Horace Finch

Horace Finch (23 July 1906 – 28 September 1980) was an English pianist and organist.

Horace Finch was born in Clock Face, St. Helens, Lancashire. He began piano and organ studies in 1910 at the age of four. By 1915, he was organist at Clock Face Methodist Church, St. Helens. In 1919 he left St. Helens for Blackpool for health reasons.

During 1920 he began piano studies with Robert Gregory. Throughout the 1920s he took several positions playing in cinemas up and down the Fylde Coast and on 1 April 1926 took up his position as solo and orchestral pianist in the Blackpool Tower Orchestra. On Whit Sunday 1927 he became the first English pianist to perform Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue from memory. He also made his debut on record with 'Bertini' and the Tower Band. In addition to playing the piano, he also played xylophone and accordion and also made a few recordings with Bertini on the 'Crystalite' label using the small Decca Wurlitzer in London.

In 1929 a Wurlitzer organ was installed in the Tower Ballroom Blackpool and after three organists, Reginald Dixon was appointed. Mr. Dixon later designed his own Wurlitzer and the original Tower organ was removed and enlarged as a 'twin' to the new organ to be installed in the Empress Ballroom Blackpool within the Winter Gardens complex. Horace Finch was chosen as the new organist for the Empress Ballroom, the new organ being opened on 3 April 1935.

Radio broadcasts soon followed as well as solo organ recordings, with the first broadcast on 20 December 1935 at 6.45pm on the BBC Regional Programme. In 1939, the New Opera House Blackpool (also in the Wintergardens) opened on 14 July with a Wurlitzer organ installed to the design of Mr. Finch. It was, in fact, the very last new Wurlitzer organ to be installed in the UK. This organ contained a rare Tibia Plena rank of pipes, the only other in the UK being installed at the Gaumont Theatre, Holloway, which was destroyed in World War II (oddly, the remains of the Holloway organ provided spares for the Tower Wurlitzer after the fire of 1956). The Opera House organ has recently been restored and returned to the spotlight by Cannock Chase Organ Club led by Wolverhampton City Organist, Steve Tovey. Soon after, War came and Horace joined the RAF.

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