The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #138595   Message #3174095
Posted By: Vic Smith
21-Jun-11 - 03:56 PM
Thread Name: Peter Kennedy's Folktrax recordings
Subject: RE: Peter Kennedy's Folktrax recordings
I'll tell a Peter Kennedy story.... it's largely against myself and the only excuse that I can give is that I was quite young at the time.

In the early 1970s there was a folk festival held at Newton Abbott race course and Tina and I were booked to sing there. We were singing in a concert in the big hall beneath the grandstand. One of the songs that we sang was 'Billy Taylor'. Peter Kennedy was in the hall with a stall selling his Folktrax tapes. After the concert, he approached me and the conversation went something like this:-
PK - Where did you learn that version of Billy Taylor?
VS - Oh, we were up in Fetterangus in Aberdeenshire staying with Cameron and Jane Turriff and we learned it from them.
PK - Well, that's all right then.....it's not one of mine.


I didn't understand what he meant straight away but then the implication of what he meant by the word "mine" hit me and I immediately lost my temper and bawled at him.
VS - What f**king difference would it have made if it had been one of 'yours'. It's a traditional song.

The whole place went into a hush. Peter ran out of the hall and I was left with everyone looking at me and feeling very foolish indeed.