Bert Weedon and Basil Brush in Pantomine
Dick Whittington Sunderland Empire 1979 
I was sad to hear of the passing of Bert Weedon. His name, his guitar playing, and his Play In A Day guitar tutor book, are legendary. I only saw him once “in concert”. It was actually in pantomine at Sunderland Empire in 1979, and he was co-starring with Basil Brush, of all people. We would make an annual trip to the panto, and this particular year I took our daughter Ashleigh, who was at the time a big Basil Brush fan. We’d just bought Ashleigh a Basil Brush toy, which said “Boom Boom!” when you pulled the string in his tail, and if I remember right, she brought him along to the panto with us. Bert played Alderman Fitzwarren, and popped up every now and then to play a tune on his guitar and say a few lines explaining the links between scenes. I remember being quite thrilled that Bert was in the show, as it gave the night an extra musical interest for me. He’d been in the lp charts a few years earlier with his 22 Golden Guitar Greats album which reached number one in 1976. I can picture Bert now standing at the corner of the stage, playing Guitar Boogie Shuffle. Actually, Ashleigh still has my copy of Play In A Day, which was using to learn to play her acoustic guitar. Rest in peace, Bert.
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21 Apr
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