Web Page No 2446

5^th February  2018

First Picture: Bert at 16

 Second Picture: Publicity photograph

 Third Picture: Bert in Later days

Fourth Picture: The original Play in a day book

Bert Weedon

Almost from the early days of Childrens Television Bert Weedon was a regular on our screen but what do you know about him?

He was born in East Ham on May 10th 1920. The youngest son of Bert and Elizabeth Weedon. His brother Maurice was a semi professional musician, but made his living in the Newspaper world. At his death Bert had two sons, Geoff (by his first marriage) and Lionel, eight grandchildren and one great-grandson, lived in Buckinghamshire with his wife Maggie and his principal hobbies were playing the Guitar, swimming, and motoring.

Bert wanted to play the guitar from his very early childhood. When he was just twelve years old he persuaded his father to buy him a rather battered guitar off a stall in London's Petticoat Lane Street Market, for 15/-. So began the career of one of Britain's most accomplished instrumental stars. When he got his guitar home from the market he thought with all the confidence of a twelve year old that he would be able to play it, but to his surprise the sound that came from his first strumming were sadly lacking in harmony! He searched for a teacher, and in those days there were very few, and finally found an elderly man (James Newell) who said he would teach Bert, but classical guitar only. This was a disappointment, but when Newell sat down and played a Chopin Prelude, it opened a fantastic new world of music to Bert and right away he decided that the study of the guitar would be his life's work.

This led him to the skill he was admired for so much so that he got an enormous amount of fan mail from guitarists and his advice was "Practice hard all the time, study music and technique and when you play, even a scale, put everything you have into it". Little wonder that when the Shadows wrote and dedicated a number for Bert, they called it simply "Mr Guitar"  the man who has become the living legend of the Guitar.

Bert's early classical training later proved a great asset, since his thorough grounding enabled him to play any form of music at sight - jazz, beat, ballads, dance music, classical and even Spanish flamenco style.

His early days in show business found him playing with all the top bands of the day, including Ted Heath, Mantovani, The Squadronnaires and many others. His extreme versatility acted as a stepping stone to a plum role as a featured soloist with the BBC Show Band show, which meant broadcasting three times a week in the country's top pop music show, and this lasted for four years.

Thames TV did a "This is your Life" on Bert and among the people paying tribute to Bert were ;- Eric Clapton, Brian May, Hank Marvin, Phil Collins, Adam Faith, Val Doonican, Joe Brown, Lonnie Donegan, Marty Wilde, Frank Bruno, Henry Cooper, Paul Daniels, Gloria Hunniford, Basil Brush and many other stars from the world of show-business. The Variety Club of Great Britain held a Tribute Lunch for Bert in Bournemouth  in May 1999 where the celebrities included Max Bygraves, Brian May, Anita Harris, John Inman, Paul Daniels, Gordon Kaye, Julie Rogers, Susan Maughan, Russ Conway to mention just a few of the friends who wanted to pay their respects to Bert.

As a result of his solos on the early rock records Bert was asked by Top Rank to make a record as a solo artist, and so Bert became the first British guitarist to get a solo record in the Hit Parade - the memorable "Guitar Boogie Shuffle". He subsequently notched further hits with "Apache". "Nashville Boogie". "Ginchy". "Sorry Robbie" "Tokyo Melody". to mention but a few. His LP. `s have sold in tremendous numbers; "Bert Weedon remembers Jim Reeves" sold over 250,000 while his "22 Golden Guitar Greats" L.P. reached the No 1 in the Album Charts, and he once again made disc history by becoming the first solo guitarist to reach the top of the Hit Parade - receiving both Gold and Platinum L.P.'s for his record breaking sales of over one million copies.

With the coming of rock and roll, Bert was soon in great demand as the named soloist on no end of hit records and his playing greatly aided the success on records of many of the foremost stars of the period. Early rock singers such as Tommy Steele, Marty Wild, Laurie London, Cliff Richard, Adam Faith and Billy Fury all asked for Bert to play on their records. His virtuosity in all fields of music also enabled him to accompany such artists as Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Rosemary Clooney, Nat King Cole, Judy Garland and many top British stars, while at the other end of the music scale he played for Gigli, Paul Robeson and many others.

He was also been extremely busy playing concert tours throughout the country, and has emerged as one of Britain's leading pop music box office attractions. He has also been featured as the star cabaret on many of the top Cruise Liners.

He appeared in over 5,000 radio and TV shows, on nine occasions he was been voted Britain's top Guitarist in National popularity polls, and owned 11 guitars, six of them specially made for him including one that is gold plated.

In addition to his playing, he was a prolific composer and he is known throughout the world because of his guitar tutor "Play in a Day". This is probably the best-selling tutor in the world and Bert was proud of the fact that most of today's top guitarists told him that they started their first steps on the guitar with the aid of his book. His book is printed in several languages and has been published all over the world. The book has sold over 2 million copies and 30 years on remains the world's most successful guitar tutor.

Bert passed away on 20^th April 2012 at the age of 92

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Yours

Peter

gsseditor@gmail.com

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News and Views:

ON THIS DAY 5^th February 1960-1965

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