DOREEN CHADWICK & CONSOLE COMPENDIUM - TWO New Organ CDs
This listing is for TWO Organ CDs at a special price (works out at £7.45 each, with cheaper P&P).
These are listed separately at £8.95 each if you only want one.
DOREEN CHADWICK - MANCHESTER MEMORIES
A 1967 concert at the Wurlitzer in The Odeon Cinema, Manchester.
Released: 2012.
Running Time: 44.58.
Code: OK25.
This CD was released on the OK Rollem Productions label (aka "Old Century Sounds").
This was a small independent record label run by Ken Mellor, who produced short-run CDs of various organ recordings.
Ken retired in 2023 and this is a REPACKAGED version of that release (The tracks are the same).
Doreen (Signature Tune) / A Swingin' Safari
A Day in the Life of a Fool
Selection from Fiddler on the Roof: Matchmaker / If I Were a Rich Man / Sunrise, Sunset / To Life
The Bubble Song
To a Wild Rose
Pink Geranium / Georgy Girl / Music to Watch Girls Go By / Misty / There’s a Kind of Hush
Zampa
This Could Be the Start of Something Big
Kangarooga
Silence is Golden / Roses of Picardy / Finchley Central / Sunrise Samba
SLEEVE NOTES:
This performance by Doreen was recorded at an organ club concert in 1967. Some of the headlines from that year are worth recalling in 2012. De Gaulle rebuffed Britain’s application to join the Common Market, the first heart transplant was carried out and the United Kingdom won the Eurovision Song Contest. Doreen’s programme is a reminder of those days when, before the main feature film was screened, a spotlight picked out the organist as the lift brought the organ up to stage level accompanied by the signature tune that identified the artist. Then, as on this particular day, the programme consisted of marches, light classical pieces and popular tunes of the day. In fact one of the tunes featured, Finchley Central, reached number twelve in the charts during June 1967.
Doreen’s career had taken the usual path from playing a straight church organ, leading to taken tuition at a local cinema in South Wales. Moving to London, she joined the Granada circuit and became resident at the Granada, Tooting, a cinema that was noted for it’s ornate styling and long regarded as a cathedral of the ‘talkies’. She then joined ABC Theatres and moved to the Savoy Cinema in Leicester, spending two years there. The next move was to the Ritz at Richmond in Surrey.
A move to the north of England was the start of regular broadcasts from the Gaumont and Odeon cinemas in Manchester, while in nearby Oldham, Doreen and husband, Len, became ‘mine hosts’ at the Magnet Hotel which was to become a regular venue for organ followers after they installed the latest model Hammond organ. From then on, Doreen became busier than ever, for all though cinemas were disposing of their organs, the concert scene was to take up a great deal of her time. Organ clubs, both pipe and electronic, were being formed all over Britain as redundant theatre organs were being reinstalled in a wide range of ‘new homes’ ranging from town halls to humble village and church halls. Not forgetting some very residential settings amongst the more affluent organ followers. Doreen became one of the most popular organists amongst concert goers and it was perhaps fitting that she should announce her retirement while seated at the console of one of her favourite organs. This was the Compton/Christie in the Town Hall, Ossett on 1st June, 2008.
...Ken Mellor.
Recording Engineer: Les Brumpton & Ken Mellor.
CONSOLE COMPENDIUM
Featuring nine cinema organists with previously unpublished recordings:
Ena Baga, William Davies, Con Docherty, Vic Hammett, Watson Holmes, Arnold Loxam, Bobby Pagan, Leslie Taff, Trevor Willetts.
Organs featured: Odeon Hammersmith, Regal Henly, Odeon Gateshead, Odeon Manchester, Opera House Blackpool, Granada Grantham, Town Hall Buckingham and The Odeon Rotherham.
Released: 2011.
Running Time: 66.27.
Code: OK14.
