Peter Jebson – Sounds Like Blackpool (2002) (Shrewsbury Wurlitzer)

2002 release at the Wurlitzer Organ at the Buttermarket, Shrewsbury.
Released on the Audicord label in 2002. Previously released on cassette in 1996.

Running time: 59.29.
Code: ACD 233.

Le Reve Passe
Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring
Good Morning / Smile
Misty
Medley “Hooked On Hymns”: Songs of Praise / Oh Happy Day / Give Me Joy / Guide Me O Thou Great Redeemer
It’s Magic
Medley from “Les Misérables”: I Dreamed a Dream / Master of the House / Do You Hear the People Sing?
Dardanella
Theme from ’Allo, ’Allo / Theme from Last of the Summer Wine / Theme from Oh Doctor Beeching!
Here’s that Rainy Day / Singing in the Rain
When Your Old Wedding Ring Was New / Young & Foolish
Intermezzo from “Escape to Happiness”
Selection from “The Arcadians”
Samum

Original Cassette Sleeve Notes from 1996

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 eighteen before he started playing popular music on the organ, this being on an electronic in the Cliffs Hotel, Blackpool. About the same time he started a three-year graduate course at the Northern School of Music in Manchester. He was invited to try the famous Tower Ballroom Wurlitzer by Reginald Dixon. Blackpool’s other star organist of the day, 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 able to practice on the Wurlitzer organs in the Odeon and Gaumont cinemas. In 1971 Peter became the resident organist in the Long Bar of the Cliffs Hotel. Now Deputy Headmaster of a Lytham primary school, and organist and choirmaster at Lytham Parish Church, Peter still plays most Friday and Saturday nights at Cliffs, as well as being in demand for concert work, and has made several LPs and cassettes over the years.

About The Organ

The 3-manual, 8-rank Wurlitzer organ featured on this recording was designed by Harold Ramsay and originally installed in the Ritz Cinema, Chatham, in 1937. It was removed by organ builder David Pawlyn in 1971, and the instrument remained in storage until 1988, when David rebuilt it in the Buttermarket, Shrewsbury and leased it to the Shropshire Theatre Organ Trust. In July 1995 the Trust purchased the instrument outright.

Presently a Grade II listed building, the Buttermarket was built in 1835 at the terminus of the Shrewsbury branch of the Shropshire Union Canal to cater for the flow of fresh market produce by canal boat. When the railway came to Shrewsbury in the 1850’s, its importance declined. It was used merely as a warehouse for 100 years or so, latterly failing into decay. In the late 1970’s, Kerry Wycherley purchased the building and undertook a vast amount of renovation work, converting it into the entertainment centre with bars and restaurants that we see today.

Sincere thanks to the Shropshire Theatre Organ Trust, also to Keith and Janet, managers of the Buttermarket, for their friendly co-operation in this production.

Produced & Recorded by John Greenwood.