2017 Obit: Ian Woods (UK)

Subject: Obit: Ian Woods
From: GUEST,Cllr
Date: 04 Mar 17 - 12:54 PM

I have just heard that Ian Woods (Woodsy) has departed this veil of tears.

I have no details of what arrangements have been made if someone knows could they post them.

Cllr

Subject: RE: Obit: Ian Woods
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 04 Mar 17 - 01:27 PM

Ian Woods who lived up near Warrington for a while and ran the Moore village festival then moved back down south? Lovely voice? If it is the same one a very sad loss. I last met him at Cecil Sharp House some years back and he had just married a Polish lady. If it is not the same one I am sure it is still a sad loss but I may not know another.

DtG

Subject: RE: Obit: Ian Woods
From: The Sandman
Date: 04 Mar 17 - 01:44 PM

Ian Woods, wa an unaccompanied singer from suffolk, i booked him back in 1973, he had been married to Grace, who runs frodsham folk club.
I am sorry to hear of Ians death.

Subject: RE: Obit: Ian Woods
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 04 Mar 17 - 02:09 PM

I think that is the same one I was referring to, Dick. Is it he who has died?

DtG

Subject: RE: Obit: Ian Woods
From: GUEST,Nick Dow
Date: 04 Mar 17 - 03:05 PM

He encouraged me a lot when I started singing. He also encouraged me with song collecting. He had a great voice and was an excellent songwriter.
I hope his old pal Charly Yarwood has been informed. I have good memories of Ian, and his songs like 'Hooks and Nets' and 'The Suffolk Song' will live on. R.I.P.

Subject: RE: Obit: Ian Woods
From: GUEST
Date: 04 Mar 17 - 03:09 PM

No this is Ian Woods who sang with Ian Giles and Graham Metcalfe as GMW He frequented the Half Moon pub in Oxford. A deep powerful voice he wrote a fine. Poaching Night and Last Farewell, just one more pull boys that 'll do boys.
Cllr

Subject: RE: Obit: Ian Woods
From: GUEST
Date: 04 Mar 17 - 03:12 PM

Sounds like the same one but I didn't know his early history
Nic yours and my post crossed
I will let Charlie know
Cllr

Subject: RE: Obit: Ian Woods
From: JHW
Date: 04 Mar 17 - 03:15 PM

Long time since we've seen Ian up here at Darlington though he did visit often. Great unassuming singer always arriving like a long lost freind. Very sorry to hear this.

Subject: RE: Obit: Ian Woods
From: The Sandman
Date: 04 Mar 17 - 03:20 PM

Ian used to sing in a duo with Charley Yarwood, he had recently been living in Oxford.

Subject: RE: Obit: Ian Woods
From: The Sandman
Date: 04 Mar 17 - 03:24 PM

Yes, same one, I understood he had been poorly for some time.

Subject: RE: Obit: Ian Woods
From: GUEST,padgett
Date: 04 Mar 17 - 03:39 PM

Yes Ian Woods unaccompanied singer, sang with Charley Yarwood, and Johnny Collins and Derek Gifford ~ shanty and chorus songs and Hooks and Nets album (vinyl) with Charley Yarwood

I believe latterly living Oxford way

A character of the Folk revival and did a number of folk clubs in the hey day

Ray

Subject: RE: Obit: Ian Woods
From: FreddyHeadey
Date: 04 Mar 17 - 05:16 PM

mini biog & photo here
http://you-song.com/artist-ian-woods/ 

"Ian was born and brought up in Suffolk where he learnt much of his early material from singers like Phoebe Smith, the Ling family and Percy Webb. He left for Poland and now lives in Oxford, where he continues to vent his spleen, sing and write songs mostly on Wednesday and Sunday nights in The Half Moon. He currently works with Ian Giles and Graham Metcalfe in the acapella trio GMW. He is the author of many songs, including One More Pull and Hooks and Nets. He also recorded a CD with polish shanties band Cztery Refy."
(undated)

Subject: RE: Obit: Ian Woods
From: The Sandman
Date: 04 Mar 17 - 06:31 PM

He did live in the north west for a considerable time, I understand he left Suffolk in the sixties, he wasnt there when i was living there in the late seventies and eighties.
When i booked him to sing in the seventies i am sure he was living near Frodsham with his wife Grace Woods.

