Roy's a natural on the piano
I TOOK a ride on the ferry the other day, because I like North Shields, the same as I like Jarrow and Hebburn – they are places that became part of my make-up.
I remember, many years ago, I sailed into Wallsend, and I always believed as a kid that it was a place where the Romans packed up building a wall for to keep out the marauding Scots.
When I sailed into the docks on my first collier, I began to take in the history of this ancient town.
It was there in the 70s that I met Roy Gibson, a brilliant piano player who could not read a note of music.
Yet he never placed a wrong note when I sang with him.
In my spare time, while the ship was along the quayside, I used to cut hair for a few pennies.
Everyone began to know my style of cut ... from the back of the head you looked like a water melon and from the front you were like Moo, one of the Three Stooges.
Then again, none of the crew ever complained.
Roy was in London one summer and he met the great orchestra leader Mantovani, who asked him to play a piece of music.
After he played it, Mantovani put his hand on Roy's shoulder and asked: "Roy, who cut your hair?"
When singing in the northern clubs was at a high, Roy played for many singers and groups, and they all thought, as I did, that he was a one-off.
When he played the synthesizer, the new instrument, the clavichord became extinct.
The secret of his playing was that he could make a singer sound great.
Roy is a shy man and when he was surrounded by a room full of singers he became embarrassed, for to him, his style of playing was an everyday thing, for there were hundreds of piano players.
But he had what makes a piano player great.
South Shields had a few other great piano players, musicians like Vincent Carrahar, Kenny Goodhall, George Teble, Alf Emerson, and many more.
But the audiences used to come from miles around to hear Roy play.
Even when he played for groups, his kind of music was always above them.
He was not trying to be clever, it was just that sound – and the only thing that held him back was he could not read a note of music.
But he could make a singer pitch his voice just right.
He loved jazz and classical music, and he said to me one night when I came ashore: "Gaffa, where do you get your songs from?"
He had never heard them before, and he would play them as if he had written them himself.
I used to pick up songs all over the world, and while I was on the ship I played them over and over.
Then I would sing them to Roy only once, and he played them note-perfect.
Even after suffering a stroke, Roy still plays in North Shields, at the Port Hole, and still brings in the crowds ... but has never yet been back for a haircut!
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Weather for South Shields
Thursday 24 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 10 C to 23 C
Wind Speed: 16 mph
Wind direction: North east
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 8 C to 19 C
Wind Speed: 12 mph
Wind direction: East
