From A Celebration of Peter Bellamy by Karl Dallas
The Living Tradition Issue 34 September/October '99

"Fortunately, he was never invited to join MacColl's Critics' Group, though having attended some of their sessions, I was interested to find that some of the very techniques Ewan was teaching his young proteges - like the way Lloyd's tendency to smile as he sang emphasised the upper frequencies of his voice - appeared also in Bellamy's own auto-didactic technique. He was developing a brilliant narrative style, in which half-spoken words would beckon the listener into the tale, and lines would be run together across barlines to make his story-telling the more effective. He never forgets that these songs are mostly stories, and he never allowed his vocal excitement to get in the way of a good yarn."

After a Peter Bellamy concert, my wife bought a copy of the double LP The Transports. Peter inscribed QANTAS on the bow of the hulk and wrote across the top, "Thank you for making my night." It seemed a curiously ambiguous thing to write, but he appeared to be in a good humour. Looking back, the meaning becomes clearer.