A bit of background for those who are interested..
Stan's visit to play for the Bermuda Folk Club in 1978 was the result of a recommendation by the lovely Priscilla Herdman..she sang for us earlier that year and had a 'learning tape' of songs she was intending to put in her set...
She played '45 years' to me and I was astonished at the voice and power of the man..he was not yet 30..
We called him In Dundas, Ontario right then...a spur of the moment thing..."can you do a gig in Bermuda Stan?"...
The rest is history...I have some sweet memories of that trip...."Flowers of Bermuda" came about when we took him to the old Dockyard...now much restored,,,back then it was just the museum part and some 'work in progress' buildings...
The artifacts in there stirred Stan's interest as did the pictures of maritime scenes..
There was a map of shipwreck sites on the wall...there was the 'Nightingale"...
and the North Rock, that had claimed so many vessels...and the song was born..
He last played Bermuda a month or so before the aircraft fire that claimed his life in 1983...
I have some letters he wrote me in March/April 1983...I had returned to the UK by then...He was looking to tour the UK...an unknown singer in that part of the world at that time...
Your songs live on Stan...
Peter Sumner