I've just come across this thread now it's been resurrected. The Halliard were just before my time, but their influence was still strong and they were often spoken about.

I too was at Brentwood School, although several years below them. My first attempts at performing in public were at Brentwood School Folk Club - one of the attractions was that it was run jointly with the girls' High School down the road (Brentwood was boys-only at this time). Griff Rhys-Jones has written about the school folk club from this era in his autobiography, but thankfully I don't get mentioned!

I then began going to the folk club at the Castle where Geoff and Pennie Harris were a big influence on me. I also regularly visited Blackmore and Chelmsford folk clubs. For a while I attended a guitar evening class run by Nigel.

Besides being fantastic musicians, the contribution the members of Halliard made to the Essex folk scene and the influence they had, both directly and indirectly, on aspiring performers like myself is incalculable. So thanks for everything.