The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #33204   Message #4087541
Posted By: The Sandman
11-Jan-21 - 04:00 PM
Thread Name: Lyr ADD: The Call and the Answer (Phil Colclough)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Call and the Answer (Phil Colclough)
What a fine song. apparantly he started the first folk club in stoke in 1960 and was later a member of the critics group Phil Colclough (11 January 1940 - 23 September 2019[1]) was an English contemporary folk singer and songwriter.
His best known works, co-written with his wife, June Colclough (1941 – 12 October 2004), are "Song for Ireland" and "The Call and the Answer".

June and Phil Colclough both came from North Staffordshire, England, and both had careers in education. Phil had been a navigator in the Merchant Navy,[2] which provided source material for some of his songs. The Colcloughs founded the first folk music club in Stoke-on-Trent in 1960.

In 1966, they moved to London, where they were members of the Critics Group led by Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger; they eventually left the group due to bitter disputes stemming from MacColl's "authoritarian tendencies".[3]

In the 1970s, the Colcloughs returned to North Staffordshire, where they produced a folk music radio program for BBC Radio Stoke.

"Song for Ireland"[4] was inspired by a trip the Colcloughs took to the Dingle Peninsula. Described as a "modern classic",[5] it has been recorded by numerous artists, including Enya, Dick Gaughan, Luke Kelly, Mary Black, Ralph McTell, Celtic Spirit, The Dubliners, Brendan Hayes and Damien Leith.