BBC 4 folk program

Subject: RE: BBC 4 folk program
From: Compton
Date: 06 Feb 06 - 06:46 AM

I have only just got back on to the web so didn't get on to Mudcat at time of transmission. I enjoyed Folk Brittania although as a "part one" to a history of British Folk it was a bit thin...presumably because the BBC have thrown most of anything early out with the bathwater!
Steam came out of my ears regarding "Folk at the BBC" where again there was little archive material and just regurgitated material that looks as though it was done for Folk Brittania. Surely M Carthy could have sung something better than Geordie!. As for the ten minuted of tosh that was "Monitor"...I didn't for the life of me understand what it was in there for apart from padding.
Whoever the programme producer was ...and how much time the "archive producer" actually spent in the Bowels of the BBC..I assume no time at all!!...Probably 'cos Wogan is still there with Aunties Bloomers.
As for the amusing "White Heather Club" I endorse what early mudcatters thought regardings what exactly it set out to do. I didn't see anything warning me that it was nothing like Scottish Folk Music. Remember it was 46 years ago when we fed our TVs with coal!!. New Years have never been the same since Andy Stewart et al went up to the Great White Heather Club in the Sky...It was for many, 46 years ago, "entertaining" whatever people think of it now, There is much,much more bilge, and unwatchable rubbish on TV than ever there was then. Has anyone ever sat down to watch BBC3?
My Gran and Mun loved the White Heather Club ...and don't ever want to watch Mr Connolly F**ing and Blinding every thrty seconds...and come to thik on it, neither do I..

Ps I never realised what a funny haircut, Andy Stewart had!!

Subject: RE: BBC 4 folk program
From: GUEST,Dazbo
Date: 06 Feb 06 - 11:26 AM

I loved the first episode off Folk Britannia (although a bit too American at the start) but I thought much of Folk at the BBC was laughable: I though my video had mucked up with that Monitor crap - what a waste

Subject: RE: BBC 4 folk program
From: GUEST,MikeofNorthumbria (off base)
Date: 06 Feb 06 - 11:35 AM

Having finally caught up with Folk Britannia part 1, I have one question. Where was Alex Campbell? Any history of the folk revival which omits his massive contribution is seriously incomplete.

If he doesn't show up in part 2, I may ask the Beeb for my license fee back.

Wassail!

Subject: RE: BBC 4 folk program
From: GUEST,Baz
Date: 06 Feb 06 - 11:39 AM

Hmmmm....it seems I'm the only one who enjoyed the Monitor piece! Fair enough, it wasn't actually "folk-centric", but as I'm FAR too young to have seen the series when it first came out, I thought it was an amusing look at the way TV was made back in the day!

AND oit had Davy Graham on it, so it can't have been all bad.

Subject: RE: BBC 4 folk program
From: greg stephens
Date: 06 Feb 06 - 12:06 PM

I thought the Monitor piece on gitars was very entertaining, and very illuminating on the social history, and general style, of the times. But seriously, we are talking here about the BBC, the major British cultural organisation, giving us a one hour selection of what it has in its archives reflecting the nations' vernacular musical culture. In that context, you have to ask, "is that the best they can do?"
    You have to wonder at the quality of thir archives, or the qualities of their archivists. Think what wonderful programmes could be made if someone(Reg Hall?) who knew and loved folk music were allowed to have a poke about and see what they've got. But let's face it, this is the organisation that sacked Charles Parker!

Subject: RE: BBC 4 folk program
From: Compton
Date: 06 Feb 06 - 01:49 PM

The Luvvie that probably made "Folk at the BBC" was sent off to make the programme and came back and said "There isn't any in the archive!"...so why didn't they have a look in the Ralph Vaughan Williams Library at CSH?

Subject: RE: BBC 4 folk program
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 06 Feb 06 - 08:59 PM

Because the BBC have the archive footage, not the VWML. I'd question the abilities of the programme researchers, perhaps. The producers probably used generalists rather than people who knew about the subject.

Subject: RE: BBC 4 folk program
From: GUEST
Date: 07 Feb 06 - 06:37 AM

Geoff the Duck, I wouldn't have thought the image of the Dubliners had dated the same way as those of the others you mentioned.

Greg: that was a perfect asessment of MacColl!

Hils, some of the set-top boxes don't let you record from Freeview. And Guest, that breaking up of the picture was probably because of a weak signal. Adjusting your aerial might help, but if the problem is only occasional, you could probably fix it by using a signal booster.

