Derek Brimstone

Subject: RE: Derek Brimstone
From: MMario
Date: 31 Jan 03 - 09:56 AM

Levy has sheet music

Subject: RE: Derek Brimstone
From: breezy
Date: 31 Jan 03 - 01:14 PM

the newsagents is open on Holywell Hill tonight opposite the Comfort Hotel Derek, well done my son,welcome to the assylum, ignore Bryant or do what we done, move norf, then norf a bit more.
dont you feel sorry for eltum too?

Subject: RE: Derek Brimstone
From: harvey andrews
Date: 31 Jan 03 - 02:53 PM

Breezy you're a real shit stirrer aren't you? I won't give you or anyone else my opinion of Brimmo, except to say that once in Northern Ireland he nearly got both of us shot in a stationary car.The book is excellent as are his performances.

Subject: RE: Derek Brimstone
From: Sliding Down The Bannister At My Auntie's House
Date: 31 Jan 03 - 07:27 PM

Derek Brimstone was great at the Tudor Barn on Wednesday - but wow! The main act, Dave "The K" Kenningham was unbelievable!!! Even Brimmo was knocked out by the sheer talent of the bald headed one.

Subject: RE: Derek Brimstone
From: breezy
Date: 31 Jan 03 - 07:54 PM

Thats what happens to a lot of banjo players Harvey,guess thats why you two didnt become a double act.
Bring your own shovel and stir well.
See you on the 20th June at snorbens.
Weather hit us tonight, only 10 regs plus 2 off the street,and they stayed till the end at 11.30.
But a very good evenings entertainment it was.
Mike Sparks was as bright as a button.
El Greko was emotional.
Hilary was great in a scots dialect.
Piers was too bloody intelligent.
I pulled it together.
Never mind the weather.
Now where can I do some more stirring?
Must be mad, I've booked Brimmo twice for this year!!

Subject: RE: Derek Brimstone
From: Sliding Down The Bannister At My Auntie's House
Date: 31 Jan 03 - 07:58 PM

Wha?

Subject: RE: Derek Brimstone
From: Brimmo
Date: 02 Feb 03 - 07:57 AM

Hello Schantieman,
                  Reference 'The Ratcatcher's Daughter'. No, I never did sing that one. There was a time, when I was starting out on my career, just before the First World War, when I intended to do the 'cockney' bit, an incredibly rich, ethnic seam of folk music, but then I heard John Foreman (who's even older than me). I figured that there was only room for one, especially one so incredibly good at it, so I went in a different direction. What's happened to John? Where is he? I've heard nothing of him for years. Indeed, is he still with us?
   I've always found it strange that apart from the superb Cozmetheka, I can't think of any act on the Folk scene that worked within that genre. (Genre is a real word. I saw it in an old Guardian that I found).
                  Derek.

Subject: RE: Derek Brimstone
From: Schantieman
Date: 02 Feb 03 - 10:06 AM

Thanks Derek.

Steve

Subject: RE: Derek Brimstone
From: GUEST
Date: 04 Feb 03 - 10:10 AM

I moved to escape Bryant and the bugger followed me.

Subject: RE: Derek Brimstone
From: cockney
Date: 04 Feb 03 - 10:46 AM

i say Guest of no name - what's that got to do with the thread?

p.s. Dave Bryant is one of the best performers on the SE folk cicuit at present!!!

Subject: RE: Derek Brimstone
From: breezy
Date: 04 Feb 03 - 12:14 PM

Know the feeling Guest,the mistake was telling bryant where you went.
Woodsie, you do mean S,E Eltham Folk circuit? He's certainly the loudest.
All the others have moved away.
We still get gigs there from time to time, but make sure that bryants elsewhere on the night.
We all love you bryant, dave old buddy.
See you at the Herga 40th no excuses now.

Subject: RE: Derek Brimstone
From: Brimmo
Date: 05 Feb 03 - 06:52 AM

Oi, leave my thread alone.

Subject: RE: Derek Brimstone
From: Steve Parkes
Date: 05 Feb 03 - 06:58 AM

Derek, Magic Lantern did some Mudsic Hall stuff for a while. There was an outfit called Gladstone's Bag, who were a biot OTT; don't know what became of them. Then there was Barrie Roberts (and me) ...

