Astoria in Barnsley Organs and Tea Dances
The Astoria Centre in Barnsley is the National Theatre Organ Heritage Centre and chairman, and organist, Kevin Grunill talks to the Yorkshire Post about the appeal of traditional organ music and their popular tea dances, bringing a bit of 'Blackpool back to Barnsley'.
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00:00 I'm Kevin Grinnell, I'm the chairman and one of the volunteers here at the Astoria Centre in Barsley.
00:05 And we're a theatre organ heritage centre, in fact we're the national theatre organ heritage centre,
00:10 restoring and maintaining these wonderful instruments from the Art Deco 1930s right here in Barsley.
00:25 They get played a lot, yes, we use them every Wednesday afternoon for a tea dance at one o'clock,
00:30 every Thursday afternoon for a lunchtime music and memories concert with music from the shows
00:35 from the 1950s up to the 70s, some modern day music as well, occasionally on them,
00:40 which comes as a surprise, lots of film music and that kind of thing.
00:44 We have evening dances, people come along and can practice on them,
00:48 they can learn about the pipes etc in the chambers and the history of the theatre organ.
00:53 We have retired people, we have a lot of people that are widows so they come on their own and meet with friends
00:57 and it's very much a social thing here at the Astoria Centre.
01:01 We have young people, we trained two award winning organists, young theatre organists of the year,
01:06 right here at the Astoria Centre, we've got volunteers ranging from 22 to 82 actually,
01:15 so quite a wide age range of people come along and enjoy these instruments.
01:19 The popularity of Strictly has gained a whole new audience for ballroom dancing,
01:24 with people coming to the evening dances because of work commitments etc,
01:29 but the age range from those ranges again from probably I would say early 30s right up to one couple that come
01:34 and they're in their 90s and they're wonderful dancers, they're still gliding around the floor
01:39 and I'm sure it's what keeps them young.
01:41 [Music]
01:49 As a four year old, Mum took me for the day to Blackpool to the Tower Ballroom,
01:54 we walked into the ballroom although she held her hands over my eyes and then said 'have a look now'
01:59 and I was just absolutely mesmerised with the whole splendour of it.
02:02 You can certainly understand why Strictly want to go there for the big events
02:06 and I just wouldn't go away from the back of the ballroom, the organ didn't play continuously in those days
02:12 and it descended below the stage and I wouldn't move until I'd seen it rise back up again and I wondered where it had gone.
02:19 The interesting thing about that is little did I ever know that 20 years later
02:24 I'd be the one sat on the organ bench in that magnificent ballroom creating the same memories for other four year olds
02:30 and I think that's just wonderful how it's come full circle.
02:33 [Music]
02:38 This instrument is actually slightly bigger than the Wurlitzer Organ in the Tower Ballroom in Blackpool.
02:43 We do have a Wurlitzer Organ currently being restored in our workshops here which will be installed in due course
02:48 but the Tee Dancers are a bit of black bull right here in Barnsley.
02:52 We haven't quite got the Tower on the roof yet but we're working on it.
02:56 [Music]
03:03 [Applause]
03:08 [Music]
03:13 [Applause]
03:18 [Music]
03:23 [Applause]