My First Banjo

One weekend, on a return visit to Plymouth, I spotted a 5 string banjo in a junk shop window. I forget the price but it was affordable and I bought it. I had this romantic notion that it was played by a sailor who came ashore in Plymouth and being down on his luck had to sell it. I knew nothing about banjos and soon discovered it was in a sorry state and unplayable. I had it repaired in London.  It was an open back Lyons and Healy made in Chicago USA circa 1900.

 Banjos in a junk shop courtesy of aldenswan.com

Now I had  the little problem of how to play it. Learning the 5 string banjo in England in the 1960's was a difficult task. There was practically no tutorial books, no internet of course and therefore no on-line lessons. Almost all English music tutors only knew how to teach you the chords, to enable you to strum the 4 string banjo to play traditional jazz, and that is not what I wanted. The only tutorial books I could find were by Pete Seeger.

My first banjo tutorials

They were interesting but did not help me make any progress in playing in the Scruggs finger picking style I desired. As a result the banjo was confined to the attic of every house I lived in for the next 40 years or more!

One of the folk clubs I frequented in London was The Peanuts Club. It was run by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND).  The club was in a room, with a bar, above a public house in Liverpool Street London. There was no entry charge, everyone who could play or sing or both performed. Some, like me, were not very good, others were excellent. One night I backed a lady singer and the organiser "paid" me with a pint of beer - I felt I had arrived in show business!

It was at the Peanuts Club that I first heard the 5 string banjo played in the bluegrass style. The banjo player was called Pete Stanley and he performed together with a guitarist called Wizz Jones.

Wizz and Pete in the early 60's courtesy of wizzjones.com

Oh how I wished I could play the banjo like that. I considered approaching Pete for lessons but then realised I would not be able to afford tuition. Their first album was "Sixteen tons of Bluegrass" released in 1966 on Columbia Records. The album cover is shown below.

If you are wondering what American Bluegrass played by two Englishmen in the mid 1960's sounded like follow the link.

I recall one evening Pete and Wizz did a very good version of "Frankie and Jonny" (hear them performing it 35 Years later).

Off to London

In 1963 I moved to London to attend University and study Chemistry. I found the big city intoxicating. There were so many distractions and stimulants. As a result I neglected my studies and dropped out of the course at the end of the first year. I was heartbroken at the time because I felt I had let my parents down, but, as is often the case in life, the forced change in direction was to turn out for the better. With no grant money coming in I had to get a job.  Like so many College drop outs before me I started work as a barman. Eventually I drifted into the kitchen as a cook which gave me great satisfaction.

On the music front I immersed myself in Folk Music. I had a guitar and could strum 3 chords. With the help of a capo I found that I could play in most keys. I could not sing but there were plenty in my social group that could so that solved that difficulty.

One folk musician I admired at the time was Bob Dylan. "The Times they are A-Changin" was the first Dylan album I owned and it was played over and over.  Check out this early version of the title tune from Bob in 1963.

In 1966 Bob Dylan came to London and performed at the Royal Albert Hall. I attended the concert sitting up in the "Gods" (the highest tier in the Albert Hall and the cheapest seats). In the first set Dylan was alone on stage and performed all the acoustic material I had heard on the above album and some new songs. The audience loved the set. Bob was well received.  The reaction to the second half could not be more different. Bob appeared with an electric guitar and a backing group the "Hawks". There was booing and heckling. In 1966 electric guitars and folk music was just one step too far for many English folkies and about a quarter of the audience walked out. The rest of us listened with interest. I left the Hall feeling Dylan was making a mistake - how wrong I was.

It seems to me that folk music, and left wing politics go hand in hand. In London most of my friends were socialists and pacifists and with the energy of youth we dreamt of a better society. When I read that a group of pacifists were on hunger strike in Hyde Park London protesting about the war in Vietnam I decided to see them break their fast. It was a Sunday morning at Speakers Corner London.

There were a dozen or so sympathisers present including the folk singer Joan Baez who was presumably in England to perform a concert or two. She was another artist I admired and I was also able to see her perform at the Royal Albert Hall

Joan Baez

Check out Joan's version of "Rosemary, Lily and the Jack of Hearts"

Early Years - Plymouth - 1945-1962

I was born in Plymouth, Devon, England in 1945. There was little music in my childhood. My parents had a radio but none of the music played had any appeal to me. We never owned a record player. I must have been eleven when the first television came into the house. That gave me great pleasure and I enjoyed many of the films and light entertainment but again no sounds that would stir me into an interest in music.

Pictures of Plymouth circa 1955 and me aged 17

Some years later, as a teenager, I acquired a transistor radio and was advised by school pals to tune into Radio Luxembourg. I listened at night under the bed covers and entered a new world. Buddy Holly, Roy Orbison, the Everly Brothers, Jerry Lee Lewis and Elvis are the artists that moved me. I loved it and could not understand why such music was rarely played in England at the time. My dormant music gene had been awaken.

Hooked on this "new" music I bought my first record, which my parents viewed with great suspicion because we had no record player in the house. The recording was an extended player (EP) by Buddy Holly.

The tracks were:
Peggy Sue
Raining in my heart
Not fade away
That will be the day

My cunning plan was to take the record to school and find a classmate who had access to a record player and then visit his home after school to play Buddy. Unfortunately taking records at school was against the rules and a teacher caught me showing it to friends during a mathematics lesson. Buddy was confiscated and I would have to appear before the Headmaster presumably to be caned. Fortunately I was not caned but given a severe reprimand. "I am surprised at you boy", said the Headmaster. "Doing so well in your lessons and yet listening to this American rubbish". I do believe that his attitude would have been different had the record been classical music.

This new love of American pop/rock and roll was a bit difficult to satisfy when I did not own a record player.  My friends and I would go to the local record store, choose a record and ask the manager to play it. The store had numbered record booths so we would be directed to a booth to listen. We never bought anything but got to hear numerous American artists and emerging English performers. I believe the manager understood our plight, liked our choice of music, and tolerated us.

I am not sure why but I started looking through the "Country" section in the shop.  Most of the records were of Jim Reeves because the girls loved him and he sold well.  He was not to my taste. It was in that "Country" section I discovered three records which resonated with me:

Earl Scruggs and Lester Flatt
The Carter Family
Music of the Appalachian Mountains

I guess I was becoming interested in Bluegrass Music.