Big Bill Campbell and his Rocky Mountaineers

Subject: Big Bill Campbell and his Rocky Mountaineers
From: Doctor John
Date: 26 Apr 99 - 04:29 PM

Does anybody remember these singing, joking 'hillbillies'(mighty fine!) who appeared on BBC radio in the 40's or 50's. Do any recordings exist? I guess they first got me hooked on folkmusic USA; that is unless I heard Woody Guthrie on Children's Hour. And does anybody remember that?

Subject: RE: Big Bill Campbell and his Rocky Mountaineers
From: Bert
Date: 26 Apr 99 - 04:38 PM

Yup. Sure do. I remember it as "Rocky Mountain Rhythm" though. It was a favorite in our family.
Also, I remember reading in one of Tom Glazer's books that he used to play on that show.
Was it a BBC show or was it just relayed from America?

I've no idea where you will find recordings though.

Bert.

Subject: RE: Big Bill Campbell and his Rocky Mountaineers
From: Ewan McV (inactive)
Date: 26 Apr 99 - 05:57 PM

I also recall this band very fondly. I remember seeing them perform in Dingwall Town Hall in about 1952-5. There was an obituary in the Scotsman newspaper a few weeks ago of one of the band. As I recall from that obit only Big Bill was from the USA. No knowledge of recordings. What really turned me on to folk music was As I Roved Out, a BBC Sunday morning radio programme of filed recordings of unaccompanied singers. Astonishing. Then came Lonnie Donegan, and the whole world changed. Ewan McVicar

Subject: RE: Big Bill Campbell and his Rocky Mountaineers
From: Bert
Date: 27 Apr 99 - 08:51 AM

Ewan, Ah yes. Lonnie Donegan. He doesn't get the credit he deserves for introducing a whole generation to folk music.

Bert.

Subject: RE: Big Bill Campbell and his Rocky Mountaineers
From: Doctor John
Date: 27 Apr 99 - 05:18 PM

Just found a tape I made from a radio programme which featured a recording by Big Bill Campbell called "In 1992" but recorded in 1935; they must have kept going a long time. They sound a bit like Rocky Mountain Slim and Desert Rat Shorty to me now! I wonder do the BBC still have anything; however their attitude to recordings I've found very bad - if they haven't destroyed it they will neither broadcast, release nor sell it to you. Talk about dog in a manger! How much wonderful material is gathering dust? However if you have a recording of something they've destroyed they welcome you with open arms. But that's wandering. Yes Lonnie Donegan finally showed me the way but does anyone remember early folkoid singers like Elton Hayes (small guitar) or Shirley Abacare (zither) DrJohn

Subject: RE: Big Bill Campbell and his Rocky Mountaineers
From: Bert
Date: 28 Apr 99 - 09:31 AM

Dr. John,

Yes Elton Hayes was in a Robin Hood movie one time. If I remember right he played Will Scarlet. I certainly remember him singing some kind of version of Gipsy Davy.....

Ah de doo ah de doo da day
Ah de doo ah de day ee
Ah de doo ah de doo da day
He whistled and he sang 'till the greenwood rang
and he won the heart of a la-a-a-dy.

I also remember Shirley Abicair singing "We're all going to the Zoo tomorrow"

Haven't heard of them since "The Fifties" though.

Bert.

Subject: RE: Big Bill Campbell and his Rocky Mountaineers
From: Roger the zimmer
Date: 28 Apr 99 - 11:38 AM

Oh, memories, memories! What about BBC Children's Hour cowboy soap Riders of the Range written by Charles Chilton (who later produced Ewan McColl's Radio Ballads) with music by the "Sons of the Pioneers"? "Ghost Riders in the Sky", was one of their numbers I think.

Subject: RE: Big Bill Campbell and his Rocky Mountaineers
From: Ewan McV (inactive)
Date: 28 Apr 99 - 12:25 PM

Yes, indeed. to all the above influences. I'm as sure as I can be that Shirley Abicair played autoharp rather than zither. Or both? Can Shirley really have sung We're All Going To The Zoo? The Paxton song, from I'd have thought 1965 or so. Ewan McVicar

Subject: RE: Big Bill Campbell and his Rocky Mountaineers
From: Doctor John
Date: 28 Apr 99 - 02:37 PM

Roger, Charles Chiltern was born in 1917 and as far as I know is still around. Just bought the "Journey into Space" set of cassettes ..... I didn't know C.C. produced the Radio Ballads - they've just been released by Topic on CD. Dr John

Subject: RE: Big Bill Campbell and his Rocky Mountaineers
From: Bert
Date: 28 Apr 99 - 03:46 PM

Perhaps I got the dates wrong and HAVE heard Shirley Abicair since the fifties. She was playing the zither when I saw her. Never saw her with an Autoharp.

