Les Barker retirement - Oct 2022

Subject: Les Barker retirement
From: bradfordian
Date: 30 Sep 22 - 05:00 AM

From Jamey Bedford Agency
“ Les Barker is retiring as of 1st October 2022.
He will continue writing and uploading to youtube.
We'll miss him, and we wish him well”

Subject: RE: Les Barker retirement
From: Roger the Skiffler
Date: 30 Sep 22 - 05:50 AM

Great man, Guidecats for the Blind still makes me laugh.
RtS

Subject: RE: Les Barker retirement
From: GUEST,Ray
Date: 30 Sep 22 - 06:09 AM

‘Bout bloody time! Most of us who were around in the 70s already have and, despite what it said on the sleeve notes, I’ve never actually had a wardrobe!

Subject: RE: Les Barker retirement
From: r.padgett
Date: 30 Sep 22 - 07:38 AM

Les has been an ever present and professional performer all the time I have known him ~

He admits to being 75 and as such has had a good innings ~ his sense of folk humour noted in his multitude of Les Barker "books" have been used by many people in sing arounds especially when they were not singers

I suspect his books are still available

Hope you get fit again Les and have a great quiet life

Honours for your dedication to folk entertainment should flow ~all the best to you

Ray

Subject: RE: Les Barker retirement
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 30 Sep 22 - 07:53 AM

Brilliant man. I wish him well.

"I can't find my camoflauge net..."

Subject: RE: Les Barker retirement
From: GUEST,Jon Heslop
Date: 30 Sep 22 - 09:13 AM

There's got to be a poem in that!

Subject: RE: Les Barker retirement
From: Mrrzy
Date: 30 Sep 22 - 09:30 AM

Detritus. Words to live by.

Subject: RE: Les Barker retirement
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 30 Sep 22 - 09:50 AM

I can't find my camoflauge net

Subject: RE: Les Barker retirement
From: bradfordian
Date: 30 Sep 22 - 10:45 AM

Les Barker YouTube channel

Subject: RE: Les Barker retirement
From: GUEST,Peter Cripps
Date: 30 Sep 22 - 04:21 PM

No MBE! Never on UK television! Shame! (Probably because "Why Dachsunds cannot climb stairs" deemed not suitable for family audiences!)

Subject: RE: Les Barker retirement
From: Brian Peters
Date: 30 Sep 22 - 05:47 PM

A comic genius. It's become clichéd to say 'we'll never see their like again', but in Les's case this is indisputably, undeniably and absolutely bloody literally true.

Subject: RE: Les Barker retirement
From: GUEST,Nick Dow
Date: 05 Oct 22 - 07:13 PM

I spent half an hour with him at Cleckheaton Festival, and I thought this was on the cards. It's not so much the gigs as the pure exhaustion of the road that is the problem for most of us on the circuit. Les has done his bit and is safely at home and online. Enjoy! and thanks, Les!

Subject: RE: Les Barker retirement
From: r.padgett
Date: 06 Oct 22 - 02:11 AM

Yes, I last spoke to Les at Warwick ff 2022 ~ time and the travelling takes its toll as the folky professionals in UK know and audiences tend to be, as it is, small unless booked at festivals and successful clubs
,
Have a long retirement and look after yourself!


Ray

Subject: RE: Les Barker retirement
From: GUEST,Vin2
Date: 06 Oct 22 - 06:39 AM

All the best to you Les in your well earned retirement and thanks for all the joy you have given to us over the years

Subject: RE: Les Barker retirement
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 06 Oct 22 - 06:49 AM

Les's last visit to Oz was in mid summer many years ago, & naturally he wore his normal cardigan - far too heavy even for a Sydney winter, he suffered for his art.

Retirement is good, & definitely well earned, enjoy it Les.

sandra

Subject: RE: Les Barker retirement
From: Mo the caller
Date: 06 Oct 22 - 09:41 AM

We could probably have a Les Barker event at most festivals from audience participation alone.
But however well we know them those lines are still hilarious.

Subject: RE: Les Barker retirement
From: GUEST,Jenny the Steggie
Date: 09 Oct 22 - 06:20 AM

As a small kid I remember crying over "Have you got any news of the Iceberg".... it's not funny, it's TRAGIC :(

Subject: RE: Les Barker retirement
From: GUEST
Date: 09 Oct 22 - 06:38 AM

I love his stuff. Saw him several years ago. Les is a poetic genius.

Subject: RE: Les Barker retirement
From: MoorleyMan
Date: 09 Oct 22 - 09:15 AM

After several days of Mudcat-downtime, I finally got to see this thread!

The announcement is no surprise, the road touring takes its toll for sure, and Les has done more than his share.
Thankyou so much Les, I wish you well, peace and contentment in your richly-deserved retirement from the "stage".

Brian Peters' assessment is absolutely spot-on.
Yes, Les is unique, a masterful observer of the human condition, the comic and tragic. And although he's truly irreplaceable on the live circuit, we can rejoice that he will not be hanging up his pen, and that he will be carrying on with his writing and his YouTube channel.

And of course, we can be glad that we now have even more chances to explore and celebrate the many and varied aspects of Les's poetic genius, since his writings are being given wider exposure through the passing of the interpretive torch to sympathetic practitioners (e.g. Pelagie Crofton, whose insightful performances have become a regular feature of a number of zoom sessions especially the Mudcat Worldwide Singaround).

Subject: RE: Les Barker retirement
From: BobL
Date: 09 Oct 22 - 03:12 PM

My partner first encountered Les at Sidmouth, the year she had to lay off dancing for a while due to an injury. Not the ideal entertainment for someone with a cracked rib...

Subject: RE: Les Barker retirement - Oct 2022
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 10 Oct 22 - 03:25 AM

Les in Australia in 2010

Les Barker at Humph Hall 2010 Note that the program is listed in the description enabling you to jump to a particular item.

Subject: RE: Les Barker retirement - Oct 2022
From: GUEST,Brimbacombe
Date: 10 Oct 22 - 04:33 AM

We revere the brilliant musicians and singers on the folk scene, and rightly so, but for me Les is up there with anyone I've ever encountered at festivals and clubs for bringing enjoyment to us all. A lovely, modest, clever man who has made me cry with laughter on many an occasion. My endearing memory of Les is the year at Whitby between the old Spa being torn down and the new Pavilion being built. He kind of finished things off for the week in the old concert hall attached to the Spa, and still managed to make it special with a packed audience holding toilet roll aloft singing Earwig-O, which made up for the lack of Wild Mountain Thyme and heather. Quite a feat. Thanks Les. Enjoy the rest.

Subject: RE: Les Barker retirement - Oct 2022
From: GUEST,Malcolm White
Date: 29 Dec 22 - 10:37 PM

I've seen Les a couple of times 30 years ago and he was brilliant. Live long and prosper