Folklore: Tommy Armstrong & music from N E England

Subject: Folklore: Tommy Armstrong & music from N E England
From: Colin Randall
Date: 01 Jan 21 - 06:13 PM

In case this is of interest to Mudcatters, can I mention that I have just completed a seven-part series on the music of North-eastern England at my little website Salut! Live?

In such knowledgeable company, I won't pretend to have had much new to say.

But I have injected my own thoughts and experiences and dug out some great clips of the High Level Ranters, Unthanks, Bob Fox, Kathryn Tickell, Johnny Handle, Lindisfarne, Alan Price, Vin Garbutt, the Mighty Doonans, the Teesside Fettlers, Ed Pickford, Marie Little and more.

The final instalment today deals with the life, times and selected songs of the Pitman('s) Poet Tommy Armstrong, familiar of course to many here. And if you believe the Sunlit Uplands are about to come into view, pardon my occasional anti-Brexit tantrums.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Tommy Armstrong & music from N E England
From: Joe G
Date: 01 Jan 21 - 06:40 PM

Thanks Colin - sounds interesting - my introduction to folk was the Hartlepool Folk Club at the Nursery Inn in the late 70's so I have had a love for the folk music of my home area all my life

Subject: RE: Folklore: Tommy Armstrong & music from N E England
From: Colin Randall
Date: 02 Jan 21 - 05:20 PM

Among several contenders, Alan Price's version of Tommy Armstrong's Trimdon Grange Explosion is just about my favourite. The jazzy arrangement is a matter of taste but I feel Price's own experience of workplace tragedy - his dad was killed in a blast at a British Oxygen plant - adds personal resonance.

A friend in Toronto added this comment on another Price interpretation: '.. . though I don't think it's been recorded, he was capable of a very different and spinechillingly beautiful rendition.

"I saw him do this to close a solo concert at Avery Fisher Hall (now renamed David Geffen Hall) in New York in the mid 1970s. He got up from the piano, thanked the audience, told them he was really missing his home and then delivered The Trimdon Grange Explosion acapella. Brought the house down. Far and away the best version I've ever heard.'

Subject: RE: Folklore: Tommy Armstrong & music from N E England
From: The Sandman
Date: 05 Jan 21 - 12:32 PM

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