Didn’t know whether I should add anything to the eulogies for Bert Weedon who died yesterday, aged 92 (nearly). Then I thought, what else you going to write about?
When I was small an elderly neighbour handed me a solid, black guitar case; he’d been clearing out stuff in his loft. Inside was a three-quarter size acoustic guitar, with steel strings which cut into my soft pads like cheese wires, and a five inch split from the sound hole to the bridge. Still, it was a guitar!, and that’s something I didn’t have.
Taking it out of the case revealed underneath a well-thumbed copy of Bert Weedon’s Play in a Day (see picture). Well, I’m still waiting for that Day!
I don’t really blame Bert Weedon for my innate impatience and lack of discipline and perseverance. I eventually passed the instrument on to a younger neighbour, bought a more expensive guitar and a teach yourself book of more recent songs, sadly with exactly the same result.
God bless, Bert Weedon.