Peter Jebson – Blackpool Breeze (2003) (Eston Wurlitzer)

At the Wurlitzer organ in the James Finegan Municipal Hall, Eston.
Released on the Audicord label in 2003. Previously released on cassette in 1992.

Running time: 54.37.
Code: ACD 224.

With My Little Stick of Blackpool Rock / Blackpool Walk / Blackpool Belle
Don’t Be Cross / Que Sera Sera / The Loveliest Night of the Year
Any Dream Will Do
Nessun Dorma
The Breeze & I / Louise
Memories of Nat King Cole: When I Fall in Love / Too Young / Unforgettable
The Music Box Dancer
The Dam Busters
Hear My Song, Violetta / La Vie En Rose / O Sole Mio
Blaze Away
The First Man You Remember
The Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves
Symphony
Remembering Blackpool’s Organists of Yesteryear: On the Prom Prom Promenade / Jolly Good Company / For You / I Do Like to Be Beside the Seaside
My Way
Twelfth Street Rag

Original Cassette Sleeve Notes from 1992

About The Organist

Peter Jebson was born in Blackburn in 1950, and just one year later the family moved to Blackpool. He started having piano lessons when he was seven, and church organ lessons five years later. He was 18 before he tried playing light music on the organ, this being on an electronic at the Cliffs Hotel, Blackpool. About the same time he started a 3-year graduate course at the Northern School of Music in Manchester, as well as being invited to try the famous Tower Ballroom Wurlitzer by Reginald Dixon. Blackpool’s other star organist, Ernest Broadbent, then resident at the Empress Ballroom, also heard and encouraged Peter, and introduced him to the Lancastrian Theatre Organ Trust, and whilst in Manchester he was then able to play on the Wurlitzers in the Odeon and Gaumont cinemas. In 1971 Peter became the resident organist in the Long Bar at the Cliffs Hotel, where he played regularly for over 25 years.

He is primarily Deputy Headmaster of a Lytham St. Annes school, and Organist and Choirmaster at Lyhtham Parish Church, and as well as being in demand for concert work can be heard from time to time on “The Organist Entertains”. Over the years he has made several recordings, some on the Baldwin organ at the Cliffs, others on Mighty Wurlitzers, and he can always be relied upon to provide a wide variety of popular music, played in a most entertaining manner.

About The Eston Wurlitzer Organ

The 3-manual 8-rank Wurlitzer used on this recording was originally installed at the Granada cinema, Bedford in 1934. It was removed from there in 1978 by members of the then Cleveland Organ Society, in their spare time, and they then transported it and re-assembled it in the Pier Ballroom, Redcar. Although a popular and successful installation, within two years it had to be removed, as the pier became unsafe. The Council offered alternative accommodation for it in the modern and spacious James Finegan Municipal Hall at Eston, and the dedicated band of members had to do the work all over again, but the organ has been singing away happily there since 1981, The technical team has fitted an expander unit, so that a selection of modern electronic sounds can be added to the traditional theatre organ tones, although only the piano effect has been used on this recording.

The Langbaurgh Theatre Organ Society and Audicord are pleased to present him on this CD, bringing a little bit of “Blackpool Breeze” to the Middlesbrough area of Cleveland.

Sincere thanks to Langbaurgh Theatre Organ Society for their co-operation in this production.

Produced & Recorded by John Greenwood.