The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #142884   Message #3341398
Posted By: Jim Carroll
21-Apr-12 - 03:32 PM
Thread Name: Champion at Keeping them Rolling
Subject: RE: Champion at Keeping them Rolling
Don't know how accessible it is, but Ewan and Peggy's sound collection was donated to Ruskin College and it should include some of the material that was recorded for the Radio Ballads but wasn't used - magic.
Many of Ewan's best songs (IMO) were created using actuality such as this - Shoals of Herring from Sam Larner and Ronnie Balls, Freeborn Man from The Stewarts, Minty Smith and Gordon Boswell, Song of a Road compositions like Come Me Little Son and Just a Note from Jack Hamilton of Mayo, Peter Keenan's Song from a Glasgow Boxer, The Big Hewer from Jack Elliot and South Wales miners....
A particular favourite of mine is Shellback, from the recording of a fascinating old Welsh sailor, Ben Bright, who worked under sail, jumped ship in the US in the thirties and joined Joe Hills IWW (the Wobblies).
The song was written for a Philip Donellan film, Before the Mast.
I'm not sure, but when he wrote Champion (for a radio programme on lorry-drivers entitled 'Pit Stop'), I think he and Joan Littlewood carried out similar interviews on Shap.
Thinking about it - these recordings should also be housed at the Charles Parker archive in Birmingham Central Library.
Jim Carroll