Joyce's Column: September

Carnaby Gaming’s Kevin Griffiths recently completed a charity walk in aid of the Alzheimers Society raising the total of £431.00. The 26mile walk started at Malham in the Yorkshire Dales and finished there too, and true to form the British weather played its part with RAIN, and as lovely as the Yorkshire Dales are they are not very pleasant in the rain, especially when walking 26 miles in it. Kevin completed the walk in 8 hours 12 minutes and 29 seconds and came in 7th out of 343 competitors, considering this was his first 26 miles walk I think that was good going. He aims to compete in another one in 2026 again 26 miles long setting off from Whitby this time, and you can sponsor him for this at Just Giving which I will give you the link to, you might think it is too early to start sponsoring but as they say there is no time like the present. The link to sponsor Kevin is http://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/kevs2ndtrek.

I mentioned the sad passing of the late Bernard Hart in my August Chat Column saying I would give you more of insight into this man’s life in the industry, so here goes.

Bernard’s start of his career in the amusement industry was actually due to a misunderstanding, he was an electrician by trade and he saw an advertisement for a job at Music Hire, and he thought the job was for a roadie installing music systems at concerts and working with ting bands, but to his surprise at the interview he found the job was for installing jukeboxes, and the thought well he would give it a go, and that go lasted 30 years in the amusement industry.

After his time at Music Hire he went to work for Headingley Properties and it was here that he met Alan Black, and Sound Leisure was born at that time and Bernard worked for Alan as Service Manager for the Lancashire region.  Alan recalls that in those days there was no M62 from Leeds and quite a lot of their business was as they say over the border (Lancashire) and Bernard often was on the back roads as they say at all times of day or night dealing with Sound Leisure jukeboxes, he stayed at Sound Leisure until 1983 then decided he was leaving.

Despite the fact that Alan really didn’t want him to go, Bernard had made up his mind he was leaving, this time to try his hand as a Club Steward at St Annes Catholic Club in Leeds. Once more after a while he got itchy feet and wanted to return to the amusement industry and he met a man called Gerry Linfoot and together they formed AMS which had a humble beginning to start with but through lots of hard work and sheer determination they designed and became the manufacturer of the Atbiter Discmaster CD Jukebox together with other products including the Fender 101 CD Jukebox.

Bernard Hart

Bernard also held positions with other companies like Gainsmeade and Melody Music with Alfie Katz, and he decided in 1992 to retire to have more time to himself to follow his own dreams and ambitions.

He learned to fly and gained his private pilot’s licence, took up meditation, bought a boat and took up wreck fishing and then moved to Cork in Southern Ireland. It was from here he started to get involved once more with the amusement industry and he formed a company with his sons: Digital Repair Services, where they carried out all types of repairs on electronic coin-operated equipment. Following a few years back at work Bernard bought a camper van and with his wife they toured Europe, staying on the Continent for over 6 months.

Once again after a few years he decided yet again to retire but this didn’t last long he was lured back into part time employment with one of his sons doing property renovations. Eventually in 2014 he finally hung up his working boots and settled down where he loved nothing more than enjoying a few pints with friends and family and loved watching football.

Bernard’s son Damien says the legacy his dad left behind was that no matter what -  hard work always pays off. Sound Leisure’s Alan Black and Doug Hession (late Sound Sense Electronics) both agreed that Bernard was a very special person and a one-off character and no matter what he put his mind to he achieved it, and it had been a pleasure that Bernard had been a part of their lives. On a final note, as I referred to Bernard in my August Chat Column, I think you will all agree this was some great backroom boy that achieved a great deal in his life and always remember that without the backroom boys, as I call them, the engineers etc. - businesses are stumped!

Sterling Amusements John Marriott and Pas Petruccio of Game Coin were guests of Blueprint for 2 days at the Munich Beer Festival, Germany, I do hope boys that you enjoyed yourselves as I am sure you did, but what I asked myself was Munich ready for the 2 of you!! If Ireland was anything to go by and your experiences in Temple Bar, Dublin well, the mind boggles!!   

Next month we will be flying with Isle of Man based industry stalwart Ray Wells.

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25 September 2025

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