Folk Revival in NE England - memories?

Subject: RE: Folk Revival in NE England - memories?
From: GUEST
Date: 06 Mar 16 - 04:43 PM

did it ever arrive?

Subject: RE: Folk Revival in NE England - memories?
From: shepherdlass
Date: 25 Jan 05 - 06:16 PM

Thanks for the tip, Nutty - these are all important names, and I've not got round to interviewing any of them yet.

FG180 - cheers! The questionnaire is on its way

Jude

Subject: RE: Folk Revival in NE England - memories?
From: nutty
Date: 22 Jan 05 - 10:03 AM

Other contacts could be Terry Conway, Brian Watson, Annie Fentiman. All involved in different ways in the folk revival.

Subject: RE: Folk Revival in NE England - memories?
From: FG180
Date: 22 Jan 05 - 09:24 AM

jude,
I'll do a questionnaire for you, send it to:- [e-mail] and I will fill it as soon as poss.

Subject: RE: Folk Revival in NE England - memories?
From: shepherdlass
Date: 18 Jan 05 - 04:56 PM

Thanks to all of you for your advice, memories and links - this is brilliant. Boab, Santa and Richie - you've outlined 3 very different kinds of clubs - it just goes to show how widely the scene cast its nets. I'd love to hear more from all of you. Would you mind if I put you through the tedium of my catch-all questionnaire? If you're up for it, please would you PM me with your email address and I'll send it through as an attachment. It doesn't take THAT long - honest.

Thanks for the tip re Tim Readman, BigPinkLad. And Pistachio - thanks for reminding me to chase up Jez Lowe. I've been trying to talk to him for 2 years but always seem to catch him just as he's jetting off to America or somewhere else exotic (lucky lad). Sympathies re the White Horse - I saw the thread a few days ago. Isn't it scandalous that centralized policy can do this to a thriving local scene?

By the way, Guy, I'll be more than happy to put something up on the Mudcat at the end of all of this (Autumn 2006 if on schedule) - I think the full project might just be a bit much as I'm aiming at 80,000 words or so, but will certainly send through a condensed version and keep you posted on any chances of the full thing getting published (in my dreams!).

Cheers
Jude

Subject: RE: Folk Revival in NE England - memories?
From: Guy Wolff
Date: 18 Jan 05 - 04:21 PM

Hello Shepardlass,
When you finish your reasearch paper it would be great to hear the results here . I would love to hear about all the people you have had the good luck to talk to . I was very excited by your list of interviewees ..What a great paper . Good luck and keep us all informed . It is really one of the best parts of what makes mudcat so great . Good luck with your work ! Guy Wolff

Subject: RE: Folk Revival in NE England - memories?
From: TheBigPinkLad
Date: 18 Jan 05 - 03:47 PM

Jude, you could do worse than drop a line to Tim Readman here: [e-mail] or take a look at his website: http://www.timreadman.com/index_music.html Tim's been on the scene for a long while and still goes 'home' to play with Jez and Vin.

Put "Shearer Sold!" in the subject line ... that'll get his attention ;o)

Subject: RE: Folk Revival in NE England - memories?
From: GUEST,ritchie
Date: 18 Jan 05 - 03:04 PM

just a quickie ....when i was a lad it was more the 'club-a-gogo' , the majestic & the mayfair but occasionally I went to the bridge hotel to see them 'stick their fingers in their ears' ...later on, when i had grown up a bit we went along to 'the cricketers' in Pelaw where a very healthy 'folk club' had tuesday night sessions ...they had some tremendous performers on both big names comedians and local lads and lasses (it was run by an off shoot of Hedgehog Pie ...the younger 'hebburn lads' 'meat and two veg' they were called. ...my personal favourites at that time were Vin Garbutt ...& Bob Fox & Stu Luckley.

I remember one tuesday night the MC was trying to drum up enthusiasm for a country & western night that was being held the next night " Noo aye nah not many people gan oot 2 nights running" he said and a voice from the audience shouted out "Brendan foster does" aye it was canny crack

Subject: RE: Folk Revival in NE England - memories?
From: Pistachio
Date: 18 Jan 05 - 02:45 PM

You might like to contact Jez Lowe:
[e-mail]
www.jezlowe.com
sorry blue clicky thing not compatable with me!

