Category: Artist Feature

All Crackajackies

Melbourne Ladies Crackajack Mouth Organ Band With permission from Ray Grieves ‘Band in a Waistcoat Pocket’ Melbourne Ladies Crackajack Band at Mr. Harris’ funeral. Thomas Harris died suddenly while playing cricket. He had just been elected President of the Mouth Organ Bands Association that week. Thomas was a cousin of Harold Collier MLCB conductor (from … Continue reading All Crackajackies →

Fairlight Festival Revisited (or the adventures of the Mittagong Mafia).

Fairlight Festivals 1971 Venue: 200 acre farm (Fairlight) four miles south of Mittagong on the way to Berrima NSW. Set in a gentle sloping clearing divided by a stream. One side set for camping the other music. Stage: An old Sydney tram elevated six feet off the ground with a twenty foot extension out the … Continue reading Fairlight Festival Revisited (or the adventures of the Mittagong Mafia). →

Ring Ring Goes The Bell

Bring back the harmonica in schools. Teach them blues and country licks. Throw out the recorder, ukuleles and triangles! Just saying! Vine Vale School Tanunda (South Australia) Mouth Organ Band 1933 Bulimba (Queensland) State School Girls Mouth Organ Band 1939 Boys of the Buranda (Queensland) School Mouth Organ Band 1937 Orange Grove (New South Wales) … Continue reading Ring Ring Goes The Bell →

Wizard Master Blaster

Popping up in my research a few years back was evidence of the existence of a Jazz Master Chromatic. Victorian Laurie Smith evidently possessed one. A year after publishing this information, so did Canadian collector Doug Dawson. Where did he locate this Australian brand harmonica? Of all places in Sweden. Doug Dawson’s specimen. Recently I … Continue reading Wizard Master Blaster →

Song for Winter (Spring, Summer & Autumn too!)

North wind rolling down my friends are leaving townI know they're waiting just for meOne more summer gone and one more winter songAnd one more time I tried to leave Wintersong (Quill/Tolhurst/Dubois) Country Radio’s follow up single to Gypsy Queen was the brilliant avant-garde Wintersong. Another co-write by Greg Quill and Kerryn Tolhurst, following on … Continue reading Song for Winter (Spring, Summer & Autumn too!) →

The Great Mouth Organ Heist

I’m sure most of you have heard of The Great Train Robbery of 1963 when the Roy Mail train from Glasgow to London was brought to a halt and robbed. Some of you may even be familiar with The Great Bookie Robbery of 1976 when six men stole between fourteen and sixteen million from bookmakers … Continue reading The Great Mouth Organ Heist →

Bluey Watkins & the Harmonica Humbugs

1946 The Smilers Club 2BH began broadcasting in July of 1934. In 1936 The Barrier Miner newspaper acquired the proprietorship of the radio station and announced that, “they are now in the position to give the people of Broken Hill the most up-to-date and complete service in the form of news and entertainment.” (The Barrier … Continue reading Bluey Watkins & the Harmonica Humbugs →

Diving Into The Bends

Steve Williams (John Farnham Band) was a regular guest on Harmonica Riff Raff, the 3MDR radio show, helping listeners find their way around the instrument with lessons and helpful hints. It was mostly elementary, but at times we headed into territory that was quite sophisticated. One such occasion was introducing the bends on holes three … Continue reading Diving Into The Bends →

Wonthaggi Warblers

1925 - Wonthaggi Boomerang Mouth Organ Championship Left: 1925 Weekly Times advertisement. Right: Sketch of the soon to be built Wonthaggi Theatre (Opened 1912). The roaring twenties were in full swing at the seaside town of Wonthaggi and in 1925 the local ANA (Australian Natives Association) Musical & Elocutionary competition added the popular Mouth Organ … Continue reading Wonthaggi Warblers →