Now …. just what is the story behind 100 Vera Lynn 78s?

The answer is several ……… and they all start with David Harrop who bought all 100 from an auction house in Heaton Mersey.

The records come from an estate in Oldham, and while I haven’t the full list, the ones I have seen include, “Goodnight Children Everywhere”, “More and More”, “Jealousy”, “There’s A New World Over the Skyline”, "Nearest Thing to Heaven”, and my favourite “C’est La Vie”.

None of which are her famous ones.  

That said I bet "We'll Meet Again", “The White Cliffs of Dover", "A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square" and "There'll Always Be an England", are there, and David will find them.

In the meantime, it’s just the six, all of which he photographed and sent over in an email.  I don’t have a date for any of them and despite finding versions of them on You Tube sung by Dame Vera, neither these or the site devoted to the lyrics of each song have offered up a year.

All that is except for Jealousy which she recorded in 1942.

Of course, someone will know, and will direct me to the place where the songs and their dates are listed, so that at present isn’t the story.

Instead it’s the sleeve covers which have caught my interest, because each of the six comes from a different record shop.

This I know because the names and addresses of the shops are printed on the sleeve cover.

And so I have been going on a Cook’s Tour across Manchester, from the Talkeries at 213 Deansgate, to The Elite Gramophone Depot, at 115 Manchester Road in Chorlton-cum-Hardy, and out to 653 Oldham Road in Newton Heath, where Manson’s claimed to be “The House of Music”.

There was also A Frank’s Ltd, the Gramophone Salon, with premises at 95-97 Deansgate and 46 Market Street, and E, Pennington Gramophone Specialist who sold his records from 1164-1168 Chester Road., Stretford.

Leaving me just Mazel Record Library on London Road which some will remember, and may well have visited to peruse the “40,000 records in stock”.

And when David has compiled the full list of stockists from the 100 78s, we will have a priceless record of shops from the 1940s into the following decade.

Added to which as some of them proudly display the date they were established we can begin to track the history of the gramophone shop across Manchester

All of which can be matched against the directories which contain the names of all such businesses from the late 19th century up to 1969.

What strikes me above all, are the descriptions, running from Gramophone Depot to the Gramophone Salon and the name the Talkeries, which hint at beginnings in the early 20th century and must even by the 1940s seemed outdated.

So that for now is the story …….. not Dame Vera, or the powerful songs, which evoke the war years, but the humble record shop of which there will be more stories to follow.

Location; Manchester

Pictures; sleeve notes from the records of Vera Lynn, 2020, from the collection of David Harrop

The odd bits of family history

When I was growing up we didn’t possess a record player.

The record sleeve, circa 1920s

The first that came into our house must have been in 1964, and was followed by one of those stereograms, which sat on its elegant legs and took up half the side of one wall in the front room.

But we did briefly have an old 78 rpm player which as befitted the period, was a solid and grand piece of furniture.

It was powered by electricity but was not something I ever really bothered with, given that our radio collection in the 1950s, consisted of Bing Crosby, Burl Ives, some light opera and a mix of the classics.

They lay forgotten in one of Dad’s old leather suitcases in the cellar after having come up from Well Hall.

 But last week they came out into the daylight for the first time in four decades.

Dad and friend, circa 1920s

On one level there is nothing remarkable about them and all of them belonged to mother although a few are in record sleeves from shops in Newcastle where dad grew up.

As with most things about mum, her tastes were eclectic and so I am not surprised that Burl Ives should nestle beside Caruso and opera.

Dad like Kathleen Ferrier, a heap of the old romantic Scottish ballads about Bonnie Prince Charlie and on occasion would admit to liking the marching songs of the Orange Order.

What fascinates me about the collection are the sleeves.  Most are plain but a few carry the names and addresses of the shops they were bought from.

And as you do I went looking for them.

Dalton’s of London Road, Derby has long gone, and the site like so much of where mum grew up is a car park.