Subject: RE: BBC 4 folk program
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 07 Feb 06 - 06:40 AM

The White Heather Club was allied to another programme called The Kilt is my Delight _ I seem to remember. As a kid I loved Kenneth McKellar's jumper with the silver buttons - the voice always sent me scuttling out though.

Subject: RE: BBC 4 folk program
From: GUEST,redhorse at work
Date: 07 Feb 06 - 08:28 AM

With the passing of time McColl seems more and more stagey and artificial. However, he is probably as much a construct of his time as the Monitor programme. The same patronising/superior air that went with the Monitor commentary pointing out (irrelevantly)that the girl playing guitar in the park was the grand-daughter of Lord Napier and went to Cheltenham Ladies' College.

It was the style of the time to preach down to the lower classes/uneducated.

nick

Subject: RE: BBC 4 folk program
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 07 Feb 06 - 08:51 AM

The Welsh can consider themselves let off very lightly. The comapnion programme to The White Heather Club was Land of Song.

Now this was scary stuff even the golden age of 425 lines.

the Studio set was a Welsh village - populated by a few young fellows in waistcoats and lots of pretty girls in those sticky out 50's skirts.

And they would sing.

The pretty girls first. Then the fat guy in the waistcoat, then more pretty girls, then Ivor (Zulu Warrior) Emmanuel. Sometimes Ivor had a track suit on and carried a rugby ball.

the songs were all pretty indistinguishable from one another. this was proved by the non singing villagers, who always one of two expressions. either misty eyed being simply transported by the lyrical magic of the song. Or they would chuckle in Welsh, and smile conspiratorially to each other at pawky humour of the fat people's songs.

There was some point in the show where they would all look miserable and some flat caps would be removed - presumably a religious song was being sung.

Bloody excruciating.
Still we got our own back when we nicked their water.

Subject: RE: BBC 4 folk program
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 08 Feb 06 - 09:12 AM

They also presented MacColl and Lloyd as the leaders of left-wing influence in music and arts at the time, leaving out many active communists, presumably because they did not fit the preconception. Before my time (my DoB 1948) but told to me by a man whose only top 10 hit was in 1957! It overstated the influence of skiffle, which was but a stepping stone for many - into folk, or jazz (same source, man who played with Donegan and Barber).

They totally ignored the basis of the 1954 Folk Music Council defnition of folk music (posted by me elsewhere in this forum) including the fact that folk music as well as being handed down by the oral tradition had to be modified by it, which wholly gainsays the MacColl/Seeger assumption that they and only they know what the tradition was for we can modify our own folk music in transmission, by definition (and how would an American have known about our tradition anyway?)

MacColl lacks all credibility (for me) about authenticity since he pretended to be Scottish.

The attempt at political labelling of C# House on the one hand and MacColl on the other distorts much of what I have been told about the period, and the references to the bowderisation at C# House largely ignored the fact that mostly unbowderised versions were retained, and the published censored versions were the only practical way to publish at the time. Mind you even the Penguin version of "Jackie Boy" still has meaning if you think!

Interesting, but spoiled in my view by an intent to be unnecessarily politically controversial.

Subject: RE: BBC 4 folk program
From: Peter K (Fionn)
Date: 08 Feb 06 - 11:38 PM

A few posts up the thread, before MacColl's name had been mentioned so much, I chipped in without realising my cookie had gone, and finished up as an unidentified guest. Belatedly I checked I'd got the right spelling of MacColl, and to do so I googled Ewan and "Peggy Seeger" and pressed the "lucky" button.

The page to which I was taken was, I have to admit, quite interesting. And the article makes some valid points. At the same time, it reeks of the archness that afflicted certain members of the Critics Group and got up many noses.

HERE it is. (Health warning: Roger the Skiffler should take tranquilisers before clicking on this link.)

Subject: RE: BBC 4 folk program
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 09 Feb 06 - 02:23 AM

Seems to me to reinforce the view that people who know nothing and have no connection to a tradition ought not to pretend it is theirs.

If Londoners cannot sing American songs, then Americans can't sing English ones.

Subject: RE: BBC 4 folk program
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 09 Feb 06 - 03:33 AM

Nice to hear from Peggy Seeger.

I think there was a little more to it than than that. Let's face it no one gave a monkey's bum what a gang of learned intellectuals got up to in the back room of a pub.

The shit hit the fan around 1965 - much later than the period in question. Dylan was touring, Donovan was in the charts. Even small towns had teo or three folk clubs. For the only time in our history, something many people still think of as folk music was in everybody's imagination.

