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Granada! Robinson Cleaver and Jackie Brown
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Granada! Robinson Cleaver and Jackie Brown
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Robinson Cleaver
1 An Earful Of Music and Introduction by Robbie Cleaver
2 Granada
3 Manhattan Spiritual
4 A Walk In The Black Forest
5 Blaze Away
6 Skyscraper Fantasy
7 Canadian Capers
8 Exodus
9 March From Things To Come
10 Spanish Gypsy Dance
11 Black Canary Hora
12 Alligator Crawl
13 Theme From The Glass Mountain
14 Moonlight Serenade
Jackie Brown
15 The Flying Scotsman
16 Six Five Special
17 When The Midnight Choo Choo Leaves For Alabam
18 Sentimental Journey
19 Orient Express
20 On The Atcheson, Topeka And The Santa Fe
21 Chattanooga Choo Choo
22 Tuxedo Junction
23 Morningtown Ride
24 Take The A Train
25 Casey Jones
27 Alabamy Bound
28 Choo Choo Samba
ABOUT THE ORGAN
The Wurlitzer was originally built as a four manual twelve rank instrument. It
was played on the opening night of the Granada in 1931 by Alex Taylor.
Originally installed in Sacramento USA as a 10 unit Model 'H' special, it was
reclaimed by Wurlitzer and shipped to the UK in July 1931. A new 4 manual
Console was supplied for Tooting. Harold Ramsay, who became musical director for
Granada Theatres, made his first appearance for the company there in 1932. It
was at this time that the organ was enlarged to a fourteen rank instrument with
grand piano. As well as being played by almost all the better known British
organists, the organ was also featured by two other organists who came over from
the USA for guest runs, Don Baker during 1933 and Leo Webber, during 1934.
The organ was professionally overhauled in 1953 and continued to be heard regularly on the BBC. However in July 1973 a freak thunderstorm sent water flooding into the Granada. Cinema floors slope downwards toward the stage, and at Tooting, the organ chambers were under the stage area, and the organ ended up under three feet of water. As if this wasn't bad enough, the Granada closed suddenly in November of 1973, but the following year an action group was set up to save the Granada. In 1976 the Granada re-opened as a Bingo Club, but, with the floor leveled to stage height, thus entombing the Wurlitzer.
It was not until 1983 that the ATOS headed by the late Les Rawle
arranged with Granada to carry out repairs to the organ, which had remained
boarded over. Within a year the Wurlitzer was reported as being in 100% working
order. Already Grade II preservation listed, the Granada became the first cinema
building in the UK to receive Grade I listing in October 2000, and after some
years of consultation and fundraising and a great deal of work by Les’s son, Len
Rawle, the dream of raising the most broadcast Wurlitzer and fondly remembered
cinema organ in the South of England became a reality when the present owners,
Gala, agreed to allow work to be carried out on the former stage area to allow
the glorious sounds of the organ to escape. The console can also rise again on
its lift for the first time in more than 30 years. The theatre, though now a
bingo club, retains its spectacular appearance just as it appears on the front
cover. Just after further restoration in 2007 the Granada was again flooded with
several inches of water, requiring more restoration of the organ chambers.
ABOUT THE ORGANISTS
We present two completely different styles of playing on this recording.
Robinson Cleaver first began playing the organ when he was eight years old. He
later studied at the Manchester College of Music where he obtained his Associate
degree of the Royal College of Organists. His first theatre organ appearance was
at the Piccadilly Theatre, Manchester and after four and a half years there he
moved on and rapidly became one of the country’s leading entertainers.
With the opening of the Granada, Welling, Robbie joined the Granada circuit and played at all the principal Granada Theatres and made many broadcasts and recordings. He also co-founded and became the President of the Theatre Organ Club of Great Britain. He plays in a traditional British theatre organ style. Jackie Brown was born in Scotland, studied classical organ and later graduated to the Wurlitzer organ in the King’s Cinema, Dundee. Soon after World War II began he joined Granada Theatres as a touring organist for a short time before joining the army.
On leaving the army in 1944 he joined the Gaumont British circuit, leaving in 1946 to become a music arranger for two leading music publishers. In 1952 he went to Canada where he was a regular broadcaster on radio and TV. Returning to England, he became a free-lance organist, pianist and orchestral conductor and demonstrator of electronic organs. With huge hands, fat chords and full registrations and an aggressive style of playing he was said to have an American style similar to that of Don Baker. He is the only organist to have the unfortunate distinction of being killed by an organ. He tripped while moving a Hammond on a staircase and was crushed against a wall.
His Concert Recording LP of train songs was called “The Flying Scotsman” and featured sounds of that famous train between tracks. It was possible to digitally re-master and remove those train sounds for this recording. Thanks are gratefully rendered to Bill Johnson of Concert Recording for supplying the master tapes of these two recordings.
Thanks are due also to Robert Morgan for permission to use his photo of the newly restored Tooting console. Mr. Morgan worked for Granada for many years. Finally, thanks are due to broadcaster Alan Ashton for supplying the Cleaver bio information. Alan's program is streamed at www.organ.co.uk. The original Brown recording, complete with sounds of the Flying Scotsman train, can be released if there appears to be any demand for it.