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

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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.

I was doing a broadcast with Caroll Gibbons at the Savoy Hotel, one time. We were playing away - it was only radio, of course. I turned my head from the mic because I wanted to cough, and blood started pouring out of my mouth.As a teenager, he was the leader of such groups as the Blue Cumberland Rhythm Boys and Bert Weedon and His Harlem Hotshots. In the 1930s and 1940s the guitar was not the ubiquitous instrument it would later become and, Weedon said: "The only time you saw a guitar was in the hands of a cowboy in a western singing Home on the Range." Weedon was born in East Ham, east London, the son of a train driver who had a collection of hillbilly records and was an amateur singer. Weedon bought his first guitar aged 12 from Petticoat Lane market. (In 2003 he received an apology and damages from the BBC after the publicity for a radio programme had inexplicably claimed that he learned to play the guitar while in jail.) He is survived by his second wife, Maggie, two sons, Geoff and Lionel, eight grandchildren and a great-grandson. He said, 'Sit down, son' so I sat down and he got out a classical guitar, a gut strung Martin guitar, as I remember it very vividly. He played the Chopin Prelude No7. Among those who were inspired by the televised lessons was Mike Oldfield, who told me: "I saw him on television when I was seven and immediately persuaded my father to buy me my first guitar. If it wasn't for Bert I might never have taken it up in the first place."

Now, again, I'd never heard the word philosophy but it's something that intensely interested me, has done ever since. He taught me about Jesus, Buddhism, yoga, you name it; he spoke about all the different religions. It opened up an entirely new world for me. He helped me enormously and that was all for a shilling a lesson. It's got to be the best shilling's worth anyone ever had.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'. After each lesson he would keep me there. I think he sort of realised that I had the aptitude to learn the guitar, which as I say was a very rare instrument in those days, and he used to keep me there and give me an hour's talk on philosophy and religion and things like that. 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'.

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.a b Roberts, David (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums (19thed.). London: Guinness World Records Limited. p.595. ISBN 1-904994-10-5.

Lister); an American Folk Rhapsody Deutschmeister Kapelle/JULIUS HERRMANN; Band of the Welsh Guards/CapMy 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." Most of the big bands didn't carry a guitarist, but every time they did broadcasts or recordings, they'd call on yours truly." His 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 Betts, Graham (2004). Complete UK Hit Singles 1952-2004 (1sted.). London: Collins. p.837. ISBN 0-00-717931-6. I think he probably did. The publisher said 'We've got a piece of music, Bert, called Apache'. And they said "We'd like you to record it," because I was getting hits. So I made a recording of it.