The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #110981 Message #2353078
Posted By: GUEST,Hootenanny
30-May-08 - 12:50 PM
Thread Name: Peggy Seeger's Cockney Leadbelly??
Subject: RE: Peggy Seeger's Cockney Leadbelly??
Despite the fact that I think this thread is pretty pointless,I must say that John was one of few people in the UK that could put blues material across pretty convincingly. To call his accent cockney is completely incorrect, he never even spoke with a cockney accent.
I knew John well and worked with him from 1961 onward. At that time he was very well respected on the folk and blues scene. He appeared regularly at the Ballads and Blues Club before going on to appear with New Orleans revivalist jazz bands, then Cyril Davies's Allstars. He then took over the band after Cyril's early death. Followed that by being one of the three vocalists in the Steampacket, the other two being Rod Stewart and Julie Driscoll.
John went on to a quite successful career and and moved to Canada but continued touring in Europe. If he had followed the "rules" that Peggy/Ewan put down and only sang songs from North West London where he lived, I don't think anyone would remember him.
Hoot