NOSTALGIA fans certainly pulled out all the stops in response to the cinema-organ memories of Haydock reader Stan Roberts.
But the jury's still out as to whether the two Horaces (Bagott and Finch, local keyboard wizards) both played at the recently demolished Rivoli.
Veteran musician Ron Jackson of New Street, Sutton, doesn't think so. He believes Horace Bagott was the only man who swept the cinema with melody before the big film feature.
Ron (77) still going strong with his toe-tapping band sessions in Sutton Cricket Club each Tuesday, was enraptured by Bagott's performances during pre-war boyhood. He recalls that Bagott wore a dinner jacket for weekday performances and full swallow-tailed outfit on Saturdays.
Horace Finch, he maintains played at Blackpool Winter Gardens ballroom. But organ enthusiast Steven Britch of Gladstone Street, West Park, begs to difffer, claiming that Finch had also played the Riv organ -- a Christie model, not a Wurlitzer. (Steven provides further details, to be published soon).
Allan Morris of Sutton, and Ernest Greenaway of Clock Face also back up the Finch claim, while V. Ellison of Blackbrook, believes both Reginald Dixon and Sandy McPherson guest appeared at the Rivoli keyboard.
THE melody debate lingers on . . .
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