The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #69375 Message #2713946
Posted By: GUEST,dave clare
01-Sep-09 - 03:46 PM
Thread Name: Minor Birds from Warrington
Subject: RE: Minor Birds from Warrington
The club was on Wednesday nights at the Lion in Bridge St, and then moved to the Bluebell near the fish market. And anyone who was anyone played there during those years. (I remember seeing Paul Simon and not being greatly impressed. Then he teamed up with Garfunkel!) Apart from the excellent Froggatt twins (both great collectors of songs), other members around the mid-1960s were Carole Melia (lovely singer, with a slight lisp; did a great version of The Silkie; step-sister to the famed dress designer Ossie Clarke), Dave Head (fine singer and guitarist. who had been my sister's boyfriend, and who later moved to London and played for a short time with, and shared a flat in Richmond, with Johnny Silvo), Kenny Wilson (lovely guitarist and free spirit, who reputedly packed in when he took it on the lam to London without telling anyone at the end of one Wednesday session after his girlfriend had told him during the interval that she was pregnant; probably just scurrilous gossip, although I do know the girl/woman concerned!). Later, they were joined by a mate of mine, Nick Peake, and moved the to Ring O' Bells near the parish. Not sure what the line-up was later, as I'd moved to London in '68 and transferred my allegiance to the club at the Prince of Wales in Dalling Rd, Hammersmith. One thing that's always intrigued me is that there was an older couple (can't remember their names) who used to sit in the centre of the front row every week and taped everything on a reel-to-reel (Grundig, I think) with a mic taped to a brush stave. Whatever happened to those tapes? They would now be a priceless archive from one of the finest clubs during the folk revival. Maybe Norman and Jack know. Have a feeling that Norman lives in Appleton, Cheshire.