Rare footage of the late Tom Barriball, "The Cornish Banjo King".

*IF THE ABOVE VIDEO DOES NOT PLAY, PLEASE CLICK ON THE VIDEO BELOW*

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Comment by thereallyniceman on September 15, 2012 at 15:56

We have had several postings about the late Tom Barriball recently so I have edited together this short video of “The Cornish Banjo King”.

 

 

It features Tom on Classic Banjo playing with his youngest son Gary on guitar and wife Monica on the Melodeon.

Sorry about the jumpy original tape, but it does improve during the video. 

I hope that you all enjoy this 100% live and unedited 100% fun banjo playing.

 

The more I watch Tom’s left hand the more I see Rob Murch’s , especially in Queen of the Burlesque. I can see that he taught you well Rob.

 

Enjoy!

Comment by Mike Moss on September 15, 2012 at 17:10

10 minutes of pure fun!

Comment by Jean-Marie van de Laar on September 15, 2012 at 18:16

That certainly put a smile on my face.

Comment by Ray Jones on September 16, 2012 at 6:06

Guddonyer Tom.    You sure could knock out a toe tapping tune on the old Joe.    Not only that but you made your own banjos.

Comment by Tarry Barriball on September 18, 2012 at 10:01

My wife and I have just spent a weekend in Bournemouth and en-route we called in to see my brother Gary who now lives in Puddletown, Dorset. I had not received the video message at that time otherwise I would have shown it to him. I notice it was taken on 11th May 1997, well Gary at that time would have been just coming up to his 30th Birthday. Just an off the cuff bit of trivia for all who tune into "Classic Banjo". It is great to see Tom (my father) & Gary playing together, incidentally although they are joined by Tom's wife, Monica, she is not Gary's mother but his step-mother.

Comment by Tarry Barriball on September 28, 2012 at 20:10

 I have had a good look at the video and enlarged it to the maximum possible, thankyou for uploading it.

Having enlarged the viewing level to maximum I can see that the Banjo that Tom (Father) is playing is one of his own making. If you look at the tuning head you will see that it has the pegs placed through the head and no "cogs or centre spindles" for tuning.

The "Resonator" is also slightly bigger than a normal size "jo" and if you look carefully it is bigger than a "CE Regal" Banjo and his trade mark is the hand/wrist/arm rest on the "resonator" section.

I don't know if this has been noticed by anyone else or not but Gary has confirmed that it was one of father's banjos that he was playing in that video. It was Gary's wife Steph that was operating the camera at the time and it was filmed just 9 days before Gary's 30th Birthday.

look at the tuning head closely and you can see there is no gearing or any fancy shape to the "Tuning Pegs" and they poke up through from the bottom of the head. There are very few banjos on the open market that I am aware of with this sort of set up on the tuning front. Just something I thought "Classic Banjo" followers might be interested in.

Comment by thereallyniceman on September 29, 2012 at 12:19

Tarry, I know that you are not a player, so for your information I think that you will find that the tuning pegs used on Tom's banjos are the standard type used on the majority of classic style banjos.

I think that the ones you are comparing them to are the "guitar" type of tuners as used on the zither banjo.

The "majority" of CB players do not play zither banjos, but they are superb banjos.

Comment by Trapdoor2 on September 29, 2012 at 13:47

Well, I've finally gotten a minute or two together to watch this great video. LOL, I recognized the player's style as soon as he started playing Morley's "N-town". Quite a few years ago, David Wade sent me a CD of tunes (duets) and a copy of a TAB booklet of the tunes...but he never told me who was playing on the CD. It has to be Tom B. As I recall, it has Zarana, Teddy Bear's Picnic, N-Town and a few others. Now I wonder if it might be Tom with Rob playing 2nd?

Comment by Alan Sims on September 29, 2012 at 15:06

just real fun to watch a happy musical family. Made my day .Who needs a television.

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