Beverley, East Yorkshire not far enough North for You!

Nellies, The White Horse Inn, Just about to lose one of Englands finest folk venues due to the power of the brewery family deciding to ban all non spoken noise in their pubs!
The Monday night folk club has run for about thirty years and looks set to be killed off!
Sorry wrong thread for this moan - but really important information all the same.
H.

Subject: RE: Folk Revival in NE England - memories?
From: GUEST,Santa
Date: 18 Jan 05 - 01:17 PM

Very little help, I'm afaid, but I used to go to a folk meeting in the small side bar of the Argus Butterfly pub in Peterlee, around 1965-66 perhaps. A friend of mine organised it via a local Christian group. I don't think it lasted very long: the only guest I can remember was Johnny Handle - a great night!

My early interest in folk was via skiffle, and the protest folk songs, and the well-known North-Eastern music-hall songs. I do recall, from subsequent years in Bristol, preferring the troubadors and folk-rock to the more traditional singers. It was moving to the North West in the mid 70s that educated me properly, thanks to the Taverners, Garstang Morris, etc. But that doesn't help you a lot.

Subject: RE: Folk Revival in NE England - memories?
From: Boab
Date: 18 Jan 05 - 01:39 AM

Have been associated with folk music and clubs for a big whack o' my life, but [at risk of miffing fellow-Scots!] the club at Hexham, Northumberland in the 1960s and 70s stands well above any other of personal experience.
Much that was good, and some that was exceptional, in across-the-board music and song [and mime, and recitation] was in regular supply there. There was, as you'd expect,many a [mild] dispute as to the merits or demerits of trad, country, blues, contemporary folk etc., but a full house week after week was evidence enough that very few had a complete antipathy for what they were hearing. Tony McMaughan, lead singer of our resident "Marras" , when asked by one wag just what constituted folk music, replied "What folk like to sing!" The perfect answer, I'd say.
So we could present performers like Vin Garbutt [who cracked me up just tuning his guitar}, Jim Sharp, Benny "the Whale"
Graham, the High Level Ranters [who were there anyway if the night was gig-free], Pete Coe, Battlefield Band, Barbara Dickson, Danny Kyle, ALL of the Fisher family[plus Artie Tresize, minus the lassie in Oz], the "Frisco Fire Band" with Faith Pretic [sp?],"Magic Lantern", "Five Hand Reel" Bob Fox & Stu Luckley, our own "Marras, and resident singers Terry Conway, Caroline Robson, Brian Taylor and---and--I'd better stop, cuz there's not enough time and space!
Everything from the ten-miles-long Battle of Otterburn through the repertoire of Rab Noakes and James Taylor to the ever popular Beatles.
   Sadly, Hexham folk club has slipped down the years to a monthly meet in the Royal Hotel. But if there's another region on Earth with a greater density of "folkies" to this day, then I'd like to have a spell there!

Subject: RE: Folk Revival in NE England - memories?
From: mandotim
Date: 17 Jan 05 - 06:12 PM

You might want to PM 'catter webfolk, or get in touch via his website webfolk.net He was there at the time...
Tim

Subject: RE: Folk Revival in NE England - memories?
From: bill\sables
Date: 17 Jan 05 - 05:58 PM

Hi Jude, I have sent you a pm refering to Shotley Bridge Folk Club in the 60's
Cheers Bill

Subject: RE: Folk Revival in NE England - memories?
From: shepherdlass
Date: 17 Jan 05 - 05:37 PM

FG180 - thanks for the info re Marsden Inn. I went there a couple of times in the mid-late 80s to see some fantastic singers but hadn't realized what big names they'd been getting hold of right from the start.

RiGGy - thanks for the clicky - very interesting. Does anyone know how I can get hold of Jane who was doing the research and maybe we can swop notes? On that subject (Folksong and Ballad) I've talked to Johnny Handle, Louis Killen, Alistair Anderson and Tom Gilfellon but have yet to set an interview date with Colin Ross (he's a busy man).

Question for all 3 of you - Ged, FG180 and RiGGY - Would you be willing to fill in a questionnaire for me on your own interests and involvement in the folk scene? It's relatively painless - honest! - and most people who've completed it tell me it's brought back some good memories for them. I could send it via PM if you prefer.

