Rhapsody In Blue

Born in Sheffield, Reginald had hopes of becoming a concert pianist but at the age of fourteen was told by his doctor that he would have to give up either the piano or school - Reginald chose to give up school. The following year he became a church organist and later musical director of a cinema orchestra before making his first live broadcast from the Sheffield Relay Station. In 1930 he became resident organist at Blackpool, a position he held virtually unbroken for the next forty years, service in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War and a brief closure owing to a fire in 1957 being the only breaks he had during that spell. It would not be untrue to say that Reginald Dixon was as much a part of the attraction of Blackpool as the tower, with many people organising their holidays so that they could see him perform year after year. Reginald made a large number of recordings during his forty year sojourn at the Tower Ballroom and effectively created the Blackpool Sound, a particularly bouncy style of playing the wurlitzer organ.