Open/Close Toolbox
Format: Audio
Parent Oral History
Linked To
Copyright
General Use Special Collections Copyright
Please contactSpecial Collections if you are a subject of the interview, or know a subject of the interview, and have cultural or other reservations about the interview and summary being made available on this website and would like to discuss this with us.
This recording can be used for study and personal research purposes. If you wish to reproduce this recording for any other purpose please obtain permission by contacting the University of Newcastle's Special Collections. If you have any further information about the image, please contact us or leave a comment.
Cec Radimey (1906-1999) - Musician and mine worker. Recorded 20 July 1983. Part 2/2.
Expand/collapse
Details
SummaryCec Radimey
Recorded 20 July 1983
Part 2 of 2
0:23
Charlie Pfieffer was a jeweller who worked down stairs of a double story place, on the corner. Harry Fisher was the Tailor, Fred Barker, made Cec his first dinner set, and lived on Harris Street next to McCormicks. Reinhard had a boot shop, near Kearsley shire building. Bob Endean was a Tailor.
2:24
How Cec got into Bands. He was at Aberdare Colliery, and a shipwright, Frank Bradley, came up to him, told him there was work on ships for musicians, and said he could get him a job. Travelling to Sydney, age 17 and nine months, to get work on a ship as a musician, he was ignored until they were putting together a band and he offered himself for a position. Cec used to practice Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony in the horse stables in the feed box. Cec played what was asked from memory and was offered work but needed consent from his parents and a passport.
7:35 Cec got the job, and his job was to play the ship into port and out of port. He played in the ship's orchestra for the guests when they had afternoon tea and dinner for first class and then second class passengers. If it was fine weather there would be a dance on deck, and if not it would be in the music room.
They sailed from Sydney to Auckland that trip. Cec Carter started on the ship the same day as Cec but in a different job. He was sick in the cabin next door - that was the only time Cec was sick before he adjusted. The orchestra had to have other jobs as well so Cec was given the job of ship doctors’ assistant, the doctor making sure everyone had been vaccinated and inoculated. Cec worked in the dispensary in the hospital beside it ensuring everything is sterilised. Then from Auckland they went to Honolulu and British Columbia and back again, spent 12 months on that, each trip took about six weeks.
Left the Mercure and joined shipping lines, then the Commonwealth shipping line, for 4 years he was away from Cessnock. Commonwealth ships was sold to White Star Line while they were headed to England landing then in port for several weeks on arrival.
11:26
Returned home to Cessnock in November 1928. There used to be a Parish hall dance run by the Co-op bakers but it had terminated, so Cec booked the hall, and hired Billy Thornton a piano player, Ernie Vidler, Jack Smith the violinist, Billy Dunne a monument mason, who played the drums and xylophone. They opened the same time Kingsford Smith crossed the Pacific in the Southern Cross Plane, and Cec called his Orchestra the Southern Cross Orchestra in 1928, the banners were all done in black velvet with a golden southern cross across it.
Decorated the hall with things he got on his travels. He got Jack Darcy and sister James specialty dancers. It was successful so he also opened up in the Oddfellows' Hall and the Bellbird Bus Hall three nights a week.
14:23
Also got a job at the Colliery, and met his wife by the name of McIntyre, George McIntyre the father, and she worked in a dress shop. "Power & Moody" dance duo were one of the best groups, they played at Central, and others that played at dances were Frank Suzor, Bill Ward and his brother Tom Ward who used to play a concertina. Others in the band with Bill Ward was Bill Quinn, a Scotch fella who played the drums, Bob Jackson and his wife played the piano and violin. Barney Duggan’s brother, Frank played violin. Bill Murphy and his wife played for the dances.
18:32
Bob Kelsick from Aberdare had an orchestra he had Clarrie Green playing with him and some others but they didn’t do well. There were dances at Hampton Hall every weekend, there were many playing and he lists them. Billy Ward could play all night, and they discuss why he stopped drinking, since he had a drinking problem. Cec remembers playing at Dungog Digger's Ball when a storm hit and they lost power and they played in the dark and how that went. Billy Ward used to play at the Empire Theatre.
22:14
Tom Padgett, a cornet player used to play the trumpet. When George Hodges came back from the War he switched to the Trumpet and played at the Regent Theatre at Cessnock, with a piano player. The end of the dances that Cec hosted with his Southern Cross Orchestra came because in early 1929 the lockout came on. He went back to the ship and came home when it ended.
