My first service

I took up the organ in 1970 and played for a few services at a Methodist church (where a relation of nime played) when she had to be away.

My first official service as an appointed organist was in 1972 on Low Sunday which I believe was April 9th, the Sunday fater Easter. I remember the start of the service very well because the organ console was behind a screen and there was amost no view of the altar at all, except for a wobbly mirror. The priest and his server came out at 0930 and started to mumble prayers so I waited and waited for the first hymn to be announced. After what seemed an age, a churchwarden came to the organ and told me I should be playing the hymn: kick off, then all went well.

I used to be paid £18.75 per quarter which amounts to £75 a year. That felt like a lot for a 14 year old: today it would be about £266 per year which is not a huge amount.

The best way to learn something is to do it and I applied everything I had learnt from my organ lessons and from page-turning for my teacher.

Happy days.