Sunday, August 2, 2009

Gramophone Records


I recently was shown a box of old gramophone records, the 78rpm shellac variety that were allegedly played at the Hardy Lane Co-op Rooms in years gone by the Co-op Guild. Most are dance band records by people such as Jack Hyland, or Joe Loss. I made an inventory of the contents. However unable to play them as I've no player that does 78rpm speed so never checked their condition.
The M&SE Co-op used to hire out gramophones in the 1920's and 1930's to organisations that wished to use them for a social, and there were such gramophone concerts held in co-op halls. The most intriguing were a couple of discs by Billy Williams. He was a famous music hall artist who recorded cylinders and gramophone records - one of his most famous tunes was "When Father Papered The Parlour" which was still being played on BBC radio into the 1960's. The video on You Tube is "Old Grey Coat" which was one of the titles on my list. If you like such old tunes you should go to Archive.Org because they have lots of his material.

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