HARPIN’ BY THE SEA 2012 – WE’RE BACK!

• Learn To Play Harmonica Day
• Sat 4. Feb 2012
• 11.00am-11.00pm 
• The Brunswick, 1 Holland Road, Hove, BN3 1JF

The Brighton & Hove Harmonica Society, with support from the UK National Harmonica League (NHL), is hosting it’s second annual Learn To Play Harmonica Day to brighten up your mid-winter and celebrate our favourite instrument!

Last year 70 harmonica novices and enthusiasts came along for what proved to be a very special experience.  If you’ve always wanted to know how to get music out of a harmonica,  or improve what you’ve got, this is your chance! The Beginners’ workshops will be led by Harp Surgery’s very own Good Doctor Richard Taylor, while Harp Consultants Darren Causton, Will Greener and James Aldcroft will be leading sessions for Intermediate and Advanced players.

In the evening there will be another live show with three harp-friendly bands – final line up to be announced shortly.

Here’s the programme and entrance prices:

• 11.00 Registration
• 11.30-13.00 Workshops (Beginners/Intermediates)
• 14.15-15.45 Workshops (Beginners/Intermediates)
• 16.00-17.30 Workshops (Beginners/Intermediates)
• 17.30-19.00 Open harp jam on stage

Evening Show

• 20.00-23.00 Live show with featured artists
• Paddy Byrne
• The Uncontrollables
• Will Greener
• The Blackjacks

Booking information

• Day ticket  £20.00 / £17.00 conc.    
• Workshops only £14.00 / £12.00 conc.
• Evening Concert only £6.00 / £5.00  conc.    
• Tickets available from www.brunswickpub.co.uk

For enquiries and additional details contact:

• Mobile contact – Stuart McKay 07773 270336
• E mail contact – James Aldcroft  here
• Richard Taylor can be reached via the Harp Surgery contact page

What to bring / What harmonica?

Paying participants are eligible to take part in as many workshops as they can handle. Beginners will need a Richter tuned diatonic harp in the key of C Major. That’s a regular ‘blues’ harp (as pictured). Intermediates should bring a C Major harp too and any others they have. We will not be instructing on the Chromatic harmonica. Plesae be aware that parking in the area is metered. The Brunswick has a food menu and there are other food outlets within walking distance.

The Venue 

The event will take place at The Brunswick arts pub. Set just back from Hove seafront, this friendly venue will host harmonica workshops upstairs in their teaching rooms, while the evening concert will take place in their excellent Live Music Venue on the ground floor.

Harpin’ By The Sea presents…

Once again, ahead of his tenure at this year’s Blues Week in Northampton, Joe Filisko will be making a one-night-only appearance on the UK’s South Coast.

• JOE FILISKO,  plus The Shoestrung and Marika Hackman
• Friday 29th July 2011
• The Brunswick, 1 Holland Road, Hove, BN3
• Doors 7.30 – music 8.00 til 11.00
• £8 / £7 concessions

Return of the Jedi

From Chicago, Joe Filisko will be returning to Brighton by special invitation. He is without question one of the best blues harmonica players in the world.

His two previous performances at The Brunswick have been to full houses and the audiences were amazed by his magical playing and the sheer range of sounds he can produce from a harmonica.

Seeing Joe perform is an unforgettable and joyful experience. His craftsmanship, musicianship and knowledge of the instrument – and all aspects of its history – are acknowledged and praised by all the best harmonica players in the world today.

Read Joe’s review of 78rpm harmonica recordings in the current issue of Harmonica World, available through the UK National Harmonica League (NHL).

Dedicated followers of fashion

Originally from Brighton and now based in London where their popularity keeps on growing, The Shoestrung are a really exciting upcoming young band. They have just supported The New York Dolls in London and for this gig will be performing a special rhythm and blues set. Carnaby Street and The Brit Invasion live on. Tastefully so.

Plus

Currently based in Brighton, Marika Hackman whose ‘folky(ish) songs with a fresh twist’ have been attracting a lot of interest recently.

NHL Spring Festival 2011

The National Harmonica League (NHL) Spring Festival will take on 7 May 2011 at The Stables Theatre in Wavendon, Milton Keynes, 10am to 5pm, with Jam Session 8.45 to 11pm. Tickets are £26.00 each (£16.00 NHL members)

Once again, we are putting on a day of top quality workshops, with a focus on moving your diatonic harmonica playing to the next level. This year’s workshop leaders will be the virtuosic Lee Sankey, the erudite Richard Taylor, the superbly skilled Joff Watkins, the inspirational Will Greener and the spaciotemporal Con O’Neill.

Calling all harps

The day will be topped off with another chance to jam with Giles Hedley and his band of outstanding musicians (setlist and keys available from Con O’Neill).

