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Folkie MPs/Lords?
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Subject: Folkie MPs/Lords? From: GUEST,BlackAcornUK Date: 15 Oct 24 - 06:31 AM Hi all - a simple, if engimatic, question - Does anyone know of any current or recent UK MPs who've expressed an interest in/shown support for folk music, folk dance and/or folk customs? What about members of the House of Lords? Grateful for any/all suggestions! |
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Subject: RE: Folkie MPs/Lords? From: GUEST,BlackAcornUK Date: 15 Oct 24 - 06:33 AM Tempting as it is, let's try to leave aside attacks on our wayward, disappointing political establishment! |
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Subject: RE: Folkie MPs/Lords? From: Manitas_at_home Date: 15 Oct 24 - 07:56 AM Not current but Tony Benn did a road show with Roy Bailey. |
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Subject: RE: Folkie MPs/Lords? From: GUEST,James E Date: 15 Oct 24 - 09:58 AM There's an all-party parliamentary group on the folk arts, made up of a couple of SNP MPs, one Tory MP and one Labour peer. MSP rather than MP, but John Swinney posted a tribute when Rod Paterson died: "an amazing musician who made a tremendous contribution to traditional music in Scotland". IIRC Jeremy Corbyn was at the 2015 Barbican concert in memory of Ewan MacColl. Can't think of anything else off the top of my head. |
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Subject: RE: Folkie MPs/Lords? From: GUEST,jOhn Date: 15 Oct 24 - 12:49 PM Alistair Campbell plays the bagpipes |
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Subject: RE: Folkie MPs/Lords? From: GUEST,BlackAcornUK Date: 15 Oct 24 - 04:20 PM Many thanks all, especially James E, for highlighting the APPG - It looks like it was left defunct after the 2019 General Election; re-founded in November 2023; but not re-registered after the 2024 GE. I can't see any papers or minutes on-line, nor any tweets etc, so it's hard to know if it ever actually met |
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Subject: RE: Folkie MPs/Lords? From: The Sandman Date: 15 Oct 24 - 05:09 PM Andrew Rosindell, is a possibilty, his brother Owen used to be involved with the Romford folk club scene |
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Subject: RE: Folkie MPs/Lords? From: GUEST,James E Date: 15 Oct 24 - 05:27 PM … and in fact all three MPs in the APPG lost their seats in July. So it's anyone's guess if it'll be re-established. |
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Subject: RE: Folkie MPs/Lords? From: GUEST,RA Date: 16 Oct 24 - 01:19 PM Pete Wishart of the SNP was formerly a keyboard player in Runrig. |
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Subject: RE: Folkie MPs/Lords? From: Bainbo Date: 17 Oct 24 - 02:08 PM The late Stan Crowther, MP for Rotherham from 1976 to 1992, wrote a number of folk songs, including The Vicar And The Frog. |
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Subject: RE: Folkie MPs/Lords? From: GeoffLawes Date: 17 Oct 24 - 06:42 PM Stan Crowther Singing in Rotherham https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWOMvQAAxjU |
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Subject: RE: Folkie MPs/Lords? From: Long Firm Freddie Date: 18 Oct 24 - 02:59 PM All-Party Parliamentary Group on Folk Arts LFF |
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Subject: RE: Folkie MPs/Lords? From: Long Firm Freddie Date: 18 Oct 24 - 03:02 PM APPG page at EFDSS LFF |
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Subject: RE: Folkie MPs/Lords? From: GUEST,RA Date: 18 Oct 24 - 03:33 PM There was formerly an all party parliamentary folk music group. The late Labour MP Alan Keen was involved. There are a few googleable articles about it. |
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Subject: RE: Folkie MPs/Lords? From: FreddyHeadey Date: 27 Oct 24 - 10:10 PM Alex Salmond & Anne Lorne Gillies sing The Rowan Tree - 1999 https://youtu.be/7PVx0Hn2Rqc Alex Salmond sings Jock O'Hazeldean ~2015? https://youtu.be/t5YzQcOngOQ?t=1m11s Alex Salmond & Sandi Thom sing Caledonia ~ 2009 https://youtu.be/-9_jXxl0zkA?t=1m35s Alex Salmond - Desert Island Discs - 2011 chose Anne Lorne Gillies - Ae Fond Kiss Gian Carlo Menotti - Don't Cry Mother Dear Gerry Rafferty - Baker Street The Proclaimers - I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles) Paul Robeson -Joe Hill Capercaillie - Coisich, a Ruin Johnny Cash - San Quentin Dougie MacLean - Caledonia www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00xgs41 A New Sang - Twelve Songs for Scottish Independence SNP (The Scottish National Party) cd 1999 Mr Salmond said: "This album is, of course, a bit of fun in the run up to Christmas time. politicians who appear on the album are:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/541428.stm |
