The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #136843   Message #3126821
Posted By: Howard Jones
02-Apr-11 - 06:43 AM
Thread Name: Folkweave radio show from the bbc
Subject: RE: Folkweave radio show from the bbc
If it's the one I'm thinking of, it went around the country recording folk clubs. It sounds as if this is doing it on the cheap, but it would have cost a lot more than a studio-based show, especially as they paid the performers. In those days there were lots of thriving folk clubs and performance standards at many of them were very high.

It came to my club (Blackmore Folk Club in Essex) - the club room was quite small at the best of times and the space was reduced by the need to make room for the microphones. Somehow we managed to squeeze in more audience than usual and get through a long list of singers with more than usual efficiency. it was a great night which I still have on tape, unfortunately without a working cassette player to hear it on.

I was surprised a few weeks later to receive a lengthy BBC contract, full of clauses about repeat and overseas performance fees and lots of other totally irrelevant stuff, and a cheque for £5, from which I remember they'd deducted 5p for National Insurance. To my regret I seem to have mislaid the contract, which is certainly the most impressive one I've seen in my (strictly semi-pro) musical career.