Ah! "The Riders of the Range", my greatest treasures were my Riders of the Range Annuals. I kept them for years.

Bert.

Subject: RE: Big Bill Campbell and his Rocky Mountaineers
From: Ewan McV (inactive)
Date: 29 Apr 99 - 03:26 AM

I'd always thought it was an autoharp, but that was as a post-event deduction rather than a clearly remembered observation! Sorry if I'm wrong. Re the Radio Ballads, we have a confusion between Charles Chilton and Charles Parker. Chilton is not mentioned in the index of Maccoll's autobiogray. Parker gets 30+ pages. (Also, I have somewhere several additional pages Maccoll sent me about the genesis of the Radio Ballads, for which some [BBC] people give Parker all the credit.)

Ewan McVicar

Subject: RE: Big Bill Campbell and his Rocky Mountaineers
From: Roger the zimmer
Date: 29 Apr 99 - 03:52 AM

You're right, Charles Parker, not Charles Chilton,was the radio ballads man- the old brain is definitely going!

Subject: RE: Big Bill Campbell and his Rocky Mountaineers
From: GUEST,A Welshman
Date: 12 Apr 09 - 07:38 PM

Yes Doctor John, I remember the post war years when Big Bill Campbell and his Rocky Mountaineers had a regular Sunday afternoon spot on BBC radio. That's about all I know, however.

Subject: RE: Big Bill Campbell and his Rocky Mountaineers
From: MikeofNorthumbria
Date: 13 Apr 09 - 05:35 AM

Big Bill Campbell and his musical cowboys featured regularly on "Riders of the Range". And if my memory is correct, their songs were not just diversions from or interludes in the unfolding plot. Each week's songs provided comment on, or context for, the ongoing action, linking song with narrative in a way that partly foreshadowed the Radio Ballads. In that respect, the two Charlies (Chilton and Parker) were not so far apart after all.

As for Shirley Abicaire – she delivered cheerful songs in an engaging folky style, accompanying herself on a zither (not an autoharp).   Her biggest hit was "Let him go, let him tarry".

Let him go, let him tarry, let him sink or let him swim,
He doesn't care for me, and I don't care for him.
He can go and get another, which I hope he will enjoy,
But I'm going to marry a far nicer boy

Her heyday was in the early '50s, over a decade before Tom Paxton wrote "We're Going to the Zoo" and Julie Felix popularised it on this side of the pond.

Wassail!

Subject: RE: Big Bill Campbell and his Rocky Mountaineers
From: ard mhacha
Date: 13 Apr 09 - 07:04 AM

The BBC programme, As I roved out, mentioned by Ewan McVicar also featured Seamus Ennis, Sunday mornings 9-30, also Charles Chilton produced a brilliant programme on the BBC Light Programme, Songs of the Blue and the Grey/[US Civil War] around the early 1950s.

Subject: RE: Big Bill Campbell and his Rocky Mountaineers
From: RangerSteve
Date: 13 Apr 09 - 09:53 AM

His recordings are available on the BACM label from the U.K.

Subject: RE: Big Bill Campbell and his Rocky Mountaineers
From: GUEST
Date: 01 Dec 09 - 12:23 PM

I WAS THINKING IN BED ABOUT VARIOUS THINGS AND I CAME UP WITH 'BIG BILL CAMPBELL'AND WAS THINKING DID HE SING "MY OLD ROCKING CHAIR". REGARDS BRIAN. [e-mail]

Subject: RE: Big Bill Campbell and his Rocky Mountaineers
From: Eric Armstrong
Date: 01 Dec 09 - 11:48 PM

Amazing how this thread jumped from 1999 to 2009 as if 10 years were the blink of an eye.
I can recall this program in the mists of memory and if I recall correctly the central character 'Big Bill' did a monologue which I think was entitled 'The Cane bottom chair'. There was also a handsome young cowboy (name forgotten)who came riding in from the range and sang a song. Also a bunkhouse sweetheart(name also forgotten)
It was all part of the British post war fascination with the imagined wild west.Talk about the imagined village!

