The art of busking badly; "There's brass in codology."

Wilfred Pickles as "Owd Thatcher" in the BBC
Northern Regional radio programme 'Under
the Barber's Pole' written by Tommy Thompson

In 'The Trumpeter', another story from Lancashire Pride, the Lancashire dialect writer Tommy Thompson tells the story of Joe Slater "the highly esteemed cornet player of the Beesham Temperance Silver Band" and his encounter with a pavement artist on the same instrument whose playing puts his teeth on edge. Joe demonstrates to the busker just how the cornet ought to be played, but is then thoroughly disconcerted when the street "hartist" completely outplays him;-

"Ah axed thee afore," said the player. "Han' we getten any brass wi' thi good playin'?"
"Not a sausage," said Joe.
"There's no money in good playin'," said the player. "Thee ax th' Hallé lot."
"There's no money in bad playin' either," said Joe lamely "Is there?"
"There's brass in codology," said the player. "Tha has to get sympathy."
"Tha didn't get mine," said Joe.
"Ah worn't playin' for thee," said the player. "Ah have me own public. Sithee...we'll go up this narrer street an' Ah'll show thee. Thee stop on th' flags."
He went into the middle of the street and blew "Home Sweet Home" as though it was the first time he had heard it. Joe covered his ears with his hands and watched the hat fill with coppers.
"What did Ah tell thee," said the player as he filled his pockets. "Codology! Tha con keep thi art for art's sake. What about slippin' in for a quick un?"
"Ah could do wi' one," said Joe. "Ah'm stunned."

Lancashire Pride

Tommy Thompson (1880-1951)

Tommy Thompson was best known as a writer in the Lancashire dialect, and he wrote short sketches of Lancashire life for the back page of the Manchester Guardian from the late 1920's until his sudden death on February 15 1951. He also appeared regularly on the North Regional programme of the BBC in the 1940's, where he gave Wilfred Pickles his first break as Owd Thatcher in the barber shop where many of the sketches were set.

Most of the sketches from the Manchester Guardian were published in a series of books which were very successful in their day, and apparently were also very popular with American servicemen stationed in the North of Britain during World War II. He also wrote three novels Blind Alley, Crompton Way, and Cuckoo Narrow which were less successful, as well as a one-act comedy Stick-in-the-Mud, and his "little autobiography" Lancashire for me written in standard English.

Bernard Wrigley, the folksinger sometimes known as "the Bolton Bullfrog" has read some of Tommy Thompson's sketches on BBC Radio Lancashire, but I don't think he has recorded any of them. I hope the best of the sketches, and the autobiography, will one day be republished, as they well deserve a new readership.

The short pieces are full of a gentle humour, which can actually be quite sharp at times, and his characters are fully rounded individuals who come to life in a few short, pithy phrases. The rambling discussions in Owd Thatcher's barber shop are excellent of their kind; Tommy Thompson had a real genius for dialogue. The language is rich and expressive, and it is a real pleasure to read slowly while relishing the clear picture Thompson draws of some very extraordinary 'ordinary folk'.

Here is a short extract from a piece in 'Lancashire Pride': Music Hath Charms where the men in the barber shop are talking about music.

  "When Ah wor in th' village band we played 'Faust,' " said Jim Gregson.

  "Which on 'em?" said Young Winterburn, "Gounod or Berlioz?"

  "Both," said Jim. "We'd only five copies o' either. Ah wor on Gounod an' our Sam wor on Berlioz. Ah showed him who could play cornet. He never played a note after that do."

   "It'd sound like Wagner," said the barber.

   "When Ah wor a choir lad," said Farmer Platt, "we sung under the vicarage window when th' parson lay on his death-bed. He didn't tarry for an encore."

   "It con be terr'bly soothin'," said Owd Thatcher, "con music. That's why they play it in eatin'-houses. If tha chews a bit o' tough steak to a good tune tha con down it in no time."

   "Ah like chamber music," said Young Winterburn.

   "What's that?" asked Owd Thatcher.

   "Why," said Jim Gregson, "there's about four or five on 'em sits in a ring, an' one fiddle says 'Tiddley oom,' the t' other fiddle says 'Piddley pom,' then th' owd big fiddle chips in wi' 'Grunt, grunt,' then they o' han a do at each other 'ell for leather until it's oppenin' time."

   "In th' owden times," said Young Winterburn, "folks used to stop in an' sing madrigals."

   "They knew no better," said Alf Higson. "We're civilised now."

From:Tommy Thompson, Lancashire Pride, 1945

BBC Sound Archive

There was an excellent programme broadcast on Radio 4 on Saturday 1 Sept 2007 about the work of Marie Slocombe in saving and preserving many historic sound recordings. The broadcast can be heard again through the BBC's 'Listen Again' facility by clicking on the audio button here:- Saving the Sounds of History.

There is some more background information in the BBC online Magazine in an article by Sean Street who presented the programme.

One of the jewels in the crown of the BBC archives is the substantial collection of folk songs and music built up largely in the 1950's. A fraction of this collection was broadcast in the radio programme 'As I Roved Out' between 1953 and 1958, and a few items from the collection have been released on records. However the collection remains generally unknown which is a scandalous fate for a fabulously rich resource. There are contributions of songs, tunes, stories and folklore from all over Great Britain and Ireland which are part of our heritage today.

Marie Slocombe wrote about the collection in an article for the journal 'Folklore and Folk Music Archivist' in 1964 and the article can be viewed or downloaded in PDF from the Indiana University Archives of Traditional Music.

The collection is now stored at British Library Sound Archive where it is available for listening - but you have to know what you are looking for! This is a clear example where resources ought to be online so that we can all share this wealth which surely belongs to us all in the first place.