The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #146180   Message #3546030
Posted By: Jim Carroll
06-Aug-13 - 03:34 AM
Thread Name: Bill Leader/Dave Bulmer
Subject: RE: Bill Leader/Dave Bulmer
While not disagreeing in any way with criticism of Bulmer, I've always found it more than a little strange that he should be singled out while others who have behaved as badly and in some cases worse have been let off the hook.
I can think of one individual in particular who stood between us and our folk heritage for four decades and the fact that the gathering in of the material was paid for out of our taxes tends to still rub the salt in a little. The only protest I can remember regarding his behaviour was that those who raised it following his demise received a tsunami of abuse for "speaking ill of the dead"
My main concern has always been the treatment that our field singers have received at the hands of 'the folk business' - us 'folkies' have usually managed to find our way round the houses, especially nowadays in the Brave New World of copyrighting, especially of "arrangements".
The pittances paid out to fishermen, small-farmers, miners, navvies, Travellers... et al has always struck me as being insultingly inadequate - and don't get me started about companies, (including one of Britain's finest) who adopt the practice of "selling on" albums for re-issue without recompensing, or even consulting the original artist(s) - asking a traditional singer to bring his/her lawyer in to sign the contract goes totally against the grain of why I got involved in 'the people's' music in the first place.
The few experiences I have had with the BBC in relation to our older singers has always left me with a sour taste in my mouth. I assume it is still their practice to charge the same amount for the use of an item recorded during their folk 'mopping-up' campaign of the 1950s as for a Rolling Stones track.
C'mon people - Bulmer may be a shit, but there's a whole Augean stable in need of a good clean-out and the ritual abusing of one individual while ignoring the rest ain't going to get it done.
Jim Carroll