Sorry, Broadband's been down all afternoon + packing for a weeks holiday - not been able to join the bunfight.
Bryan,
"What can I do to persuade you that there is?"
You might volunteer to transcribe and annotate 80-odd Walter Pardon tapes and a dozen or so Winterton recordings, but I'm sure your as busy as we are. I would point out that we have issued several CDs from our collection, including 1 of traditional storytelling (British and Irish) as well as selections from Fred Hamer's collection 'Leaves of Life'. Anything further is hard slog and has to be prioritised. Do any of you know how minute the sales figures are for albums of field recordings? It makes no difference to us as all profits from CD sales go to I.T.M.A., but they are an indication of response to and interest in something that entails a lot of bloody hard work.
"Not good enough, Jim."
I'm afraid it will have to be for now. If the BL wish to put our collection on the web they have our full blessing.
"MacColl didn't just sit back and say "It's there in the museums if anyone wants it."
Nor did he knock on people's doors delivering what he had to offer - he expected people to emerge from their shells and make the effort.
"Surely you have a duty to pass on the flame."
And surely you have the duty to make the effort to take it when it's on offer, albeit in a limited form?
We are not the only collectors and certainly not the most important or prolific - how accessible is the work of others (do you want a list)?
"What are you going to do with your declining years...."
Come on Bryan - we were doing so well without the snide.
"What is stopping you passing on the heritage that has been left in your trust?"
Nothing whatever, expept the declining years. We are in the process of setting up a local archive of recorded material as part of a county-wide folk/heritage centre (so far we've deposited around 1,000 tapes from our personal collection). The next job is to organise for publication a collection of around 150 Travellers songs and 175 stories. Then we will embark on a biography of Kerry Traveller Mikeen McCarthy, (singer, storyteller, incredible source of Traveller lore, tinsmith, horse dealer, street singer, broadsheet seller.....). Ask anybody who ever saw him perform how important he was: (Musical Traditions Club, Singers Club, National Folk Festival and many other song and storytelling clubs and festivals in the days when the most of the clubs welcomed traditional performers).
And then maybe we'll get time to watch 'The Bill' and go and see 'Che part 2', and maybe even fit in a pint and a session in town.
Jim Carroll