Bert Weedon's Play in a Day: Guide to Modern Guitar Playing (Guitar)

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I said 'I'd rather stay in England here because I'm a big fish in a small pond. In America you've got great, great guitar players. I'd be a smaller fish in a huge pond'. I said 'So I'm happy here and I've got a wife and baby" so I didn't go. But it was very enjoyable working with people like Sinatra and Nat King Cole." Suddenly the door opened and we all looked up, and in walked Sinatra. He'd borrowed a bowler hat, God alone knows where he got the bowler hat from but he'd got it, and a rolled umbrella. And he walked in with this bowler hat and a rolled umbrella, and he says 'Good morning, my dear fellows. Shall we make a little music together?' (in an English accent), and everybody burst out laughing and I thought 'Oh, this is marvelous'. Absolutely. I recorded that in 1959. It was the first ever hit guitar record on an English label and the first ever hit guitar record by an English man to get into the Hit Parade. I was preceded by an American guitarist called Duane Eddy. So then I started getting more hits like Apache, which again was written especially for me by a man named Jerry Lordan."

I had TB and hadn't known that I had it. In those days, I'm talking about the '40s again, it was a killer because they hadn't invented all the drugs that they have now. They took me to Plaistow hospital and I stayed there for about three months. And I went to the specialist, and I could ill afford a West End specialist, who said, 'Can you go to Switzerland, Mr Weedon?' So I said 'No, I can't'. I couldn't afford to go to Switzerland, because I was married then and had a baby. He said, 'Well, could you afford to go to Southend?' So I said "That I could afford but why do you ask?' He said 'Because the air at Southend when the tide goes out, it's covered in mud, and the air is just as beneficial at Southend as any of the air in Switzerland'. The other night I was at a function and [English classical guitarist] Julian Bream was there and he said 'It's lovely to see you, Bert'. He said 'I haven't seen you since I used to come and see you in Plaistow hospital'. I said 'Good God! I'd forgotten all that'. And that was a subsequent flare-up that got better because by then they'd invented penicillin. Weedon was born in Burges Road, East Ham, Essex (now part of the London Borough of Newham). He began learning classical guitar at the age of 12, and decided to become a professional musician. In his teens during the 1930s, he led groups such as the Blue Cumberland Rhythm Boys, and Bert Weedon and His Harlem Hotshots, before making his first solo appearance at East Ham Town Hall in 1939. [4] He worked with leading performers including Stephane Grappelli and George Shearing, and performed with various big bands and orchestras, including those of Ted Heath and Mantovani. [3] [5]

For the restaurant job, Stephane said 'I would like you to take the job'. So I said 'I'd love to take the job, but I've got to be perfectly honest. I'm not going to try and play like Django Reinhardt, because no one can. I'd only be a second-hand copy of Django Reinhardt'. Stephane said 'You are very sensible, Bert. You play like Bert Weedon and you will be a star. Do not be a copyist'. Lister); an American Folk Rhapsody Deutschmeister Kapelle/JULIUS HERRMANN; Band of the Welsh Guards/Cap These things happen, and Hank's a great guitar player. In fact, when they did This Is Your Life on the BBC, Hank came on and said some very nice things, as indeed did Brian May and Eric Clapton. They were all very nice." He said to me 'Bert, you ought a come to America". He said, 'you would make a big hit there," you know because I was a soloist.

Most of the big bands didn't carry a guitarist, but every time they did broadcasts or recordings, they'd call on yours truly." BEATLES BLAST OWN HIT DISC! 3-Year-Old Record 'Terrible Could Be Anybody the Beatles Have Another Disc in the Pop SO —And They Are Hopping Mad About ItHis first chart hit in 1959 Guitar Boogie Shuffle began a path that saw him becoming a major influence. He also had a number one album (albeit having a very brief stint at the top of the charts). Play in a Day sold more than a million copies and many a youngster was able to learn to play the guitar as a result. But the testimonies of some of the guitar greats is telling. Brian May claimed that Weedon influenced pretty much all guitarists of his generation. His concentration on tome and rhythm were important Weedon also recorded prolifically for the Top Rank label under his own name. Guitar Boogie Shuffle (1959, by the American guitarist Arthur Smith) and Apache (1960, by Jerry Lordan) were minor hits, although the latter was a much greater success in the version by Weedon's disciples the Shadows. His own compositions included Sorry Robbie (1960), China Doll and the much-recorded Ginchy (both 1961).

Then I thought 'I've got to find a teacher'. After looking for about a year or so, I found a teacher and to my utter surprise he was in a place called Manor Park, which is adjacent to East Ham. His name was James Newell and he said 'You want to learn the guitar? Well, it's a shilling a lesson'. So we're all apprehensive and suddenly we get a telephone call from the doorman. It's at the Paris Cinema which is a downstairs studio, he said 'He's here,' and there was a sort of pregnant silence. My mouth fell open and I said 'Please teach me that" because I'd never heard a classical guitar, never knew anything about Chopin. I was a kid from the East End of London. He said 'I'll teach you'. And that man, apart from my father, was the biggest influence of my life ever because I stayed with him for about 4 years. He taught me to read music, write music, the basic harmonies, major and minor chords, etc."

Betts, Graham (2004). Complete UK Hit Singles 1952-2004 (1sted.). London: Collins. p.837. ISBN 0-00-717931-6. Many years later, Martin Taylor took over playing for Stephane and he played beautifully. He's a great guitarist and is also one of my heroes." He said 'Yes'. I said 'Well, here's the music," giving him the 2nd guitar part. So he said 'Thank you. You're Bert Weedon, aren't you?' I said 'Yes,' and he said 'I've heard of you, and I've heard you on the radio lots of times'. Most of the big bands didn't carry a guitarist, but every time they did broadcasts or recordings, they'd call on yours truly. So I worked with all of them, which was nice.

I played with the Ted Heath Orchestra, the Squadronaires, Harry Gold and his Pieces of Eight, Lou Preger.

Right,' he said, 'what sort of music d'you like, son?' So I said, 'I love jazz' and he said "Jazz? I'm not going to teach that rubbish." He soon graduated to the semi-professional Dixieland jazz group Harry Gold's Pieces of Eight and performed with the violinist Stéphane Grappelli and the pianist George Shearing in the early 1940s. Weedon and the classical guitarist Julian Bream provided the music for a postwar London production of Lorca's Blood Wedding.