Mum played the chapel organ and Dad was in a brass band, but the ultimate had been achieved with the purchase of the Galanti.

Lessons by a church organist on a piano were the order of the day until an organ shop was opened in her home- town of Gainsborough. She then transferred to lessons at the shop given by an old time ex-theatre organist. Soon after a new organ was acquired and after a couple of years, she joined a dance band, playing of course, a keyboard.

After a dance at Harworth, an invitation to "have a go" on their Christie pipe organ was accepted, and thereafter, weekly trips were made to Harworth where countless hours were spent playing this super instrument. For this purpose, she was excused every Tuesday for two hours from school.

Her first public appearance on the Christie was at the age of thirteen, when Robert Wolfe invited her to play during his dance that night and then during his concert the next day. She left the dance band at the age of fourteen and started to play for dancing on her own in numerous clubs, and then concerts followed.

Upon leaving school at the age of seventeen, she turned full time professional and has never looked back. A Hammond B400 together with two Leslie 310 cabinets was purchased and it was on this organ that she performed her concerts and dances around the country for a good number of years. Currently she performs her engagements on a Hammond SX3000 with two Leslie 310 cabinets. She also has a Hammond CX1, and it was on this organ that she made her second recording entitled “Just An Old Fashioned Girl”.

Numerous concerts have developed together with her almost nightly dances and the most pleasing aspect of her career is that all her engagements have been achieved by word of mouth, and no advertising has ever been made.

Equally at home on either pipe or electronic instruments, a recent question was answered when she checked and found there was a total of 18 pipe organs throughout the country she had played, including the Wurlitzer in the Tower Ballroom, Blackpool.

Although a specialist in playing for sequence dancing where she regularly plays for the International Sequence Dance Teachers Association, there is no preference for either concerts or dances.

Joanne made her first recording on the Compton Theatre Organ at the Louth Town Hall, called “Enjoy Yourself”, back in 1994. She now has numerous other recordings, available on both CD and Cassette but on these occasions recorded on various Hammond organs.

With an ever-increasing diary for the next three years, when not playing her time is spent teaching the organ.

Ambition? Simply to keep entertaining people and making them happy.