AUDIO CLIPS...
On this page, we intend to offer a selection of short sound recordings, some of which were actually made by Moordown folk in the past, and some of which are modern recordings, telling some of the local stories from the past.
Just click on the buttons below to play the mp3 recordings. They're only a couple of minutes long!.......Remember to use your back button, to get back to here....
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Vic LaBreche has sent in a snippet about some musical Moordown youngsters from the 1950s....
In the late 1950s - after Bill Haley's 'rock 'n roll' , and before the Beatles - there was a craze in England for 'skiffle'. Many of you may remember Lonnie Donegan?.....
One of the main attractions of skiffle for many young folk - in a still somewhat impoverished post war Great Britain - was that it was cheap to try.....all you needed was a couple of cheap Spanish guitars, a washboard for percussion, and a 'double bass' made from a broom handle and an old tea chest!
The ability to be able to sing a bit in the American 'blues' style was useful - and someone really needed to know a couple of guitar chords!...but that was about it. You did need enthusiasm of course!....
The advert posted below here is from the 'Echo' of 25th April 1958. It advertises a 'Grand Skiffle Jamboree Contest '... and you will also note that the 'whole contest will be recorded by Ronaldson's of Southbourne'
Well... Vic has found some of that old recording, which had been copied onto cassette. (The original was on a record of course)!
His group of chums - known as 'The Riversiders' - performed in the contest that night. Group leader Tony Head on vocals and guitar -- Two other guitarists, Stan Osborne and Ricky Mitchell accompanied, along with Lawrence Waters on washboard, David Diggins on drums, and Len Onslow on 'tea chest' bass.
There are a couple of extracts from that old recording here (each clip is about a minute long)
You can't hear everyone, but at least the vocals were in tune .. and you can hear a little tea chest bass 'solo' in between the verses!....great fun.
Vic says the Moderne was packed for the contest, and you can certainly hear the youngsters cheering wildly at the end of each piece...
'The Riversiders' didn't win that night, but I think everyone had a good time, by the sound of it....
A great find..... thanks Vic
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These first two were made in 1946. Howard Dalton, our group vice chairman, discovered an old 78 rpm record that had been made by his parents around Christmas time 1946 - before he was born!
The first is of Howard's mother Joyce, welcoming people to their first post war Christmas party.
The second is of Howard's father, Stanley, improvising at the piano. Stanley Dalton was the organist at Winton Methodist Church for some 60 years, so 'improvising' was an additional talent he had, not often called for during church services!......
What is remarkable is that, although today we take the facilites to make audio recordings very much for granted, it was a very rare thing in 1946.... especially for amateurs. There were no tape recorders, cassettes or computers in those days!
These recordings were made, directly onto disc, in a sound 'studio' located within Bobby's retail department store in Bournemoth Square (Now Debenhams). The studio, complete with a piano,could be hired for the occasion. Not many of these recordings survive......
In the first, we hear Joyce Dalton welcoming her guests to the party, and apologising for the post war austerity! In the second, we hear Stanley improvising at the piano. They are a wonderful 'find'.
Thanks to Howard for these....
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In this next recording, I asked Russ Barnes what he remembered about the wartime stories, concerning the piece of land adjacent to where The Grove joins Wimborne Rd --- now opposite Pizza Hut.
During the war years, that was still a green space -- but wire netting and chicken feathers were to change all that! Russ explains......
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This next snippet is from Mike LeBroq. Mike explains how his father got lost in the fog!.....
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Another clip from Russ. This one describes the discovery of a mysterious contraption, that fell from the sky, during the war.......