Subject: RE: 2017 Obit: Ian Woods (UK)
From: Black belt caterpillar wrestler
Date: 05 Mar 17 - 03:53 AM

So sorry to hear this. I have not seen Ian for some years but was hoping to bump into him somewhere.
Happy memories of all those singarounds at Sidmouth.

Robin Madge

Subject: RE: 2017 Obit: Ian Woods (UK)
From: GUEST,Alan Rawlinson
Date: 05 Mar 17 - 04:00 AM

Ian was my mentor when I started singing in the 1970s, and I often drove him to gigs (he didn't drive). Yes, he lived in Moore, between Runcorn and Warrington and by the Bridgewater Canal, in a house called Clinker Bonks with Grace and their children Keir and Hester. Grace and Ian split up a while ago and Ian moved to Poland and then Oxford. Hester died a few years ago.

He was a fine singer -- I remember him making a particularly good job of The Jailer's Song in The Transports in Chester in about 1980 -- and his partnership with Charley Yarwood will always be remembered by those who heard them. Their song sessions in the Horse and Groom in Sidmouth featured the best of the festival week singers and the occasional band (me and my friends in the Electropathic Battery Band included, in grass skirts I remember). And yes, he ran the Frodsham Folk Club, a Sunday session at the Red Lion in Moore and he organised the Moore Village Festival while he was in the North West.

RIP Ian.

Subject: RE: 2017 Obit: Ian Woods (UK)
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 05 Mar 17 - 04:37 AM

Definitely the chap I knew then. He certainly had a lovely voice. A song I just barely remember was about a gypsy girl. Wish I could remember more than that a combination of the song and Ian's voice had me close to tears. I also remember him with Charlie Yarwood. We booked them a couple of times at Swinton Folk Club. Visited Moore on a couple of occasions - Very odd place. Epitome of a tranquil rural village amidst all the petro-chemical industry around Runcorn!

Condolences to all who know and loved him.

Regards

Dave

Subject: RE: 2017 Obit: Ian Woods (UK)
From: Barb'ry
Date: 05 Mar 17 - 05:48 AM

Sad news. I loved his songs and singing

Subject: RE: 2017 Obit: Ian Woods (UK)
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 05 Mar 17 - 08:14 AM

Very sorry to hear this - I think I first came across Ian with Charley Yarwood in the Horse and Groom at Sidmouth.

I last heard him sing at Graham Metcalfe's 70th birthday party a couple of years ago, and he was quite frail then, so this news isn't entirely surprising though very sad. He lived in London for a while in the 1990s, and Mick Pearce and I used to give him lifts to the Ealing Folk and Blues club.

Kitty

Subject: RE: 2017 Obit: Ian Woods (UK)
From: The Sandman
Date: 05 Mar 17 - 09:20 AM

I am sure I had a chat with him once and he said he had played professional football for ipswich town, before his folk singing days

Subject: RE: 2017 Obit: Ian Woods (UK)
From: Charley_Yarwood
Date: 05 Mar 17 - 02:48 PM

Ian worked with me for some years until Spring 1986. We toured clubs and festivals and recorded Hooks and Nets in Brian Horsfall's studio in Macclesfield where EVERYBODY recorded in those days and many of us also provided harmonies and instrumentals on each others albums. Incestuous but great times.

Sadly we went separate ways and I've only seen or spoken to him once in the intervening years.

What Alan Rawlinson says above is accurate. But both of us used to encourage fledgling singers as we travelled - many became established names.