Then came the NME interview with Ewan when he said that Dylan and Donovan weren't folk music. the guy was only human, I suppose it must have been a piss off seeing these people twenty and thirty years younger than himself having mega success as songwriters on the pitch he had helped to create.

That's when it became okay for people to voice their intolerance. I will echo what Peggy said about him being a nice approachable man. they were both nice people. It was a pity their disciples weren't quite as nice, and took great pride in excluding huge trenches of the population from the folk revival.

Subject: RE: BBC 4 folk program
From: Roger the Skiffler
Date: 09 Feb 06 - 09:46 AM

Don't worry, Pete (Fionn), I'm pretty tolerant (musically!). I liked both McColl and "that Cockney feller" in the 50s/60s and both led me to the sources that influenced them. There never was going to be a meeting of minds between them! (Did you ever hear some of the things LD and Wally Whyton wrote about each other?!)

RtS
(not on tranx, honest!)

Subject: RE: BBC 4 folk program
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 09 Feb 06 - 10:49 AM

I haven't seen any of the TV programmes yet, and I actually had decided not to bother watching them because I want to keep my BP down to somewhere near normal. On the basis of what I have read I will give them a looksee on Friday.
As for Ewan Jimmy Miller McColl, he had both tunnel vision and egomania to contend with, he also had strange taste in wives. Between Joan Littlewood and Peggy Seeger it's perhaps no wonder the poor man's brain was addled. He tried to put both songs and singers into straight jackets, and that's not how tradition evolves.
I seem to remember that a young Martin Carthy was involved with McColl and Littlewood in his early days.
I see from the link that was put in that we can expect to be regaled with the disgusting Shane McGowan in this series. What the fuck is he doing being included in this? On that basis I shall not be surprised if we get Lionel Bart and Andrew Lloyd Weber next.
Yes, why no Alex Campbell??
Giok

Subject: RE: BBC 4 folk program
From: My guru always said
Date: 09 Feb 06 - 11:19 AM

Looking forward to watching tomorrow! BTW thanks for advice re. Freeview - am almost there with recording from it. When it's tuned in to be able to record freeview, other channels get distorted pictures. I reckon it's a weak signal, but looks like the odd progam could be recorded with a bit of fiddling.

Subject: RE: BBC 4 folk program
From: Les in Chorlton
Date: 09 Feb 06 - 12:30 PM

When all is said and done, usually more has been said then done, so to speak.

I went to Sharp's at C#House about a month ago as a visitor from out of town, and was made most welcome by a friendly gang of people from most places in the folk continuum. It started at 8 and with 2 spots from Stan Medlicott(?) who also bought everyone a pint, it finished when everyone did a song or a tune.

I would like to think that most clubs are a bit like that - they are about live music some old some new and so on. MacColl was an influence but so were lots of other people. No programme or collection of programmes can sum up the last 50 years of what ever it is we do.

I am just glad it goes on. Just off to slay the Wild Rover and another Morris tune

Subject: RE: BBC 4 folk program
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 09 Feb 06 - 12:45 PM

cos like Gerry Lockran, Derek Brimstone, Jack Hudson, hamish Imlach and a few others - Alex stayed in the folk clubs.

if he had been good enough for the bbc to grant him any cultural significance he would have had to join the 'dull as fuck' brigade.

Subject: RE: BBC 4 folk program
From: Les in Chorlton
Date: 09 Feb 06 - 12:53 PM

Surely the central value of this music is its egaliterianism? Some people are increadibly good and many of us are a bit crap but the music is a bit special and it often sounds great in the hands of the rest of us.

Subject: RE: BBC 4 folk program
From: Folkiedave
Date: 09 Feb 06 - 02:13 PM

I am not sure what :

he also had strange taste in wives. Between Joan Littlewood and Peggy Seeger it's perhaps no wonder the poor man's brain was addled....is supposed to mean.

Ewan had three wives and the one not mentioned by name is Jean Newlove, Kirsty's mum. And she came between those two. And she is still alive as is Peggy. And I doubt if you have met her or Joan Littlewood. So you are basing your opinion on what you have heard, or read or someone has told you. Not always the best way of learning to comment on people's strangeness or otherwise-IMHO.

I have met Peggy on a number of occasions (starting as long ago as 1964) and she has always seemed lovely to me. Friends who know her much better than me think so too. Ewan could be abrasive and he was not always as right as he thought he was. But he too has a number of admirers whose opinion I respect.

