Nat Gonella - Blow That Horn

Ref: SUN2144 £5.00
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Blow That Horn • Yeah Man • Way Down Yonder In New Orleans • Bessie Couldn't Help Confessin' • Someone Stole Gabriels • I Can't Dance (I Got Ants In My Pants) • Me Myself And I • You Rascal You • Stardust • I Want To Be Happy • T'Aint What You Do • Well Alright • Sheik Of Araby • Juanita • Shoot The Likker To Me • John Boy • Vox Poppin • Sentimental Interlude • Oh Monah • That's My Home • If You Were The Only Girl In The World • I'm Nobody's Baby • Oh Susannah • I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles • Georgia On My Mind

Format: Single CD
Number of Tracks: 25
Label: Sunflower Records

Drumming In War and Peace - Vic Jones

I'm Vic Jones and this is my story. In 1924, my father (a theatre percussionist) left Birmingham for London to join an orchestra playing at the Wembley Empire Exhibition - he never came home again. That year, I was just one year old, my brother was four and, since my father seldom sent us any money, we lived in poverty. To make matters worse, no sooner had I started school at the age of five than I developed a heart condition. Most of my school life was spent lying on the settee at home - my mother taught me to read and write when I was seven or eight, but that was all the education I had.

However, in 1935, we acquired a radio and just lying around all day gave me the chance to listen to those wonderful orchestras and dance bands broadcasting every day. I developed an ambition to play drums in a dance band one day. Came 1937 and, all of fourteen years old, I weighed only four and a half stones standing knee high to a grasshopper. Enough, I decided, was enough, so I went out and got a job in a factory working 48 hours a week - which amazed everyone and gave my mother quite a shock. At the end of the first week, my 2/6d pocket money was spent at the local drum shop on a pair of rhythm brushes, followed by a pair of sticks the next week.

Now I could accompany the bands on the radio, using anything I could lay my hands on as a drum. I borrowed books from the local library to learn drumming, discovering all the practice beats notated in drum music. Self taught, I was on my way to my ambition.

By the end of 1938, I had assembled a basic drum kit (mostly Premier) but couldn't afford a hi hat, so I made one myself - which worked perfectly. I now had a 24 inch bass, 5 inch snare, two tom toms that fitted inside the other for transporting, together with other small accessories. Space was critical, as my kit travelled in a trailer towed behind my bicycle. By now, I had three regular evening gigs in Birmingham City Centre.

I was 16 at the outbreak of war in 1939, shattered by the dreaded news that all places of entertainment were to close down immediately. This was the start of the cold war and, since nothing happened, everywhere opened up again. When the air raids started in earnest in 1940, the only restriction was an 11pm finish. We still played for dancing while the raids were in progress, even though both my venues were on the first floor. If the dancers wanted to carry on - most of them were in uniform and on leave, so they did - we played on to the sound of ack ack guns and falling bombs.

19th November, 1940, is a night that stays in my memory. We packed up at 11pm and were away by 11.15pm. The city was in chaos, the sky glowing red. 100 yards away, New Street railway station had a direct hit on the main signal box. Normally, it would take me 10 minutes to cycle home, but there were diversions for unexploded bombs, fires and craters everywhere and hosepipes across the roads. When the anti aircraft guns fired their shells, down came the shrapnel like rain - then you had to take to the shelter! I wouldn't put my drums at risk.

If it would still be standing when you got there - and, about the same time, the place where I had been playing had a direct hit by a land mine - it was flattened. Still, within a week, I was playing again at a new venue 100 yards away - you had no time to stand and stare.

While these raids were going on, I also had to do two nights firewatching at the factory where I worked. You were on your own - not very pleasant when a raid was at its height. You still had to turn up for work the next day - I often wonder how we managed without all that sleep.

All this came to an end in 1942. I was called up and I drafted into the Army, having been turned down for the Home Guard (Dad's Army) in 1940. I had no sight in my right eye, so they said I was useless to them - obviously, the regular army wasn't so fussy. After my call-up, there was only one more minor air raid on Birmingham - was it my drumming that they objected to? Anyway, I was soon playing with my company dance band - in my spare time as usual, military duties came first. In July that year (on my 19th birthday in fact) I was detailed to play drums for the great British trumpet player Nat Gonella. He was with "Stars In Battledress" and had come to give us a two hour concert.

On being introduced to Nat, he asked me "Can you read the dots?" I assured him that I could and then, typical Gonella, he replied "You can forget that lot we've no time to sort out the music. I hope you can improvise."

I was a big fan of Nat Gonella, so I knew his style and all went well. I had little time to bask in my glory, though, for I was on embarkation leave within a month. We set sail to an unknown destination no one ever told you where you would end up. It did cross my mind that I might never see England again -'even more so when the convoy was attacked and my life passed before my eyes (I could not swim).

Having worked with Nat, my drumming went on the back burner - there was more important work to be done. General Montgomery's forces had just captured Alamein when we arrived in Egypt, but his target was Tripoli, Libya, 1400 miles of desert away! The Germans fought a hard rearguard action all the .way with constant artillery fire, minefields and regular visits from the Stuka bombers. It took around three months before we finally captured Tripoli, on 23rd January, 1943. I wasn't yet twenty and I had lived a lifetime (Thousands of troops never lived to see that day - we weren't soldiers, just civilians in uniform doing our best).

Once in Tripoli, I stayed there as part of the occupation force, so once again, I was playing drums J' with various groups from trios to seven piece outfits - still in my spare time. By this time, I was S/Sgt with even more duties to perform, but I was never far from a drum kit. Drum kit? Well, you can't imagine the state some of them were in! They were always a challenge and you had to make the most of them - never a rhythm brush or stick to be had. Remember those sticks I bought in1937? They were in my kit bag everywhere I travelled and I still have them today.

When the war in Europe came to an end, mid 1945, I was asked to play with the Tripoli Theatre Orchestra - in reality the Band of the Royal Signal Corps, whose percussionist had returned to England for an early de-mob. I was in the RAOC, but no one else was available, so they didn't mind. They played dance music, big band, jazz and lots of orchestral music, so it was essential to be a good reader. . As usual, military duties had to come first, but we had some good times.

In November 1946, I had completed four years in the Middle East and had to return to England. It was to be March 1947 before I was demobbed and returned to Civvy Street. I could have turned pro, but, having just got married to my pen friend of four years, I was looking for a quiet life. Believe me, playing at soldiers during wartime takes some getting over. Many memories remain of the good times, when I was helping entertain thousands of troops. I was one fa the fortunate ones who came back, but the scars will never go away.

This information is featured in the CD booklet.