But J.G. Windows of Newcastle still exists and still trades from the Central Arcade.*

When Dad walked out of the store with his record, they occupied 4-7 Central Arcade, and now they are spread out over three floors from 1-7 Central Arcade.

According to the web site they opened in 1908 selling both records and musical instruments.*

In the 1920s they opened a second shop in Darlington which neatly dates my record sleeve to the 1920s because the Darlington store is advertised on the cover and I know that by the end of the decade Dad was in London.

It’s not perhaps page turning history but it is our family history and that will do for me.

Location; Newcastle-upon-Tyne

Picture; record sleeve, circa 1920s from the collection of Andrew Simpson, 

*J.G. Windows, http://www.jgwindows.com/about-us

That record shop in Camberwell, ten welfare hints for your 78s ......... and a charity

You won’t find the shop on Camberwell Road, that sold Django Reinhardt’s Parfum.*

I have no idea exactly when W. Holley & Son traded from 285 Camberwell Road, or when their shop was demolished or perhaps even destroyed.

Today if I have got this right, the site is occupied by one of those large blocks of Council flats called Lamb House.

But I must confess I am well out of my comfort zone.  As a kid in the 1950s, I seldom strayed to Camberwell from Peckham, and by 1964 had washed up in Well Hall, with no inclination to go back and explore the place.

The only clue I have is that Django Reinhardt recorded Parfum in Paris in April 1937, so perhaps that sort of fixes a date for the shop of W. Holley & Son.  The best way of finding out is trawl the directories, but sadly I don’t have access for those which will include Camberwell, and Manchester is a long way from south east London.

But there is a connection between here and Camberwell, and that is the record collection of which this 78 rpm was part of.

Happily, the collection is quite large, and all the records are still in their dust sleeves.  Their owner had an eclectic taste, with the range running from Django Reinhardt, to South Pacific, Sloppy Joe by Ted Heath and his Music, to Doris Day singing What Ever Will Be.

Nor were all the records bought in London, one came from Walkden in Salford, but most were from Manchester, and were sold by the big department stores, including Kendal Milne on Deansgate and Lewis’s.

What is particularly fascinating is the information printed on the record sleeves.  So, Lewis’s were announced that they “sell everything for everybody to wear and most things for personal use and for the home”.  

And “for ordinary purchases Lewis’s deliver free by their vans, by post, or to the nearest railway station”, and "paid the postage irrespective of the amount of your purchase”.

My favourite sleeve carries an advert for Songster Needles, which also came with a set of helpful hints of which there were ten, and purchasers were urged to “Ask your dealer for the full set, and use only Songster needles for purity and safety”.

In an age of “music streaming” there is something quite attractive about collecting as well as Holding your choice of music, along with reading the sleeve and record label.

All of which just leaves me to thank my friend Neil Simpson who found the collection while working as a volunteer for Wesley Community Furniture*, which provides “household goods to people in need. 

To that end, the Wesley provides the transport and labour to collect donations from people throughout Greater Manchester & N Cheshire. 

These donations are brought to the shop units where they are sorted, assessed for condition, repaired where possible, renovated when feasible and displayed for sale.

Clients either come off the street or are referred by agencies and are helped to choose from stock purchases which can then be delivered to their homes. Collections are free of charge (delivery with small charge).

Referred clients are offered our job lot/home start packages which consist of the basics people need for independent living for less than it would cost if the items were bought individually”.

So, there you have it ……….. a little bit of our music past, from Camberwell to Manchester, from Django Reinhardt to Doris Day, via Wesley Community Furniture.

Location; pretty much everywhere

Pictures; record sleeves, 2020, photographed by Neil Simpson

*Parfum, Django Reinhardt, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fijm2NNfyeE

** Wesley Community Furniture, http://wesleycommunityfurniture.co.uk/?fbclid=IwAR2d8XSmHHiZmE05nNx0Rr4R3DgRLfaoRmcmNfYpEWIfT0hFEbRz-rnWrVI