Boring, Bleating Old Traddy (Peter Bellamy)

Subject: RE: Boring, Bleating Old Traddy (Peter Bellamy)
From: GUEST,Suibhne Astray
Date: 26 Jun 11 - 03:26 PM

And this:

The Kipling/Bellamy Songwriting Team

Who'd have thought it?

Subject: RE: Boring, Bleating Old Traddy (Peter Bellamy)
From: GUEST
Date: 27 Jun 11 - 02:08 PM

>He wasn't joking.<

He was, you know.

Subject: RE: Boring, Bleating Old Traddy (Peter Bellamy)
From: GUEST,raymond Greenoaken
Date: 27 Jun 11 - 03:32 PM

apologies - that was from me.

Raymond Greenoaken

Subject: RE: Boring, Bleating Old Traddy (Peter Bellamy)
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 01 Oct 14 - 11:03 AM

refresh

Subject: RE: Boring, Bleating Old Traddy (Peter Bellamy)
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 01 Oct 14 - 01:06 PM

Continuing from the Bellamy drift on the "NewSong" thread:

I said I would tell how I came to lend Pete the D-major concertina that graced the coffin at his funeral, and which I now have back & it's one of the two on my YouTube Channel. It's a tale which might afford some insights into his character and his particular style of sardonic wit.

Pete was staying over with Valerie and me once, as he generally did when he had a gig anywhere around Cambs. I happened to mention that I had recently made a new will, and had left him my instruments, as Valerie, who was no sort of musician, wouldn't want them anyhow. In typical Pete fashion [if you knew him you will know what I mean], he replied, "Well, hurry up & die then. You've got a D-major concertina haven't you!" We laughed -- it was so obviously a joke (tho Anthea, who was still his wife at that time, and whom I was back in touch with for a while more recently when our paths happened to cross again, told me recently that it was the sort of thing that got him quite a lot of enemies, too many persons not appreciating his sort of humour). Anyhow, I replied, "Well you'd better have it now, then, You're the professional and obviously will have more use for it than I will, with my few gigs in a year". Well, of course it was 'no-no I couldn't, I didn't mean it seriously' &c. So I said, "Well, seriously, now; take it on permanent loan. It'll still be mine but you'll have the use of it." Which was what we settled. I took it up to Keighley on an arranged date, and Valerie & I stayed over as guests and Anthea did her beautiful creole cuisine for us; and all very nice. But not that much later he broke up with Anthea, and she went to live with a guy in Sussex, and he married Jenny. We visited the new couple once or twice. Then came his tragic death; and Jenny, who didn't know its provenance, put that concertina on his coffin. Fred Woods, who had edited us both regularly in Folk Review, knew it was actually my property, and told Jenny; and that's how it came back to me. I still play it, as I say; much honoured to recall in whose hands it had figured, and who had put that decorative knot on the strap -- see my Channel, like I say.

Hope this has been of some interest or enlightenment to any who remember Peter.

≈M≈

Subject: RE: Boring, Bleating Old Traddy (Peter Bellamy)
From: Phil Edwards
Date: 01 Oct 14 - 02:59 PM

And to some who really, really wish they did! Thanks, Michael.

Subject: RE: Boring, Bleating Old Traddy (Peter Bellamy)
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 01 Oct 14 - 04:00 PM

A touching tale, Michael. I have as similar sense of sentimental attachment to the various copies of his self-bootlegged cassettes I still have, likewise an vinyl copy of The Transports, signed, corrtented & a Quantas flag added to the transport ship on the inner booklet in his own fair hand! Here's a pic:

Cherished vinyl!

Subject: RE: Boring, Bleating Old Traddy (Peter Bellamy)
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 01 Oct 14 - 04:39 PM

I must add that my copy of The Transports was gifted to me (or rather donated to my Museum of All Things Wonderful) by Ian McCulloch (Mudcat's own Ian1943) for whom PB signed it. I doubt I'd have had the nerve; my vinyl copy of Keep on Kipling is unsigned despite having won it off the man himself at a raffle...