Cheers
Jude

Subject: RE: Folk Revival in NE England - memories?
From: RiGGy
Date: 17 Jan 05 - 12:08 PM

Previous Newcastle Thread

Subject: RE: Folk Revival in NE England - memories?
From: FG180
Date: 17 Jan 05 - 09:25 AM

Hi,
Jude,
The Marsden Inn folk club in South Shields was a popular place during the 70's and early 80's

Acts such as the Humblebums, Allan Taylor and Dick Gaughan played there. I even saw Planxty there in the early 80's.

The club has now moved to the "Ship Inn" in Shields and is still going strong.

   John

Subject: RE: Folk Revival in NE England - memories?
From: shepherdlass
Date: 13 Jan 05 - 05:45 PM

First - thanks to BigPinkLad for very helpful comments. I am certainly including Lindisfarne in the picture because Alan Hull came right out of the folk clubs and anyway they always had a folkie quality even at their most commercially popular. Interesting and frank comment about how you felt at the time about the local traditional folkies. I'd like to hear how other people reacted to different styles at the time and whether their attitudes have changed.

Now then, at risk of turning this into a giant posting that will irritate all and sundry ...

Hi Ged

The thesis is an attempt to do a critical study of a folk revival (looking at the wider social context, the music scene as a whole, and particular aspects of local history) that doesn't turn into a hatchet job.

I'm particularly interested in:

What music did you hear or play/sing as a kid? Was there any continuity from previous generations - in the family or at school?

What gigs/records/TV/radio/books/magazines further sparked your interest?

Who or what first inspired you to get more directly involved? At which club? Why that club as opposed to others? Did you become involved in the running of the club?

Did you feel conscious of any changes in material or style over time? Did you notice singer-songwriters and traditionalists moving further apart or did things stay much the same?

Were you aware of or bothered by disputes over authenticity, of what constituted "real" folk music?

Do you feel that there is anything about the region's music or its revival that makes it special?

Answers to any or all of these (and anything else you'd like to add) would be much appreciated.

Hope it's not asking too much!

Jude

Subject: RE: Folk Revival in NE England - memories?
From: Gedpipes
Date: 13 Jan 05 - 02:22 PM

Hi Jude
Give us more info on the thesis and maybe you might provoke some nore thoughts. Whats it about?
Cheers Ged

Subject: RE: Folk Revival in NE England - memories?
From: TheBigPinkLad
Date: 12 Jan 05 - 05:04 PM

I can't help with pre-1970 much Jude, but of course after that time the City Hall in the Toon was very much a folk club on the nights when Lindisfarne played. They represented a drift from traditional folk, of course, and have been credited with launching the second wave of folk rock in Britian (following the earlier wave by the Strawbs, Fairport Convention, etc). My friends and I used to travel relatively great distances to enjoy this 'new' music and venues included the Coatham Hotel and the Jazz Club in Redcar and Dunelm House in Durham. The 'turns' we favoured were Lindisfarne, Strawbs, Rab Noakes, Stackridge et al.

At the same time we were messing around ourselves, mostly copying the aforementioned. I was briefly in a band called Mynd with the Surgeoner brothers (Bob and Billy) who were later with Jez Lowe and the Bad Pennies, and I learned much at the feet of John Dixon with whom I shared my first flat and who ran the folk club in Chester-le-Street for a while. I hear John still gets up at the Davy Lamp on occasion.

I'm afraid we viewed traditional folkies such as The Candlelighters and Johnny Handle as a bit naff, but of course I have come to appreciate them more as the years have rolled by.

Not much help, but hopefully it will encourage others to contribute. Good luck with the project.

Subject: Folk Revival in NE England - memories?
From: shepherdlass
Date: 12 Jan 05 - 04:39 PM

I'm currently researching (for a university thesis) the folk revival around Tyneside from the 1950s to 1975 and would love to hear from any Mudcatters who have memories of the local folk scene from those days.

Names, venues and dates of folk clubs, people who were particularly influential to you, where you bought your records - anything is useful. Even if your recollection is something that seems trivial to you, it'll help build the overall picture.

You could contact me via this Thread (and this might help jog other people's memories), or feel free to PM me.

Hoping there's no truth in the old cliche that if you can remember the 60s then you weren't there!

Cheers
Jude