But he wrote some wonderful songs, was an excellent singer, was really good company when I met him, incredibly professional when I booked him and Peggy, and has left a superb legacy.

Those who comment on the policy of the Ballad and Blues Club should make sure they read the Living Tradition article before they do so.

Subject: RE: BBC 4 folk program
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 09 Feb 06 - 02:24 PM

Well I hate to disappoint you Dave but I have met Peggy, and I went to the Singers Club in those bygone days, so I do know whereof I speak. Both Peggy and Joan are/were driven women albeit for different reasons, and I'm quite sure you found Peggy pleasant enough, but I can't share your point of view. As all views expressed by posters on here are by definition 'personal' I hope you'll understand if I don't change my mind.
Giok

Subject: RE: BBC 4 folk program
From: Dave Sutherland
Date: 09 Feb 06 - 03:57 PM

The Ballad and Blues Club was not the only one with that policy. When I started geting around the folk clubs of the North East some forty years ago, while the rule was not exactly insited upon with a rod of iron, you were certainly "encouraged" to sing the folk songs of the British Isles. Then when The Barleycorn folk club opened in Newcastle in 1969 co-presenter John Revie, a MacColl associate from way back, did insist that songs should come "from your own cultural media". No bad thing if it got people exploring their own traditions and better still exploring the traditions of their native area(in my case the North East).
While agreeing with the Alex Campbell omission, did I miss it or was Dominic Beahan not mentioned either?

Subject: RE: BBC 4 folk program
From: Folkiedave
Date: 09 Feb 06 - 04:27 PM

Actually it was my English that let me down.

If you talk of Ewan's wives then you talk of all three without exceptions. I meant you had not met Joan and Jean. If you have then you are entitled to speak of them as you wish - as you are indeed about Peggy. But if you havent you are relying on gossip. And I agree all opinions are indeed personal.

I meant to exclude Peggy on the assumption - correctly as it turns out - you would have come across her.

Best regards,

Dave

Subject: RE: BBC 4 folk program
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 09 Feb 06 - 05:06 PM

Jean featured in a TV programme about the sad death of Kirsty and seemed like a nice lady. However as you say I don't know her but she seems normal when measured against his other two wives. Joan Littlewood was a great director and a driven woman, and she comes over on documentaries as someone on a mission, who was driven by her politics as much as her art.
Anyway as I said these are only my own personal opinions and I'm quite happy for you or anyone to disagree with my views, it won't change them.
Giok

Subject: RE: BBC 4 folk program
From: GUEST,Sean
Date: 09 Feb 06 - 05:30 PM

Yes, no mention of Dominic Behan but what about Nigel Denver? He was pre Alex Campbell and sang with Bob Davenport, Martin Carthy et al. It would appear that the researcher/compiler is some young person who has no personal knowledge of the folk singers of the late fifties and early sixties. very sad, but poor research results in poor programmes.

Subject: RE: BBC 4 folk program
From: jojofolkagogo
Date: 10 Feb 06 - 09:25 AM

Wee little drummer

I think our own TV channel is just a little TOO much to hope for, but of course

                WE LIVE IN HOPE    :-D

loved your comment, brought a smile to MY face, anywayup.

Best regards,
from Jo-Jo
[e-mail]

Subject: RE: BBC 4 folk program
From: stallion
Date: 10 Feb 06 - 09:41 AM

well tonight I am finally going to see folk brittania, I 'll let you know.

Subject: RE: BBC 4 folk program
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 10 Feb 06 - 01:27 PM

The blurb looks as if they are planning to omit the Watersons and the Young Tradition. And Louis Killen. And the Elliott Family. How odd is that? Or is it malice?

Subject: RE: BBC 4 folk program
From: Peter K (Fionn)
Date: 10 Feb 06 - 03:33 PM

John/Giok, what on earth is your problem with Joan Littlewood? By "driven woman" do you mean she should have been at home minding the kids? And why would being "driven by her politics as much as her art" addle anyone's brain? That was exactly the kind of outlook that inspired the folk revival. If you've ever been married, maybe you could describe your wife/wives in a few words, just so I know what the benchmark is.

Sean (or anyone else): do you happen to know if Nigel Denver is still around? I met up with him again a few years ago in Birmingham, where he was then living, but have lost track since then.

Subject: RE: BBC 4 folk program
From: My guru always said
Date: 10 Feb 06 - 05:29 PM

Watching the second program of the evening & keep getting flashes of Deja Vu from the Folk Brittania program earlier. Hmmm....

