblow during a Jazz session in Marlow in 1972 and that was the first of many enjoyable sessions in and around West London.

I had become conscious of the fact that I had gradually used the English Concertina in an ever enlarging sphere of music and this was something that dad did during the 30’s. This has been done in the company of quite famous musicians such as Michel LeGrand, Paul McCartney and Barbra Streisand and I feel sure that my father and the man who taught him so many years ago would have been pleased and even proud to have witnessed such a wide acceptance of the English Concertina. I hope that others can further this and that the very many players whose main interest lies in the English Folk idiom will take advantage of any tuition available to spread their abilities to take in classical, Jazz and Dance Music, in addition to the folk music of other countries.

My father taught me to play the English Concertina, but even more he taught me to appreciate all forms of music and how to listen to them properly.

John Nixon

21^st September 2000

 I shall be playing some of John's music on my radio show in a few week's time, so watch this space for further details.

That damned Radio Show...

For those of you that missed the first broadcast (but HADN'T intended to), it will be repeated again this Friday as I had made a prior commitment for that date before I took on the show. However, The following Friday will see things back on course and a brand new and shiny 'Adventure in the Din Trade' can be heard between 1 p.m and 3 p.m on (ominously!) Friday 13th May on the internet here or on The Source FM 96.1 if you live near Penryn in Cornwall, UK.

MURPHY'S LAW STRIKES AGAIN

Just when you think everything is going to plan, the phone rings and a voice tells you that there are problems with the transmitter and your radio show is now due to go out NEXT Friday and not this one. This posting should be up within minutes of the advertised time for my show (see previous posting) so I apologise for that and blame it on the aforementioned Murphy. So expect to hear my dulcet tones on the ether on Friday 29th April at 1pm UK time. Damn that Murphy...

VOLTAROL GOES LIVE!

Many apologies for the long gap since the last posting. Things in Voltarol World have been a bit chaotic for the last few weeks for various reasons but I will be back on course, continuing the John McCartney story and explaining the gap in transmission in the next couple of weeks. But in the meantime - as of tomorrow you can hear 'Adventures in the Din Trade' as a live two hour radio programme every Friday for the next three months! It goes out between 1 p.m. and 3 p.m.on The Source FM, which you can listen to on line here.

John McCartney – the animated bassist Part Three

Further doings in the Gig Shop

The story of the Gig Shop is a saga in its own right so I won’t go into that right now, but some details are relevant to these tales of John. Within about a year of the shop’s opening it was doing very well and the time had come to find bigger premises. I rented a shop on the High Street and soon had a young manager (Colin) working for me full time, as well as regular part time assistance from – amongst others – John McCartney.

By this time, John and I were beginning to spend a lot of time together out of shop hours. At the end of most working days we would repair to our pub of choice (generally The Metropolitan Tavern in Windsor Street) for a pint or two before going home. With our partners we would also meet at each other’s homes for dinner at the weekends (if neither of us had a gig). This routine was expanded for a while when my friend Tom came to work at the shop. His home was added to the Saturday night roster and his wife, Jean, was soon also providing regular meals for what became known briefly as The Ranting Society.

John’s cartooning skills were soon employed for Gig Shop advertising. Between us we created a character called ‘Doctor Phelger’, whom I had pitched to John as the sort of spurious medical man that one might find depicted on a Victorian Patent Medicine label. The good doctor sported a soup-strainer moustache and a monocle, and made pronouncements that contained such phrases as ‘…earnestly commends to your attention…’ and ‘…begs to inform you of the great virtues of…’ One of his slogans was “A superior device at a gentlemanly price”. Our advertising style was soon drawing the attention of other businesses and we were commissioned to design a tee-shirt for Aria guitars, and a Christmas card for Custom Sound Amplification, both of which tasks we leapt at.

One of our less bizarre advertisements...

This one however is at the other end of the scale...

The Christmas card was based on a joke that I had first heard told by the late Matt McGinn and depicted Santa with his sleigh and reindeer in severe disarray on top of a collapsed public convenience which they have obviously just flown into at high speed. The door of one of the WCs has fallen open to reveal an outraged figure seated upon the throne with his trousers round his ankles (this was a very fine caricature of Custom Sound’s MD). The vista of a high street stretches beyond Santa (whose sleigh bears many ‘presents’ with the Custom Sound logo on them), and you can just make out that one of the shops is called ‘Schmidt’s House of Music’. A manic Santa is berating a severely concussed Rudolph with the words “You fool! I said ‘Land on the SCHMIDT House!’” Well, it made us laugh…Alas I no longer have a copy but if anyone out there does then I would love to see it!

The tee-shirt was commissioned by Pete Tullet, the MD of Gigsville, which was then the UK distributor of Aria guitars. Pete was particularly enthusiastic about the (then) new Aria SB1000 series basses. It was his firm belief that they would topple the Fender Precision bass from its best-seller position, and referred to the aforementioned instruments as ‘the dinosaurs of the electric bass world’. We came up with an image and text that he liked and the shirts were duly printed and distributed. We are still waiting for the demise of the dinosaur although to be fair, the SB1000 was a good design and is still being made. Sadly, the tee-shirts are not.

