Joseph Hislop, 1933, Somgs of the Hebrides 78rpm
Channel: Simon Chadwick
Date: 25/09/2014

This is HMV B.8042, recorded in London on 8th March 1933. Joseph Hislop was the singer, and the orchestra was conducted by Clifford Greenwood.

B.8042
Tenor in English
with Orch.
SPEED 78

AN ISLAND SHEILING SONG 
(from "Songs of the Hebrides")
(Arr. Kennedy Fraser)
JOSEPH HISLOP

THE ISLAND HERDMAID
(from "Songs of the Hebrides")
(Arr. Kennedy Fraser)
JOSEPH HISLOP

I'm playing this disc on my 1926 HMV model 101 portable gramophone, using soft tone needles.

This record was sent to me many years ago in the post, as "padding" for another more "interesting" disc. Unfortunately shellac 78s are not very good padding and both discs broke in transit. This disc broke right in half through the middle, and also a second pair of cracks almost tangential to the labels, one right to the edge and the other just partway through. Almost a quarter of this disc was completely loose as a seperate wedge shaped piece of shellac! The other disc just broke clean in half through the middle.

Because this disc looked so hopeless with its double breaks, I used it as a test piece to try the epoxy method - I laid the record flat on a piece of thick flat glass, and then used a cocktail stick to draw the finest possible line of epoxy along the surface, along the line of the crack. The idea being for the epoxy to wick in a little. I did this on both sides. WHen the epoxy was set but not totally hard I used a clean cocktail stick to remove as much as possible of the remainder.

As you can hear the experiment was a suprising success, since the record is playable all the way through. Of course you can hear the breaks, but it's not bad I think!

If you have a broken 78 don't just chuck it away! It may be saveable!

The first song, An Island Sheiling Song, is on page 22 of vol.1 of Songs of the Hebrides by Marjory Kennedy-Fraser.