Unknown text snippet
The William Tell Overture
ENA BAGA (Compton 4-15 Odeon, Hammersmith)
The Good Old Bad Old Days
WILLIAM DAVIES (Compton 3-7 Regal, Henley on Thames)
Finlandia
CON DOCHERTY (Compton 3-9 Odeon, Gateshead)
Lara’s Theme / Sweet Georgia Brown
VIC HAMMETT (Wurlitzer 4-20 Odeon, Manchester)
Lover Come Back to Me / Who / Gold & Silver Waltz / When the Guards are on Parade
WATSON HOLMES (Wurlitzer 3-14 Opera House, Blackpool)
Chinatown, My Chinatown / The Gold & Silver Waltz / Gilbert & Sullivan Selection
ARNOLD LOXAM (Compton 3-6 Granada, Grantham)
Only Make Believe / Why Do I Love You / All the Things You Are / Just the Way You Are Tonight / Ol’ Man River
BOBBY PAGAN (Wurlitzer 4-2 Odeon, Manchester)
Whispering / Ain’t Misbehavin’ / Deep Purple / Smoke Gets in Your Eyes / When You’re Smiling
LESLIE TAFF (Wurlitzer 3-10 Town Hall, Buckingham)
Tritsch Tratsch Polka / Sailor’s Hornpipe / Anchors Aweigh / In the Mood / Bugle Call Rag / We’ll All Go Riding on a Rainbow
TREVOR WILLETTS (Connacher 3-9 Odeon, Rotherham)
SLEEVE NOTES:
ENA BAGA. Her first appointment was as assistant to her sister, Florence De Jong, at the New Gallery cinema in Regent Street. She had the distinction of being the only lady organist to be invited by King George V to play at Balmoral. During WWII, she took Reginald Dixon’s place at the Tower, Blackpool.
WILLIAM DAVIES. Yet another rising organist whose career ended in 1939. It was 1946 before he was back at the console. First at the Gaumont, Wolverhampton, then to London, including the Dominion, Tottenham Court Road. He also became a composer and arranger.
CON DOCHERTY. Called for military service, Con served with the RAF Squadron that located the Bismark. After the war he asked for a north east appointment, which began at the Gaumont, Doncaster in February, 1946.
VIC HAMMETT. Starting at the Palace, Slough and later moving to the Plaza, Iver, Vic was unlucky to be playing at the Scala, Berlin in September, 1939 and became a prisoner of war. In 1945 he joined Gaumont British and took a post at the Broadway, Stratford.
WATSON HOLMES. Began playing the piano for silent films before taking organ tuition from Dr. William Ellis at Newcastle Cathedral. He joined Granada and toured all their theatres, before becoming resident at the Granada, Mansfield. He was appointed to the Winter Gardens, Blackpool, until Horace Finch returned. He moved to the Tower to join Reginald Dixon, before taking over at the Opera House.
ARNOLD LOXAM. Born in Bradford, Arnold gave his first broadcast in 1925 as a child pianist. It was the New Victoria cinema that gave him his chance as an organist, starting him on a career that not only took in the organ at Blackpool Tower, but a number of concert tours to Holland, Canada and North America.
BOBBY PAGAN. Born in Scotland in 1905, Bobby was destined for a cinema organist career and like many others, he had to be prepared to move around the country. His posts included, the Regal, Glasgow, Astoria, Aberdeen, Regal Edmonton and the State, Kilburn.
LESLIE TAFF. Born in Tipton, Leslie was another child pianist who began accompanying silent films at the Victoria Palace, Horseley Heath. As the organ became more of a feature, he progressed to other cinemas in the area and was resident at the Regal, Darlaston for many years. He opened the Tower cinema, West Bromwich in 1935, playing a Compton 3-10. Later, he was to play the same organ when it was reinstalled at Marston Green Hospital in 1971.
TREVOR WILLETTS. Playing church organ from an early age, Trevor was given theatre organ tuition from Tommy Dando, who was resident at the Regal (later Odeon), Rotherham. As a member of the ABC team of organists, he had to ‘sit in’ at any number of smaller cinemas which were sometimes described by a rather insalubrious term! But in 1943, he was appointed to the Ritz, Barnsley and stayed until 1962.
…Ken Mellor
Recording Engineers, Les Brumpton & Ken Mellor.
I run MSS Studios (aka ORGAN1st) and have specialised in mail-order organ & keyboard recordings since 1996. I have been selling used recordings since 2020.
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