What The Editor has To Say!
 THIS EDITION
OF NWBN is probably a bit late. But we’ve had a very hard year, what
with my stroke and deaths in the families and Jean breaking her arm passing
a pub and a new roof on the house, some new floors and a thousand other things,
so Jean and I decided to be purely selfish. We went on holiday to France
on 2nd July for 5 weeks 3 days and 2 breakdowns. Of course, we missed the
Conwy and North Yorkshire festivals and Bryn’s concert. I must confess
that I was a little worried wondering where all the copy was going to come
from, or rather how I would get photographs, but an ample sufficiency of
good Vin Rosé at 55p a bottle (90c) helped ease that!
As it happened news and articles suddenly started pouring in, but photographs? Not on your life! So please, if you go anywhere try to take a camera with you and knock off a few snapshots - it doesn’t cost a lot and they can be very useful. A COLOUR COVER PHOTO was a big surprise to me, but not to you, it seems. Only one person commented on it... But after two issues with pics of foreign bands on the front cover we decided it’s time to feature a North West band. So this time we have the Rainy City from Prestwich. Well, we owe them one because somehow their section went missing from the report on Bryn’s Weekend do! THERE ARE A COUPLE OF ARTICLES on the “New kids on the block” theme - one about a new singing group and the other about a new “nest” of Bluegrass activity. It’s very heartening to see these things happening - if they don’t our music will stagnate and die. But also you’ll find news of an old band rising phoenix-like and that too is welcome. Sadly, as new arises so does old disappear, and it is with regret we report the passing of Andy Townend - the story of his life is beautifully told by John Baldry. Andy even rated the honour of an obituary in The Guardian, 5th August! SPEAKING OF JOHN BALDRY, there is only one tablature this time and that is John’s transcription of Bill Monroe’s Raw Hide. As far as we can ascertain there has never been an exact transcription of this, so here we have a first! But banjoists and guitarists needn’t worry - we’ll make up for it next time. The tab is a photocopy of John’s manuscript because it is too difficult to do it exactly like that with TABrite, the program we normally use, so there is no MIDI file available - yet. THIS MORNING I was feeling down but a “subs” renewal letter from Dave Pope cheered me up! It was addressed to “Saltney Dog” - I’m surprised this hasn’t been thought of before! But it reminded me - check below and on the envelope - if you are due/overdue please renew promptly - it saves a lot of stress and work! Thanks!
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