WINIFRED ATWELL - “Let’s Have Another Party”
(3rd December 1954)
This is also a knees-up party record but of a whole different order. It’s a medley - nay, a megamix - of music-hall hits instrumentalised, mashed together and played sped-up on a piano. I imagine Grandma out of Giles cackling away as she thumps the ivories at some family bash. Winifred Atwell recorded about 800 of these. They all sound the same - think a one-woman 50s Scooter - and it was a devil to track the right one down. They’re pretty good though: you can tell why she had the Christmas party scene in a headlock this year. The version I found goes straight into its B-Side which has, rather wonderfully, a guitar overdub halfway through that took me absolutely by surprise. It’s there for no reason at all, it just plays along with a few notes then drops out again. I love it: it’s one of the first sightings of something great in British pop, the joy in a new noise for its own sake. 6
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Marcello Carlin on October 20th, 2006
I said this originally on Haloscan, but Joe Meek was in the control booth engineering (thus the guitar drop-in), so a prescient last remark there.
Additionally B Watson has reminded me that Atwell was the pop parallel to John Cage in terms of using prepared pianos (or her “Other Piano” as she called it, i.e. the rickety pub upright) remembering that Cage’s piano pieces were originally intended for dancing etc.
FT's Pete Baran on October 20th, 2006
I always love playing Atwell at Popular (Poor People Of Paris usual, but this one maybe next time on the 10th). I think what Tom says about joyous noise comes right through all of her playing, and it is about the only artist I demonically air piano to.
FT's rosie on October 21st, 2006
The first black performer to top the UK charts?