Subject: RE: Greetings to Derek Brimstone
From:
Big Al Whittle
Date: 20 Nov 08 - 09:21 AM
Well it was a nice day The traffic on the M1 was fierce and due to them widening it, you can only go very slowly in parts. And what with only one petrol pump working at Leicester Forest and a long queue you couldn't get out of, it was a wearisome journey for an old fart like me.
Derek seems to be moving a little slower and his diaphragm keeps jumping in a mysterious way (we watched it twitch for a while), but he said he had had trouble sleeping and he soon perked up. For the first hour we swapped war stories about aches and pains and hospitals.
We chatted for a while about people we both knew on the folkscene, and his family who all seem to be doing well.
He and Jeannie were was very made up by all the greetings on the thread. He went through them telling all about the various people.
He thinks you're 'a really sweet kid' - Sooz. I thought you might like that.
He had an old guitar in the lounge and I started tuning it. i went to D minor and DADGAD. Derek said he's bever really gotten into DADGAD and I sympathised because - had I not met Ken Nicol _ I don't suppose I should have. When i showed him how easy it was as a tuning - he said, well bugger me! And he got his guitar out and he was soon starting to turn over nicely. he played his banjo for a while.
He said, I don't play much, but I noticed the nails were at the right length on each hand or thereabouts.
Of course he's known virtually everyone - Al Stewart, Brenda Wooton, Gordon Giltrap, Ralph Mctell, Martin Carthy, Maddy Prior, Mike Silver, Derrol Adams, Ian Campbell, Lorna and Brian Clark, Pete Ryder - gigged with all of them, stayed with most of them and most them have stayed with him. He and Jeannie knew them all, played at every festival and have anecdotes that artlessly gave a thumbnail insight into the personality.
They hadn't heard about John Pearse - so that was a terrific shock, when I told them. JP had been a long time good friend of them both, and Derek was visibly shaken.
He's forgotten more about how to present a folksong to an audience in an interesting and engaging way than most of us will ever know. he could give seminars to the people who give seminars.
We parked on a traffic island near the Chinese restaurant. Can we park here? he asked the traffic warden.
Course you can Del! says the traffic warden, who it turns out used to play with Del's daughter when they were both little girls. Hugs all round!
So there you have it. Derek Brimstone who can touch even the heart of a traffic warden with his magic, charisma and humour.
I passed on your offer to him Breezy. Whilst I was there Matt Amour and offered him a gig at Stoney Stratford , but he didn't see how he could make it over there.
Derek says he misses the scene like mad, but he's content. Few of us can say that.
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sj
