Amongst things this happy nerd does is mount stands at fetes to support a charity and give talks, also to support a charity. The charity is actually a local museum which is 100% volunteer run. Being a museum it has a historical focus and to help create atmosphere, or at talks to give the audience a break from hearing me, I do play the old 78 rpm records on one of my period gramophones.
The record album is particularly useful since it houses the brittle and breakable records safely and securely.
Inevitably, I know nothing really of the origins of this album but there is what I guess is a retailer’s badge inside.
So presumably somebody from the Sussex coast was a first owner. My grandparents lived in Bexhill but they never had a gramophone so I know it had nothing to do with them.
Let’s see some of the records – the case holds 12 of them which could mean about an hour and a quarter of continuous play.
I have a taste for 1920s dance band music and here we have Shufflin, Along played by the Queen’s Dance Orchestra directed by Jack Hylton.
The sleeves in the album allow you to see the record labels. This one dates from 1922.
‘Looking for a Boy’ played by Phil Ohman, Victor Arden with their orchestra is a wonderful mix of Gershwin tunes played as a piano duet and recorded in 1926. You can click here to listen to this piece of music as it spins on one of my wind-ups. The sharp eyed might notice this isn’t a 78 RPM record. Oh no, it’s an 80 RPM!
This Paul Wightman record dates from 1923.
And let’s see an open album.
Great music – I think – in a lovely album.
Locksands Life 
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