Article MT215

Scan Tester

"I Never Played to Many Posh Dances"
by Reg Hall

Musical Traditions Supplement No 2



The publication in these pages of the transcriptions of Vic Smith's BBC Radio Brighton interviews with Reg Hall about the original publication of Musical Traditions Supplement No 2 - Scan Tester: "I Never Played to Many Posh Dances" back in 1990, has brought to a head a problem which has been with us for a while.  With only about a score of copies of the book remaining (and the interview publication likely to prompt the purchase of those), we will soon be in the position of this important work no longer being available to the public.  Topic Records are planning a double CD reissue of the double LP which accompanied the book's original release (with additional material from the Peter Kennedy Collection), but a new hard-copy version of the book would not be financially vaiable.

Accordingly, since Musical Traditions Internet Magazine would seem to be the most appropriate place for our Supplement No 2 to find a home, I proposed to re-publish it here as a PDF facsimile edition.  All interested parties were in favour so, after several gruelling hours at a hot scanner, a perfect replica of the original - even the same size - is now available for your attention.

Few people would, I think, welcome having to download a 150-page PDF file, so I have separated it into 9 sections, based on the original layout of the book.  The links below indicate the content, number of pages and size of the downloads:

scan00.pdfCover picture1 page9,080KB
scan01.pdfPart 1 - Contents, maps, preface, Chapter 1: The 19th Century Sussex background12 pages6,745KB
scan02.pdfPart 2 - Biography:
Chapter 2: 1887 - The Great War
32 pages29,289KB
scan03.pdfPart 3 - Chapter 3: The Great War - 1957, 12 pages12,096KB
scan04.pdfPart 4 - Chapter 4: 1957 - 197214 pages13,562KB
scan05.pdfPart 5 - Context and Comment:
Introduction, Chapter 5: Dances and dance tunes
22 pages16,992KB
scan06.pdfPart 6
Chapter 6: Fiddle, concertina, melodeon & tambourine
Chapter 7: Church bands & Village bands
Chapter 8: Friendly Society feast days
16 pages13,822KB
scan07.pdfPart 7
Chapter 9: The 'other' music
Chapter 10: Songs and Singers
Chapter 11: Calendar customs
14 pages10,558KB
scan08.pdfPart 8
Chapter 12: Minstrels and Carnival bands
Chapter 13: Class and social conflict
Chapter 14: The 1920s and beyond
14 pages11,828KB
scan09.pdfPart 9 - Postscript:
Discography, Acknowledgements, Appendix: The wider world, About the author
11 pages5,379KB

You will, of course, need the Adobe Acrobat Reader to view these PDF files - if you don't have it, download the Free Reader from www.adobe.com

My sincere thanks to the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library at the EFDSS for supplying a copy of the book to deconstruct for scanning.

Rod Stradling - 28.4.08

Article MT215

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