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

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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. Absolutely. I recorded that in 1959. It was the first ever hit guitar record on an English label and the first ever hit guitar record by an English man to get into the Hit Parade. I was preceded by an American guitarist called Duane Eddy. So then I started getting more hits like Apache, which again was written especially for me by a man named Jerry Lordan." 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.

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'. The first amplified guitars were beginning to appear and Weedon became an enthusiastic exponent, playing in the orchestras of Ted Heath, Mantovani and Ronnie Aldrich. His career was interrupted by a bout of tuberculosis. After he was discharged from hospital, doctors advised him to avoid smoky dancehalls and nightclubs, so he switched the focus of his career to records, radio and television. These things happen, and Hank's a great guitar player. In fact, when they did This Is Your Life on the BBC, Hank came on and said some very nice things, as indeed did Brian May and Eric Clapton. They were all very nice." Suddenly the door opened and we all looked up, and in walked Sinatra. He'd borrowed a bowler hat, God alone knows where he got the bowler hat from but he'd got it, and a rolled umbrella. And he walked in with this bowler hat and a rolled umbrella, and he says 'Good morning, my dear fellows. Shall we make a little music together?' (in an English accent), and everybody burst out laughing and I thought 'Oh, this is marvelous'.

Weedon also recorded prolifically for the Top Rank label under his own name. Guitar Boogie Shuffle (1959, by the American guitarist Arthur Smith) and Apache (1960, by Jerry Lordan) were minor hits, although the latter was a much greater success in the version by Weedon's disciples the Shadows. His own compositions included Sorry Robbie (1960), China Doll and the much-recorded Ginchy (both 1961). For the restaurant job, Stephane said 'I would like you to take the job'. So I said 'I'd love to take the job, but I've got to be perfectly honest. I'm not going to try and play like Django Reinhardt, because no one can. I'd only be a second-hand copy of Django Reinhardt'. Stephane said 'You are very sensible, Bert. You play like Bert Weedon and you will be a star. Do not be a copyist'. He is survived by his second wife, Maggie, two sons, Geoff and Lionel, eight grandchildren and a great-grandson. A young lad came in and he stood watching me. I thought he was a messenger boy, so I stopped and I said 'Do you want me, son?'

EVERLYPEDIA (Formerly the Everly Brothers Index - TEBI) Coordinated by Robin Dunn & Chrissie Van Varik Nebraska was cut on crap equipment… It wasn't a proper recording setup. It was also recorded by somebody who'd never recorded anything before”: How Bruce Springsteen recorded his most important album in his bedroom with just a Gibson J-200 and a TEAC 144 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. 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'.He said 'That's ever so nice of you'. I said 'Well it's a pleasure'. I said 'Here's the part, son'. And he sat down and he played it brilliantly. I said 'Good God! What's your name?' He said, 'Julian Bream'. And that's when I first met him.

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. 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." So I still play the Fender, but now I use the Parker guitar as well because it's so light and I can stand up and do the show without bending over, which for an old man is a marvellous asset. I'm very impressed with the Parker guitar and I'm impressed with the Fender guitar." 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. Right,' he said, 'what sort of music d'you like, son?' So I said, 'I love jazz' and he said "Jazz? I'm not going to teach that rubbish."Forgotten the title or the author of a book? Our BookSleuth is specially designed for you. Visit BookSleuth I've also got the Guild guitars [the Bert Weedon Guild]. I've got an original Hofner. I've got two or three Yamahas. In all I think I've got thirteen or fourteen guitars. And, of course, Marshall amps.

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 to me 'Bert, you ought a come to America". He said, 'you would make a big hit there," you know because I was a soloist.Most of the big bands didn't carry a guitarist, but every time they did broadcasts or recordings, they'd call on yours truly." Married to Maggie Weedon, he had two sons, Lionel and Geoffrey, eight grandchildren, and a great-grandson. [3] As a Water Rat, Weedon was highly active in charity work and fundraising, especially for children and disabled people, and was elected King Rat in 1992. [3] He was awarded an OBE in 2001 for his services to music. [1] Weedon died on 20 April 2012, following a long illness. Many years later, Martin Taylor took over playing for Stephane and he played beautifully. He's a great guitarist and is also one of my heroes."