Subject: RE: Big Bill Campbell and his Rocky Mountaineers
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 02 Dec 09 - 01:03 AM

I remember Big Bill Campbell's Rocky Mountain Rhythm from earliest childhood, & I was born in 1932. I particularly recall a heartbreaking rendering - must have been about 1937 - of 'The Little Red Caboose Behind the Train': the lines "The fast express came roaring at 90 miles an hour, The dew was frozen on the window pane, And as he was a-driving he said a silent prayer For the little red caboose behind the train" became imprinted [probably not entirely accurately] on my memory; & recur to me, in those odd, discrete moments we all have, to this day.

Subject: RE: Big Bill Campbell and his Rocky Mountaineers
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 02 Dec 09 - 01:14 AM

Going back to Shirley Abicair, whom I knew slightly as she was a regular customer at a restaurant my mother used to run in S Kensington, it was definitely the zither she played — I believe she was one of those who took it up under the influence of Anton Karas's inescapable "Harry Lime Theme", the solo soundtrack to the film 'The Third Man' (1949) — still remembered also as the one in which Orson Welles [allegedly] improvised his bit about the Swiss & the cuckoo-clock [inaccurately becoz it was apparently actually Bavarian in origin].

Subject: RE: Big Bill Campbell and his Rocky Mountaineers
From: GUEST
Date: 02 Dec 09 - 02:11 AM

I remember listening to BBC on the BBC in the forties and seeing him live at "The Empire" in Edinburgh. Something in the jungle of wool I laughingly refer to as my memory, tells me he was Canadian.
A CD is available here
My favourite song, performed by the resident comic in the group, was, "The Little Shirt My Mother Made For Me"

The song I best remember Shirley Abicair for, was "Little Boy Fishing"

Eddie

Subject: RE: Big Bill Campbell and his Rocky Mountaineers
From: GUEST
Date: 05 Dec 09 - 04:17 AM

Brian Ward

Eric could not remember the name of the bunk house sweetheart. Her name was Peggy.

Subject: RE: Big Bill Campbell and his Rocky Mountaineers
From: Jim McLean
Date: 05 Dec 09 - 04:42 AM

When I lived for a short time with my brother in Shirlock Road, Hampstead, London,1960ish he introduced me to a large man who my brother said was Big Bill Campbell who sang 'The Little Red Caboose Behind the Train'. I'm not exactly sure of this as it's only a vague memory but could this be correct?

Subject: RE: Big Bill Campbell and his Rocky Mountaineers
From: GUEST,Granny In Wales
Date: 05 Dec 09 - 06:15 AM

I was brought up in St Albans in Hertfordshire and when I was about four years old (1955ish) I found a music book of "Big Bill Campbell and his Rocky Mountain Rhythm" in my father's piano stool. The piano was second-hand and a collection of sheet music came with it. I could read well by that time and had a look through this book. I found, to great amusement, "Alleluia I'm A Bum" and insisted that my father sang it to me. I thought it wonderful to be able to say Bum without being told off! There must have been about a dozen songs in the book, but the only other one I recall was "Can I Sleep In Your Barn Tonight, Mister"

Subject: RE: Big Bill Campbell and his Rocky Mountaineers
From: RoyH (Burl)
Date: 05 Dec 09 - 07:56 AM

Talk about nostalgia! I used to love this show when I was a lad. The girl was known as 'Peggy Bailey, Sweet Voice of the West',and there was 'Sgt.Ted of the Mounties, who later became famous as a musical theatre star, Edmund Hockridge. MGM,I too remember 'The Little Red Caboose behind the train', also 'Hobo Bill's Last Ride, and 'Strawberry Roan'. I loved those storytelling songs. They were usually performed towards the end of the show before a rousing finale.
Bill Campbell used to comment 'Mighty Fine' after every song (a thing lampooned by Tommy Handley in his show) and there were frequent instructions to 'Pass around the Applejack'. I didn't know there was a cd of it. Thanks for the link Guest Eddie, I'll get one right away.

Subject: RE: Big Bill Campbell and his Rocky Mountaineers
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 05 Dec 09 - 09:37 AM

Right, yes, thank you — "Oh that Strawberry Roan": that was the other one that's been tickling around my head!!!

Subject: RE: Big Bill Campbell and his Rocky Mountaineers
From: Flash Company
Date: 05 Dec 09 - 10:50 AM

Mighty Fine!
Remember the words of 'In 1992' which someone mentioned earlier, also Big Bill calling on Si and Hi to sing it.
Buck Douglas was the usual comedy turn, I remember him singing 'Der Fuhrer's Face' and 'Betting the roll on Roamer'. As I was born in 1937, I was about 5 at the time.