Subject: RE: BBC 4 folk program
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 10 Feb 06 - 05:37 PM

And there was deja vu from last week too.

If it was "Folk Britannia" even though the Watersons did appear there was wholly insufficient about the real English (and Scottish) folk revival: the real revivification of the folk sung in England today.

Far too much American. And folk abandoned for contemporary acoustic as soon as could be. I get the feeling the makers really hate English folk music.

Subject: RE: BBC 4 folk program
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 10 Feb 06 - 06:05 PM

There are people in this world that you just don't take to Peter!
G.

Subject: RE: BBC 4 folk program
From: Alan Day
Date: 10 Feb 06 - 06:11 PM

Richard I agree with you.I really tried to support this programme,but it was not for me.Like the old Folk on two programme,even people who liked Folk Music turned it off.
It was nice to see a good old friend in the audience and amusing looking at the fashion, but for me BBC has got it wrong again.Nostalgia is not the answer ,fast moving popular Folk to attract new audiences is what is required in my opinion.If there are different themes running I will have a look next week and see.If this is what we are going to get,sorry goodbye.
Al

Subject: RE: BBC 4 folk program
From: GUEST,Sean
Date: 10 Feb 06 - 06:17 PM

Peter,K (Fionn) Yes Nigel's still around and in Birmingham. Last year he was in Germany with Pat Cookesy and Jim McLean. He was a stalwart of the Scottish and English Folk scene in the sixties. There was no mention on tonight's show about the Scottish revival in the late fifties and early sixties but it was all concentrated on the commecial aspect of folk, re Joe Boyd. However something is better than nothing even though we had to endure Billy Bragg singing(?) a song about being half English. Someone should tell him that the red, white and blue is nothing to do with England. He is a sad case of trying to be international without realising that he is inheritantly imperialist. It was nice to see that Anne Briggs is still with us.

Subject: RE: BBC 4 folk program
From: r.padgett
Date: 10 Feb 06 - 06:34 PM

I have just turned off some spoof rubbish that followed at 11pm
Cant understnad how I stood it so long!

It is indicative how badly folk was served in the 60s and early seventies if those examples played tonight are the only ones.(or maybe we were so bad in reality?)

Peter Bellamy on the wall I spotted, but do we have Nick Jones, Tony Rose, Mike Harding? Nice to see Dick Gaughan but no songs yet from him!

Yes we have had a snatch of the Watersons from their B&W film, but what about the other lovely harmony groups (mainly acapella) and sense of spontaneous harmony which I particularly still love to hear.

well lets wait and see where they go?
Ray

Subject: RE: BBC 4 folk program
From: r.padgett
Date: 10 Feb 06 - 06:40 PM

I have to add that I did enjoy the artists who were played and who enjoyed popularity and hopefully finacial success!

They were brilliant musicians

Perhaps the feelings of actually being there are difficult if not impossible to encapsulate, given that Donovan, Dylan, Bert Yansch were unlikley to turn up at your average local folk club every week

Ray

Subject: RE: BBC 4 folk program
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 10 Feb 06 - 07:13 PM

Haven't seen it yet as I went out to see a Lonnie Donnegan tribute show at Newark Palace theatre. However it seems to have got some of you a bit glum.

glad I went out really. perhaps you're taking a bit too seriously. I mean TV is something else really. It's nowt to do with us simple honest folk.

you didn't really think they were where they are because of some inherent virtue. nah, gang of arseholes.

take my word, we're better off without them.

Subject: RE: BBC 4 folk program
From: GUEST,wordy
Date: 10 Feb 06 - 07:13 PM

I watched the "Protest singers" film. Where were they? Even Tom Paxton got to sing only his love song.There were no protests. Where was Phil Ochs for heavens sake? He's on film. The problem with this series is they are limited as to what is on film. Much of it is London based and the hard working pros such as Alex Campbell, Cyril Tawney, The Campbells, etc, were never filmed. There was a whole world of folk clubs that they can't show. The sad thing is this series will be seen as the definitive history and all we have is celeb folk.However, contemporay acoustic is what the late 60's and 70's were about, that's what filled the folk clubs, as well as the folk comics. The rise in traditional music at the expense of song happened much later. In that they got it right for the time period they were covering.

