based on articles by Cheng Jang Ming in Harmonica World in 2013,
and Roger Trobridge, who edited the original articles.
Cheng Jang Ming wrote: Not many people know much about TRIC these days. I don’t remember the first time I came across TRIC, but it definitely didn’t strike a chord with me at the time.
Recently after hearing some of Roger’s old BBC radio recordings about TRIC, I became fascinated by it. I asked some questions and things became clearer.
It was not only a club for Tommy Reilly to give lessons to his pupils, but it was also a place for trying out new harmonica compositions and a meeting centre for musicians and composers.
Hammonds Wood, the home of Tommy and his wife Ena, was the venue for TRIC. At that time, many people considered Hammonds Wood the Mecca for harmonica players. People from Britain and overseas went there to learn from Tommy. I started digging into the history of TRIC with immeasurable help from David Reilly, Sigmund Groven, Uwe Warschkow, Frank Semus, Carol Bloxsome (Carol Axford) and Roger Trobridge. Here is what I learned.
The early days
Tommy was born in Canada in 1919. He moved to England in 1935 when his father, Captain James Reilly, became Musical Director of the newly formed Hohner National Song Band League. Tommy turned professional at the age of 16 but he was interned by the Germans at the start of WW2 when he was studying violin in Leipzig. He worked hard on his harmonica technique during his time in the camps using the knowledge he had gained from his studies on violin. This led to him being recognised as the acknowledged master of the chromatic harmonica.
When he was released at the end of the war, in 1945, he restarted his musical career as a speciality act in a variety show called Twinkle where he met Ena who was the Principle Girl in the show. They married and had a son David.
Tommy Reilly travelled in many countries, giving concerts with some of the world’s foremost orchestras. As the years went by, the idea with an international club grew, because of his concern for quality of tuition available for harmonica players.
He met many harmonicas players when he was on tour but he found they were not reaching the standards of performance that they ought to have done. They liked the instrument and they wanted to learn to play it properly. Unfortunately there was no where that they could get together and study the chromatic harmonica as a legitimate instrument. Everybody seemed to be doing things in their own way. Tommy thought someone had to set a certain standard and say, “Do it this way!”
The Creation of TRIC
In the end, it was Ena who started TRIC! Many of Tommy’s fans wrote to him and it was Ena who would answer them. There were too many letters and if she couldn’t answer some of the technical questions, she would get the answer from Tommy whenever he was free. It was taking a lot of her time, so around 1965 she thought of the idea of forming a club so that players could come to Tommy for lessons, and also meet one another to exchange ideas, whether they were amateurs or professionals.
TRIC began to take shape at the Reilly’s house in Sunbury on Thames, London, around 1964-6, but as it began to grow they decided to look for something that could accommodate more people. They looked at many houses over the next eighteen months, before finding Hammonds Wood.
Hammonds Wood was a very large house with 14 bedrooms, built in 1905, on 11 acres of land on the outskirts of the small rural village of Frensham, near Farnham, in Surrey.
The land included a long drive, stables, a paddock, lawns and wooded areas, which fell away to the banks of the River Wey.
It cost 10/6 (55p in today’s money) to join TRIC, which provided all sorts of general information services for the harmonica world. Members could come to Hammonds Wood and meet other players from all over the world, both amateur and professional. Most important of all, they could have lessons with Tommy.
Tommy enjoyed his time with the pupils who came, but he did not take complete beginners. He was not sure that he would be any good at teaching. It wasn’t until he started teaching and had to answer questions from his pupils that he really began to understand what he was doing. He was just playing in a natural way. Teaching other players made him analyse what he was doing so that he could tell them how to do it. Here is an application form for TRIC when it was active between 1967-71.
Please note the following application form is not valid any more.
TOMMY REILLY INTERNATIONAL CLUB (T.R.I.C.)
The Tommy Reilly International Club is an organisation for the advancement and fuller enjoyment of the harmonica in all spheres of music.
Under the leadership of world-famous
harmonica player and teacher Tommy Reilly, the club has been formed for the benefit of harmonica players everywhere.
This includes professional and amateur players as well as nonplayers.
