Obituary: Bert Weedon; hugely influential guitarist whose teachings fuelled the UK’s early rock and roll boom

Born: 10 May, 1920, in London. Died: 20 April, 2012, in Buckinghamshire, aged 91.

The guitar is arguably the most used instrument in British popular music, but its dominance of the instrumentation in British bands may well not have happened without Bert Weedon.

Weedon may not have had the raw energy of Elvis Presley, but when Presley’s records first arrived in 1950s Britain, a whole generation wanted to play rock and roll guitar – and Weedon, perhaps surprisingly, was the man who was able to teach them how to do that.

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His own lifelong association with the guitar began as a 12-year-old, when he convinced his train driver father – an amateur singer himself with a collection of American “Hillbilly” 78s – that he should be allowed to buy a guitar from Petticoat Lane market.

When he discovered that his first attempts to play were less than tuneful, he took lessons from James Newell, who insisted on teaching Weedon classical guitar as well as how to read music. This stood Weedon in great stead, and while his later teaching techniques may have fallen in and out of favour, it was this grounding in the fundamentals of the guitar – which he sought to pass on to others – that gave him a solid career first and foremost as a musician, regularly called on as a top session player.

After forming bands of his own as a teenager, Weedon went on to enjoy a career in big bands. His knowledge of classical guitar and the ability to read music allowed him to play anything put in front of him – jazz, beat, ballads, dance music, classical and even Spanish flamenco style – with bands led by Ted Heath and Mantovani, as well as supporting the great Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli when these legendary members of the Hot Club Of France toured the UK. This acted as a stepping stone to being a featured soloist with the BBC Big Band, broadcasting three times a week to the country.

The guitar as an instrument was still seen as “part of a band”. While a guitarist may have been asked to provide a solo, the instrument was part of an ensemble, more often than not merely providing rhythm, and not the main sound of a band. Electric guitars were also very much a rarity in Britain, but the arrival of rock and roll from America propelled the electric guitar to new heights of popularity.

As well as the expense of buying an electric guitar, many of which had to be imported from the US, there was the actual question of how to play it and how long it would take to learn how to play it. This was where Weedon excelled. He was arguably the most in-demand guitarist in Britain. Early British rock and roll stars such as Tommy Steele, Marty Wild, Laurie London, Cliff Richard, Adam Faith and Billy Fury all wanted Weedon to play on their records.

But his ability and mastery of various styles meant that touring artists from the US such as Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Rosemary Clooney, Nat King Cole, Judy Garland, Paul Robeson and many others also wanted him to play guitar with them.

Along with his broadcasting work, Weedon’s name was almost synonymous with the guitar in Britain, and he would become known as Mr Guitar, the name of one of his tracks. As the instrument grew in popularity, a generation of would-be stars, who had the tools but not the skills, needed to be tutored.

In 1957, Weedon published Play in a Day, a guitar tutorial book which was exactly what a generation of young guitarists were crying out for.

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Well, almost. Weedon was a professional musician who could read music. He had played in different styles in different bands and so his teaching did place emphasis on theory and practice, a quite strict emphasis that was somewhat at odds with the raucous American sound fuelling British teenagers’ musical aspirations.

But it worked. You could play in a day. British guitar heroes such as Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton and George Harrison all cite Weedon as a huge influence on their playing, along with the other 2 million who bought the book. He followed this with Play Every Day, again emphasising the need for practice to become a guitarist.

Although primarily a big band jazz guitarist, Weedon’s influence permeated early popular British guitar-based music, notably the trademark “twang” of Hank Marvin of The Shadows. He also made more than 5,000 radio and TV broadcasts as well as releasing numerous albums and singles, including Guitar Boogie Shuffle and Nashville Boogie.

Weedon was a tireless worker for the Grand Order Water Rats charity and was elected King Rat in 1992. He was awarded an OBE in 2001 for his services to music. He is survived by his wife Maggie, sons Lionel and Geoffrey, nine grandchildren and one great-grandson.

DAVID COYLE

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