• Contact
  • About
  • Authors
DONATE
NEWSLETTER SIGN UP
  • Login
Yorkshire Bylines
  • Home
  • News
    • All
    • Brexit
    • Education
    • Environment
    • Health
    • Home Affairs
    • Transport
    • World
    Image of a baby deer

    Steer clear of baby deer!

    RAF Linton

    RAF Linton to house asylum seekers: what we know so far

    Prime Minister Johnson meets with Mary Lou McDonald of Sinn Fein

    Johnson returns from his Belfast train crash empty handed

    It began as a mistake

    Made a mistake? Simple: just deny it ever happened and make it again

    Working from home cartoon

    Working from home under attack by out-of-touch and out-of-date government

    image of carer and patient

    Government fails to support unpaid carers

    Image of oil rig

    Oil sticks: what’s behind the rising price of oil?

    Cartoon by Stan

    Refugees: what next after the Nationality and Borders Act?

    FOI request denied

    Freedom of information or denial of information?

    Trending Tags

    • Johnson
    • Coronavirus
    • Labour
    • Starmer
    • NI Protocol
    • Brexit
    • Culture
    • Education
    • Environment
    • Home Affairs
    • Transport
    • World
  • Politics
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
    • All
    • Culture
    • Dance
    • Food
    • Music
    • Poetry
    • Recipes
    • Sport
    Photo courtesy of the JORVIK Centre

    JORVIK Viking festival

    Image of Cragg Vale

    Norky’s Ramblings: a WARTS ramble in Cragg Vale

    Image of 'no racism' at cricket match

    Condoning racism in English cricket comes at a price: £50,000 to be exact

    Debbie Kurup as Star (centre) in The Cher Show, credit Pamela Raith

    The Cher Show: a truly believable show

    image of nadine dorries

    Dorries isn’t joking! Privatising Channel 4 will protect public service broadcasting

    Wild Fell by Lee Schofield

    Book Review: Wild Fell – Fighting for Nature on a Lake District Hill Farm, by Lee Schofield

    Coat of arms of Bulgaria

    Happy St George’s Day in Bulgaria!

    Chicken crossing the road

    Carry on spaffing: why did the chicken cross the road?

    Rotherham

    William Cowen and Yorkshire’s Changing Landscapes

    • Food
    • Music
    • Poetry
    • Sport
  • Business
    • All
    • Economy
    • Technology
    • Trade
    Food bank packing at the Cornerstone Community Centre in Newcastle-under-Lyme, by Staffs Live on Flikr

    Sooner rather than later – why the poorest households need help now

    Constructing houses

    Trouble in Happy Valley: Calderdale Council struggles to agree its local plan

    Cost of living crisis

    A government that’s out of touch and out of ideas

    Cost of living - a house, a piggy bank and a magnifying glass

    Cost-of-living crisis likely to escalate due to rising global consumption

    Driverless car

    How safe are driverless cars?

    Port of Dover, Eastern Docks, Customs Control

    Brexit border checks: better never than late?

    no money to spare

    Levelling down in North Yorkshire: local government reorganisation delivers greater Conservative control but no new money

    Unite the Union flags

    Workers at major housing association in Yorkshire considering strike action after ‘insulting’ pay offer

    Smart meter

    22 million people in the UK having to pay over 50 percent more for energy, as the price cap rises

    Trending Tags

      • Economy
      • Technology
      • Trade
    • Region
    No Result
    View All Result
    • Home
    • News
      • All
      • Brexit
      • Education
      • Environment
      • Health
      • Home Affairs
      • Transport
      • World
      Image of a baby deer

      Steer clear of baby deer!

      RAF Linton

      RAF Linton to house asylum seekers: what we know so far

      Prime Minister Johnson meets with Mary Lou McDonald of Sinn Fein

      Johnson returns from his Belfast train crash empty handed

      It began as a mistake

      Made a mistake? Simple: just deny it ever happened and make it again

      Working from home cartoon

      Working from home under attack by out-of-touch and out-of-date government

      image of carer and patient

      Government fails to support unpaid carers

      Image of oil rig

      Oil sticks: what’s behind the rising price of oil?

      Cartoon by Stan

      Refugees: what next after the Nationality and Borders Act?

      FOI request denied

      Freedom of information or denial of information?

