Autoharp Notes
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Promoting the Autoharp Spring 2014 across the UK Autoharp Notes President’s Perspectives Hello Everyone, Welcome to a new autoharping year wherever you are, although by the time you read this we’ll be a good two months and more into 2014. As usual there are plenty of events occurring this year – both those organised by UKA, and those other regular dates, quite apart from whatever else you may be doing locally and privately to continue your autoharp journey. I’m hoping to make every UKA event this year, as well as attending Inside this issue: Sore Fingers Easter Week. And for a very tasty starter we have Mike President’s Perspectives and Rachel Fenton’s Day in Tewkesbury on Saturday 22nd March by Neil Gillard 1 Page 1 Editor’s RamblingsAutoharp Notes to look forward to, where the tutors include Mike himself, Heather by Judy Spindler 2 An ‘Electric Harp’ Indeed Farrell-Roberts, Guy Padfield and our very own Mountain Laurel prize by Mike Fenton 3 winner, Bob Ebdon – a real A-team to keep us all on our toes! Next The Fable of the Autoharp... by Patrick O’Sullivan 4 on the agenda will be Sore Fingers Easter Week (14th – 19th April) Gargrave Autoharp Festival by Patrick O’Sullivan 6 with the incomparable Karen Mueller and Heather as tutors, before A Heartfelt Thank You attention switches north to Yorkshire at the end of June and a repeat by Drew Smith 9 A Cybermama of UKA’s Gargrave Autoharp Festival (27th to 29th) hosted by Patrick by Nadine Stah White 10 Learning Style... O’Sullivan. This event, in the charming, picturesque and very friendly, by Cathy Britell 10 rural community, only a stone’s throw from the major conurbations An American Autoharper in Britain by Heather Farrell-Roberts 12 of Yorkshire and Lancashire, promises to be even better than the Children In Need Day successful launch in 2013, and will form part of the cultural lead-up to by Sue Edwards 14 Music: Leaving Kingham 16 the Tour De France which is starting locally at the beginning of July. Memories of Joan McNally Various members 17 Then in August it’s back to the lovely and welcoming village of Music: The Dark Island 21 Moniaive in Dumfries and Galloway for the 4th Scottish Autoharp Autoharp Britannia Order Form 22 Suppliers, Performers & Sessions 24 Weekend (8th -10th) run by Nadine Stah White and local autoharpers, Forthcoming Events & Contacts 25 before the final UKA event of the year at East Sheen in SW London on 20th September, hosted by Guy Padfield. Then, of course, there will also WANTED! be the Sore Fingers October Weekend, with Mike Fenton as the main NEWS, ARTICLES, TIPS, tutor, at the end of the month. MUSIC & PHOTOS FOR As for UKA itself, there are definitely going to be some changes THE NEXT ISSUE – COPY DATE 31st MAY this year! While I write this, the Committee, and in particular our Autoharp Notes Spring 2014 Page 2 new webmaster, Joolz, are working on a brand new website which, as well as providing all that our previous one has done, will also allow members to pay their future subscriptions, and to book events, directly online using PayPal. Less happily, Bob Ebdon has had to give up his role as our Events Organiser, which he has held since March 2009, doing a superb job. He will be sadly missed (only, I hope, in that role), and I would like to extend to him the sincere thanks of us all, and especially me, for a demanding, and sometimes thankless, job very well done. Thank you, Bob. Also sadly, later this year Terry Pearson, who has been our Membership Secretary and Treasurer for 7 and 6 years respectively, will be standing down. So if you would like to take on a vital role to help keep UKA developing strongly, please let me know – we might even be able to tailor a role to suit your inclinations and skills because it is always essential to have fresh ideas if we are to continue to thrive. As always, I’d love to hear from you about any aspect of our association, and you can find my contact details in this publication, or on the website. May your autoharp journey continue to be rewarding! See you at some of our events, I hope. Hugs, Neil Editor’s Ramblings After this dismal winter of unrelenting grey skies, record rainfall and disastrous flooding, there are now plenty of optimistic signs. It’s Team GB’s most successful Winter Olympics since 1924, Peggy Seeger’s performance of Quite Early Morning wowed the audience at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards with her autoharp taking centre stage (surely the first time ever at the Royal Albert Hall!) but best of all, the floods have now receded and Tirlebrook Primary School and Tewkesbury town centre are fully open for business, so you won’t even have to wear your wellies! Some months ago, UKA joined FOAOTMAD (Friends of American Old Time Music and Dance) – after all, they do have an autoharp in their logo! We have placed small adverts in their quarterly magazine for both Tewkesbury and Gargrave, and are also providing publicity for autoharp events to their blog which is sent out every few weeks to everyone on their extensive mailing list (see foaotmad.org.uk/wordpress/news). It will be interesting to discover if we get any response, so if you ever get chatting to an old-timer at any of our events, please do inform a member of the committee. Of course the autoharp isn’t just an old-time or bluegrass instrument. As a newish member of the autoharp Facebook group, I’m constantly amazed by the many different musical styles featured by our members and by the events you attend with your ’harps. I’m always on the lookout for reports so please keep them coming in to Autoharp Notes to share with non-facebook members. I would also like to include CD reviews in future issues, so if you’ve discovered a really great album do let us all know, even if the autoharp features only briefly. And if you haven’t yet bought your copy of Autoharp Britannia, it will be on sale at Tewkesbury or available direct from Neil - see page 22. Finally, a big thank you to all contributors to this issue. The copy date for the next issue is 31st May. Until then, happy ’harping, Judy Spindler Autoharp Notes Spring 2014 Page 3 An ‘Electric Harp’ indeed! by Mike Fenton While undertaking some research last year at the Colindale Newspaper Library, I happened upon this cutting from Disc Weekly, Disc Weekly, January 15th, 1966 – World Cup Year in England, 900th Anniversary of the Battle of Hastings, the year Middlesbrough FC played in Division Th ree for the fi rst time ever, and the year I saw Jerry Lee Lewis ten times in a week at two plush Teesside night-spots! I couldn’t resist sending this in to Autoharp Notes. Pinkerton’s Assorted Colours were a quintet from Rugby whose disc Mirror, Mirror on the Decca label reached the Top Ten in the early weeks of the year. Th ey were very much ‘one-shot wonders’ in Hit Parade terms, but they were distinguished by their bright stage apparel (not obvious on black & white TV) and their use of an autoharp, strummed in a very basic way by Samuel Pinkerton Kempe, seen holding the instrument on the photograph. Th e plastic chord bar cover with the twelve buttons gives it away as a German ‘Chord Harp’ from the Hopf factory in Klingenthal, Saxony. I think John Sebastian in the USA will have beaten them in the frantic race to electrify an autoharp, but they may well be the fi rst to have our instrument featured on a Top Ten disc! Only they didn’t appear to know what it was properly called if the cutting is to be believed ! Th e group still exist in the Rugby area - I met up with two of them there several years ago, and there’s still an autoharp in the line-up, although the ‘electric harp’ in the photo was trashed years ago! Autoharp Notes Spring 2014 Page 4 The Fable of the Autoharp in the North by Patrick O’Sullivan The story so far… An autoharper put his autoharp into its bag, slung the bag over his shoulder and began to travel north. He came to a small and pretty village, took out his autoharp – but he did not play it. He sat on a bench, and put the autoharp on the bench beside him. So, they sat there, the man and his autoharp, until a passer- by passed by. I cannot tell you much about this passer-by – but I can tell you this: he had a very big nose. The passer- by paused, gave a nosy look, and said, ‘That’s a strange looking chili-dryer…’ The autoharper said not a word, packed his autoharp into its bag, slung the bag over his shoulder, and travelled on, north. He can be criticised for this, I know. But I think that his behaviour is understandable. In the circumstances. And he came to a charming town, sat on a bench, took out his autoharp – but he did not play it. He put the autoharp on the bench beside him. And they sat there together, the man and his autoharp, ignoring each other. Until a passer-by passed by. I cannot tell you much about this passer-by – but I can tell you this: he had one eye bigger than the other.