'Occupy English Folk Music!'

Subject: RE: 'Occupy English Folk Music!'
From: GUEST,Ralphie
Date: 15 Nov 11 - 02:59 AM

Just noticed the acronym "ITMA"....Not quite sure how Tommy Handley (It's that man again) is relevant....OK. Back to your discussion.

Subject: RE: 'Occupy English Folk Music!'
From: glueman
Date: 15 Nov 11 - 03:46 AM

What is the topic in question here? Do you stay on topic when you chat in the pub? This thread is a bunch of opinions, not a PhD proposal. The democratic nature of the internet means there is no hierarchy, just people chipping in their two penn'orth, like it or lump it.

The pleasure of a forum is down to people being able to say their bit, exercise their hobby horses, disagree, kiss each other's a***s confident in the knowledge the topic will re-emerge somewhere down the line. There's too much pedantry as it is without putting meaning in harness to a subjective, intuitive riff of a thread title.

Subject: RE: 'Occupy English Folk Music!'
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 15 Nov 11 - 04:05 AM

Sean
"Dancing at the Crossroads" was a phrase coined by DeValera back in the 30s - a romantic image of Ireland that he himself helped to shatter by allowing the church to outlaw the crossroads dances and drive the dancers and musicians into the newly constructed 'Ballrooms of Romance' (using the excuse of the protection of the chastity of the "maidens") It has nothing to do with Irish music today, if it ever had.
"Tommy Handley"
It's been commented on before Ralphie - problem is there's only you and me old enough to remember "that man again"!
John
Don't want to start a pissing English/Irish contest, but private collections such as ours are a minute part of the work of ITMA; it also houses (or aims to) every commercial recording of Irish (and related) traditional music ever made, and comes with a studio to interview, record and film visiting singers, musicians and researchers.
It co-operates in the issuing of new albums and published works and Nicholas Carolan, the director is now into the 14th series - (it began in 1994) - archive film of traditional music presented on national television in both English and Irish language versions.
It records many of the weekend festivals here, so it is not just an archive for past material - it is a living, working organisation which has been vital to the success of the Irish music scene here.
We went to the opening (it was opened by the President of Ireland, Mary Robinson) in 1987 with Malcom Taylor and were all gobsmacked when it only shared a couple of floors with the Irish Society of Antiquaries; they moved to new premises, an entire five storey Georgean house in the centre of Dublin.
It is one of two national archives of folk/traditional material in Dublin; the other is housed at University College Dublin and covers a wider range of material - tales, folkore, customs, etc.
Hate to hark back to the original argument, but this has not been achieved by flapping arms about and claiming "we don't know what "folk music" is any more" - if we don't, nobody is going to shell out taxpayers money for a non defined and diverse unknown entity.
There is room for all kinds of music in the set-up here, but the fact that all the work is rooted more-or-less in what is covered by that somewhat inconvenient '1954' definition means that Irish traditional music has a clear identity - and strangely enough, it is that identity that has attracted the youngsters to the music in droves, without them ever being aware of 1954, but simply by recognising it when they hear it.
Is the identity of our folk music really so complicated that we have to get involved in crassly titled arguments such as "Occupy English Folk Music" as if we're in some sort of a ******* war?
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: 'Occupy English Folk Music!'
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 15 Nov 11 - 04:37 AM

Thanks a lot for those Jim. I finally got it. I had to copy them all, paste them onto a word document and then look at them one by one.

I spent yesterday trying to access them from mudcat and of course given the ungainly size of this thread. My computer was going into the 'oh hell! whats this idiot doing now!' mode.

Subject: RE: 'Occupy English Folk Music!'
From: MartinRyan
Date: 15 Nov 11 - 04:38 AM

problem is there's only you and me old enough to remember "that man again"!


Not true, I'm afraid - it still makes me grin regularly!

Regards

Subject: RE: 'Occupy English Folk Music!'
From: Will Fly
Date: 15 Nov 11 - 04:49 AM

Can I do yer now sir?

Subject: RE: 'Occupy English Folk Music!'
From: BTNG
Date: 15 Nov 11 - 10:08 AM

ITMA was originally a reference to Hitler by the press of the time, but you could apply it elsewhere if you want......

Go here if you want to hear ITMA

Subject: RE: 'Occupy English Folk Music!'
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 15 Nov 11 - 12:19 PM

US folk music got occupied back in the 60s.