henriques

Basil Henriques Hawaiian Guitarist 1943 -

Basil is a unique stylist in the fields of Hawaiian Guitar and Country Pedal Steel Guitar.

Signed to EMI Records with a 10 year recording contract in 1967 as a "Solo Artist" and is one of only a handful of Steel Guitarists contracted to a major record label.
With albums on sale throughout the world for the past 40 years, he has accumulated sales figures in the millions.

Re-formed the Waikiki Islanders after the death of William Cox (His Father in-law) and carried on the FAMILY group that was originally formed in 1937. Subsequently

As a Pedal Hawaiian Guitarist he has continued the styling's of Jules Ah See, Billy Hew Len, Freddie and Ernest Tavares and others, and developed a unique style of Hawaiian Playing.

As the resident band at the Castaways nightclub, Basil's band the Waikiki Islanders, appeared on the same bill as :-
Tom Jones
Engelbert Humperdink
Mat Monro
Liberace
P.J. Proby
Sarah Vaughan & Billy Eckstine
Cleo Laine & Johnny Dankworth
Mr. Acker Bilk and his Paramount Jazz Band
Val Doonican
The Bachelors
Rosemary Squires
Judith Durham
Lynn Rogers
Sandy Shore
Cilla Black
Diana Dors
Dave Allen
Max Bygraves
Tommy Trinder
The Dallas Boys
Jack Hammer
Susan Maughan
Morton Fraser Harmonica Gang
Earl and Vaughan
Los Zafiros
Jean-Jacques Jordane
Malcolm Mitchell
Bob Monkhouse
The Bonzo Dog doo-Dah Band
The Maori Castaways
Mark Wynter
Eve Boswell
Clinton Ford & The Manhattan Brothers
Cy Grant
The Barron Knights
Ken Goodwin
The Jones Boys
The Other Brothers
The Chants
Duke Hazlett
Mikki and Griff
Craig Douglas
Ronnie Carrol
Dennis Lotis
Kathy Kirby
The Temperance Seven

Goin to Ireland in 1970, he formed the Virginians Showband, Basil was the first steel player to front a Showband in Ireland and introduced the concept of playing regular guitar AND Steel guitar live on stage in alternating sections within the same song.
Setting the benchmark for future steel players to be doubling on lead.

Became a household name throughout Ireland and was the first steel guitarist/ 'Entertainer' in the public eye.
Playing resident on all of the Radio and TV shows that had a Country Music content, he did the majority of the TV and Radio work for the era.
In the recording field, Basil was the number one session steel player in Ireland for the next 25 years, retiring from session work in 1995 to follow a solo career.

As a record producer and musical arranger he has produced for the top echelon in the Industry in Ireland and also for other artists world wide. i.e. Hank Locklin.

As a studio engineer he contributed vastly to the advancement of the recording and mixing quality in the Country and Irish field and helped design and build many studios throughout the country.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Basil Henriques Bio.

He is highly experienced as a Musical Arranger-Record producer-Vocal Technique coach.
( Studio and live performance skills )
He has arranged the music, performed as a session musician on various instruments, produced and supervised the vocal
performance, engineered and mixed All of the following :-

Albums :-
Daniel O'Donnell (His first single and various subsequent albums)
Bagatelle (ALL of their original demos for songs such as "Summer in Dublin" etc)
Peggy's Leg ( Album, "Grinilla" )
Philomena Begley ( 8 albums and most of her singles)
Foster & Allen ( 3 albums and 3 singles)
Ray Lynam ( Various albums and singles )
Big Tom ( 16 albums and various singles)
Larry Cuningham ( Various albums, singles and videos)
T.R. Dallas ( Various albums and singles )
Brendan Shine ( Various albums and singles )
Cathy Durkin ( Various albums and singles )
Susan McCann ( Various albums and singles )
John Hogan ( Various albums and singles )
Hank Locklin ( Album whilst on tour in Ireland )
Tony Stevens ( Various albums and singles )
Buddy Boland ( Album )
Sean McGuire ( 2 albums )
Donna Darlene (1 album ) USA
Hank Locklin (1 Album) USA
John Kerr
Margo
Gene Stuart
Art Supple
Hugo Duncan
Pat Ely
Ian Corrigan
Shelly
Gerry Black
Frankie Kilbride
Frankie McBride
Barry McGuigan
Pat McGeegan
Eileen King
Brian Coll
Lian Reily
Frank McCafree
Dermot Moriarty
Two's Company
Dermot Hegarty
Declan Nerney
Seamus McGee
John Duggan
Bob Brolly MBE ( Various albums and singles )

and MANY others in the entertainment business in Ireland

He started playing guitar at eleven years of age and took up Hawaiian guitar at twelve.
His first pedal guitar was a six string gibson 4 pedal electraharp.
At fourteen he was playing in his mother's group "The Blue Hawaiians" and at sixteen formed the "Waikiki Islanders" .
From 1966 to 1968 he was resident at the "Castaways" night club in Birmingham with his group , also playing at the BBC Broad Street studios twice a week recording "Slots" for their national network light music prgs.
He then toured Europe (The American Forces Bases) with his own show which included dancers and a knife throwing/fire dancer from Samoa. (Danny Tigilo)
He signed with EMI Records in 1966 and recorded several albums for them on their prestigious Studio Two Stereo series.

