Brian;
Sorry about the mix-up with names – funny week.
Bill Cassidy slowed his singing down when he had been drinking; his ornamentation remained the same (but slower), and his texts never altered. He tended to slur his words slightly.
We were introduced to 'Little' Bill (sometimes nicknamed 'The Dynamo From Glynn' after the title of one of his favourite songs), by his brother-in law, 'Pop's' Johnny Connors, a somewhat larger-than-life character who was the first Traveller we recorded in 1973. Our early work with Travellers was covered by a rather naïve article I wrote for the FSJ in 1975.
We had been recording Johnny one evening at Shepherd's Bush, and were having a couple of pints when he suggested we drive to Hayes, to the west of London, to meet Bill.
We met up with him and a crowd of Travellers in a pub, had another couple of drinks and went back to a site adjacent to one of the runways at Heathrow Airport (a field referred to by the Travellers as 'The Watersplash')
Sprawled out on the ground under a huge full moon, (probably made larger by the amount we had drunk), we spent the next couple of hours listening to magnificent singing from Johnny, Bill and other singers, to the accompaniment of planes taking off every few minutes. Everybody was incredibly friendly towards us, with the exception of one large man who was obviously not happy. 'Pop's' Johnny, who had noticed the situation, came over and said, "You'll be wanting to record Paddy now". Paddy obliged with 'Roses of Heidelberg' and 'You Will Remember Vienna'. We then became the best of friends, and remained so throughout the years we knew Paddy, which was just as well really as he turned out to be not only a fine light-opera singer, but also a renowned champion bare fist boxer.
I have to say that apart from this hiccup we never had any problems with the Travellers we met.
The last we heard of 'Little' Bill was a few years ago when he appeared in a TV documentary about Travellers made by American collector Alen McWeeney entitled 'Traveller'. At that time Bill was in Cardiff, but we know he alternates between there and Swansea,
The work done by McWeeney and his wife Artelia Court can be found in an excellent collection of songs, stories and interviews in a book entitled 'Puck of the Droms', edited by Ms Court (Univ. of California Press). This includes work done with members of the Cassidy family (Bill would have been too young at the time).
I have mentioned Alen McWeeney's CD 'Whisht' which is entirely made up of recordings of the Cassidy family – well worth getting from Pavee Point.
Thanks for the positive feedback on 'Puck' – it's nice to know somebody is listening.
Jim Carroll