Hi Charley,

John was fine when I spoke to him a couple of months ago. He sometimes gets to Sharp's folk Club at CSH on a Tuesday night. He insists that he has retired from singing now though, and no-one seems to be able to budge him on that decision. It's a great pity, because he has some wonderful bits of patter with his songs.

I can remember some of his spiel for "The little shirt me muvver made for me". He'd explain that it was made "wiv a crotchet 'ook - wot was like an embrionic 'arpoon" and then launch ito the first line of the song.

I remember well the day that I was born
- Oh yes I do - it came as a great shock to me - and to quite a few of the fellows wot knew me mum.
One minute I was tucked up all nice and warm an' comfy
then the next thing, I'm bunged out into the cold world wiv the midwife smacking me bum, an I still don't know wot I'd done wrong.
It was also a big disappointment for me - I'd been ambitious - wanted to be twins, so when I was born I counted meself. When I kept getting the answer of only one, I cried for forty days and forty nights, an' coz I was cross-eyed all the tears ran down me back an' I got backteria.
Then he'd carry on with the second line of the first verse.

As I said in my previous posting, if anyone wants to contact John, PM me and I'll let you have his phone number.