Richard Quayle

For Neil Devlin, who asked after Les Pope:

My wife Lesley and I ran a folk club in Horsforth in the earky '90s. Les and his wife Isla became regulars there and on one rare Christmas occasion, Ilsa sang for us. They lived in Holt Park in Cookridge when we knew them. We got to know Les very well and he gave me several tapes of old folk club recordings from the '60s and later. They were from his old reel to reel collection and were pretty bad quality sadly. He also gave me both of Jon's LPs on tape, again poor quality. I had the pleasure of seeing Jon gigging in '71, shortly before his death. He performed in the Windmill in Deal, Kent. I especially remember his wit and banter and his wonderful rendering of Jumbo the Elephant.

Les Pope's wife Ilsa died in the mid '90s and some time later Les remarried to a long standing friend Olive. He lived his last few years with her in Otley in a new bungalow at the bottom of the Chevin, opposite the old cattle market. Les was a really smashing chap and was delighted when Lesley and I played and sang several of Jon's arrangement for him at the Horsforth club.