In 1970 he moved to Ireland and was co-founder of a C&W Showband called the Virginians.
At that time Country Music was gathering momentum in Ireland and he was the ONLY pedal steel player working full time pro. He did 99% of the recording sessions for the next twenty five years, producing many albums and singles along the way.
He was also in demand by visiting American artists for their TV and road gigs.

He quit session work in 1995 to concentrate on a solo career, as he had been offered many exclusive hotel residencies.

He has performed as a musician with artistes such as :- Foster and Allen, bandleader with Philomena Begley, Roly Daniels and T.R. Dallas, and a staff musician with the national broadcasting company RTE.,
session musician with the top studios in Europe, backing the likes of Gilbert O'Sullivan, Slim Whitman, Hank Locklin (He also produced an album of Hank's, recorded during one of his many tours of Ireland), Tammy Wynette ( She always asked for him for her Irish dates and he backed her on her last tour of Ireland and her "Late Late Show" appearance), and MANY more, He also has many solo " Easy Listening " Albums to his credit,
As an instructor for the Irish government agency "FAS" he started courses at local Institutes of Technology for "Steel Guitar" and "Dobro" as well as the RGT various guitar courses, He is an accredited tutor for the "London School of Music".

This picture of the Castaways main room was taken from the stage end, and if you can imagine, the balconies extending to the side of the stage and at the end of the balconies 2 LARGE 40 foot palm trees with the bottoms on the back of the stage extension.
Well :-
One evening whilst Mat Munro was singing his finale ‘Born Free’, Dave Allen (Who was appearing just ‘round the corner at the “Talk of the Town”) had hatched a cunning plot and slid down from the balcony on one of the palm trees (Accompanied by a suitable glissando from me) landing directly behind Matt just as he was going to hit the last note.
The fun had only begun..
They huddled together for a couple of seconds planning the next move, Dave jumped up on the beautiful white grand piano (Much to the consternation of the club owner John Reeve) and the launched into a sketch they regularly do together at pantomimes. The Nelson-Hardy routine.
Maybe you've seen it but just in case you haven ’t, I’ll describe it.
Dave says “Captain, Captain, I see Forty Fousand Froggie French Frigates off the starboard bow”
Nelson (Mat) replies “ Hardy, my good man, Fetch me my Red Velvet Jacket”
Hardy “Why do you want your Red Velvet Jacket ?”
Nelson “So the men won’t see the blood if I’m shot”
Hardy runs off and come back with said jacket.
Hardy “Captain, Captain, I see Forty Fousand Froggie French Frigates off the port bow”
Nelson “ Hardy, my good man, fetch me my Brown Corduroy Trousers”
Mat and Dave were very close friends and often appeared on TV on the same show, being complimentary to each other, Dave as a superb comedian and Mat as “Mat”

We played 6 night a week starting at 8:30 pm and finishing at 2:00am. Before each show at the casino/reception and then moving upstairs to the main ballroom to play after the show. Back downstairs to greet the second show audience and then upstairs to finish the night.
Over the 4 years we were resident at the Castaways we got to meet some of the nicest people in the business, none more ‘down to earth than Mat Monro’ he never forgot that he was once just a London ‘Bus driver.
Some of the other artists that we met at the castaways included :-
Tom Jones
Engelbert Humperdink
Mat Monro
Liberace
P.J. Proby
Sarah Vaughan & Billy Eckstine
Cleo Laine & Johnny Dankworth
Mr. Acker Bilk and his Paramount Jazz Band
Val Doonican
The Bachelors
Rosemary Squires
Judith Durham
Lynn Rogers
Sandy Shore
Cilla Black
Diana Dors
Dave Allen
Max Bygraves
Tommy Trinder
The Dallas Boys
Jack Hammer
Susan Maughan
Morton Fraser Harmonica Gang
Earl and Vaughan
Los Zafiros
Jean-Jacques Jordane
Malcolm Mitchell
Bob Monkhouse
The Bonzo Dog doo-Dah Band
The Maori Castaways
Mark Wynter
Eve Boswell
Clinton Ford & The Manhattan Brothers
Cy Grant
The Barron Knights
Ken Goodwin
The Jones Boys
The Other Brothers
The Chants
Duke Hazlett
Mikki and Griff
Craig Douglas
Ronnie Carrol
Dennis Lotis
Kathy Kirby
The Temperance Seven

Just looking at the clippings I notice that Liberace is 4gns including 'Dinner'
and the Waikiki Islanders for Christmas lunch was 4gns
And we didn't have 'Brother George' to feed.. !!

4gns (Guineas = 21 shillings or £1.1s 0d) in 1964 would be at least£50 now !!.
I know why the Liberace show was sold out, but on Christmas Day we had a full house also.

The only reason it's not still going is that someone absconded with half a million of the profits and let the company go bust.. such a pity we would be just eligible for a nice retirement pension now !

Home