Steve

Subject: RE: Derek Brimstone
From: Dave Bryant
Date: 05 Feb 03 - 07:23 AM

Mr Gladstone's Bag were wonderful. They brought all sorts of wonderful props with them and while I agree that they could be OTT at times, they were probably one of the funniest acts on the folk scene. In spite of that, their musicianship was first class - especially John Watcham's concertina playing. They used to perform one number "Beautiful Bird Sing on" through megaphones containing mechanisms to provide a scratching sound like that on early recordings, with an incredible instrument which they called a "pneumatic nightingale". This was basically a vastly scaled up version of the bird warbler whistles which contain water made out of a car tyre pump, a watering can and a large whistle. Although vastly hilarious, the final sound almost exactly matched that of the original Edison phonagraph recording.

John is still playing concertina, but sadly Mick (?) the flamboyant other half of the act died some years ago. Both were members of Albion Morris.

Subject: RE: Derek Brimstone
From: Steve Parkes
Date: 05 Feb 03 - 08:18 AM

Sorry to hear about Mick, Dave. but thanks for the news.

How did they mke water out of a car tyre pump?

Subject: RE: Derek Brimstone
From: Steve Parkes
Date: 05 Feb 03 - 11:57 AM

I made water out of a window once ...

Subject: RE: Derek Brimstone
From: Dave Bryant
Date: 05 Feb 03 - 12:30 PM

Schantieman - Here is the thread for "The Ratcatcher's Daughter.

Subject: RE: Derek Brimstone
From: sinpelo
Date: 19 Feb 06 - 09:58 AM

Thanks for the Les Barker poem, Sooz. I've been trying to get hold of the words for a while.

Subject: RE: Derek Brimstone
From: sinpelo
Date: 19 Feb 06 - 10:24 AM

"I really must thank you all for the nice things that you've written. Very gratifying, and it's done my old heart good. But take no notice of Breezy - he's mad. Hemel is all snowed in. It's a white hell out there. I'm just going out for a paper - I might be gone for some time................... "

I really don't want to talk about Del while he's out buying a paper but take no notice of what he said about Breezy. Breezy's OK. He gets the info out there. Try getting dates off Brimmo! You can try water-boarding, electrodes to the wassnames, you-name-it. He just sits there dribbling and rambling on about the war (Crimea, that is).

You carry on spilling the beans, Breezy and keep us up to date.

Subject: RE: Derek Brimstone
From: Splott Man
Date: 20 Feb 06 - 04:32 AM

Any news on Derek's health? I heard he was quite ill back in the autumn.

Splott Man

Subject: RE: Derek Brimstone
From: sinpelo
Date: 20 Feb 06 - 05:10 AM

"Any news on Derek's health? I heard he was quite ill back in the autumn.

Splott Man "

He didn't mention his brush with the Grim Reaper when he posted on here on 2/2/06. Unless, of course, "Brimmo" isn't really Derek at all but an evil imposter. I think we should be told.

OK "Brimmo"...... let's see if you're who you claim to be: What shape is the birthmark on your right buttock? Is it shaped like:

(a) a banjo
(b) Diego Garcia
or (c) the Napster logo?

Only Derek (or someone VERY intimate with him) will know the answer.

Subject: RE: Derek Brimstone
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 20 Feb 06 - 06:34 PM

You're all quite wrong of course. He's not important enough to be mentioned on the BBC4 version of English folk music.

I don't think any of you lot who went to folk clubs are worth a mention.

nowadays all the kids are morris dancing cos it a really cool thing to do.....

if you were real folk music enthusiasts you would have been aware of that.

Subject: RE: Derek Brimstone
From: sinpelo
Date: 20 Feb 06 - 06:48 PM

We all stand corrected and humble ourselves in your presence.

Morris dancing is cool???

Beam me up, Scottie!

Subject: RE: Derek Brimstone
From: Snuffy
Date: 20 Feb 06 - 07:45 PM

Morris dancing is cool???

The second-best kept secret of all time: it always has been.

Subject: RE: Derek Brimstone
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 20 Feb 06 - 07:58 PM

I think he's still in shock at discovering he wasn't part of the folk revival according to BBC4. I talked to him last week and he seemed okay-ish. there are obviously problems, but he didn't make much of them.

they had got his regimen of drugs wrong and that made him ill for a while - they straightened that out about a month ago.

whatever Derek sings, he turns it into an English folk song. you can't get more English than Derek brimstone. he's more English than most English folksongs - if you get my drift.

when will they ever own up and admit that they've got it wrong. if you don't relate to English people in the intimate mainstream way that artists like Derek,and Bernard Wrigley do, what you're doing isn't really folk music. It's something cerebral and factitious.