      Trending Tags

      • Johnson
      • Coronavirus
      • Labour
      • Starmer
      • NI Protocol
      • Brexit
      • Culture
      • Education
      • Environment
      • Home Affairs
      • Transport
      • World
    • Politics
    • Opinion
    • Lifestyle
      • All
      • Culture
      • Dance
      • Food
      • Music
      • Poetry
      • Recipes
      • Sport
      Photo courtesy of the JORVIK Centre

      JORVIK Viking festival

      Image of Cragg Vale

      Norky’s Ramblings: a WARTS ramble in Cragg Vale

      Image of 'no racism' at cricket match

      Condoning racism in English cricket comes at a price: £50,000 to be exact

      Debbie Kurup as Star (centre) in The Cher Show, credit Pamela Raith

      The Cher Show: a truly believable show

      image of nadine dorries

      Dorries isn’t joking! Privatising Channel 4 will protect public service broadcasting

      Wild Fell by Lee Schofield

      Book Review: Wild Fell – Fighting for Nature on a Lake District Hill Farm, by Lee Schofield

      Coat of arms of Bulgaria

      Happy St George’s Day in Bulgaria!

      Chicken crossing the road

      Carry on spaffing: why did the chicken cross the road?

      Rotherham

      William Cowen and Yorkshire’s Changing Landscapes

      • Food
      • Music
      • Poetry
      • Sport
    • Business
      • All
      • Economy
      • Technology
      • Trade
      Food bank packing at the Cornerstone Community Centre in Newcastle-under-Lyme, by Staffs Live on Flikr

      Sooner rather than later – why the poorest households need help now

      Constructing houses

      Trouble in Happy Valley: Calderdale Council struggles to agree its local plan

      Cost of living crisis

      A government that’s out of touch and out of ideas

      Cost of living - a house, a piggy bank and a magnifying glass

      Cost-of-living crisis likely to escalate due to rising global consumption

      Driverless car

      How safe are driverless cars?

      Port of Dover, Eastern Docks, Customs Control

      Brexit border checks: better never than late?

      no money to spare

      Levelling down in North Yorkshire: local government reorganisation delivers greater Conservative control but no new money

      Unite the Union flags

      Workers at major housing association in Yorkshire considering strike action after ‘insulting’ pay offer

      Smart meter

      22 million people in the UK having to pay over 50 percent more for energy, as the price cap rises

      Trending Tags

        • Economy
        • Technology
        • Trade
      • Region
      No Result
      View All Result
      Yorkshire Bylines
      No Result
      View All Result
      Home Lifestyle

      Norky’s ramblings: music in and around Huddersfield

      Norky's latest ramble involves reminiscing about music from his childhood and music traditions that have been lost to history.

      Peter NorcliffebyPeter Norcliffe
      08-01-2022 09:51
      in Lifestyle, Music
      photo of a harmonium

      Photo by Mark Foster on Unsplash

      127
      VIEWS
      Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
      ADVERTISEMENT

      When my little brother visits us in sunny Huddersfield with his family, he favours renting a local house or cottage. During a family celebration in early December 2021, he rented a house in Golcar, and insisted that it was the house that our maternal grandparents Edward and Maggie Holdsworth lived in during their final few years. Realising that Nick was quite young and the coincidence was stretching the likelihood to its limit, I doubted that he was correct.

      It turned out that it was indeed the same house. I had to visit of course to reminisce and discovered to my joy that little had changed. New fittings, but essentially the same layout. That visit immediately evoked many happy memories: the constant smell of new-baked bread, and granddad showing me how to play cards and encouraging me to sing, which he did with all his children and grandchildren.

      A childhood introduction to music

      One of the memories I and all my cousins have is the organ in the corner of the lounge. To be more accurate, it was a harmonium. Invented by Alexandre-Francois Debain in Paris France in the mid 1800s, it became the instrument of choice for those who wanted to produce a church organ sound in smaller venues like music rooms and private homes. There were even portable varieties for playing outside.

      Granddad Holdsworth performing in Gilbert and Sullivan’s ‘Pirates of Penzance’ in about 1910 and Granddad and Grandma Holdsworth in their back garden possibly celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary in June 1953, with their three children, Zena, Eva, Frank and my mother Mary.

      All three of their daughters sang in choirs for much of their lives, and Frank played in brass bands up to the final evening of his life, described in ‘Uncles in the war’ ramble. All of them lovely people, of whom I am very lucky to have very fond memories. Unfortunately, all now gone – but not forgotten.

