inmylife
What Goes On In Your Heart
Posts: 61
|
Post by inmylife on Feb 19, 2009 16:18:38 GMT
Hi guys ! , just received a three A4 page signed letter from Rod Davis of the Quarrymen in which he answers a number of my questions re the band, ie insruments played today, chord inversions, decision making and general questions re the bands history !! They really are a nice bunch of guys ! I might be an anorack but this letter will be framed and placed next to my other Quarrymen memorabilia !!
|
|
|
Post by The End on Feb 19, 2009 17:45:46 GMT
Wow!!!! That is fantastic! I'd love to see that - would you be willing to post it here? AL
|
|
inmylife
What Goes On In Your Heart
Posts: 61
|
Post by inmylife on Feb 19, 2009 17:57:00 GMT
Hi Al , i,m a real techno dunce ( i,m talkin ,bout my generation !! ) but i will ask my daughter for her help and see what we can come up with as it would be nice to share the contents of the letter with the gang ! best wishes , In my life .
|
|
|
Post by Michelle Revolution on Feb 19, 2009 22:18:44 GMT
I'd like to see this too I can help you if you like. M X
|
|
EuanB
I'll Be On My Way
Posts: 109
|
Post by EuanB on Feb 20, 2009 22:15:46 GMT
Me too
|
|
|
Post by Beatle Bob on Feb 20, 2009 23:02:33 GMT
Would love to read this too. If you can't scan it could you transpose it word for word here? Take your time at it. No rush. Regards, Beatle Bob
|
|
inmylife
What Goes On In Your Heart
Posts: 61
|
Post by inmylife on Feb 21, 2009 12:19:57 GMT
Hi Guys , well here goes ,!! . Hi ... I am so sorry for taking so long to reply to your kind letter . iI put it aside last year to reply to at my leisure and it went missing for ages and only now have i located it again ! We did have a couple of brief ( One song each ! ) appearances in Liverpool last year but our main effort was in our two week trip to America. As it,s the Caverns 50th anniversary this year , maybe we,ll get an invitation to play there . The banjo in the Beatle story museum is in a show case all about the Quarrymen , with a huge copy of Geoff Rhind,s photo of John and the group at the St Peters garden fete. It was the actual instrument, as indeed is Colins drum kit , the other instruments are simply lookalikes .
|
|
inmylife
What Goes On In Your Heart
Posts: 61
|
Post by inmylife on Feb 21, 2009 12:30:07 GMT
I was looking for either a guitar or a banjo, Donegan played both , but to get a decent one was not cheap . I had an uncle who played fiddle and saw in a dance band in Denbigh and the band had folded and one member was selling a guitar and a banjo. However by the time i had heard about it the guitar had been sold , so i settled for the banjo . As soon as i left The Quarrymen in 1957 my brother and i decided we needed a guitar , so we sold the our old Hornby train set which had been gathering dust for years and bought a nice spanish guitar that my sister still has. We stuck an old earphone on it with sellotape and played it through the wireless set . Interesting you have a uke, George Harrison of course is famous for his interest in ukes
|
|
inmylife
What Goes On In Your Heart
Posts: 61
|
Post by inmylife on Feb 21, 2009 12:48:44 GMT
, and i was there at the concert for George in the Albert Hall when Joe Brown played " ill see you in my dreams " in memory of George . I realised some time ago that the chords use the same fingering as the top four strings of a guitar , although they come out differently . I have an old banjo languishing on a shelf but have not got off my backside to sort it out . I don,t play banjo with The Quarrymen for several reasons , one is that it is enough hassel taking a guitar away without having to tote yet another instrument . We always play electro - acoustics these days so i would have to go to the trouble and expense of miking up the banjo . It sounds too loud over the other guitar and Len doesn,t use a pick , he just rubs it with his thumb, so i,d probably drown him . Also i have started playing guitar solos on the rock "n" roll stuff so there,s even less call for banjo playing . I do play at home however, i do have two banjo , one just like my original which i bought off Ebay for £75, and the other which came from a carboot and i have renovated . But i play American old timey music on it , fraling , nothing like i played with The Quarrymen , which was just thrashing three or four chords . I did play a couple of numbers with The Quarrymen in Woolton in 1957 but that i think was the last time .
