Before the Main Feature

CD Duration: 64.05 / Year: 2013

2013 release with Frieda Hall at the Odeon, Leeds, Stan Whittington at the Granada, Mansfield and Berte Johnston at the Odeon, Manchester.

All taken from organ club concerts in 1966.

Code: OK33.

FRIEDA HALL at the Odeon, Leeds:
Comedians Galop
Spanish Flea
Stars and Stripes Forever
The Wedding
Finale from Dance of the Hours
Spring Beautiful Spring

STAN WHITTINGTON at the Granada, Mansfield:
Do Re Mi
Climb Every Mountain
Eidelweiss
Ah! Sweet Mystery of Life
Getting Sentimental Over You
Granada Mansfield March
Humoresque No.7
Sweetheart
Glamorous Night Medley
West Side Story Medley: I Feel Pretty / Maria / Tonight / There’s a Place for Us / Somewhere

BERTE JOHNSTON at the Odeon, Manchester:
Something’s Got to Give
Coronation Street Theme
Take Five
Moon River
I Got Rhythm
Selection from The Mikado
Dambusters March

SLEEVE NOTES:

FRIEDA HALL. It was the influence of both parents playing the church organ that brought Frieda into music and she gained her first diploma at the age of eleven for piano studies. The popularity of the electronic organ gave her the first break in ‘show business’ and she went on to accompany such stars as, Max Miller, Morecambe & Wise, George Formby, Harry Secombe and John Hanson. Her first cinema organ experience was at the New Cinema, Ilkley, along with many guest appearances at other northern cinemas. Never slow to publicise herself, she became known as the ‘Queen of the Keys’ and was able to combine the life of music with more serious duties as Lady Mayoress of Keighley. For many years she was featured every summer at the Spa, Scarborough.

STAN WHITTINGTON. Stan was very much a midlands organist, never straying far from his homeground. He began with an early Hammond organ and formed a small band known as ‘The Gregorians’, which took the name from the church hall where they started. They billed themselves as ‘everything from Dance to Dixie’. He was featured at many midland organ club concerts, including the Granada, Grantham, the Town Hall, Burton upon Trent, Stanford Hall, which he always said was his favourite venue and at the Granada, Mansfield. Here he arranged a piece of march music and christened it the ‘Granada Mansfield March’ for which he receives audience appreciation on this recording.

BERTE JOHNSTON. Although born at Stranraer in Scotland, Berte spent much of his early life in Northern Ireland. It was here that he studied the modern unit organ under Cecil Chadwick, then organist at the Classic Cinema, Belfast and he later became his deputy there. He also became associated with Joseph Seal at the Ritz Cinema, Belfast and did a number of broadcasts from there. He was appointed organist at the Ritz, Bradford when it first opened in 1939.

During the war years he gave frequent recitals on straight organs, along with cinema engagements, mainly at ABC venues. One installation he always remembered was at Eaton Hall, near Chester, the home of the Duke of Westminster. In a private chapel was an American built Aeolian Concert Organ which he enjoyed playing during a stay there. After the war he was appointed to the Forum Cinema, Liverpool and continued playing under the ABC banner until the decline of the resident organist. The Forum organ was removed in 1952.

In the 1960s he played at the Plaza, Birkenhead and was featured in the Sam Costa lunch time programme as the ‘weeks guest organist’ in 1969. He also played at the Kingsland Ballroom next to the Plaza. Organist Norman Scott, who shared the Plaza console with Berte, recalls fond memories of their summertime trips to Blackpool, especially the visits to the Opera House to sample the playing and the after hours hospitality of Watson Holmes. Berte died in 1994.

Sleeve Notes by Ken Mellor.
Recording Engineers: Len Brumpton & Ken Mellor.