The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #123838   Message #2731096
Posted By: GUEST,Edthefolkie
25-Sep-09 - 10:10 AM
Thread Name: Peter Bellamy - died 24 Sept 1991
Subject: RE: Peter Bellamy 18 yrs today since he died
Saw Pete quite a few times, also lucky enough to see the Young Tradition after they broke up! I think it was a benefit for Clive Woolf and there may have been another occasion too.

There's really no question that he was some sort of genius and had got considerable star quality. But there was never much danger of him being accepted by the mainstream. I wish he was here to give his opinion of people like Simon Cowell.

Mind you he might have liked the "X Factor"! I'd describe him as what my grandma used to call "tommy-opposite" - er, frequently objecting to the authorised version - and by God there are a few authorised versions in the folk world, we need guys like Peter to shake things up.

I couldn't believe it when he died, having been quite envious of his many gifts - it seemed so unnecessary. But as others have said we'd better not go there.

A lovely song about Pete (and others who have gone before) is "Over There In Paradise" by Steve Ashley, and he's also referred to in Steve's "Down Among The Hop Poles".