Gilbert Webster

About

When recording “Those Were The Days” for Mary Hopkin, Paul McCartney (producer of the session) asked orchestra arranger Richard Hewson to add a cymbalom, played by Gilbert Webster.

It’s a Hungarian instrument that is like a piano without the lid on, hit with hammers. That’s the ding, ding, ding sound you hear on the song. He said that’s all he had in mind, and, ‘After that, do what you like.’ So I wrote the arrangement, and not knowing pop music, that’s why it doesn’t sound like the pop music of the time.

Richard Hewson – From Classic Track: “Those Were the Days,” Mary Hopkin (mixonline.com)

It was an unusual instrument played with hammers, like a dulcimer. There was only one guy in England who could play one – one of my professors, Gilbert Webster. That’s who’s on that recording.

Richard Hewson – From mcbeatle.de