More Physiotherapy and Composing at the Piano

Saturday 5 July 2025. It's weekend. Usually that means fewer staff but yesterday they were running on low numbers anyway. Our usual table by the window in the Day Room was free though and we were joined by one of the ladies from the women's ward.

The table had been set out already and looked very refined with a full set of matching China plates, cups and saucers. We started with cereals then moved onto a couple or more slices of toast, half a packet of butter and a pot full of jam or marmalade single portion tubs.

One of the physios came round to ask if I fancied a climb up the stairs. I agreed and was wheeled down the maze of corridors, past the gym and I realised that by "stairs" they meant a full uncarpeted very solid flight of concrete stairs.

The Physio nurses (there are two of them and both lovely) said they would support me but I asked for my walking stick from my room as I wanted to see how I could manage on my own after the fall which led to this 8 weeks and counting hospital stay.

With the stick in one hand and the handrail firmly gripped I took a deep breath and climbed the first step, one foot then the other. A bit wobbly but I did another, then another until I reached the top where I sank gratefully into a chair. I had done it... the same number of steps as we have at home! After a short while I swapped the stick to my other hand and went down, a slightly more scary climb as I was now looking down the drop before me. But slowly I reached the bottom and the physios were full of praise for me as I was wheeled back to the ward.

I asked to do a walk with the stick on the flat. It felt so familiar a thing to do. So since then I've not touched either wheelchair or Zimmer frame, but have walked with my trusty walking stick to and from Day Room and loo or bedroom. It felt good.

Someone said the photo of me and one of our little gang of three at the Breakfast Club was on the wall so I had a look and later was given an A4 sized copy which had been laminated.

But the ward sister had another challenge in mind... "John I want you to write us a jingle to promote the Breakfast Club and we can record it this afternoon." Blimey Charlie! Playing I've done. Singing I've done. Composing I haven't done since the 1970s when I played lead guitar in a Manchester band, Spiral.

But jingles are short and club rhymes with grub so it was finished in my mind by lunchtime with Miss Franny visiting to listen and bounce ideas off. I don't read music so the tune had to be composed and memorised. For a while it changed a bit every time I attempted to sing it...

The ward sister came back in the afternoon and I went to the piano. Now I can play keyboards fairly well. Pianos require a bit more work from your left hand and I am no Paul McCartney... With two nurses both videoing me on their phones I set off. The tune was something like the one I had tried so hard to memorise. It was also a little like the theme to the TV show "The Beverley Hillbillies". Take one tripped up on the last line. Take two was pronounced a success and a round of applause came from the patients and staff in the room.

My first performance since the cancer was diagnosed. But the achievement I was most happy about was undoubtedly the walking. I feel like home may be just days away.

Cancer and Leg Ulcers Index
Family Memories: Personal Index

Singing For The W.I.

Wednesday 3 November 2021. After going down well at the Over Wyre Social and Activity club I was asked to perform for the Women's Institute in Knott End at their AGM this week.

I had been contacted through my old school chum and long-standing friend Janet who is a member of both organisations. We first met when we were eleven and that is [ahem - CENSORED!] years ago now!

Janet made me laugh when she told me afterwards that one of the group had said to her 'When he went on stage I thought "Well... he doesn't look like a rock star! But boy! Can he sing!"' Agh - I don't look like a rock star???

Care Home Gigs

After 18 months with only a single gig, it felt good to be back playing music to an audience again. My Mum has had to go into a care home following a bad fall and a spell in hospital and was eager to get me into the place to hear some of her favourite songs again.

She had to wait until COVID rules were relaxed but my first visit went down so well I was asked back in short time to do another session, this time adding a few older songs by the likes of Frankie Laine and even Bing Crosby (which went down so well, I'm having to learn some more!)

The gig I did for the Christmas party of the Over Wyre Social and Activity Club back in December 2019 has spawned another three solo bookings for later in the year and we could do with a few for the duo Creeping Bentgrass if anyone is looking for a night of sixties music. Contact details are in the right-hand column - please specify whether it's a solo or duo you would like.

Performing Solo

It's January and there's never much for me to write about until the weather improves and I can get outside and hold a camera without shivering too much...

However, just to catch up on one of the few events since my last missive way back in 2019, a few photos from 16 December 2019 when I performed a solo entertainment for the members of the Over Wyre Social and Activity Club's Christmas Party event.

This was at the request of one of the club's founders, who I first met one or two years ago when we were eleven years old.