26:41
When the lockout started there was a dance running in the memorial hall run by Chris Callaghan in 1929 with Dixie Biggers, Keith Brown called the "Breakaway Dance." A sixpence to go in. Cec joined them on the second or third night. Ken Oliver ran The "Kit Kat" Club. There was a school teacher’s dance. Harry Brown and his daughter and Mrs Lane who used to play at the Parish Hall for the Church of England Tuesday night dance. Billy Stray was the MC for the dances. Ned Lind used to sing with them. Listing some of the best people he played with.
31:38
When the power came to Wangi at Cessnock, the skating hall was in a tent owned by Toms, and his manager Mo Warner and they ran dances there, Cec and others played there, Toms decided to make a floating dancehall in 1932 and got a gravel punt and put a dance floor down on it, and bunting all around, hired generators and hired Chris Callaghan's band and were there for six or seven weeks on Lake Macquarie before Christmas 1932, and they had electric lights. They had a tow to take the floor out.
Cec played at about a dozen Spring Balls with Callaghan's band. Art Symes was a player too - he played the drums, Ray Smith was the manager of Nickerton's Music Store in Cessnock played with them too, when War broke out. The band used to sit in a shell and play at the Lyceum Hall. Toby Kempe was an MC, he was also a fireman. George Hodges was the finest instrumentalist that Cec has ever heard.
37:13
In Cec’s opinion when the lockout came the police intervention at the Kearsley marches were far more brutal than the ones at Rothbury. Cec was out there for a march with Cyril Williams, they were out in the bush at Rothbury sitting around a fire doing trumpet duets when the pipers came over the hill first, they were there cos a lot of the band had gone out there. Cec was at both, but the brutality done at Kearsley was more violent when old men were batonned when the police jumped off the lorry in the middle of the marches. It was a distraction to take attention away from a mine further down the line.
39:09
The location of the water trough at Cessnock at the blacksmiths was at the corner of the high school. To get to Doyle's delivery stables you would walk from Empire pictures across the creek and go through there. Locations of some of the shops and who owned them.
41:58
End (Tape 227/Side B) Part 2 of 2
Radimey, Cecil Rawson, 1906-1999PersonJack DelaneyDelaney, Jack, 1919-2010CollectionVoices of the HunterPlaceCessnock, NSWLocation[1] Aberdare Colliery, NSW[2] Cessnock, NSWIdentifier227B
Recorded 20 July 1983
Part 2 of 2
0:23
Charlie Pfieffer was a jeweller who worked down stairs of a double story place, on the corner. Harry Fisher was the Tailor, Fred Barker, made Cec his first dinner set, and lived on Harris Street next to McCormicks. Reinhard had a boot shop, near Kearsley shire building. Bob Endean was a Tailor.
2:24
How Cec got into Bands. He was at Aberdare Colliery, and a shipwright, Frank Bradley, came up to him, told him there was work on ships for musicians, and said he could get him a job. Travelling to Sydney, age 17 and nine months, to get work on a ship as a musician, he was ignored until they were putting together a band and he offered himself for a position. Cec used to practice Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony in the horse stables in the feed box. Cec played what was asked from memory and was offered work but needed consent from his parents and a passport.
7:35 Cec got the job, and his job was to play the ship into port and out of port. He played in the ship's orchestra for the guests when they had afternoon tea and dinner for first class and then second class passengers. If it was fine weather there would be a dance on deck, and if not it would be in the music room.
They sailed from Sydney to Auckland that trip. Cec Carter started on the ship the same day as Cec but in a different job. He was sick in the cabin next door - that was the only time Cec was sick before he adjusted. The orchestra had to have other jobs as well so Cec was given the job of ship doctors’ assistant, the doctor making sure everyone had been vaccinated and inoculated. Cec worked in the dispensary in the hospital beside it ensuring everything is sterilised. Then from Auckland they went to Honolulu and British Columbia and back again, spent 12 months on that, each trip took about six weeks.
Left the Mercure and joined shipping lines, then the Commonwealth shipping line, for 4 years he was away from Cessnock. Commonwealth ships was sold to White Star Line while they were headed to England landing then in port for several weeks on arrival.