The club will assist in the formation of local branches where members may meet for their mutual enjoyment and encouragement.
In addition, through the club’s international organisation, members can exchange news and ideas with other enthusiasts thousands of miles away in other countries.
The aims of the Tommy Reilly International Club are
- To make expert harmonica tuition available for the beginner and advanced student.
- To sponsor local and national harmonica festivals and concerts.
- To provide a link between harmonica enthusiast all over the world.
I enclose 10/6. Please enrol me as a member of the Tommy Reilly International Club.
Name …………… (Block Capitals Please)
The Activities at TRIC.
HOME THIS AFTERNOON – BBC Radio 4,
A family magazine introduced by Ken Sykora and including: Tommy Reilly’s International
Anne Catchpole visits Hammonds Wood where Tommy Reilly has established a centre for harmonica players deep in the Surrey countryside.
What follows is an edited transcription of the 15 min section in the program about TRIC. You can listen to the broadcast if you want at the end of this section.
With its many attractive bedrooms, and large gardens, Hammonds Wood could take up to 10 visitors. There was no fixed program or routine; the time was spent having lessons with Tommy, practicing, listening to records and tapes, making tapes, and chatting over endless cups of tea and coffee. Meals were taken at any time, and Ena did all the cooking.
Ena said, “When they came here, I looked after them. Generally if they had any problems, they would tell me. Of course, they were in our home which meant I had to look after them. Some time ago Ho Chong Wing came here from Singapore. I wrote to him to ask about the food he could eat. We introduced him to many English dishes like pancakes, and he took the recipe back for his wife to make them for him when he returned to Singapore. It’s quite fun really. It’s like one big happy family, we all help each other!”
The people who helped Tommy and Ena to run TRIC were their son David, Tommy’s personal manager, Sigmund Groven, and occasionally, James Moody. TRIC had members from many different countries, some of them would come to Hammonds Wood for tuition more or less regularly.
A very active member at TRIC was Brian Chaplin, the All-Britain Champion in 1967. He had been playing the harmonica since he was 13. As there was no way then to get proper tuition for the harmonica, he had enlisted the help of a saxophone player and organist, Les Bloxsome, whose daughter Carol, accompanied him on the piano – she is now better known as Carol Axford.
Brian said, “Carol’s father helped me quite a bit, as did Carol, who played the piano. We worked very hard but we hardly made any progress until we were able to come to Hammonds Wood. Since we’ve been here, it’s been absolutely fantastic! I’m an engineer and I find it very difficult to turn off after a hard day’s work, talking only engineering. Hammonds Wood really does set the right environment and gets you tuned in to the music.”
Carol decided to play the harmonica herself, and two years later she became the British amateur champion. She was also an active member of TRIC. She said “I usually came and practiced for three days. I would have one lesson with Tommy because that was enough to keep me going for another month”.
Brian said, “I’m slightly different from Carol. I usually I booked two lessons, one per day. I locked myself away in a little room and beat my brains out trying to put into effect what Tommy has taught me. From a lesson lasting one hour, it seemed that I needed hundreds of hours of practice to attain the standards Tommy set! Then I would have another lesson to consolidate what he had taught me already and what I had been practicing since the last lesson.”
Brian commented, “Carol has been able to learn the right way to play the harmonica right from the start, unlike myself, who had picked up bits and pieces here and there. I had learned some bad habits as well as some of the right things. One of the difficulties I had in the first year in TRIC was, in fact, undoing all those wrong things that I have taught myself.
As Carol recalls, “A typical day might start with Tommy having to clean out the Aga stove, that was his job in the kitchen. He used to leave his silver harmonica on the side and wasn’t worried that I would have a go at playing his super instrument while he was working! Tommy only taught one to one and quite often the hour long lesson he gave me would last 2 hours. We didn’t use any piano accompaniment, simply because there was no piano in the large room where the lessons were carried out. There was no timetable at all.”
Carol added, “I have many happy memories of my time at TRIC. The the surroundings of the lovely house and grounds gave such an ideal setting for people to come from everywhere for tuition. Tommy was a very relaxed person and his lessons were very interesting and he demanded high standards. I remember spending at least 20 minutes trying to get 4 consecutive notes to sound as he thought they should, and he was always right, a superb musician, perfectionist, and virtuoso.
