Been watching this correspondence with interest and amusement from my hermitage in deepest Hampshire. Someone mentioned the idea of writing a sort of history of the Southampton/Hampshire/southern Counties folk club scene -not a new idea but one that would at least record the presence of a marvellous collection of visitors to these clubs: MacColl and Seeger, Bill Clifton, Rory and Alex McEwen, The Ian Campbell Folk Group, Bob Davenport, The McPeake Family, Cyril Tawney, Roy Bailey, Sydney Carter, Steve Benbow, Louis Killen, Shirley Collins, Isla Cemeron, The Yetties - oh, dozens more - and that's only The Fo'c'sle.
And then there are the many dozens of talented "residents" who were the backbone of the local club scene.
The club had its genesis at the old Balladeer Club at the Bassett Hotel when John Edgar Mann and I formed The Fo'c's'le (yes, three apostrophes)which opened its doors at a packed Bay Tree, New Road, Southampton on Friday 10 May 1963. The local police and Fire authorities all enjoyed their official visits so much that they turned a blind eye to the over-crowding and the possibility of the room collapsing into the public bar below. MacColl, in his autobiography, recalls the place being so packed that there wasn't enough oxygen for him to light a match.
But enough of this. A lot of those names are no longer with us. Is there sufficient interest among today's less populous folk club fraternity to warrant a book of stories, anecdotes, and photographs (and God knows, there are plenty) to warrant a good little local book? I'd buy one.