Your Letters to The Editor
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Hi Derek, I've just got back from three days in hospital - I've had the snoring operation where they chop out half the back of your throat, amputate the dangly bit at the back, and give your nose a re-bore - OUCH! For the past three weeks I have been sharing my home with a friend, a melodic style picker. No Scruggs stuff, no drive, no punch. Just pretty little tune, after pretty little tune, after pretty little irritating tune. I believe it was Sonny Osborne who once described melodic style as "sissy picking." I couldn't agree more. Diddly, diddly, diddly, diddle - It's piddle. Isn't it? I’m sure your readers agree. Bernie Ross, London. North Wales Festival is happy.... Dear Derek, Many thanks for the recent copy of the North West Bluegrass News. We were delighted and overwhelmed by the favourable reports on The North Wales Bluegrass Festival put together by Bill Degney, John Baldry, Mark Currie, and Jack Hatfield in the September issue. I have taken the liberty of photocopying the articles in their entirety and passing them on to the various bodies such as the local Tourism Department, the Arts Council for Wales, The Lottery people and most importantly our sponsor Conwy Honda. | Article #1 | Article #2 | Article #3 | Well-considered articles like these only serve to strengthen our case for further support from these bodies in future years. Our local Honda Managing Director has passed it on to his bosses to show the support for the music from people from all over Britain. Living in a tourist area like ours any event which brings people into North Wales (although not presented through the medium of the Welsh Language as the Arts Council officer observed! It’s American music for goodness sake!!) is heartily welcome by local businesses. We look forward to seeing you all again next year, when perhaps again we will have one or two surprises up our sleeves!! Thank you all for your continuing support and especially to all the bands who make it all possible. Keep pickin'!!! John Les & Gill Williams Feedback Dear Derek: Got the latest NWBN the other day and was able to read it in two days. I’ve had to go back into hospital as my heart valve I had put in has gone wrong. The last few weeks I’ve been feeling rough and now I’ve had some tests and they’ve found that the valve has displaced. As a result a stitch has come away (playing those Stelling banjos...) so now I have to have the whole operation again and have it replaced again (another excuse to have a banjo made, I’ve only got seven!) It was interesting to read the article ‘You Can’t Stand A Banjo’ (NWBN, Nov. 98, p15) as playing banjo in a semi-pro band for 15 years or more and travelling the country (UK) top to bottom, I went through many stands. The only place an instrument is safe from damage (even then you can’t be certain of that) is in its’ case. I had a dobro smashed as a result of a speaker cabinet falling on it while we were travelling to a gig. This comes to my point. All my instruments are insured (New for Old) Most household policies don’t cover your instrument if it’s out of the house (some people think they do but look into your policy in fine detail). Our guitarist has a vintage Fender electric guitar worth a mansion! On a gig some drunken idiot jumped up on stage, caught the cable and knocked the guitar into the drum set - now you can see this wasn’t a Blue grass band, but there were high quality instruments. Our guitarist thought it was covered on his household policy (it wasn’t) and our drummer didn’t have insurance. I pay around £178 a year for £20,000 worth of instruments (not all of them go out on gigs but they’re all insured) I’ve had claims of instruments knocked off of stands, I’m even insured if the handle breaks on my case and the instrument has more than £25 worth of damage done. Now some people may think what an easy way to get a new instrument but I’ve had the same broker for about 20 years and I’m quite happy to pay my premium even if I don’t ever have a claim (peace of mind). So yes it’s good to have a stand but I would have insurance too! Phill Morley
Phill is editor and publisher of The Banjo Gazette.
He is a BBMA area Rep. for east Anglia and was founder of the BBMA magazine
BBN. For details contact Phill at 2A, Langton Ave., Chelmsford, Essex, CM1-2BP,
UK. Tel: 01245-264450 Ed. Monogram were also placed. Good Eh!! But I’ve been ramming the Czechs into the British Bluegrass people for the past six years. As we were in Prague we decided to pop to not-too-distant Berlin (drive not fly), where we stayed with The Hot String Quintet. And with a full tour of the Berlin Wall and history plus good music, it was wonderful!
Anyone interested remember the name - The Hot String Quintet!
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