Brian said, “I have often wondered what sets certain musicians in a class of their own, even though their contemporaries may, professionally, be very competent indeed. Well, Tommy touched on this, and was at great pains to demonstrate the finer points of techniques which are required.”
Here is a recording of the
‘Home in the Afternoon‘ broadcast
The active members of TRIC were: Carol Bloxsome (UK), Graham Butcher (UK), Bryan Mapperley (UK), John Ferguson (Ireland), Dimas Barrantes (Costa Rica), Ho Chong Wing (Singapore), Joe Sakimoto (Japan), Ho Kit Fun (Hong Kong), Doris Ehmann (Germany), Brigitte Burgbacher (Germany), Helmut Herold (Germany), Ernst Hotan (Switzerland), Heiner Schwenkglenks (Germany), Peter Jansen (Netherlands, father of Rob Jansen from Fata Morgana), Tariq Hameed (a Pakistani player living in London at that time), Frank Semus (UK), Johnny Stafford (UK), Wally Chapman (UK). There were also many professional musicians who were members, including Richard Hayman (US), Jerry Murad (US) and several others.
Members of TRIC premiered new works for harmonica ensemble by James Moody who conducted and played piano, at the Accordion and Harmonica Day in Leicester in 1970.
The players were: Tommy Reilly, James Hughes, Sigmund Groven, Brian Chaplin, Carol Bloxsome, Graham Butcher, and Bryan Mapperley.
The Film Recording of TRIC from 1970
During the summer of 1970, Norwegian TV (NRK) came to Hammonds Wood with a film team to record a special programme about Tommy’s teaching activities in TRIC. The resulting film can be seen on the NRK website. It has a Norwegian soundtrack and no credits.
Here is a new version (2025) of the NRK film in English created by Roger Trobridge with help from Sigmund Groven, who edited the original film in 1970.
The musicians seen in the film are Tommy Reilly, James Moody, David Reilly, Sigmund Groven, Doris Ehmann, Brigitte Burgbacher, Helmut Herold, Jimmy Hughes, Brian Chaplin, Bryan Mapperley, Graham Butcher and Carol Bloxsome (Axford).
The end of TRIC
Ultimately, TRIC came to an end in 1971. It involved a lot of hard work both for Ena and Tommy, and they had no financial sponsors. The fee they charged the members was obviously a highly subsidized rate, because what was paid for a week at Hammonds Wood couldn’t even cover the cost of food.
It was also difficult to combine TRIC activities with Tommy’s extensive touring schedules and other professional commitments. In 1971, Tommy was 52, and he was at his peak simultaneously in techniques (which goes downhill as one ages), musicianship (which matures as one ages) and fame. He also needed to make more income for his family. It was a clear choice that he took on more performances.
The entire TRIC project was never conceived as a business. Besides the low fees he charged for the pupils, Tommy was very kind to them, so kind that he sometimes gave money back to the students who were (or appeared) broke, to let them buy a pair of much needed shoes.
Tommy was treating TRIC more as a gathering place for meeting like-minded friends (both old and new), having a cup of tea, eating good food, making great laughs, and giving some lessons. James Moody was also able to try out new compositions for solo and group harmonicas. Technically the best player in the world was asking only a few pounds for his secrets. So it was only natural that TRIC would wind down in just a few years.
However, Tommy didn’t stop taking in students even after he closed down TRIC. He continued to take in a few selected students in between his performance engagements, especially during the summers. He also gave workshops during harmonica festivals and this had benefited a great many players. So his playing style and methods still live on in many of his pupils.
Tommy did not teach beginners but he had devised a harmonica course (Book and 2LPs) with James Moody, that would get the player up to the required standard.
This course was published by Messrs. Hohner Ltd. London in 1967, and recently re-released by David Reilly and Sigmund Groven . The Tommy Reilly Harmonica Course
“I really envy those who were fortunate to be TRIC members. It was a truly great milestone in the harmonica history! ” Cheng Jang Ming
The source of the cartoon is unknown – Please contact me know if you know the cartoonist.
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