I found this one in the loft. I had to wash it a few times but it's not in bad condition given that it's 28 years old.

Actually, now I come to think about it, our advertising style may not have been as good as we thought. All three businesses that used us are now defunct!

There was a Council-run music facility not far from the shop, called ‘Unit One’, which provided a recording studio, rehearsal rooms, somewhere to stage gigs, and a basic café. This was provided by Youth Services or some such wing of the Council but was actually a pretty vibrant place. This was of course in the time of Punk so the place was positively heaving with bands, many of which were surprisingly good, but a lot of older musicians took advantage of its cheap rates for rehearsals and recording, myself included.

One of the young bands that frequented the place was called The Belairs and two of them – Neil and Anthony - were also customers in the Gig Shop. They affected a clothing style that was reminiscent of a 1950’s home insurance salesman and a musical style that hinted at swing and featured two saxophonists but used one of the newly emergent rhythm boxes ( I think it was manufactured by Electro Harmonix) to provide the ‘swing drums’. They were writing their own songs which were for the most part witty and distinctive, and had just acquired a manager (an equally young out of work actor called Richard Painter), who had no money to put behind them but was prepared to work hard on their behalf.

Neil approached me one day and asked if I would be interested in helping them out a bit by putting some more ‘authentic’ swing guitar into their work, as well as some percussion and some harmonica. He also asked me if I knew of a bass player that might fulfil a similar function for them. The net result is that John and I became members of the band – now renamed The Figaro Club (a band called The Belairs already existed in the US and so the new name was borrowed from a short-lived TV series from 1981) – and set about refashioning ourselves in an approximately youthful image for stage appearances. I went with the 1950’s bit but – as the possessor of a goatee beard - opted for a sort of ‘beatnik’ look, complete with black beret, striped tee-shirt, neckerchief and corduroy trousers. Unfortunately the overall effect was more onion seller than existentialist but I decide that that would do. John dug out a tank top and a tweed suit and tried to do something with his unruly mop of curly hair, We weren’t quite sure what effect he was striving for but the result was rather reminiscent of a younger Colonel Gadaffi  trying to pass himself off as an Englishman.

Left to right: Neil, Voltarol, John and Anthony during the Windsor Street Bed Race

L. to R.: Saxophonist Tim hiding behind saxophonist and vocalist Duncan, Neil, Voltarol and Anthony. Richard Painter can be seen in the shop doorway behind the bandstand, between John and Anthony

Richard the manager worked hard and got the band a lot of exposure. We were quite popular locally and on one occasion did a gig in the street entertaining the crowds that had come watch the annual ‘bed race’ (a bizarre fund-raising event that involved teams of men in drag pushing hospital beds around the town) but were also performing ‘showcase’ gigs at places like ‘The Fridge’ in Brixton. It was at one of these, at a disco in Southall, that I first saw John’s character suddenly transformed for the worse by alcohol. John did not drink during a gig, but immediately after a performance would chuck down two or three beers quite swiftly. On this occasion Anthony had done a rather unfortunate thing and had stopped the band 30 seconds into a song, because he was unhappy with the tempo. He reset the rhythm box and then started us off again. After we had finished our set John hastened to the bar and took a lot of beer on board quite quickly then went and sought out Anthony and positively monstered at him, stabbing his finger into Anthony’s chest, slurring a bitter tirade against the unprofessionalism of restarting a song, and repeatedly calling him a ‘barsa’, which was as close as he could get to pronouncing the word ‘bastard’. We were all somewhat stunned by this but the following day he was his usual amiable self and was quite apologetic.

Promo night at The Fridge - Neil, Voltarol and John. John's slightly distracted look was due to the presence in the audience of his wife Brenda, who was 9 months pregnant with their son James. Mrs Voltarol was also there on standby in case a sudden rush to hospital was required...

The band was soon offered a record deal and one weekend a few months later we all trooped into the famous Jacobs Recording Studio to record a single. Much to my surprise Neil and Anthony shared my taste for the stories of Damon Runyon and had crafted a song between them which was most Runyonesque. It was called ‘Say, That’s a Great Dress You’re Wearing’ and, we all thought, had hit potential. Obviously, whoever it was that had put the money up thought so too and we spent all of that Saturday recording it and another song – the name of which now escapes me – that had been written by one of the saxophonists. We were well pleased with our efforts and left the studio that night with the feeling that we might have something really commercial on our hands and were already speculating about our first major tour. We had completed everything but the lead vocal on ‘Great Dress’ and Neil was due to return to the studio the following day – Sunday – to replace his guide track with the definitive performance. Imagine my reaction when Richard Painter phoned me on Sunday evening to say that Neil had apparently been instructed by God not to continue with the recording and to leave the band. John and I rechristened the band there and then as ‘The Band That Ripped Its Own Head Off and Then Pissed in the Hole’.


To be continued...