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Johnny Hobbs

I knewJohnny and used to see him at the Log Cabin, the Blue Boar and at the Arboretum, at the latter with Jyll Ball singing. He was always with Maurice Colman and very often with Annie Hawkins or Bill Cole. Apart from the piano, he played clarinet, drums and banjo. I have seen him sing all the many verses of Abdul A Bulbul Amir. His boogie woogie playing always went down well, with his silver chain and ornaments wrapped around his wrist jangling away (I can hear them now). Once, at the Blue Boar, the guest singer was Nancy Whiskey. Another highlight was him donning a gasmask and playing the old Vera Lynn song ' We'll Meet Again' ending with him operating a genuine (and deafening) air-raid siren. Without hesitation I would say that Johnny was Nottingham's greatest musical entertainer, and I was extremely disappointed that I did not go to his funeral (I didn't know that he had died).

He had an enormous 78rpm record collection and disposed of many of them at his shop at the Trent Bridge end of Arkwright Street.

Comments

Dave Harwood
27 Mar 2025 at 02:56
I found this in the 'Nottingham Evening Post' dated 1st September 1972: “At home with the old sounds. WHAT began as an interest complementary to his band-leading activities has become a flourishing commercial enterprise for clarinettist Johnny Hobbs. After 25 years of continuous activity on the local jazz scene, Johnny recently branched out into the nostalgia business. A visit to his premises finds Johnny seated-amidst a bizarre collection of items from the past. But this is no ordinary antique shop. Most of the stock-in-trade reflects some aspect of pre-war showbiz so that one picks one’s way through piles of old 78s, copies of film magazines dating from Hollywood’s golden age, player pianos and ancient, dare one say beautiful, brass-horn gramophones of the kind immortalised on the HMV label. The shelves are lined with a carefully indexed assortment of thousands of old recordings representing Johnny’s main interest. In fact he has collected old jazz recordings for many years and this has logically lead to expertise in other fields of recording activity. So long-forgotten artistes may be heard again on one of the hand-cranked low-fi record players. Johnny told me that young people are his main customers and that there is a revival of interest at present in the early rock and roll recordings. Prices for rare original issues can go sky-high. As much as £400 has been paid for a particularly sought-after item but these don’t hold much interest for Johnny. It’s the thousands of recordings issued over the years which are his speciality. “There’s a market for every 78 ever recorded” he said “if you can find the right person.”
...and this in the 15th March 1974 edition:
“Visitors to Johnny Hobbs’ Arkwright Street 'music and memories' shop will often find John pedalling his way through an old rag on one of the player-pianos which comprise part of his stock-in-trade.”
...plus this in the 3rd January 1986 edition:
“At the Britannia is Johnny Hobbs with his '78 Disco' which features music on 78 rpm records.”

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236 Arkwright Street NG2 2GR Nottingham / Nottinghamshire
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