Ian had a big personality and a voice to go with it. He never made his voice the USP, he always used it to tell the story, not to show off. He was always more lyrics centred than I was. Boy could he tell a story. And write one too.

Off stage as well. He had the gift of the Irish. We would walk into an awkward off-piste booking and he would have the establishment eating out of his hand in no time.

He talked us into many tricky bookings TBH, but he made them work.

I have so many stories of our time together, and we complimented each other well. We were both baritones, but it was easy for me to harmonise above and below. Generally he would take the main line.

Ian was a part of the Folk scene fabric. A part of its backbone, its core, from which much sprang. One of the encouragers and enablers, who stood firm by his principles about sources and the origins of the songs he sang.

I loved my years of association with my old estranged friend Ian. I pay him honest tribute and I wish him Rest and Peace.

Charley

Subject: RE: 2017 Obit: Ian Woods (UK)
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 05 Mar 17 - 03:07 PM

Thanks for posting, Charley and apologies for spelling your name wrong earlier. If you cast your mind back, Ged booked you for Swinton. Dave and Ged were the residents and I did the door and occasional floor spot.

DtG

Subject: RE: 2017 Obit: Ian Woods (UK)
From: Charley_Yarwood
Date: 05 Mar 17 - 03:51 PM

Hi Dave - yes I do remember! And I answer to almost anything! :)

C

Subject: RE: 2017 Obit: Ian Woods (UK)
From: Hesk
Date: 05 Mar 17 - 04:29 PM

Ian used to be a regular visitor the White Lion in Wherwell, many years ago. I remember his singing with great fondness, and his strong personality. I don't think it is unfair to say that he was fond of a pint or two! As with the experience of some of the above posters, he disappeared off the radar, and we were always hoping to see him once more.

Subject: RE: 2017 Obit: Ian Woods (UK)
From: Brian Peters
Date: 05 Mar 17 - 05:35 PM

Yet more sad news. I too received great and much-valued encouragement from Ian, and was also given tips on other good singers I should be listening to. We still have a silver sixpence he presented to our (then) baby son nearly 30 years ago. As Charley said, he was the backbone of the folk scene as it was, and the kind of singer and person that made me glad I was part of it.

Subject: RE: 2017 Obit: Ian Woods (UK)
From: Howard Jones
Date: 05 Mar 17 - 07:09 PM

Like so many others I got a lot of support from Ian, and his session at the Red Lion was well worth the hour's drive to get there. He and the Electropathics frequently crossed paths, and we had some good times. He once got me a memorable gig in (of all unlikely places) a shopping centre near Warrington, just Ian, me, and a sword-swallower with his two lovely assistants performing to bemused shoppers on a Saturday afternoon.

Subject: RE: 2017 Obit: Ian Woods (UK)
From: GUEST
Date: 06 Mar 17 - 03:45 AM

I only played his LP Hooks and Nets yesterday

Subject: RE: 2017 Obit: Ian Woods (UK)
From: GUEST
Date: 06 Mar 17 - 05:02 AM

Very sad to hear this news although we had heard that his health hadn't been very good for a while now. Charley Yarwood's post above,(along with some of the others), is just right and a fitting tribute.
Ian was one of the first Guests we booked at the Collingwood Folk Workshop back in the mid-seventies and was a regular (both on his own and with Charley) many times after that.
He was a good friend and encourager of The Wilson Family and booked us at various events and venues in our early days.

I never experienced the legendary Horse & Groom singarounds but Meg says that was her main reason for going to Sidmouth back then. It's a shame that we weren't in touch over recent years but we'll still miss the fact that he's no longer a part of the Folk Community that he loved so much. Thanks for the memories mate, Tom & Meg Wilson

Subject: RE: 2017 Obit: Ian Woods (UK)
From: GUEST,Helen Rose
Date: 06 Mar 17 - 05:07 AM