      Granddad Edward Holdsworth – “Ted ‘o’ Jims”, his nickname around Gowca–  was a very skilled amateur musician. He was choirmaster at one of our local chapels, and organist at another. This was when all chapels, churches and schools had their own choirs and an organ or piano accompanist. Many villages and large factories had brass bands. There was music everywhere. Huddersfield still maintains a great tradition of producing music of all kinds and from many cultures.

      A photo of the phantoms in 1961
      Lifestyle

      Norky’s ramblings: when rock ‘n’ roll came here to stay

      byPeter Norcliffe
      30 October 2021

      Music in Yorkshire: vibrant and varied

      Yorkshire brass bands are the envy of the world: Black Dyke, Brighouse and Rastrick, Grimethorpe Colliery and Sellers bands to name but four, all proudly part of Yorkshire. Choir music also features greatly in our Yorkshire traditions. Huddersfield Choral Society, Opera North based in Leeds, Colne Valley Male Voice Choir, and Yorkshire Bach Choir from York are but a very small number picked from an endlessly larger number of highly skilled and entertaining musicians performing the more traditional classical music.

      In addition, there are wonderful examples all across our county of Indian and Asian music and dance groups, as well as pipe bands, and the very recently popular ukulele groups.

      Over the years, traditions build, many for reasons lost in history. The first of the two choir traditions in this part of the world is to be found at the end of the first line in Cym Rhondda, where in the line ‘Guide me o thou great redeemer’, we replace redeemer with ‘Jehovah’. The second tradition, relevant to this time of year, dictates that we should only sing ‘Christians Awake’ on Christmas Day itself. Traditions of our forbears should be respected, if not necessarily adhered to. I have been known to sing ‘Christians Awake’ at other times as well, but don’t tell anybody. It is a great rousing carol, and, like Cwm Rhondda, a song that you can really get your teeth into.

      One of my favourite kinds of music from outside these shores are the steel bands. These started from very humble beginnings in Trinidad, where young, industrious and talented lads made use of the oil drums left by the USA military following WW2, to provide music during their Mardi Gras. The family of a steel band could be as many as six different sections from bass through to tenor, and they are all called pans.

      Excellent teachers and conductors

      As well as having many talented individual music teachers, we have at least two music collages that are second to none outside London: Huddersfield University and Musica Kirklees. Thom Meredith is the principal of the latter and also the musical director and conductor of Colne Valley Male Voice Choir. During my time with this choir, featured in the ‘choir’ ramble, I found Thom to be an all-round fine fella, who luckily has the patience of Job.

      Thom conducting a massed Kirklees schools’ choir, at the McAlpine Stadium, Huddersfield, during the millennium year celebrations. He is wearing a union flag waistcoat designed and sewn by Moi’s fair hand.
      Thom conducting a massed Kirklees schools’ choir, at the McAlpine Stadium, Huddersfield, during the millennium year celebrations. He is wearing a union flag waistcoat designed and sewn by Moi’s fair hand.

      Huddersfield venues: Moi sees the Beatles but Norky passes on the Sex Pistols

      Huddersfield boasted many venues favoured by very famous musicians, a tradition that continues in the wonderful Huddersfield Town Hall. Other venues are no longer with us but at one time provided entertainment worthy of note, for example, on 29 November 1963, the ABC Cinema.

      Along with an estimated 70 percent of the British public who claim to have seen the Beatles live, Moi actually did. Aged 14, she camped out all night on the pavement, along with her older school friend and dozens more Beatles fans. Moi told me that at least one very friendly and helpful police officer stayed with them all night to ensure their wellbeing.

      They never heard a note from the stage, but had a great time. By November 1963, the Beatles didn’t need to be heard; just the fact that they were there, jiggling about a bit on the stage in person was exciting enough for the fans. It certainly was for Moi and her mate.

      Another notable event took place on Christmas Day 1977, at Ivanhoe’s in Huddersfield. This was the final time Sex Pistols appeared together in Britain. In my humble opinion, if there was no sound from the stage on that occasion, I’m sure it would have been an improvement, although I wasn’t there – and could not have been paid enough to attend. ‘It takes all sorts’, ‘Nowt so queer as folk’, and any number of other clichés one might wish to use!

