Chris Harvey and myself are recording the set of 35 Manchester Ballads collated by Roy Palmer and Harry Boardman. In many instances they have suggested tunes that might have been used where no tune was indicated on the ballad. There were a couple of instances where a tune was suggested on the original broadside but couldn't be found for the 1983 publication.

Further research from Chris has uncovered original tunes to "Calico Printer's Clerk" and "Telegraph Girls in Cannon Street" where the suggested tunes were the Halliard folk group tune for "Calico Printer's" and "The Girl I left Behind Me" for "Telegraph Girls". The tunes we've unearthed are much more interesting and those are the ones we'll be singing/playing.

There were also instances where the tune written in the set of Ballads didn't fit the words very well and I had to go back to a recording that Harry made for the Open University of "Manchester's Improving Daily" in order to get a version of the tune that would fit.

Whilst we intended these recordings to be a companion to the written Ballad collection, it became apparent after starting to work out arrangements that this will not be strictly the case but we're enjoying the experience. Hopefully this recording will be out in the new year sometime.

Cheers
Mark