He was a much loved friend and my childhood idle. My children can thank him for my love of folk music and my frequent attempts to torture them, both singing and playing it lol.
When he lived in the small village of Moore near Warrington he was a keen rugby player, along with my dad in the Moore vets team. Not the biggest of men he was frequently knocked around like a ragdoll, and almost as frequently carted off on a stretcher.
But his story's, his voice, and his singing is what I will always remember best for all.
He and his wife organised a Folk festival in Moore, I don't remember how many years it ran but I loved it so much. And poor old Ian had to put up with my incessant pestering all day and night long. "Please sing Hooks and Nets! Please sing Hooks and Nets!"
He made my childhood all the more wonderful, and called me his number one fan. Maybe he did that with a lot of children but he made me feel special.
A great light has gone from the world and I feel it's a little darker now he is gone. But we will always have the memories and the music. Long may it live on.

Subject: RE: 2017 Obit: Ian Woods (UK)
From: GUEST,David Arrowsmith
Date: 06 Mar 17 - 06:00 PM

Anchor and Horse and Groom sessions with Charley Yarwood at Sidmouth wonderful. Hooks and Nets still one of my favourite recordings. RIP

Subject: RE: 2017 Obit: Ian Woods (UK)
From: GUEST,Tony Mannion
Date: 06 Mar 17 - 07:11 PM

I am so sorry to hear this news.He was great company . Lost touch a long time ago but never forgotten.There were always a laugh being with Ian,We went to Dancing England once by train,so when we got to Derby it was ...find the nearest pub,it had been raining an absolute deluge for hours.The nearest pub was closed from flooding.The pubs name..."The Noahs Ark"! I can hear his voice now.I'm gonna have a glass for him an wish him good luck wherever he is.

Subject: RE: 2017 Obit: Ian Woods (UK)
From: banjoman
Date: 07 Mar 17 - 06:04 AM

I remember Ian singing at the Whitchurch Festival in Hampshire back in the 90's. I think that Charley Yarwood was with him as well as a female singer. Don't recall the name of the group though.

Subject: RE: 2017 Obit: Ian Woods (UK)
From: The Sandman
Date: 08 Mar 17 - 10:43 AM

refresh.

Subject: RE: 2017 Obit: Ian Woods (UK)
From: GUEST,Alan Rawlinson
Date: 08 Mar 17 - 11:48 AM

Not the only one you lost touch with a long time ago, Tony Mannion!

Subject: RE: 2017 Obit: Ian Woods (UK)
From: Gozz
Date: 10 Mar 17 - 07:59 AM

Last night at our session we sang Hooks & Nets and One More Pull in memory of Ian. We also did Mick Ryan's The Song Goes On with him in mind.

RIP Ian. You will be remembered.

Subject: RE: 2017 Obit: Ian Woods (UK)
From: GUEST,Oxford Folk Club
Date: 06 Apr 17 - 03:51 PM

Just to let everyone on this thread know that we will be hosting a special night for Ian Woods on Friday 14th April at the Oxford Folk Club. Details on www.oxfordfolkclub.com

Subject: RE: 2017 Obit: Ian Woods (UK)
From: GUEST,Ian Hendrie
Date: 06 Nov 17 - 04:24 PM

Is this the same Ian Woods that wrote 'Bolinder Boatman' and the 'Roving Navvy'?

Subject: RE: 2017 Obit: Ian Woods (UK)
From: Tradsinger
Date: 07 Nov 17 - 03:42 AM

Also, is it the Ian Woods who wrote "One More Pull"?

Subject: RE: 2017 Obit: Ian Woods (UK)
From: terrier
Date: 07 Nov 17 - 04:56 PM

It is.

Subject: RE: 2017 Obit: Ian Woods (UK)
From: vectis
Date: 08 Nov 17 - 02:50 AM

I met him a few times at Oxford FF and he was excellent company. Last time I saw him he said that things were looking hopeful health wise.
So sorry to hear that he has died.