She can remember me playing and singing when hair still graced my head... I've been taking my Mum to the club which meets once a month and was asked if I would play for the Christmas party. It's a long while since I've done a show on my lonesome apart from the odd couple of songs a night with friends Tomas and Maris on cruise ships. Certainly neither Jan (the friend) nor Mum (the er… maternal parent...) had seen me do anything like this for several decades.

But it was good fun and I made sure the party-goers had a good time and chose songs that they could join in with.

And to finish with I turned to the keyboard to play a gentle version of White Christmas. Bing would have been proud! Thanks to Jan and to the members of the club for their welcome and generous applause and praise.

Creeping Bentgrass - 15th Year at Heskin Steam Rally

Saturday, 1 June 2019. This year marked our fifteenth appearance at the Heskin Fair organised by Jack Gerrard, his family and friends.

Once again a great night with a wonderful crowd in the huge marquee on the field at Malt Kiln Farm in Eccleston, Chorley.

Creeping Bentgrass in Southport

Saturday 26 January 2019. Our first gig of the year took us on a stormy journey to Ainsdale near Southport to play at a 70th birthday party.

The venue was Southport and Ainsdale Golf Club where we found the best "can do" staff and an enthusiastic audience who kept the dance floor occupied throughout the evening. We kept the dancers busy and were asked to do our version of the Moody Blues' Nights in White Satin which earned us a standing ovation. Thanks to all concerned - we had just as fabulous a night as we hoped you did!

Creeping Bentgrass Gigs

Catching up on the latest gig reports, this entry covers two gigs, both for private parties at cricket clubs.

This was a couple of weeks ago on 14 April, a 50th birthday party in the function room at Blackpool Cricket Club.

Unfortunately there was another very loud band playing downstairs - their bass was shaking the floor upstairs and at first I thought that our gear was malfunctioning. One wonders whether the upstairs room should have been let out under such circumstances!

No such problems at Darwen Cricket Club last Friday night where we played for a retirement do. This was actually for an ex-colleague of both David and myself - the band (4 of us then) formed originally in 2000 at Myerscough College. So we got to see lots of familiar faces at this one!

Charity Night For Trinity Hospice At Coast Riders

Saturday 25 November 2017 saw us back at Coast Riders Diner and Bar for a charity night in aid of Trinity Hospice and in memory of the wonderful Janet Houghton, whose baby Coast Riders was.

There were stalls selling all manner of crafts, perfumes, cakes, jewellery and lots more. Coast Riders was filled to bursting with people. There was a tombola and a raffle. Miss Franny came home laden with handbags and other stuff...

Two old geezers got up on stage and played a bit - a bit??? I think it was getting on for four hours but there was quite a break for food and the raffle. Even so by the end of the night I had some sore fingers after playing guitar!

A fabulous night was had by all though and it was the sort of night that Jan - "Big Jan" as she was known on account of her being ... not that tall really - would have loved.

We made sure we played all her favourite songs and everyone - eventually - went home happy...

...once the vampires had been seen to!

Creeping Bentgrass in Darwen For Double 70th Party

Saturday 30 September 2017. Last weekend we motored across to Darwen to play at a double 70th Birthday Party. One of the couple's birthdays was in June - the other in December. September was the obvious time then!

We had a great night with a full room and lots of enthusiastic people in the audience. Thanks all for the booking and the wonderful feedback and comments. It was a pleasure playing for your party.

Creeping Bentgrass at Myerscough College Open Day

This year is the sixteenth year we have played this particular event. We always have to keep a wary eye on the weather as with any outdoor gig, but this year apart from one short but quite heavy shower and a bit of wind which made a gazebo near us think it wanted to be a kite, we managed very well.

You can usually find us opposite the entrance to the college bar - The Stumble Inn - so on a really good day we can have quite a large audience sitting at tables or just standing about, drinking and enjoying the music.

And it even got warm enough for me to get all giddy and take my jacket off!

Heskin Steam Rally 2017

Creeping Bentgrass were out playing at the Heskin Steam Rally last Saturday night in the huge marquee. For the second year the event was held at Malt Kiln Farm in Eccleston.

We started playing just gone 8:00pm and came off stage around midnight - just a short set then...

Always one of our favourite gigs of the year, we had a great audience again as the seats were all filled and the crowd standing around the bar got deeper and deeper. The dance floor got busy as we moved into the faster numbers and of those not able or willing to dance, there were a few of the circular tables who were swaying from side to side with linked arms!

This shows just half of the marquee - it is really huge and as the light outside faded into night, the stars came out over the dance floor!

Another fabulous night. Our thanks to organiser Jack Gerrard for his continued support - this was our 13th year playing at this event.

