About Joanne

Joanne Naulls was ten years of age when she started to play the organ. Mum and Dad were organ fans and bought an old Galanti for the vast sum of £175. That was where it all began.

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 ex theatre organist. Soon after a new organ was acquired and after a couple of years, she joined a dance band, playing of course keyboards.

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. In time she decided to update to a Hammond SX3000 organ, with Leslie cabinets, whilst also owning a Hammond CX1, which was kept at home as it was too big to travel around the country with. It was on this instrument that she made her second recording,"Just an Old Fashioned Girl". Whilst appreciating all styles of instruments on the organ circuit, Joanne maintains a loyalty to the Hammond sound. She currently performs on a Key B Duo organ with a Ketron SD3 expander and SR Pocket 750mx speakers. The organ is often reffered to as a "Hammond Clonewheel", it being a cloned version of the Hammond B3/C3 organ. She feels that she now has the best of both worlds with the superb Hammond sound from the organ being complemented with the first class orchestral  sounds from the Ketron.

Joanne was christened the "Queen of the Hammond" by Ian Wolstenholme after being featured on his radio show.

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.

Joanne has been a full time professional organist for over 25 years now and although is a specialist in playing for sequence dancing, where she regularly plays for the International 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 has now made eight recordings, available on CD all recorded on various Hammond organs. These can be purchased by visiting www.joannenaulls.co.uk  Her latest release is in fact the first ever recording on a Key B Duo and is called "Key B Magic".

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.

Joanne's Photo Gallery

Joanne's Concert Diary