Subject: RE: Boring, Bleating Old Traddy (Peter Bellamy)
From: Leadfingers
Date: 01 Oct 14 - 06:57 PM

Sadly ,too many people did NOT 'get' Peter - Though he COULD be quite caustic .
ONE of my memories is when he filled in for Lou Killen after a Shanty festival when Lou finished up with No Voice ! One of 'the locals' who
I had heard earlier saying he did NOT like P B requested one of the longer Kiplings , and then got a book out and was obviously looking for mistakes . Peter walked 'off stage' , took the book out of his hand , walked back to the stage and never missed a word ! BRILL !

Subject: RE: Boring, Bleating Old Traddy (Peter Bellamy)
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 02 Oct 14 - 12:32 AM

Trouble was [& don't forget I speak as a close friend], his causticity became a sort of reflex or tic, and he would resort to it at times which were inappropriate; he could never resist a dig, resulting, as Anthea told me [see my last post] in alienating a lot of people. He would, of course, have said, Well tough titty for them; I should care!. But, as the tragic upshot showed, aS THE OLD RHYME PUTS IT "DON'T-CARE WAS MADE TO CARE!"

He cared right enuf when the gigs dried up just when he should have been poised for the real breakthru he had striven so long for.

And look what happened...

≈M≈

Subject: RE: Boring, Bleating Old Traddy (Peter Bellamy)
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 02 Oct 14 - 02:39 AM

Was it really true he told Janis Joplin to her face that she was the worst blues singer he'd ever heard? For sure, there's a lot of choice Bellamylore out there, but my limited experience of the man himself was a gentle soul with the voice of an angelic demon whose causticity was very much part of the act. I often wonder if it wasn't a defence to how he was treated by much of the folk scene who took exception to his supposed political stance with respect of his father being who he was and his unapolegetic championing of of Maggie Thatcher's favourite poet at a time when (to nab a phrase from Flann O'Brien) it was neither popular nor profitable to do so.

A wee while ago I took the liberty of YouTubing parts of a very low-grade VHS cassette featuring an interview that finds our hero sitting proudly in front of his famously eclectic cassette collection (Elton John, Rolling Stones, Jethro Tull, Fairport Convention) with the crown missing from his front tooth. I remember Esme Ryder (the only singer I've ever heard with a voice to match Bellamy's) telling me she was at the gig (again in Durham) where it fell off mid song.

Peter Bellamy VHS - Part One : The Interview

Subject: RE: Boring, Bleating Old Traddy (Peter Bellamy)
From: Phil Edwards
Date: 02 Oct 14 - 07:23 AM

Peter walked 'off stage' , took the book out of his hand , walked back to the stage and never missed a word !

Excellent stuff (although I hope it made him more friends than it lost him). Most of those poems are seriously long, and delivering them non-stop and at speed (which is basically what he was doing) is a real challenge. I've been working up "Back to the army again" (no particular reason, it just stuck in my head); it's a long job.

The 80s weren't kind to folk generally and traddies in particular - Steeleye had made it big and then buggered off to Wombledon - but I do wonder why PB had such a hard time of it. He really seems to have dropped off the radar as far as bookers were concerned - on one occasion, when he phoned asking about a gig, they hadn't even heard of him ("sorry, you're Peter who?"). (I heard this from John Kelly.)

Subject: RE: Boring, Bleating Old Traddy (Peter Bellamy)
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 02 Oct 14 - 12:41 PM

We too have a copy of The Transports signed by Peter Bellamy.

I think we were the only ones to buy a copy that night. He wrote QANTAS on the prow and, for my wife, wrote on the cover Thank you Freda for making my night!

It amused us at the time but, looking back, perhaps it was a sign of his growing despair.