Jukebox Show, 26 April 1998

Currently I've been going through lots of enprint wallets, finding negatives from the 1990s that have either never been scanned before, or sometimes where the prints were scanned before I had a scanner that would do negatives. The enprint wallets themselves will probably make a blog post sooner or later as there are a few different sorts! For now though, this post covers a trip down to Copthorne near Gatwick airport for the Copthorne Jukebox and Collectables Show on 26 April 1998.

Whilst you have a look at the jukes I'll just fill you in on the previous day... We decided to travel down part of the way and stay overnight at a Travel Inn or something. However there was nowhere to be found and we realised too late that it was the London Marathon on the Sunday so tens of thousands of people had descended on London and the surrounding area looking for accommodation. In fact we ended up having to drive all the way down to the south coast and managed to find a guest house in Bognor Regis at 10:00pm that hadn't shut its doors for the night.

Jukeboxes started out in shops and bars in the 1930s and 40s, when records had to be played at 78 revolutions per minute (RPM) and the needles were usually made of steel and fitted into playing heads that were measured in pounds weight rather than fractions of a gram... The records were 10 inches in diameter and the early jukeboxes generally had wooden cabinets. These were the Golden Age jukeboxes.

The Silver Age jukeboxes were those from the late 1950s through to the mid 1960s which played 7 inch 45 rpm vinyl records and had a visible mechanism so that you could watch the records being selected and played. At some point after that some boring moron said "I've got a good idea! Why don't we take away all the windows and just sell a box with a record player inside?"

A chap called Bob Thompson at the time ran a business selling old pinball machines and had a working display of over 20 machines all on free play. The machine shown is Gottlieb's 1969 College Queens, a four-player version of the company's 2-player Airport which had been released a month before College Queens. This was an electro-mechanical game (i.e. before computer chips appeared in games) and had chime bars for sound - a bit like the Avon Calling doorbell.

The Wurlitzer 1015 towards the right is the ultimate collectable jukebox with bubbles running up glass tubes and coloured plastics rotating behind the clear plastic behind the tubes so that they change colour repeatedly. They came out in the 78 rpm record era in 1945 and remained in production through 45 rpm and into the CD era. Reproduction machines can still be bought brand new.

Other collectables were on sale too. Various stands had old telephones and neon signs for sale.

A Silver Age Wurlitzer jukebox.

The jukeboxes holding 78s have a special fascination for me. The price of these though is well out of reach as working examples started at around 4,500 pounds in 1998! Note that I said "working" and not "immaculate"...

This 1950s record player was on the stall run by the chap from whom I bought a number of record players at another jukebox event - Jukebox Madness - one year. Most jukebox events have Dansette and other vintage record players for sale. In 1998 they were quite affordable, but not long after people cottoned onto the fact that they were becoming collectable and the price went up accordingly.

Ami went through a number of partnerships with BAL-AMI and Rowe-Ami being names that can be found on Silver Age and later machines. I have a Rowe-Ami RI-2 jukebox that is currently in need of a little TLC as it tries to select from the space between two records instead of plucking one out of the carousel... It's these little details that can make a big difference...

In the 1950s it became possible to produce curved glass and both car windscreens and jukeboxes were quick to take advantage of this. Here the hinged glass of the Ami jukebox has been swung up to allow access to the turntable.

The standard Wurlitzer jukebox 78 rpm mechanism stored the 78s horizontally. The holder swung out and the turntable rose, lifting the record out of the holder up to the play arm that was up at the top of the cabinet. This meant that only one side of each record could be played. Somewhere is a load of 78s that are knackered but with immaculate B sides...

Diner-style furniture and an Ami Continental jukebox, as seen in the film Ghost on the right. Next to the Wurlitzer 1015, this is the second most collectable jukebox.

The Wurlitzer 45 rpm mechanism was a carousel that stored the records which were played against a vertically spinning small hub turntable. The playing arm has a stylus fitted on both front and back to allow both sides of the record to be selected. On the small blue arm near the playing head is a small brush which brushes the stylus free of any dust or debris between each play.

I'm not sure what this jukebox is - possible a Rock-Ola which was another of the "Big Four" of Wurlitzer, Ami, Seeburg and Rock-Ola.

Another late Silver Age Wurlitzer from the 1960s.

And finally a couple of classic cars which were parked outside the main entrance. This is the first Ford Capri, a 1964 coupe model based on the company's Consul Classic, which was the first British car with double headlamps at the front.

Anyone turning up in an American vehicle could get in free. A nifty way of ensuring that some would turn up for people to look at!

Coin Slot Machines Index