The Blue Notes courtesy of forum member Mike Cox:
"It was a big wooden marching bass drum: one you strapped over your shoulders, rested on your belly and banged at both sides with beaters; the pride of Kitchener's army! And there was a matching snare drum. They were buried under years of dust and debris. "What!", said Len Goodey, "You can't use those in a jazz band, but have them if you want. They're no good to us."
We'd found them in the Llandudno Youth Club store room. In the early 1950s, "We" were 14 and 15-year-old fans of Louis Armstrong, Humph and Chris Barber who had decided to form a jazz group of our own. Eddie and Lou just had amazing ambition - they'd never played an instrument before. I was just starting to learn clarinet.
Glyn Dryhurst was posher. A fine musician already, he had played trumpet in the National Youth Orchestra and later blew himself a career as a pro.
Eddie fancied himself as a Gene Krupa and grabbed at the chance of the old Youth Club drums. Arvell Shaw (Sachmo's bass player) was one of Glyn Lou's heroes so the youth club threw in an old cello, a good size match for Lou.
After we got ourselves a bandroom in Jubilee Street (later Back Lloyd Street, then Market Street) and raised our first wailings. Lou found the cello wouldn't get down to the bass notes so we broke an old piano up, took the bass strings off that, and fixed them on the cello. The piano strings were steel - and Lou's fingers soon a bloody wound.
The racket we made aroused interest and we were joined by Alan Hughes (Dyffryn Dairy) who had us falling about at his first appearance when he stood up, stuck one leg up on the piano and tried to imitate Little Richard. Colin "Woggsy" Mullen appeared with a weather beaten alto sax and began his regular habit of playing it sitting flat on the floor with his knees around his ears. John Williams (Dippy), a refugee from the town band, brought his trombone. Another eccentric who suffered the butt of band humour, John developed into an excellent jazz trombone player.
Slowly it all came together and we made some good sounds, getting and giving a lot of pleasure over quite a few years. The Blue Notes, over time, became a minor Llandudno institution, starting the town's first jazz club in Payne's Corner House. Quite a few notable musicians joined as others left: especially Bill Jones and George Brookes who really evolved into accomplished jazzmen, as well as being first class straight musicians in the town band; and Barry Jones on drums who in the mid seventies also played in Glyn Dryhurst's Rhythm Machine at the Stage Door (another story!)"