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Subject: RE: Folkie MPs/Lords? From: GUEST,henryp Date: 29 Oct 24 - 06:51 AM Michael Ancram/13th Marquess of Lothian, Conservative MP and Minister, was a keen folk and country music fan and often played acoustic guitar at Conservative Party conferences. He sang accompanied by his daughter Clare Kerr at the ninth annual Macmillan Cancer Support Parliamentary Palace of Varieties at St John's, Westminster. At Westminster, he also sang with his political opponent Labour MP and Minister John Reid, now Baron Reid of Cardowan. |
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Subject: RE: Folkie MPs/Lords? From: GUEST,henryp Date: 29 Oct 24 - 09:41 AM Independent, 1999; [Michael Ancram] developed his life-long and eclectic interest in folk music from Jacobite ballads to the songs of Tom Paxton and Joan Baez. There can be few members of the present Tory front bench who own, as he does, a 12-string Martin acoustic guitar, can do a first-rate impression of Buddy Holly, or have schmoozed with Paul Simon in Fulham's Troubadour Club - a famous folk hangout which Ancram frequented in the mid Sixties. BBC 1 October 2024; The former deputy leader of the Conservative party Michael Ancram has died, aged 79, his family has announced. Obituary, Telegraph; A most unstuffy grandee, Ancram was a member of the British ski team, and a folk singer who had busked his way round Italy as a student. For Malcolm Rifkind’s 50th birthday party he impersonated Buddy Holly, and at William Hague’s much ridiculed 1997 Shadow Cabinet “bonding session” at Eastbourne, he accompanied a singalong Bridge Over Troubled Water on acoustic guitar. |
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Subject: RE: Folkie MPs/Lords? From: Jack Campin Date: 29 Oct 24 - 10:38 AM Robin Harper (former MSP for the Scottish Greens) has done a few solo folk gigs and I've met him at pub sessions in Edinburgh. |
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Subject: RE: Folkie MPs/Lords? From: GUEST,henryp Date: 29 Oct 24 - 11:10 AM Irish Times 2001; John Reid has enjoyed a blessed career within Tony Blair's administration, starting at the Ministry of Defence and becoming the front man for getting the government out of crises. A few things are very important to him. The first is his PhD in economics. The second is guitars. Unusually for a new Labour politician, Dr Reid has interests beyond politics. He is passionate about playing the guitar and is said to be accomplished. He likes folk music and gypsy rhythms and is known as a man who likes to party. Wikipedia; He retired from frontline politics in 2007 following Gordon Brown's appointment as Prime Minister, taking on a role as the Chairman of Celtic Football Club. After stepping down as an MP in 2010, he was nominated for a life peerage in the Dissolution Honours and elevated to the House of Lords as Baron Reid of Cardowan. |
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Subject: RE: Folkie MPs/Lords? From: GUEST,henryp Date: 29 Oct 24 - 11:35 AM The Herald January 2000 A brief history of John Reid; Labour MP and Minister So what do you do now? 'Funnily enough,' and he laughs, 'deep beneath this apparently sombre-suited gentleman is somebody who used to play in a band. I play rock'n'roll on the piano. I play folk music. All types of music.' At school he was the lead singer in a rock band called The Graduates. The previous band he was in went on to become fairly well-known as The Poets. He tells me he's a singer, plays the guitar 'reasonably well' and plays 'a bit of the mouthie'. He's a big fan of Woodie Guthrie and Tom Paxton. (Before Cathie died he played a session with Paxton back-stage at one of his concerts.) 'I've still got a Gibson acoustic. My youngest son Mark, he's got three guitars and we sometimes play at home together.' |
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Subject: RE: Folkie MPs/Lords? From: GUEST,henryp Date: 30 Oct 24 - 02:17 AM 26 October 2024; Thirty members of Let’s Sing sang I Am The Song, which they first recorded at Castlesound Studios, Pencaitland, working with Luminate, Scotland’s creative ageing organisation, and award-winning singer/songwriter Boo Hewerdine. Written by Boo, the track is available for use by Luminate’s network of singing groups across Scotland. Boo and award-winning singer Hannah Rarity, who took part in the recording, were also guests at the event hosted by Michelle Thomson MSP at the Scottish Parliament. |
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