Ernie Guy (Snr)

Usworth Miner / Piano Player

Ernie Playing at the Boxing Day Engagement Party for Son Ernie and Fiancée Carol.
Venue: The Guy Family Home, Coach Road Estate - 26 December 1964.

Popular Songs of the 1950s - Ernie's Play List

MEMORIES FROM ERNIE'S SON

I found the above Play List in a pile of family papers.  My Dad was a Miner at Usworth Colliery and was also a self-taught pianist.  He couldn't read music but was well known as a Pub Pianist in the 1950s and 60s.  Most pubs in and around Washington had a piano in the lounge.  He would sit down at the piano, take the List from his top pocket and work his way through it; he would also take requests.  People would buy him drinks which would be lined up on top of the piano.  I can remember him playing in The Ship at Seahouses when we went on a caravan holiday.  The joint was rocking, and the customers wouldn't go home at closing time.  He could also accompany singers and change key if required.  I still remember most of the tunes on Dad's List.
I can't recall the pubs Dad regularly performed in, but I know he frequented the Speculation Inn on Front Street and when we moved to the Coach Road Estate he regularly walked up to the Perseverance Arms at Springwell.
Ernie

[ Thanks to Ernie (Jnr) - Member of Washington History Society ]