The main workshops will finish at 3.30pm to allow the Stables to set up its restaurant and evening show, but we will be offering some workshops (4.oopm to 5.oopm) to encourage those of you who have travelled from further afield to stick around and enjoy the evening show. For the timetable and up-to-date workshop details, visit the NHL Website.

Our 6 workshops this year will include:

• Will Greener – Easy
  Learn how to play Walter Horton’s well known harmonica instrumental.
• Richard Taylor – Whammer Jammer
  Play your way through Magic Dick’s electric harp instrumental and learn about power harping, vamping, tongue blocking, cupping, head rolls and blow bends. Tab will be provided. Bring a harmonica in A.
• Joff Watkins – Six Positions on a C Harp
  In this workshop, you will improvise and play tunes in 6 different keys on a C harp. Break out of those first 6 holes and solo in major and minor keys over the whole range of your harmonica.
• Con O’Neill – The Rutbuster: 57 Varieties of Blues Harmonica Solo
  Whether you are just starting out, or you have hit the famous plateau (“everything I play sounds kind of the same”), this workshop will push your playing in new directions. You will practically explore different approaches to improvisation, chosen by participants from a list provided by the facilitator. Bring harps in C and A (D might be handy, too).
• Lee Sankey – To be confirmed

Provisional Timetable

• Registration: 10:00-10:15am
• Workshops 10.15 to 11:30am – TBC
• Workshops 11:45 to 1.00pm – TBC
• Lunch: 1:00 to 1:45pm – Sandwiches, panini and hot and cold bevearges available from the bar
• Workshops 2:00 to 3:30pm – TBC
• Taster Workshops: Many of you will have travelled some distance. Our workshop facilitators will be offering short bespoke sessions to take us up to dinner time.
• Taster Workshops 4:00 to 4:30pm – TBC
• Taster Workshops 4:30 to 5:00pm – TBC
• Dinner: The restaurant will be open from 6:00 to 8:00pm
• Evening Jam/Gig: Giles Hedley band – Doors Open approx 8.30 – End: 11pm

Get down with it!

We hope you can make it for another inspiring day. The Spring Festival is an important part of the NHL calendar, which now offers Harping By The Sea each February in Brighton, Spring Festival each May in Milton Keynes and the Annual Festival and Competition in Bristol each October.

For further information email Con O’Neill or Harp Surgery direct. Mobile: Con O’Neill 0790 508 7741 / Richard Taylor 07525 256954

Otis, the Harp Surgery’s Postman, delivered a lovely letter this morning from our harp friend Piers Marsh, inviting us to see his new band at the Brixton Windmill on 18.Feb 2011. Their name is Mountain Of Love (after Piers’ Alabama 3 pseudonym naturally). We understand Sir Eddie Real of Alabama 3 is also part of the new set up.

We do urge everyone to check out the new grooves. The first MOL album is a work in progress, however you can catch a sneak preview on youtube. MOL has a myspace page, and describes it’s new sound as down-tempo, dub and elctronica. No doubt there will be some harmonica in there somewhere. There is also a Facebook page and a dedicated website in the pipeline.

Somewhere there’s a church with a big tall steeple

Harp Surgery had the great pleasure of interviewing Piers when Alabama 3 played in Brighton at the end of 2008.

He was endearingly embarrassed to be an interviewee. Pointing a finger at the front men as they ghosted by, ‘they usually get all the attention’, he quipped. He is engaging, open and instantly likable. I could have been chatting to an old school mate I hadn’t seen for years. One who had attracted the media spotlight, reveled in the creative experience, but remained unerringly normal. The word ‘grounded’ springs to mind.

Inside a church there’s an altar filled with flowers

We also enquired as to the origins of the pseudonym. Piers told us the name had been given to him and was taken from an old country or gospel song. The track has been covered by many artists, including the Beach Boys and Bruce Springsteen.

Anyway, now you’ve booked your ticket to see Mountain Of Love, let’s see what else we can find out about that song. See you at the gig.

Wedding bells are ringing and they sould have been ours

The 1964 Johnny Rivers version of Mountain Of Love, with its hint of Louisiana, was always going to be the one that caught the Harp Surgery’s ear. It has a healthy old dollop of the old lickin’ stick aftr all. But although Johnny dabbled in the harp, he drafted in former Sun Records rockabilly artist Billy Lee ‘Red Hot’ Riley to lay down the harmonica sequence on his hit single.

Billy Lee Riley’s harp playing can be heard on the following albums: Harmonica & the Blues, Crown, 1962 / Big Harmonica Special, Mercury, 1964 / Harmonica Beatlemania, Mercury, 1965.

