This obituary, which appeared in the Herald newspaper on 30 July 2009, was written by Eddie McGuire.


Mick Broderick, who has died age 68, was a folk music pioneer. Born in the safety of the evacuation, just a few weeks after the [Clydebank] Blitz had devastated his home town, Broderick often commented that he 'had been bombarding audiences ever since'. His songs and tales were imbued with the wartime accounts and experiences of his childhood. The ruins and slow post-war rebuilding left an indelible mark on his formative years.

However, it while he was working, from his late teens onwards, as a boilermaker and plater in the shipyards of Clydeside that his true skills as a raconteur and storyteller were honed. Billy Connolly has acknowledged the inspiration he gained from Broderick's wit at the time and by the mid-sixties they had – together with Tam Harvey – formed a productive hive of folk revival activity around the Scotia Bar in Glasgow's east end.

In 1967, he began performing with Jim Daily on fiddle, Mick Murphy on guitar and, later, Mick Hotchkiss on concertina and vocals. He gathered them into a group, and inspired by the great poet Freddy Anderson, adopted the name The Whistlebinkies after the title of the poetry and song book of the same name published in Glasgow in 1832. And when John, Sandy, Zoe and Geordie McGovern joined, quite a distinct branch of the folk revival began to blossom.

Those years were a hive of radical activities too and my first encounter with Mick was on one of several coaches heading to Aldermaston in 1963 for one of the big anti-H bomb marches to London. As a 14-year-old, I was overawed by this larger than life character who kept the whole bus laughing through the night with his tales. It was not until 1973 that I got to know him well. With Rob Wallace on pipes and Rhona MacKay on clarsach, his songs explored the more traditional Scottish repertoire, but his stories were always on the menu. He had the power to silence and hold the attention of the rowdiest pub.

He was not prolific as a songwriter, but when he did create, it was a gem for a special purpose. His 'Girl on the Island' was dedicated to his late wife Irene when they lived together on Arran. 'Farewell to Kaustinen' was inspired by a festival in Finland and 'March on Maggie' for composed for the 1983 Glasgow to London People's March for Jobs. He was proud for gaining the approval of his peers by winning the intensely contested Patter Competition at the 1981 Glasgow International Folk Festival. Many of his stories and songs have now been archived on the Raretunes website.

With 'this damn band that keeps following me around' he performed in most European countries, including the German Democratic Republic, where, uniquely, he recorded an LP in 1976 on the Amiga label. Several recordings for Claddagh Records in Dublin followed, as well as radio and television appearances. He famously duetted with David Essex on the top 20single 'Are You Still My True Love?'. In 1979, he played on the rock title track 'The Scattering' with the Cutting Crew (1988).

He was part of the pioneering effort that helped create John Cage's Scottish Circus, premiered at the Musica Nova festival in Glasgow in 1990. He remembered his most exciting foray abroad as being the Whistlebinkies' 1991 exchange tour of China – starting in Beijing's Haidian Hall and ending up at the Hong Kong Folk Festival.

He recounted that in Shanghai; children in the street would point and shout 'Karl Marx', no doubt confused by the large, greying beard. To celebrate his visit to China, Lynn Gray Ross on Arran created a special hand-spun 'blue bonnet' which, she recounts, Mick wore most of the time – a bit like Tam O'Shanter who wildly rode 'whiles holding fast his good grey bunnet'! Many more anecdotes will be recounted in the years ahead.

To the end, he kept up his solidarity with the trades union movement, signing up while in shipbuilding and joining both Equity and the Musicians' Union as a performer. His last concert was on May Day last year at the 40th anniversary of Workers magazine in the Conway Hall, London. He made a great effort to get there, where I was privileged to perform with him and the new folk group he had formed with the guitarist and singer Jimmy Watret.

Although he parted from the Whistlebinkies in 1995, he had a reunion in 2004, when he sung with the group on the Tall Ship berthed at Glasgow Harbour. His chosen songs that evening were perhaps his greatest legacy – the old sea shanties he had learned from his seafaring father. He had great hopes for touring again with his new group that he had titled Slip in the Lead.

His last venture out was to join in the audience warming up at Oran Mor in Glasgow's west end in April for the chantey-singing RSAMD cast of 'A Play, a Pie and a Pint'. His old friend Joe O'Brien escorted him there and back and I greatly enjoyed some convivial music making with him in the company of Jimmie MacGregor and Sean McGhee.

He is survived by his sister Anne, his stepchildren Mandy and Robin, by his companion Bertha, and his nephew John, who was with him at the end.

Two notes by Big Tim.
1.700 people died in the Clydebank Blitz of 13/14 March 1941 and it was said that only two houses in the whole town escaped undamaged.
2. RSAMD = Royal Scottish Academy for Music and Drama.