|
|
inmylife
What Goes On In Your Heart
Posts: 61
|
Post by inmylife on Feb 21, 2009 13:06:48 GMT
As to what i did in the " wilderness years " , my skill never were "forgotten " ( unlike Eric who in 1997 had to go out and buy guitar and relearn the chords ) by the time i got to university in 1960 i had become quite a reasonable folk guitar player and i joined the university folk song society at Cambridge , We had all kinds of people as guests , Pete Seeger , Alexis Korner , even the Spinners , and a friend of mine played me a Flatt& Skruggs bluegrass record . I realised that the skiffle we had been playing was but a pale imitation and i have been hooked on blue grass ever since . I started playing flat pick guitar , and learned some mandolin and fiddle . There seemed to be plenty of around so i didn,t develop my banjo playing except in the odd jazz band - we did make a recording on Decca in 1962. Since then bluegrass has been my main musical interest and when i retuned to Liverpool in 1964 after a year in Germany i played mostly fiddle and mandolin for several years in a band called the bluegrass ramblers . Since i moved south in 1968 i have played in several bands , a tex - mex outfit called the Armadillos and a ressurected Blue grass Ramblers . About 10 years ago i started playing with a Chet Atkins style guitarist but this was really hard work for me , so after producing a guitar tutor with him i eventually gave up and went back to stuff i can play with less effort .
|
|
inmylife
What Goes On In Your Heart
Posts: 61
|
Post by inmylife on Feb 21, 2009 13:21:12 GMT
When playing with Len i frequently use barre chords as you rightly observe to contrast with the open chords used by Len . I also use a capo . Len likes playing in D which is very trebly so i use a capo and play C chords which compensates with some extra base . Funnily enough , when i was with The Quarrymen i bought a banjo tutor and started laerning chords higher up the neck , however John insisted that played the same as him , maybe he didn,t want to be upstaged . The tutor is also in the exhibition at the Beatles Story . You are right in thinking that most skiffle groups on the mid fifties concentrated on 3 or 4 chords with as many guitarists as possible , don,t forget , no electric guitars and no amps ! When Chas Mcdevitt brought our Freight Train it took ages for us to dicover the E chord ! But of course when amps and electric guitars came in ther was no need for loads of guitar players . Eric was asked to buy a n electric bass and bass amp as the others wanted George to join , but that would have meant four guitarists , so as Eric refused to buy a bass he was out and George was in .
|
|
inmylife
What Goes On In Your Heart
Posts: 61
|
Post by inmylife on Feb 21, 2009 13:31:25 GMT
Simply having Colin on drums was a feather in our caps , as very few skiffle groups could afford drums . Colin was an apprentice up holserer and so had a regular wage and could just about afford the never never payments to frank Hessy for his drum kit , £ 27.10/e i think he said it was . A lot of money , my banjo cost £5. I never played With Paul or George , never mind John Lowe , but you,e right , he was brought in by Paul because he could play like Jerry Lee Lewis . The problem was that at many of the places they played the piano wasin bad condition , out of tune with missing notes and he very soon became disillusioned , he also lived in Stoneycroft , two bus rides away from Paul and John in suoth Liverpool , so that was also a big drag .
|
|
inmylife
What Goes On In Your Heart
Posts: 61
|
Post by inmylife on Feb 21, 2009 13:47:35 GMT
As regards the band today , Len and i both play Tanglewood acoustic electric guitars . I bought one for my self in 1998 aand we bought one for the group about the same time . In summer 2008 we approached the Tanglewood company and bought two new acoustic electrics , one a cutaway ( for me ) which are really great , superb fingerboards , good electronics and built in electronic tuners and you can get at the batteries via a little hatch in the side of the guitar , also the jack plug inserts in to the end block where the strap attaches , which is a more solid arrangement than having the jack coming out of the side of the giutar, this is too flexible and prone to damage . I suppose i am the nearest thing to a " musical director " that we have , but if i suggest anything that the others are not happy with , we try to find a compromise or ditch it , so i suppose you could call it more of a co -operative arrangement . Well .... i am pleased that i have been able to answer all your points , but i am really sorry it took so long , you must have given up on me months ago ! I have to admit , i am quicker by Email , I apologise for typing this but my writing is really untidy , loking foreward to hearing from you again sometime , best regards and more groveling apologises ( Signed ) ROD DAVIS . Hope This Is Of Interest to y,all guys , Best wishes , In my life
|
|
|
Post by The End on Feb 21, 2009 15:40:42 GMT
That is a fascinating read - thank you VERY much for posting
|
|