I guess my entire life has led up to this Centenary. All those hours listening to the hundreds of unfiled 78rpm records outside my bedroom as a child, the sheet music collecting since the age of nine, then discovering all the marvellous, keen-as-mustard musicians in London who are equally passionate about bringing this music to vivid life…well! It’s here. 2014. And I have a heck of a collection of set-lists. Here’s a picture from my first full-blown centenary gig, of many.
In July, with Albert Ball’s Flying Aces – headed up by the amazing dynamo (and arranger for Our Lovely Day) Nicholas David Ball – I’ll be appearing at the Branscombe Festival (more anon), in truly august company. Other performers at this small but oh-so-select festival include Sumi Jo, I Fagiolini and the Royal Marines! ABFA, as you may remember, is a band of First World War Flying Aces who happen to play exceedingly good ragtime.
(Alas, my feathers aren’t visible in the above shot.)
Matt and Zac played banjo, accordion, clarinet, guitar, mandolin, piano, piano duet, saxophone, and also did backing vocals. There were no two numbers using the same combination. 
We are, emphatically, for HIRE. Book soon. We’ll be appearing in the Buxton Festival, at Grange Park Opera, the aforementioned Branscombe, and Swaledale.
We have pacifist songs, we have laments from poppy fields, we have German songs on the inevitability of death in battle. We have rip-snorting recruiting marches, we have hilarious singalongs, and we have tributes to Red Cross Nurses in French and English. Instrumental numbers include all things 1910s including tangos, chorinhos, and of course, ragtime. And some Elgar.
(Zac on the piano, Matt on the banjo, though it was the other way round for the Red Pepper Rag.)
3 visitors left comments...
January 23rd, 2014 at 8:16 PM
Yes, indeed. I can verify the presence of the aforementioned thousands of 78 RPMs EPs, and also thousands of LPs plus steamer trunks of Patricia’s old sheet music in my basement. And every so often I read an apologetic e-mail asking me to find a certain piece of sheet music.
Like most mothers, I do my best. And it’s fun searching!
December 29th, 2021 at 9:02 PM
We have a Mandolin (in need 0f repair) which belonged to my father in law. He played in a band of mandolins and other like instruments during his service withe the Royal Marines, I’m not sure when he was in the service, but I know he was in the 1st world war, and didn’t leave until the 1920, having served his 22 years, We have some photographs of this band.
May 30th, 2023 at 5:26 AM
That is fascinating! The world of the WW1 Mandolin is one that is hardly ever shown in movies, no matter how well researched it seems…which is a great shame. They were a huge part of many young men’s lives. Matt’s even doing a project around the “BMG” movement…(Banjo, Mandolin, Guitar)