Who Are Those Guys?

Paul Newman’s oft-repeated leitmotiv from “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” may well be applicable to many popular music enthusiasts contemplating the purchase of “American Dance Bands on Record and Film.” As this website attests, most in the Jazz, Dance, Entertainment, Vaudeville and Music Hall fields know Brian Rust’s name well, but this is the first major work from Bernie and Richard. The photograph, it may be said, does not do them justice; but then, on the other hand, perhaps it does.

It was Richard Johnson who first conceived the project. A keen collector of all types of dance music, jazz and blues, he began to search through copies of discographies he owned and check the contents against records on his shelves. This is the dance band discography he wanted, one day, to own. When Brian’s American Dance Band Discography 1917-1942 was published, he developed an interest in expanding his knowledge of the subject. He traveled regularly to the UK National Sound Archives and the British Film Institute, researching the minutiae of his interest. He began correspondence with collectors worldwide, and for that reason, does not regard himself so much as an author, as a compiler. Richard is the one without glasses in the photograph, wearing the “titfer tat.” He appears regularly at record collectors’ fairs, sporting this noteworthy, wide brimmed accessory, exchanging information with fellow enthusiasts. His hat, he claims, serves the purpose of keeping elephants away. If you ask him, “what elephants?,” be prepared to be told, “Exactly. See, it works doesn’t it?”

Bernard Shirley also loves the music, although his own preference is for the post war jazz he came to enjoy as a teenager visiting London clubs. He is the one in the photograph who, if Richard were a kangaroo, would be sitting in the pouch. Any resemblance to characters from the BBC’s series, “Last of the Summer Wine” is presumably unintentional. (I have to wonder if this is the only pic they have together, or if they struck this pose purposefully for me. Hmmm… ‘twould not be untypical.) He originally joined this project when Richard asked him to assist with the indexes. Bernard was the proud owner of one the first ten Apple Macintosh computers in the U.K. He put it to good use, transcribing Richard’s handwritten notes, organizing and collating new material. His involvement became total and his contribution increased in proportion. He added his own research to Richard’s and is now on his fifth Apple Mac, which means he is totally responsible for any typographical errors in the work. During the time he has been involved with the book, his love of post-war jazz has not diminished, but his understanding and enthusiasm for pre-war dance bands has grown.

When this project began, Richard and Bernard were friends and neighbors, living two houses apart in the town of Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire, England. Bernard has since moved across town but they remain friends, and visit constantly. They are both still researching, and adding to their knowledge of the music and the people who played it.

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