      Tags: Creative industries
      ADVERTISEMENT
      Previous Post

      Covid, vaccinations and human microchipping

      Next Post

      Pie of the week: lomo saltado at Taste Peru, Doncaster Wool Market

      Peter Norcliffe

      Peter Norcliffe

      Peter was born in 1947 and has lived in or around Golcar, Huddersfield his entire life. His ancestry can be traced back to 1210 in Barkisland, near Halifax, when the family name was then de Northcliffe. It changed to Norcliffe around 1650. He's been married to Moira for 53 years and they have one daughter, Rachel.

      Related Posts

      Photo courtesy of the JORVIK Centre
      Culture

      JORVIK Viking festival

      byKerry Pearson
      17 May 2022
      Image of Cragg Vale
      Culture

      Norky’s Ramblings: a WARTS ramble in Cragg Vale

      byPeter Norcliffe
      14 May 2022
      Image of 'no racism' at cricket match
      Politics

      Condoning racism in English cricket comes at a price: £50,000 to be exact

      byOliver Lawrie
      13 May 2022
      Debbie Kurup as Star (centre) in The Cher Show, credit Pamela Raith
      Music

      The Cher Show: a truly believable show

      byGraham Clark
      12 May 2022
      image of nadine dorries
      Culture

      Dorries isn’t joking! Privatising Channel 4 will protect public service broadcasting

      byGranville Williams
      9 May 2022
      Next Post
      Taste Peru, photo by Jimmy Andrex

      Pie of the week: lomo saltado at Taste Peru, Doncaster Wool Market

      Want to support us?

      Can you help Yorkshire Bylines to grow and become more sustainable with a regular donation, no matter how small?  

      DONATE

      Sign up to our newsletter

      If you would like to receive the Yorkshire Bylines regular newsletter, straight talking direct to your inbox, click the button below.

      NEWSLETTER

      LATEST

      Image of a baby deer

      Steer clear of baby deer!

      18 May 2022
      RAF Linton

      RAF Linton to house asylum seekers: what we know so far

      18 May 2022
      Indyref march

      SNP success in local government elections heralds second Scottish independence referendum

      17 May 2022
      Photo courtesy of the JORVIK Centre

      JORVIK Viking festival

      17 May 2022

      MOST READ

      Prime Minister Johnson meets with Mary Lou McDonald of Sinn Fein

      Johnson returns from his Belfast train crash empty handed

      17 May 2022
      RAF Linton

      RAF Linton to house asylum seekers: what we know so far

      18 May 2022
      It began as a mistake

      Made a mistake? Simple: just deny it ever happened and make it again

      17 May 2022
      Photo credit Robert Sharp / englishpenLicensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

      The Davis Downside Dossier

      1 January 2021

      BROWSE BY TAGS

      antivaxxers Charity climate change Coronavirus Cost of living Creative industries Crime Cummings Democracy Devolution Equality Farming Fishing hgv History Immigration Johnson Journalism Labour Local Democracy Mental Health mining money NHS NI Protocol omicron Pies pollution poverty PPE Public Health Review shortage social media Starmer tax travel Ukraine Yorkshire
      Yorkshire Bylines

      Yorkshire Bylines is a regional online newspaper that supports citizen journalism. Our aim is to publish well-written, fact-based articles and opinion pieces on subjects that are of interest to people in Yorkshire and beyond.

      Learn more about us

      No Result
      View All Result
      • Contact
      • About
      • Letters
      • Donate
      • Privacy
      • Bylines network
      • Shop

      © 2022 Yorkshire Bylines. Citizen Journalism | Local & Internationalist

      No Result
      View All Result
      • Home
      • News
        • Brexit
        • Education
        • Environment
        • Health
        • Home Affairs
        • Transport
        • World
      • Politics
      • Opinion
      • Lifestyle
        • Culture
        • Dance
        • Food
        • Music
        • Poetry
        • Recipes
        • Sport
      • Business
        • Economy
        • Technology
        • Trade
      • Donate
      • The Compendium of Cabinet Codebreakers
      • The Davis Downside Dossier
      • The Digby Jones Index
      • Newsletter sign up
      • Cartoons by Stan
      • Authors

      © 2022 Yorkshire Bylines. Citizen Journalism | Local & Internationalist

      Welcome Back!

      Login to your account below

      Forgotten Password?

      Retrieve your password

      Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

      Log In