Subject: RE: Derek Brimstone
From: Brimmo
Date: 21 Feb 06 - 12:38 PM

Hello Troops.
      Just to say that my health is restored. I'm OK now, although I have to keep taking the tablets (as they say).
       I saw those BBC4 British Folk music programmes. I must say that I was seriously annoyed at most of it, although some of it was very good. It was all so very heavily biased towards Traditional English folk music, which of course has it's place in the scheme of things, But only a part of it, and a minor part at that, at least in the scene that I remember. Anyone watching, who had never been in a folk club in their lives would be left with a very false impression of what it was really about. I was there. I was that soldier. I remember when for instance, there were seven folk clubs in Walsall alone, all of which were well attended. I remember the Pipers and the Folk Cottage in Cornwall, Les Cousins, The Troubadour, two whole pages of the Melody Maker taken up by what was on in the London Folk clubs, The Boggery, well I could go on and on. A lovely, lively, happy folk scene with lots of new songs performed by superbly talented singer/songwriters. Lots of lovely music and lots of laughs. Where did it all go? Well, I could tell you, but don't get me started.......

Subject: RE: Derek Brimstone
From: sinpelo
Date: 21 Feb 06 - 01:54 PM

Apart from one or two "purist" clubs at which only traditional music was acceptable, I seem to remember folk clubs covering a very wide range of musical genre (you're right, Del. It IS a word). Folk clubs were the substance of the folk scene... not the recording industry. Artists like Derek, doing the circuite and, like a juggler spinning plates, managing to keep more or less everyone happy were the mainstay of clubs. The chances of getting artists who had been absorbed into the mainstream record industry (Donvan and suchlike) back into folk clubs was pretty slim. I'm not saying they were wrong or that they owed some form of alleigance with clubs but they were portrayed as much more pivotal figures than I think they were. The people who really kept the plates spinning were the Dransfields, Derek, Nic Jones, Rosie Hardman and a whole list of people who have managed to earn fame without the pretentions of celebrity. Not to mention an even longer list of people the majority of us have never heard of.

The BBC seem to have a penchant for coming up with good ideas..... then buggering them up. Well done, Aunty. You've done it again!

Subject: RE: Derek Brimstone
From: breezy
Date: 21 Feb 06 - 03:53 PM

BBC always wary of political controversy and most of the singer's repertoires contained such material .


but thats England

Political correctness began here a long time ago.

Also our club singer/writers were very much influenced by the American style.

The 'traddies' could make it hard going for newbies and it was a slog at times. I well remember being bored at many folk clubs that I often wonder why I kept going but it was the likes of Derek, Noel, Tony Cap, Alex and even Vin G that kept my hopes up.

It took me too long to find out that the Herga folk club is an O K place and its image of being a bastion of trad folk was a common misconception, or maybe its just that it has changed with the times.

Maybe its a acquired taste.

Glad to hear you are still with us Derek

Pop over a get a date fixed, the weather will soon be warmer and you can go out again

Subject: RE: Derek Brimstone
From: GUEST,Bill the sound
Date: 21 Feb 06 - 07:11 PM

If You've had a night at one of Derek's gigs you've had a great night
Ask him to do Myrtle it's agreat laugh.
Bill the sound

Subject: RE: Derek Brimstone
From: GUEST,wordy
Date: 21 Feb 06 - 07:40 PM

Nice one Brimmo. I remember all that too.Better write it down so it's not forgotten because of the London centred arbiters of taste. Did Christine Neville pay you yet?

Subject: RE: Derek Brimstone
From: danensis
Date: 22 Feb 06 - 05:35 PM

"I think he's still in shock at discovering he wasn't part of the folk revival according to BBC4".

Of course he wasn't part of the revival - he was the original folkie.

Subject: RE: Derek Brimstone
From: sinpelo
Date: 22 Feb 06 - 07:24 PM

Brimmo seems to have been a part of everyone's story. The one guaranteed link between all the major folk singers that have evolved since the sixties is that they all know Derek Brimstone. They might not all know each other but they all know Derek. I was amazed that he wasn't included in the programme.

Even Bob Dylan claims to know Derek Brimstone.... but that's Bob all over.......... f***ing name-dropper!