Subject: RE: 2017 Obit: Ian Woods (UK)
From: GUEST,PHIL HARE
Date: 15 Jul 20 - 01:32 PM

Sounds ridiculous in these febrile, COVID-dominated times but I've only just found this information! Ian was a lovely, engaging man with the gift of the gab and, as such a great raconteur and storyteller - in addition to being a fine singer of traditional song. I was lucky enough to play at one of his Moore Festivals; a bizarre rural idyll between the heavy industry of Warrington and Runcorn. My day there will be forever remembered due to Ian scurrying around for a bus timetable to give to Sean Cannon who had just joined the Dubliners and who were due to perform in Warrington that night! Either people couldn't drive or were too pissed to drive to get Sean to the gig! What a fab day. This is such sad news. RIP 'Woodsy' - Fly the flag half-mast at Portman Road (maybe they already have)
Phil Hare

Subject: RE: 2017 Obit: Ian Woods (UK)
From: The Sandman
Date: 15 Jul 20 - 02:58 PM

i gave him one of his first gigs about 1972s, like wise bob fox and dolores keane and john faulkner. he was an interesting man

Subject: RE: 2017 Obit: Ian Woods (UK)
From: GUEST,Richard Crisp- Raydon, Suffolk
Date: 21 Oct 20 - 11:32 AM

like Phil Hare,I have just come across sad news of Ian's passing. As you see I am from the village that Ian spent his life in Suffolk.ian was born in Lowestoft or close, and arrived in Raydon with his guardian mother just before school age. Although they lived in the village school house he actually attended a school in East Bergholt where his Mother (Ma Woods) was headmistress. Our mothers became friends and we also. I grew up with him both pssing th e 11+ the same year? We went our separate ways for schooling at this point. Ian going to Colchester Royal, and myself to Felixstowe Grammer Schools. He mixed with the teenagers at Youth Club and in the village but always tended to do his own thing rather than follow the crowd. He always enjoyed a pint at the Chequers in the village, and played cricket for the village but chose to play football elsewhere.He never played Proessional Football, but was a fast bowler inthe Lanchashire League.he left the village to go to Birmingham University, graduating and taking a teachers post locally there. I think he might have met Grace there as well.Although not playing professional football he did strike up friendships with John Duncan, Douglas Millwars when they ere at Ipswich Town as Manger and Player,and then when lived at Moore he became very friendly with Joe Mercer.He was a great character who definitely missed when ent off on his travels, returning only once for a Youth Club reunion when living in Oxford. Incidentally he collected his suffolk repertoire from Eels Foot in Eastbridge, the Low House in Laxfield and from Jim Dale at East Bergholt in the Carriers Arms.They still perform in all those Pubs, along with step daning when things are normal.plenty more tales of Ian that can be told from Suffolk.

Subject: RE: 2017 Obit: Ian Woods (UK)
From: GUEST,JHW
Date: 21 Oct 20 - 03:51 PM

Lovely reminder of a lovely bloke.

Subject: RE: 2017 Obit: Ian Woods (UK)
From: The Sandman
Date: 22 Oct 20 - 03:09 PM

