The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #75122   Message #2615721
Posted By: seligmanson
21-Apr-09 - 02:36 PM
Thread Name: Little known '60s Folk Singers
Subject: RE: Little known '60s Folk Singers
Here are some names I'd like to hear about from my time on the London folk-scene of the 60's. Redd Sullivan, a big physical performer with expressive hands and a loud, rich voice beautifully-suited to the music-hall songs he sang (I learned 'I Don't Know No-One What Don't Want No Nine-Inch Nails' from him); John Foreman, also a performer of music-hall songs, an authority in his field, just as effective as Redd, though less demonstrative; and Jack King, who ran the folk-club at Cecil Sharp House (yes, people, there was one once, before the EFDSS decided that selling things should take priority over the actual performing of music); he was, along with his wife (I remember her name as being Jean, but I may be wrong; if so, I apologise), a good performer, a fine organiser, and a warm and witty MC: he made that club one of the best in the country, and even now I remember it with an affection I have for no other club, not the Singer's Club, not Bunjie's, not the Troubador, not the Fox in Islington, not the London Folk Centre, all great clubs in their way, but none as straightforwardly enjoyable as Jack King's. Is there any-one out there who can give me news of the King family, and of Paul Thompson, the other resident there? Come to think of it, who else remembers Karl Dallas's London Folk Centre, a wonderfully worth-while experiment which in its short life produced some great events and provoked some superb performances (and I met my first girl-friend there. Hello Rosemary).