11:26
Returned home to Cessnock in November 1928. There used to be a Parish hall dance run by the Co-op bakers but it had terminated, so Cec booked the hall, and hired Billy Thornton a piano player, Ernie Vidler, Jack Smith the violinist, Billy Dunne a monument mason, who played the drums and xylophone. They opened the same time Kingsford Smith crossed the Pacific in the Southern Cross Plane, and Cec called his Orchestra the Southern Cross Orchestra in 1928, the banners were all done in black velvet with a golden southern cross across it.
Decorated the hall with things he got on his travels. He got Jack Darcy and sister James specialty dancers. It was successful so he also opened up in the Oddfellows' Hall and the Bellbird Bus Hall three nights a week.
14:23
Also got a job at the Colliery, and met his wife by the name of McIntyre, George McIntyre the father, and she worked in a dress shop. "Power & Moody" dance duo were one of the best groups, they played at Central, and others that played at dances were Frank Suzor, Bill Ward and his brother Tom Ward who used to play a concertina. Others in the band with Bill Ward was Bill Quinn, a Scotch fella who played the drums, Bob Jackson and his wife played the piano and violin. Barney Duggan’s brother, Frank played violin. Bill Murphy and his wife played for the dances.
18:32
Bob Kelsick from Aberdare had an orchestra he had Clarrie Green playing with him and some others but they didn’t do well. There were dances at Hampton Hall every weekend, there were many playing and he lists them. Billy Ward could play all night, and they discuss why he stopped drinking, since he had a drinking problem. Cec remembers playing at Dungog Digger's Ball when a storm hit and they lost power and they played in the dark and how that went. Billy Ward used to play at the Empire Theatre.
22:14
Tom Padgett, a cornet player used to play the trumpet. When George Hodges came back from the War he switched to the Trumpet and played at the Regent Theatre at Cessnock, with a piano player. The end of the dances that Cec hosted with his Southern Cross Orchestra came because in early 1929 the lockout came on. He went back to the ship and came home when it ended.
26:41
When the lockout started there was a dance running in the memorial hall run by Chris Callaghan in 1929 with Dixie Biggers, Keith Brown called the "Breakaway Dance." A sixpence to go in. Cec joined them on the second or third night. Ken Oliver ran The "Kit Kat" Club. There was a school teacher’s dance. Harry Brown and his daughter and Mrs Lane who used to play at the Parish Hall for the Church of England Tuesday night dance. Billy Stray was the MC for the dances. Ned Lind used to sing with them. Listing some of the best people he played with.
31:38
When the power came to Wangi at Cessnock, the skating hall was in a tent owned by Toms, and his manager Mo Warner and they ran dances there, Cec and others played there, Toms decided to make a floating dancehall in 1932 and got a gravel punt and put a dance floor down on it, and bunting all around, hired generators and hired Chris Callaghan's band and were there for six or seven weeks on Lake Macquarie before Christmas 1932, and they had electric lights. They had a tow to take the floor out.
Cec played at about a dozen Spring Balls with Callaghan's band. Art Symes was a player too - he played the drums, Ray Smith was the manager of Nickerton's Music Store in Cessnock played with them too, when War broke out. The band used to sit in a shell and play at the Lyceum Hall. Toby Kempe was an MC, he was also a fireman. George Hodges was the finest instrumentalist that Cec has ever heard.
37:13
In Cec’s opinion when the lockout came the police intervention at the Kearsley marches were far more brutal than the ones at Rothbury. Cec was out there for a march with Cyril Williams, they were out in the bush at Rothbury sitting around a fire doing trumpet duets when the pipers came over the hill first, they were there cos a lot of the band had gone out there. Cec was at both, but the brutality done at Kearsley was more violent when old men were batonned when the police jumped off the lorry in the middle of the marches. It was a distraction to take attention away from a mine further down the line.
39:09
The location of the water trough at Cessnock at the blacksmiths was at the corner of the high school. To get to Doyle's delivery stables you would walk from Empire pictures across the creek and go through there. Locations of some of the shops and who owned them.
41:58
End (Tape 227/Side B) Part 2 of 2
Radimey, Cecil Rawson, 1906-1999PersonJack DelaneyDelaney, Jack, 1919-2010CollectionVoices of the HunterPlaceCessnock, NSWLocation[1] Aberdare Colliery, NSW[2] Cessnock, NSWIdentifier227Bloading google map....
Delaney, Jack, 1919-2010, Cec Radimey (1906-1999) - Musician and mine worker. Recorded 20 July 1983. Part 2/2., [227B]. Living Histories, accessed 01/12/2023, https://livinghistories.newcastle.edu.au/nodes/view/55870