Characters The Double Bass Histories

In my first year at grammar school I was asked which musical instrument I would like to learn to play. I immediately chose the cello as both my father and my grandfather had both played the double bass and I felt that with the cello I might somehow be maintaining the male family tradition of playing awkward stringed instruments made of wood. Both of these men were quite thick-set with sturdy backs from working in the mines and could handle the weight of the bass, but for a reedy 13 year old five footer like me the cello would be a more suitable instrument.It was during the 1950s when my father played most. Jazz was all the rage and he was often spotted on his bicycle,scooting awkwardly through the town on his way to various dance hall gigs, him standing on one peddle, the spike of the double bass securing the instrument to the other. No one had cars so quite how the drummer transported all his kit remains a mystery.

 My grandfather's double bass career ended rather abruptly when both he and the monstrous instrument, the same one that my father was to inherit,collapsed and fell with a sickening clatter in the music pit of the local picture house. It was reported later that he'd had a seizure whilst vigorously providing the dramatic music for a silent film.