the song dave referred to some years ago was nancy miles[ no relation although i do have traveller blood on one side]
Nancy was a tinker girl, roamed the country roads
And I will tell you how she came to be a legend in her time
The reason I have come to know, 'cause a tinker told me so
Who's there could better know, the tale of Nancy Miles
Nancy's father Tinker Dan, was a proud but honest man
Drove a horse drawn caravan, all through the Emerald Isle
And when Nancy was no more a child, Dan he didn't have to toil
Men would come from far and wide, to play for Nancy Miles
There's pretty girls in magazines, and movie stars and beauty queens
Nancy was the prettiest girl, a man could ever see
The gleam of love was in her eyes,
And when she'd look at you and smile
'Twould make you feel that you were just the man she longed to see
Before the age of twenty-one, a hundred men had come and gone
None of them could win the gleam of love that was in her eyes
Then sure every man who loved her then, never was the same again
His memory was haunted, with thoughts of Nancy Miles
In every town and village too, the fame of Nancy grew and grew
Soon her name was spoken, at many a camp fireside
And in Ballinasloe,
On Horse Fair Day, when tinker men would have their say
Many a fight was fought to win the court of Nancy Miles
I hope that you don't get me wrong, 'cause Nancy was the sweetest one
Heart so full of kindness, and as charming as her smile
And she was known throughout the land, as queen of all the tinker clan
Was the dream of many a man, to marry Nancy Miles
Before the age of thirty-one, a thousand men had come and gone
None of them could win the gleam of love that was in her eyes
Then sure every man who loved her then, never was the same again
His memory was haunted, with thoughts of Nancy Miles
Then there came the saddest day, Nancy's father passed away
The loss it grieved her badly, for he was her only pride
And family friends and courtin' men, never saw her smile again
A change had taken place within the heart of Nancy Miles
Before the age of forty-one, Nancy she had come and gone
They searched the county over, not a trace of her could find
Oh but Nancy's memory will live on, as long as tinker men are born
And proudly they will sing this song of our tinker Nancy Miles.

Subject: RE: 2017 Obit: Ian Woods (UK)
From: GUEST,Nick Dow
Date: 23 Oct 20 - 10:17 AM

Popular song with the travellers. I would have liked to hear Ian sing it. It was written by Kevin Sheerin, and Popularised by Foster and Allen amongst others, on the Irish Cabaret circuit.
You can often hear it sung with Little Travellin' man. by Richie Kavanagh, at the horse fairs.

Subject: RE: 2017 Obit: Ian Woods (UK)
From: GUEST,Nick Dow
Date: 23 Oct 20 - 02:53 PM

Just had a thought. Maybe Dick will put me right, could the song Ian sang have been 'The Red Headed Anne'? Another song in the same vein as Nancy Miles.

Subject: RE: 2017 Obit: Ian Woods (UK)
From: The Sandman
Date: 23 Oct 20 - 04:01 PM

i remember him singing nancy miles, but not red headed anne. dave the gnome if he ever gets up from below the belt might enlighten us, i will pm him

Subject: RE: 2017 Obit: Ian Woods (UK)
From: Black belt caterpillar wrestler
Date: 23 Oct 20 - 04:57 PM

I heard him sing "Nancy Miles" several times. Now that it has been mentioned I think he may have done "The red-headed Anne" as well, certainly someone in the same sessions.

Robin

Subject: RE: 2017 Obit: Ian Woods (UK)
From: GUEST,Nick Dow
Date: 23 Oct 20 - 07:53 PM

The two songs are similar. Red headed Anne is not liked by the Gypsy Folk, because it suggests that Gypsy man would sell his daughter for a horse. I don't think that the songwriter meant any offence for one minute, but it covers some very shaky ground. Nancy Miles is the better song, especially with Ian singing it. Sorry I missed it. Then again we all miss Ian.

Subject: RE: 2017 Obit: Ian Woods (UK)
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 24 Oct 20 - 04:36 AM

I honestly can't remember which it was but I shall try to find both songs today and see if either ring a bell.

Subject: RE: 2017 Obit: Ian Woods (UK)
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 24 Oct 20 - 05:18 AM

Having checked, I'm pretty sure it was Nancy Miles but the only versions I could find had a C&W 'bounce' to them - Ian's version was slower and had more feeling.

Subject: RE: 2017 Obit: Ian Woods (UK)
From: Black belt caterpillar wrestler
Date: 24 Oct 20 - 06:07 AM

Yes, as Ian sang it there was one of those instances at the end where there was a moment of absolute silence before the applause started.

Robin

Subject: RE: 2017 Obit: Ian Woods (UK)
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 24 Oct 20 - 06:16 AM

Yes indeed, Robin.

Subject: RE: 2017 Obit: Ian Woods (UK)
From: The Sandman
Date: 24 Oct 20 - 08:22 AM

yes that is right, ian sang nancy myles slowly,and well