The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #140587   Message #3231754
Posted By: Vic Smith
30-Sep-11 - 12:54 PM
Thread Name: The recordings of Henry Burstow
Subject: RE: The recordings of Henry Burstow
The information that Michael gives above for the BL recording at http://sounds.bl.uk/View.aspx?item=025M-C1002X0088XX-0200V0.xml is as follows:-

Duration: 00:04:43

Shelf mark: 1CDR0010660 (copy of C1002/88)

Subjects: English folk songs and music (Sussex)

Recording date: ca. 1971-09

Collection: Keith Summers Collection

Recording locations: A folk club in Lewes, East Sussex, England, UK

Performers: Blake, Bob (singer, male)

Recordists: Summers, Keith

Description:

Item notes: Roud Folk Song Index No. 377. Song from Henry Burstow of Horsham. Recording notes: Low recording level

I can add some more information to that.
The date was May 11th 1974. The folk club was located at the Lewes Arms in Mount Place in Lewes. At the time we held an annual Sussex Singers' Night and would invite about a half-a-dozen of the surviving traditional singers of the county to each of these and give the whole evening over to them. On this occasion as well as Bob Blake, there was The Copper Family, Cyril Phillips, George Belton, George Spicer and Bob Lewis.
As well as the evening being recorded by Keith Summers, it was also recorded by Karl Dallas on rather superior equipment and some of the recordings that Karl made were edited and made into a an LP - The Brisk Ploughboy: Songs and Stories in a Sussex Pub on Xtra XTRS1150 (1975).
All the singers who had sung on that evening were later assembled to have their photograph taken for the album cover. However, instead of photographing them outside the pub where the recordings were made, the photograph was taken outside a much posher pub, The George in the centre of Crawley. The choice of photographic venue annoyed Cyril Phillips who later told me, "What did they want to take us to that place for? They'd no more let you shit on their carpets than let you sing in that bloody place!"