The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #167340 Message #4037450
Posted By: Vic Smith
04-Mar-20 - 08:23 AM
Thread Name: Mediation and its definition in folk music
Subject: RE: Mediation and its definition in folk music
Dick wrote: -
let us take Peter Kennedy....... He seemed to think he owned the songs, and attempted to intimidate me.
Totnes Folk Festival - sometime in the mid 1970s. Tina and I sang Billy Taylor in the main concert venue. Peter Kennedy was in the hall with a stall selling his Folktrax cassettes. At the end of the concert Peter approached me.... we had had a few conversations before this and knew one another.
Peter > Where did you get that version of 'Billy Taylor'?
Vic > I recorded it from Cameron & Jane Turriff when we were staying with them for a week in Fetterangus.
Peter > Ah good! That's not one of mine then.
What followed remains one of the most embarrassing moments of my life and I still squirm when I think about it. The arrogance of what Peter said hit me like a hammer; very unusually for me, I totally lost my temper. I bawled at him at the top of my voice.
Vic > What fucking difference would it have made if it had been 'one of yours'?
The crowd leaving the concert fell silent and every eye turned on me. Peter, probably fearing violence on my part ran out of the hall.
I never saw him again after that to be able to apologise for my outburst, but he once wrote me a letter threatening to sue me for something that I had written about him in Karl Dallas' "Folk News". I replied telling him to go ahead as I was sure of my facts in the article and produce it to back up what I had written. I never heard from him again.