That’s why I’m so lonely, my dreams gone above, high on a mountain of love

I’m tired of prosperity, I’m tired of luck

*** STOP PRESS ***

• Gary Moore Tribute Radio: BHCR 17:00 (UK) Fri 11.Mar
• Gary Moore Tribute Night: Brunswick Pub, Hove, Fri 25.Mar (Procedes to Chestnut Tree Childrens Hospice) 

Harp Surgery would like to pay tribute to Gary Moore, who sadly passed away on holiday in Spain this morning.

Gary recently relocated to Brighton with his family, right here on the Harp Surgery’s doorstep. He would infrequently grace our favourite local blues hangout, The Ranelagh Arms, sitting in with bands and playing impromptu gigs to those in the know.. always at stadium volume.

The Good Doctor recalls listening from the beer garden where sound levels were kinder on the ears. It was somewhat bizarre hearing note perfect renditions of classics such as Parisian Walkways, Too Tired and Oh Pretty Woman, knowing that the great Gary Moore was actually playing in the pub.

I’m sitting on a pin, too tired to get up

The Doc first saw Gary Moore on stage at the Lyceum in London around 1981, midway between his early tenure with Thin Lizzy and the release of his highly acclaimed Still Got Blues solo album. The line up that night included Nine Below Zero and The Blues Band; Gary Moore was invited on stage as a surprise special guest. More recently it was interesting to hear Gary make a rare harmonica appearance on his self-penned Preacher Man Blues, the penultimate track from what was to become his final studio album in 2008, Bad For You Baby. Thank you for the memories Gary.

Though the days come and go, there’s one thing I know..

Where junior harp players make music

Some of our Harp Surgery visitors may be wondering why the children’s Toot Suite menu has disappeared. The answer is, it now has its very own domain.

The Toot Suite site has become the home of music, news and trivia for all children of Primary (Elementary) School age who enjoy harmonica.

The site’s menus guide juniors to loads of fun tunes, amazing facts and great ideas for building harmonica skills. It’s bright, uncomplicated and fun.

And as playing develops, they’ll soon be ready to visit our specialist harmonica pages here at the Harp Surgery. Which leaves us to get on with stuff for the grown ups! Tell all your friends.

Sometimes it is important to take a complete break from the everyday, including the harmonica. A holiday should promote a renewed sense of perspective and a fresh appetite. Which is possibly the true meaning of recreation. And so it is, that not playing the harmonica can actually improve musical creativity. 

This summer the Good Doctor vacated the Harp Surgery and repaired to the fresh air of Scandinavia in a bid to recharge the old electrochemical cells. If less is more, then the expansiveness, raw nature and piercing silence of Northern Europe is a source of great spiritual enrichment.

But just when he thought it was safe to run naked from the sauna, our unlikely musical instrument leapt out uninvited. Ain’t it always the way? Take Helsinki Airport for example…

A poor second to Belgium, when go-ing abroad [Finland by Monty Python]

The Good Doctor and his family were making their way through Departures to catch the air shuttle to Stockholm when they passed the Moomin store. And there to greet them was a lifesize mannekin of Snufkin (above) playing the harmonica. Or at least it would be a harmonica if that was what the Finns called it. And we’re assuming it’s a harmonica rather than a supersized Bourbon Biscuit.

In Finland a harmonnika is actually a type of accordion. That is to say the Finnish word for what we call a harmonica is huuliharppu. Something of which our friends in Sväng are no doubt well aware. 

Anyway, for those who are unfamiliar with the Moomins, they are one of Finland’s most celebrated exports. In fact they’re the nearest the Finns have to Disney. And before you ask, yes there is a Mumin World theme park complete with Moominmamma’s famous jam cellar. Er, the jam you can eat, that is. And you can buy your own Nuuskamuikkunen Huuliharppu (Snufkin Harmonica) from the souvenir store.

She had a dream about the King of Sweden [Mini The Moocher - Cab Calloway]

Cutting against Sweden’s reputation for social equality, technical reliability, economy of design and world domination, the Vasa Museum is a celebration of abject failure on all fronts. The Vasa was a royal galleon named after Sweden’s equivalent to Henry VIII which, in 1628, sailed no more than a metric mile from the dockyards of Stockholm and promptly turned turtle in a gust of wind. Poor design was the basis of the catastrophe and the conquering of Poland was shelved.

In true Swedish style of course, no blame was apportioned. Modern investigative journalists would call this the Vasagate Cover Up. But as the engineer responsible for the ship’s production had already joined the great dockyard in the sky, at the time it was convenient to posthumously shove the blame his way and get back on message. 

Indeed, pointing an accusatory finger at the King for pushing the plans through prematurely without due diligence to health and safety simply wasn’t worth being keel hauled for. Leda genom teknik as they say in Sweden.