Subject: RE: Boring, Bleating Old Traddy (Peter Bellamy)
From: GUEST,raymond greenoaken
Date: 02 Oct 14 - 01:42 PM

Nice to see this thread pop up again, and to re-read it. Stirrings (that is, me) celebrated his 70th birthday this summer with an exhaustive 10-page survey of his entire recorded oeuvre. (Excluding bootlegs, which is another parallel universe...)

Subject: RE: Boring, Bleating Old Traddy (Peter Bellamy)
From: cptsnapper
Date: 03 Oct 14 - 01:43 AM

My two favourite memories of Peter were when he first met my Mum early one morning: he came as a bit of a shock to her but later on became firm friends. The second one was at Norwich Folk Festival when Alex taters on asked me to close the Irish session in the bar. I launched into Jesus Is On The Main Line and all of a sudden Peter joined in and took it to a totally new level. A lovely man as far as I'm concerned.

Subject: RE: Boring, Bleating Old Traddy (Peter Bellamy)
From: GUEST,GranAnn
Date: 27 Nov 17 - 05:44 AM

Peter painted a series of 'Music Heroes' in the late 80's when he was obliged to rest his voice for a year. One of Peter's friends from his local folk club in Keighley has donated one of these paintings to be sold for charity. It is of Charlie 'Bird' Parker playing his sax and with bluebirds flying in the background, in oil on board and measures 110 x 60cm.

I have never seen an original Bellamy painting sold and have absolutely no idea of the value of this painting - I don't want to put it on ebay and have someone with no idea who Peter Bellamy even was, to buy it for next-to-nothing.   

Has anyone any idea of a value?

Thanks

Subject: RE: Boring, Bleating Old Traddy (Peter Bellamy)
From: Hagman
Date: 27 Nov 17 - 08:34 PM

A Martin Carthy image print done by Bellamy in 1984 (ltd. to 200, signed and numbered) sold for about U$100 on eBay five years or so ago.

You'd have to think that an original oil with a great musical association should be at least 10 times that? Especially for charity...

(Richard Thompson was offering a house concert in the US (without travel and expenses) for U$40,000 in his last crowdfunding appeal. Draw your own comparisons.)

Subject: RE: Boring, Bleating Old Traddy (Peter Bellamy)
From: GUEST,matt milton
Date: 28 Nov 17 - 09:09 AM

The trouble with eBay is that people aren't habitually looking for Peter Bellamy artworks (they might be looking for Peter Bellamy vinyl, but not necessarily even think of looking for visual art). You have to make sure the right people know about it.

It's a shame someone couldn't organise an auction at, say, Cecil Sharp House, where it would become an actual event?

Failing that, I would decide on a (high) price and perhaps place it on Gumtree, then let people know about it. My hunch, based purely on intuition would be somewhere between £500 and £1000? Only because a lot of folkies are hard up. I suppose a wealth fan of both Bellamy and Bird might go higher...

Subject: RE: Boring, Bleating Old Traddy (Peter Bellamy)
From: GUEST,What's it like?
Date: 28 Nov 17 - 11:01 AM

Bellamy was ever a contravertialist. Am I alone in imaginning that he might have painted something pretty much inaccrochable?

Unseen (and despite his truly magnificent scholarship) it is quite hard to guess.

A well-publicised auction might be the way to go. Is C Sharp house a complete no-go? (Or even one of the conventional auction houses if they are able to mount enough specialist material)

Subject: RE: Boring, Bleating Old Traddy (Peter Bellamy)
From: GUEST,GranAnn
Date: 29 Nov 17 - 04:39 AM

To my untutored eye it seems pretty ordinary. I can't post a picture on here ... am I allowed to post a link here if I upload it to Facebook? It's a full-length of him playing his sax, with a couple of blue birds flying round his head.

Subject: RE: Boring, Bleating Old Traddy (Peter Bellamy)
From: FreddyHeadey
Date: 29 Nov 17 - 09:26 AM

Yes please, FB link.

Would an auction house be worth approaching?
I know ... £commission, but against extra advertising in the right niches?