Memories from the 1950s

David Hopper (OW of 1950 to 1961)

Wells Cathedral School Jazz Band - The East Liberty Stompers.

Ours was not the first band at Wells, but it was probably the first Jazz band, formed in 1958/59. It was quite an achievement, considering that only one of us was a trained musician. The rest of us taught ourselves to play the instrument of our choice. We started off in our free time around the piano in the Ritchie Hall, listening to jazz records and gradually assembling a few tunes together. It was a primitive start but we were all very motivated. "Alcoholic Blues" was one of first tunes, and "St Louis Blues", before we progressed to the more challenging "Muscrat Ramble", "Tiger Rag" and so forth.
The first band consisted of :
David Hopper - Trumpet
Peter Baines - Clarinet
Peter Gregson - Trombone
Brian Ellery - Banjo
Fred Galvagne - Drums
From the start we called ourselves "The East Liberty Stompers". To my recollection the music was primitive, but we were invited to perform by the Head Master Mr Cummings, who always gave us great encouragement.
Peter Baines had been trained in classical clarinet, and had also been Head Chorister, and later played for the Vieux Carré jazz band at Cambridge. I later formed a band at Exeter University.
Our wild antics soon became legendary in Wells. We held the stage at the St Cuthbert's day fair. We also held a Jazz Dance at the School, when girls were "imported" from Sidcot School and the "joint was jumpin"!
On our own initiative we arranged to have a record made at Ray's recording studio in Bristol. We caught the bus from Wells, persuading the conductor not to charge extra for our instruments, and arrived at the studio. We had to play all the tunes on each side of the record with no more than a few seconds break between each one because it was a waxed record - and we were all very nervous. In due course copies of the record arrived and were sold out on the first day - about 60 copies. At least three of us still have copies today.
I still meet up with John Stewart and Peter Gregson for an annual game of golf at the Mendip Club, and we are in contact with most of the rest of the group. For most of us that band at Wells was our only musical endeavour. David Hopper