AMY TIBBETT, whose funeral is today, was extremely well known as an organist in south Durham clubland.
She was born 96 years ago into a musical family in Reeth, went to live in London, but was evacuated back to Darlington at the start of the Second World War where, with her husband Alec on drums, she began playing the piano at the Alma pub (also known as the Brown Trout) in Cockerton.
As tastes developed, she formed a trio called the Melody Maids with Paula Mason on guitar and Joan Smith as lead singer – Joan’s father was a Bondgate newsagent and Paula was a German who had fled the Nazis and married a Darlington lad.
The Melody Maids, from left, Amy Tibbett, Paula Mason and Joan Smith
Amy, who has appeared several times in Memories over the years, also continued to work as a solo organist accompanying dances which, 50 or 60 years ago, were all the rage. She was resident organist at the Big Club in Newton Aycliffe and for 11 years at Evenwood WMC. There can barely be a pub or club in south Durham that she didn’t play, often working six nights a week but still finding time to bring up her three boys.
We forget today how central clubland once was to ordinary people’s social lives – during Amy’s ten years playing the Wurlitzer at the Big Club, acts like Engelbert Humperdinck, Jasper Carrott and The Krankies performed on the same Aycliffe stage.
Amy lived near Kirk Merrington and carried on playing after Alec died in 1984 until she was well into her seventies and arthritis got the better of her fingers.
She died last Tuesday, and her funeral is today, Monday, December 12, at 2pm at the Wear Valley Crematorium in Coundon.
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