Best Weedon.... Guitar Boogie Shuffle... He was born in East Ham, in London on the 10th May 1920, to Bert and Elizabeth Weedon but baby Herbert Maurice William ‘Bert’ Weedon would grow into a top quality guitarist. From his childhood days Bert wanted to play guitar and when he was 12 he persuaded his dad to buy him a tatty guitar at a price of just 75p from Petticoat Lane Market. Bert practised and practised and he learnt his instrument, with technique and even more practise. He had studied so hard that by the 1930s while in his teens, he led groups like the Blue Cumberland Rhythm Boys and Bert Weedon and His Harlem Hotshots but his first solo appearance was at East Ham town hall in 1939. Bert went quickly on the work with leading performers that included French Jazz violinist Stephane Grappelli, George Shearing, the conductor Mantovani and various Big Bands. By the 1950s Bert had become featured soloist with the BBC Show Band and he also began working as a session musician, for many Rock ‘n’ Roll artists such as Tommy Steel, Mart Wilde and Billy Fury. Bert backed visiting stars from America too, Judy Garland, Nat King Cole and Frank Sinatra. Bert Weedon was in great demand and it is estimated that he performed on 5.000 BBC radio broadcasts and he was seen regularly on British TV too. In 1957 Bert first produced a guitar tutorial book called Play in a Day which sold over 1 million copies so he wrote a follow up called Play Every Day, which sold so darn well! In 1959 he was asked by Top Rank Records to make a record ,as a solo artist which he did and Guitar Boogie Shuffle entered the UK Singles Chart and Bert became the first British guitarist to do so. Guitar Boogie had been originally recorded by Arthur ‘Guitar Boogie’ Smith back in 1948 and then re-recorded in 1958 as Guitar Boogie Shuffle by Frank Virtue and the Virtues which became a major U.S hit, peaking at number 5 on the Billboard Top 100 charts and Bert Weedons version reached number 10 on the UK charts. Bert’s style of playing focussed on both rhythm and melody with great emphasis on tone control and he influenced so many big names in music; Hank Marvin, Brian May, Eric Clapton, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, John Lennon, Keith Richards, Pete Townsend, Jimmy Page and the list goes on. Bert Weedon, guitar legend and OBE.....
Posted on: Thu, 06 Jun 2013 05:46:23 +0000
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