Waldini
Waldini was the stage name of Wallace (Wally) Bishop, a musician, band leader and impresario born in Cardiff, South Wales, in 1894. His career spanned 6 decades, each providing its own challenges that were met head on by the man known to some as The Great Waldini and to others as Cardiff's Mr Music.
During World War I he served with the Royal Army Medical Corps in Egypt, founding the unit's Welsh Rarebits concert party. After the war he continued his career as a cinema musician, until the "talkies" made his job redundant. He survived the Great Depression by forming an orchestra comprising out of work musicians that played daily in Cardiff's Roath Park. They dressed in Romany outfits and called themselves Waldini and his Gypsy Band
During WWII he was invited by Jack Hylton on behalf of ENSA to take his Gypsy Band to entertain the British and Commonwealth Forces at home and abroad; he later wrote of this experience in his self-published book Front Line Theatre.
After the war Waldini and his Gypsy Band appeared during the summer months at holiday resorts throughout the UK, most notably Llandudno in North Wales and Ilfracombe in Devon. For the last 2 years of his life he toured with his all-girl band The Fabs, entertaining troops again, but this time at army bases on the Rhine.
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A Stor A Stor A Ghra
by: AltanGaelic:
A stór, a stór, a ghrá
A stór, a stór an dtiocfaidh tú?
A stór, a stór, a grhá
An dtiocfaidh tú nó an bhfanfaidh tú?
Bhí me lá breá samhraidh i mo sheasamh ar an mhargadh
'S is iomai fear a dúirt lion: "Monuar, gan tú sa bhaile agam".
Gheall mo ghrá domsa cinnte go dtiocfadh si
Ni raibh a culaith Déanta agus sin an rud a choinnigh i
Thart tóin an gharrai, a Mháire, bhfuil an fhidil leat?
Aicearra na bprátai go dtéimid' sair an fhidileoir
Mhí mise lán den tsaoil is bhi cion amuigh is istigh orm
Nach mór a dáthraigh an saol nuair nach bhfuil eion ag duine ar
bith orm?
English:
One fine summers day as I stood there in the market place
Many a fine young man remarked, “I’m sad you are not home with me.”
Chorus:
My darling, my darling, my love
My darling, my darling, will you come with me
My darling, my darling, my love will you come with me or settled be.
My true love promised kindly that she would surely come with me
Her wedding dress not ready, delayed her in joining me.
We have got water from the Eirne, and green grass from the heaven’s stems
Cows udders are near rending from the overflow of milk in them.
By the bottom of the garden, a Mary, is the fiddle there?
The shortcut by the praties, we’ll hasten to the fiddler.
At one time in my life I was dearly loved by everyone