Subject: RE: BBC 4 folk program
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 11 Feb 06 - 02:51 AM

Joe Boyd was only ever into folk music as a money making enterprise.

eric

Subject: RE: BBC 4 folk program
From: GUEST
Date: 11 Feb 06 - 06:13 AM

I was very taken with the chronology of the first program, which was about the times before before I became interested in trad folk, but last nights prog. seemed to miss out so much of what was going on apart from the blossoming electric scene, although I admit that it was this in particular that drew me to the folk scene initially, along with Anthems in Eden in which the medieval fusion was a revelation, There was such aprofusion of different types of music in those days, including ISB -Robin seemed very together in his interview, which is good news. Nice to see Gaughan, Irvine, Thompson, and Co. still right at the top of their abilities.
There was no mention of the dance bands catering for the dancing fraternity, nor of morris teams forming nor of John Kirkpatrick, and Sue Harris, The High Level ranters, the Boys of the Lough,    I,m not sure I want to hear much about the Pogues in the next prog, but I'll be watching from behind the sofa.

Subject: RE: BBC 4 folk program
From: Les in Chorlton
Date: 11 Feb 06 - 06:35 AM

Missed it, will it be on again?

Subject: RE: BBC 4 folk program
From: Les in Chorlton
Date: 11 Feb 06 - 06:45 AM

OK, to answer my own question:

11.10 tonight -Saturday 11 Feb. followed by Donovan, Burt Jansch and then Pentangle mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. folk or what?

Subject: RE: BBC 4 folk program
From: sian, west wales
Date: 11 Feb 06 - 07:09 AM

Although I thought it was interesting seeing some of the English icons in performance (I wasn't living here then so they aren't so much part of my folk psyche) I still think it's a bloomin' great cheek for BBC to bill this as Folk BRITANNIA. The series seems to be specifically England-oriented and, even when it drifted north of the border into Scotland, it still only briefly examined activities which specifically related to English language English experience. There was absolutely nothing about Wales, probably because things were considerably different here.

You're right about the Protest bit. The singers were there, but anything that was too specifically political was not. Trad and protest song were absolutely central to '60s and '70s social unrest in Wales. In other places as well, for all I know; this series certainly wouldn't have enlightened me in that direction.

And it isn't a matter of a lack of existing film footage. That's a rubbish arguement. It's a lack of half decent production values and research - plus the decision from the outset that it wasn't actually going to be truly Britannic.

I also agree about that terrible 'comedy' thing that followed at 11.00. I managed about 5 minutes of it. Someone once told me to be careful in business meetings of sentences containing the word 'but'. They pointed out that, however the sentence starts out, everything BEFORE the word 'but' is bullshit. That 'comedy' was the same as the word 'but'. A BBC reminder to viewers that folk/trad should still be considered a joke.

sheesh

sian

Subject: RE: BBC 4 folk program
From: GUEST,Tunesmith
Date: 11 Feb 06 - 02:10 PM

The programme seemed to suggest that the 1965 Al Stewart clip was shot at Les Cousins, but it looked more like Bunjies to me.

Subject: RE: BBC 4 folk program
From: Alan Day
Date: 11 Feb 06 - 02:22 PM

This is of course a very cheap way of using up archive material to make a cheap programme.I just wish it could have been presented with more variety of music.A programme of just contempory music does not appeal to those who mainly like traditional or visa versa.I agree with the previous posting that a injection of a few dance bands would have improved the format.
Al

Subject: RE: BBC 4 folk program
From: GUEST
Date: 11 Feb 06 - 07:04 PM

As it was history it did reflect the time! You can't re-write the past to put into it what you perceive as the folk scene now, and that includes dance bands which didn't exist in any serious folk club sense at that time. Back then it was folk SONG clubs with a few exceptions, mostly I think in the North East, Scotland, etc

Subject: RE: BBC 4 folk program
From: greg stephens
Date: 11 Feb 06 - 07:29 PM

I find the series very interesting as far as it goes. Plenty of nostalgic interest. But obviously it is media biassed, and interested in record sales. So we get a programe which gives a lot of attention to say Steeleye Span, or Donovan, or jounalistic peeps at Nick Drake. But no looks at the continuos unbroken quiet stream of the music in theatre, in carnival, in film, in hundreds of bands playing for dances, for weddings, in pubs, in a string of festivals(not just folk, in fact especially not folk festivals): music, basically, embedded in society as it has always been. And music. surprisingly, not only of little interest to journalists, but of little interest to most "folkies" either. I think there is a more interesting series to make which would cover what Henry Ayrton, a great folk broadcaster, called "the parallel worlds of folk".

Subject: RE: BBC 4 folk program
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 11 Feb 06 - 07:59 PM

100, thank you