The Not The Finger In Ear Show (1982)

Subject: RE: The Not The Finger In Ear Show (1982)
From: Banjiman
Date: 09 Mar 10 - 09:59 AM

I'm on part 3 and thoroughly enjoying it.

I was 17 in 1982 and not in habit of attending folk clubs (went to a few a couple of years later and the late lamented Lincoln Folk Fest!).

I'm glad I didn't, the music is great but imagine if I'd had to wear those clothes......... I think we can blame the (alleged) decline of Folk Clubs on THAT tanktop. Oh and Martin Simpson's ear ring.

Good stuff.

Subject: RE: The Not The Finger In Ear Show (1982)
From: George Papavgeris
Date: 09 Mar 10 - 09:28 AM

Sounds a good'un, I'll catch up with it this evening from home. Thanks for putting this boxful of goodies onto the web for us, Ian. Of course, sometimes the boxes get turned upside down and put to other uses, but hey, what can you do?

Subject: RE: The Not The Finger In Ear Show (1982)
From: GUEST,EnfieldPete
Date: 09 Mar 10 - 08:55 AM

Well I thought it was really good and interesting. I would just like to thank Ian Anderson for taking the time and trouble for providing access to this material. How often you hear that the BBC copied over so much stuff they made or recorded during the 1960s etc? Well Done!

Subject: RE: The Not The Finger In Ear Show (1982)
From: Dave Sutherland
Date: 09 Mar 10 - 08:42 AM

I should have included that the BBC recorded Birtley for its opening edition of "Omnibus" in February 1976. Sorry.

Subject: RE: The Not The Finger In Ear Show (1982)
From: Dave Sutherland
Date: 09 Mar 10 - 07:55 AM

I remember seeing the original broadcast in 1982 (was it on a Saturday afternoon on BBC2?) and thinking that it was ok although I can only remember the Martin Simpson bit from it.
Traditional singers certainly got their bit in "The Other Music" as Derek says (I had a small part in that!!)but the most prominant event in my mind was in 1975 when the BBC recorded Birtley Folk Club's Christmas Ceilidh to be broadcast on their first edition in 1976. It actually involved the family and regular floor singers at the club and I don't remember too many of them forgetting their words. However following the screening 50% of the people to whom I talked to about it thought it was the best example of a televised folk club that they had ever seen;while it was roundly panned for a number of reasons by the other 50%.
Even that far back we couldn't please everybody.

Subject: RE: The Not The Finger In Ear Show (1982)
From: Folknacious
Date: 09 Mar 10 - 07:18 AM

Would anybody like to complain about Martin Carthy's bad fairisle jumpers in the 70s while we're at it, and that nasty business of him getting an electric guitar to join Steeleye Span? Why, it seems like only last week.

What did you do in the folk wars, daddy?

Subject: RE: The Not The Finger In Ear Show (1982)
From: mikesamwild
Date: 09 Mar 10 - 06:54 AM

Great shows bad jumpers.
Typical of EFDSS to promote trad but miss older 'source' singers though. And I'm a member!They do bandwagon jump

Subject: RE: The Not The Finger In Ear Show (1982)
From: GUEST,Derek Schofield
Date: 09 Mar 10 - 06:50 AM

Thanks to Ian for making this available.
As a folk club organiser of the period it was made, I thought it very representative.
As for traditional performers, if some people posting messages here had listened more carefully, the introduction made it clear that it was intended to be representative of folk clubs at the time. In the few years before 1982 (thanks to film maker Barrie Gavin and Bert Lloyd) and in the years since (thanks to the BBC with films on the Coppers, and a few others) traditional singers and musicians have been seen on TV. I only remember this Finger programme and The Other Music documentary representing the folk club experience. There was some folk club film footage in Folk Britannia, though curiously they didn't use any Finger footage.
Derek

Subject: RE: The Not The Finger In Ear Show (1982)
From: Ruth Archer
Date: 09 Mar 10 - 06:35 AM

I'm going to ask Kit if Martin still has those fuchsia drainpipes...I would like him to wear them at Sidmouth this year. I might put it into his rider.

Subject: RE: The Not The Finger In Ear Show (1982)
From: GUEST,David E.
Date: 08 Mar 10 - 05:59 PM

Well I enjoyed it for what it was, brought back good memories and it was nice to see those folks again. Thank you Ian.

David E.

Subject: RE: The Not The Finger In Ear Show (1982)
From: GUEST,cardboard cutout
Date: 08 Mar 10 - 04:42 PM

whoo, just watched through most of that, great to try to identify members of the audience, as well as the main players, from their current selves around festivals in 2010.

That was a great little programme.Can't think why I didn't watch it, or don't remember it anyway, from 1982.

Thanks for putting it on here, and elsewhere.

Subject: RE: The Not The Finger In Ear Show (1982)
From: Folknacious
Date: 08 Mar 10 - 04:02 PM

Blimey. Death by jumper!

I never saw Webbs Wonders, do they still exist? That's Tony Engel from Topic Records, yes? Excellent ceilidh band too, in fact all the music stands up. The less that is said about the talking blokes the better, I think, even though their hearts were probably in the right places.

Subject: The Not The Finger In Ear Show (1982)
From: Ian Anderson
Date: 08 Mar 10 - 03:21 PM

Just uploaded onto YouTube in 5 chunks after an old VHS tape recently fell out of the loft: The Not The Finger In The Ear Show (1982). At nearly 30 years old it's cringe-makingly dated (check the perms, squint at the jumpers . . . ) but there's some great period music all the same.

In 1982, the then Southern Rag team produced a 30 minute TV show on behalf of the EFDSS via the BBC's Community programmes unit, shown in the Open Door slot on BBC2. The brief was to give the general public an idea of some of the variety of music that they might hear in their local folk club, rather than the stereotyped and clichéd images which were being fed to them by the mainstream media at the time.

The artists who took part were Martin Simpson, Pete & Chris Coe, Maggie Holland and Peta Webb & Webb's Wonders, who all did individual spots before coming together for an impromptu 'Open Door Dance Band' ceilidh set with caller Eddie Upton. Shackleford Folk Club in Surrey provided the venue and MC Lawrence Heath: I introduced the programme as well as interviewing impassioned journalist Colin Irwin (he was so impassioned that his then Melody Maker colleagues assumed that he was on liquid substances beyond his control!)

i.i.r.c. the EFDSS got something like 500 letters asking for details of local folk clubs as a result, not a bad outcome unless the enquirers were keen to know what to actively avoid!

Part 1.
Part 2.
Part 3.
Part 4.
Part 5.