History of National Harmonica League HarmonicaUK

The decline in Hohner’s financial and marketing support for harmonicas and accordions in the UK came to a head with the breaking of links with the NAO, the National Accordion Organisation, and the halt to the production of the magazine “Accordion Times incorporating Harmonica News” in 1974. Since 1959, the NAO and the magazine had been the “home” for the National Harmonica League (NHL). It included a harmonica competition in its annual Accordion Day. Now there was no harmonica magazine to capture its history. In 1974, the Accordion Day was held in Brighton. The harmonica THE HISTORY OF competition was mainly for chromatic players, and the winner was 16 year old Ivan Richards from West Heath, Birmingham, a pupil of HARMONICAUK Jim Hughes. In 1975, the event was held in Scarborough, and the Larry Adler Challenge Cup Part 5 1975–1981 was again won by Ivan, only this time he was the only contestant. Interest was waning. Roger Trobridge Later that year, Hohner invited several blues harp players to Chairman 2000-2012 take part in a competition sponsored by Hohner and “Sounds” magazine in the Kings Road Theatre, Chelsea which was judged by Steve Rye and Judd Proctor. Six were chosen and asked to travel as a team to the World Championships in Offenburg, Germany. They were the first blues harp players to take part in the World Championships. They included Steve Smith, Paul Lamb and Chris Turner, and they won the Group Contest. Chris also won the diatonic competition. The other member of the British team (and the 7th of “The Magnificent Seven”) was Ivan Richards, who won the Chromatic competition at the age of 17. He had been fourth in Ypres, Belgium in 1973. There is little information from 1976, but there was a chromatic championship in Weston-Super-Mare, which was won by Paul Templar. He had been a performer in the 1960s and was recovering from a serious lung disease. He released a four track EP, “Harmonica Magic”. At the end of 1976, Derek Kirk was the marketing manager at Hohner under their managing director, Dirk Kommer, and with their PR man, Les Stewart, he invited John Tyler, a headmaster from Essex, to become the director of a relaunched NHL organisation which would be supported by Hohner. John had been a prominent

member of the NHL and an accomplished chromatic player since the end of the 1950s.

John accepted the challenge, and he set about opening up the organisation to all styles of harmonica, especially for the popular blues harmonica players. There was a strong membership drive with a small annual charge which included the new magazine - still called “Harmonica News” - and the circular NHL logo was born. The membership was about 1000 in 1977 and rose to over 2,500 by the end of 1979. John’s big idea was to hold “Get Together” concerts in London, Birmingham and Manchester. The London ones were held in Cecil Sharp House in 1977 and 1979, and the other two were held in 1978. These concerts included many top players, including Steve Smith, Harry Pitch, Paul Jones, Johnny Mars, Steve Rye, Paul Rowan, Jimmy Andrews, Carol Axford, Paul Templar, Brian Chaplin, Fred Southern … If anyone has any programmes or tape recordings from these events, please let me know. Alongside this activity the new “Harmonica News” (A4 size) was a huge improvement. Probably one of the best the NHL has produced. It was full of topical news, articles, images and interviews with top touring players like Toots, Charlie McCoy and Sonny Terry as well as British artists. By the end of 1979 it had become obvious that all this great work was not being rewarded by a growing and paying membership. The NHL had always had an international appeal and in 1980 they decided to make the magazine more colourful and broaden its appeal. It became the “International Harmonica Magazine incorporating Harmonica News”. They published a couple of issues in 1980/81 before Hohner finally decided to call it a day. One of the main drivers, Derek Kirk, had moved on and John Tyler had done all he could. Where did the NHL go next? South Africa?