Last updated Friday January 15, 2021 at 12:58:18
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Dave Robinson
Barry Aldous with Dave Robinson 12/01/21
Dave, aged 84, passed away peacefully
at his home in Somerset yesterday 11th January
following a period of ill health with cancer.
You may not have heard of Dave
Robinson, but he was the trumpet player with the first band
I formed after moving to Bury in 1960. The band was named
‘The Northside Six’ which played at the Fleece Hotel and
the Beachcomber in Bolton, also the annual Arts Ball
organised by Bolton College of Art at which Dave was a
lecturer. We also played at the Stanley Club in Accrington
and many other venues until the band folded around 1965.
Attached are a couple of photos taken during one of my
visits to see Dave. Both pictures were taken in 2011, the
first showing me and Dave at the band's favourite venue, the
Sandbar. The second includes the late Gordon Stafford who
was the regular clarinettist with the band.
Following the end of the Northside Six, Dave played with other musicians in the area including trombonists Don Long and Bill Oldham along with Carole Oldham. He then moved south to Penzance and formed a band named ‘Funny Feathers’. Dave was an excellent photographer and for interest sake, I have included a couple of pictures he took at the Great Harwood Football Club in 1974 I think! You will recognise Wild Bill Davison and one or two others in the band formed for that occasion.
I was on bass then, Maurice Gavan was on Piano and Russ Wood on drums. The front line included Don Lydiatt (clt) Harry Price (tmb), Tony Hewitt (tpt) and a fine tenor sax player whose name escapes me. The band was put together by the Cromwell Jazz Band leader Tony Hewitt (second from right in the photo)’
Above is a picture of the band taken in 1964. The musicians were Brian Morrison on Bass, Jim Ashton on Banjo, Richard Dhana on Drums, Ray Bennett (now in Australia) on trombone, Dave on Trumpet (centre) and myself on clarinet. Barry Aldous 13/01/21 I first came across Dave in Leeds, my home town, in around 1960. I played clarinet (very badly) alongside him at one of Ed O'Donnell''s Rag Day parades, and had a chat with him. Soon after I became aware of his entertaining jazz cartoons in Jazz News, which ran for a few years at that time. Some twenty years ago I visited Penzance and came across him in playing with Funny Feathers, and was able to borrow someone else's clarinet and play a few numbers with him and swap reminiscences of the 1960s Leeds Jazz scene. Good bloke. 15/01/21 - Yes, I remember Dave Robinson. I first met him in the early 1970s when the Original Dam Jazz Band played a weekly session at The Railway (pub) at Heatley (outskirts of Lymm). Dave visited several times and sat in. I think he was looking for some musicians to join his own band, but in those days many amateur/semi-pro players performed with (and were loyal to) one band only, so we all stuck with (our) ODJB. Dave, I think, lived in Westhoughton, so after I moved to Bolton we were near-neighbours, though our paths rarely crossed. I remember a gig in Preston, I think, perhaps 10 years ago with Barry Aldous’s Cotton City Band featuring Dave on trumpet (he was probably visiting from Cornwall). He was a good companion and a fine player, but unfortunately we only performed together a few times. Condolences to his family, and best wishes to Barry and Edna. Was the mystery tenor player in the Northside Six/Wild Bill Davison photograph Arthur dePrez (not sure of the spelling) – another good companion and fine player?
Harmoniously,
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