Joking aside, if you get the chance, go and visit the museum. It is superbly well presented, highly educational and excellent value for families. Which is what the Good Doctor and company got up to having transferred their vacationing from Finland to Sweden. All very well, we hear you say, but what on earth does this have to do with the harmonica?

Nothing much, until you view one particuar information board with an ironic eye. The text explains part of the metaphor behind the galleon’s splendidly carved superstructure. It’s entitled King David, The Harp Player. So there’s just no getting away from the old gob iron. Even in Sweden. I’m sure the Catholic troops under Alexander of Poland would have been quaking in their boots had they caught sight of David and his giant harp.

Kom igen Sverige!

As a Swedish TV commercial blasted the classic Hoochie Coochie harmonica riff through the solitude of the Good Doctor’s Swedish summer house, he had to accept that no amount of vacationing could ever divorce him from the voice of the ubiquitous Mississippi Saxophone.

So, in parting acknowledgment to Sweden’s contribution to the blues harp, here’s a link to Sven Zetterberg who we once had the honour of hearing live with Eric Bibb, and also a little something by Knockout Greg (below). Well, if you can’t beat ‘em, pick up your harp and join ‘em. Even if you’re on your summer vacation.

It is with pride and sadness that we announce the graduation of Elwood The Apprentice, our own ’Special Star’, from the ranks of the Harp Surgery crew. Having contributed a vibrant and ground-breaking series of posts to our site, Elwood will be returning to his African homeland where he will focus on issues of economics, conservation and development. As we bid Elwood a fond farewell, we would like to share with you a joyful piece of music he once introduced to the Surgery. While it doesn’t feature the harmonica, it does spotlight our woodwind cousin, the Penny Whistle.

Regular visitors will already know of our penchant for good-time sounds. Harp Surgery pages have featured Rory McLeod’s Farewell Welfare, Paolo Nutini’s Pencil Full Of Lead, and of course Elwood’s own post about Hey Negrita. As Thomas Carlyle put it, if you look deep enough you will see music; the heart of nature being everywhere music. Now roll back the rug and prepare to dance yourself silly to the lekker sound of South African Kwela. 

I will be forever yours, you will be forever mine

One dull Spring afternoon at the Surgery, Elwood played an album by Mango Groove that instantly fired our collective passion for South African Kwela music. One track in particular, Special Star, had the The Good Doctor honking his Vuvuzela like a rutting impala, while Otis, Our Monica and The Riverboat Captain danced a ferocious Indlamu routine around the fishtank. The Harp Surgery reception was like a frenzied Friday night in Mandela Square.

Kwela is honest, joyful, and infectious music. Check it out. Special Star was written as a tribute to Johannes ‘Spokes’ Mashiyane, the king of Whistle music. We challenge you to reproduce the whistle melody on the humble diatonic harmonica (it’s in the key of Bb major)!

Thank you Elwood

Farewell to Elwood, the Harp Surgery’s very first Apprentice. Thanks for the energy, fun and insight you brought to our pages. May the road rise with you. Rest assured our door will remain forever open to you. If you’re ever in the neighbourhood drop in.

Joe Filisko is visiting Brighton & Hove (UK) at the end of this month in preparation for the annual Blues Week at Northampton University. He will be playing on the evening of  Friday 30.July at The Brunswick in Hove. Tickets can be bought in advance from the venue website.

Old school confidential

Those who saw Joe play last year will know what a fabulous event this is. Big love. This year he is supported once again by The Shoestrung, an excellent young UK beat group, redolent of the early Kinks and Rolling Stones. Also on the bill are The Blackjacks featuring Wanderin’ Wilf Taylor on harps. The band has newly reformed with it’s original members specially for the show.

Action replay

Here’s our report on Joe’s visit in 2009. You can also read about Elwood’s chat with Joe after the gig, and his epilogue. Hopefully no alcohol abuse this year – that’s what we call a spilled pint!

Otis the Harp Surgery postman dropped in a letter from our friend Robert Koch in France today.

Robert is organising a Blues and Roots Masterclass from Tuesday 3.August to Saturday 7.August 2010 at La Maison du Kleebach in Kleebach, France. The day offers instruction in guitar, cajón and harmonica.

The great news for harmonica players is that Hohner have kindly released Steve Baker to lead the harp session, together with their very own in-house service team. The team offers all participating harmonica players a free repair and maintenance service and will be happy to answer any further technical questions. Full details are available on line at the European Masterclass website.

Registration has been underway for a while and interest is strong, as you would imagine. There are still places available however. If you would like to participate, please contact: 

• Sunnyside Productions
• Attn. Robert Koch
• 1, rue de la Hache
• F-57000 Metz
• France
  Tel. +33 608 308659
• e-mail here

The Harp Surgery team wishes everyone involved with the Eurpopean Masterclass a fun and rewarding day.