FC

Subject: RE: Big Bill Campbell and his Rocky Mountaineers
From: GUEST,Ewan McVicar
Date: 06 Dec 09 - 05:22 AM

Nice to see this threaqd re-emerging.
I now understand that Shirley Abicair played zither. My confusion arose from a memory of a Radio Times photo o9f her holding up the instrument cradled in her arm, as Mother Maybelle played autoharp.
I'd earlier said B B Campbell was perhaps American, later I found a clear assertion elsewhere that he was Canadian.
Ewan

Subject: RE: Big Bill Campbell and his Rocky Mountaineers
From: GUEST,rawhide 38
Date: 26 Dec 09 - 01:50 PM

IVE NEVER FORGET LISTENING TO DICK BARTON ON A SATURDAY MORNING BUT THE PROGRAM I WAS EAGERLY WAITING FOR AT 12OCLCK WAS BIG BILL CAMBELL IN TH LATE FORTIES.PUT ANOTHER LOG ON THE FIRE WHILE LISTEN TO PEGGY. LUCKY.BUCK. AND OF COURSE BIG BLL WHOM OPENED THE PROGRAM WITH IS [HOWDY]I REMEMBER AS IFF IT WERE YESTERDAY .RAWHIDE38.

Subject: RE: Big Bill Campbell and his Rocky Mountaineers
From: open mike
Date: 26 Dec 09 - 02:08 PM

ha! his name was actually "Zeke Winters a.k.a. Big Bill Campbell"

http://www.amazon.com/Rocky-Mountain-Rhythm-Bill-Campbell/dp/B0009VN8AY

and here is the song book
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/BIG-BILL-CAMPBELL-ROCKY-MOUNTAIN-RHYTHM-SONG-BOOK-NO-2_W0QQitemZ310041079915QQcmdZViewItemQQimsxq20091105?IMSfp=TL091105188004r22141

Subject: RE: Big Bill Campbell and his Rocky Mountaineers
From: LindsayCurran
Date: 01 Mar 10 - 10:48 PM

Thanks for the link to get the cd, Guest! I just ordered it!!!

And talking about the wool that is my memory: Hahaha: Thought I remembered hearing him on radio, then later my family have vinyl record which we wore out - but just not possible, since y'all are talking about BBC program AND Zeke Winters, Canadian, aka Big Bill Campbell!

Many thanks. I am delighted to have discovered rootsandrhythm - what a source. Asked them in notes to please credit Mudcat Cafe sending me to them!

Subject: RE: Big Bill Campbell and his Rocky Mountaineers
From: LindsayCurran
Date: 01 Mar 10 - 11:01 PM

Thanks for the link to get the cd, Guest! I just ordered it!!!

And talking about the wool that is my memory: Hahaha: Thought I remembered hearing him on radio, then later my family have vinyl record which we wore out - but just not possible, since y'all are talking about BBC program AND Zeke Winters, Canadian, aka Big Bill Campbell!

Many thanks. I am delighted to have discovered rootsandrhythm - what a source. Asked them in notes to please credit Mudcat Cafe sending me to them!

Subject: RE: Big Bill Campbell and his Rocky Mountaineers
From: GUEST,Guest David Jones
Date: 02 Mar 10 - 04:25 AM

Remember the Big Bill Campbell show very well, the door of the cabin would fly open when a new guest would come in, you could hear the wind and BBC would say "Put some more flapjacks on the fire". There was a fine yodeler as I recall. BBC was Canadian I think. Thanks for all the info.
Elton Hayes, "Sweet Music and a Small Guitar" was his logo. He was very good, did a great rendition of "The Highwayman"

Subject: RE: Big Bill Campbell and his Rocky Mountaineers
From: GUEST,Lisa
Date: 08 Apr 10 - 03:17 PM

My neighbour is the daughter of Big Bill and Peggy, Big Bill died when she was very young though.
If anyone knows where I could get a picture of the stage show I know she would just love it! I have been googling but not come up with anything yet.
Cheers!
Lisa

Subject: RE: Big Bill Campbell and his Rocky Mountaineers
From: RoyH (Burl)
Date: 08 Apr 10 - 03:44 PM

Another regular saying on the show was 'Pass around the applejack'. Anyone remember that? Burl

Subject: RE: Big Bill Campbell and his Rocky Mountaineers
From: Jim McLean
Date: 08 Apr 10 - 04:15 PM

Lisa, could you ask your neighbour if she knows whether her father lived in Sherlock Road, Hampstead, London in and around 1960/1?

Subject: RE: Big Bill Campbell and his Rocky Mountaineers
From: GUEST,Lisa
Date: 09 Apr 10 - 04:42 AM

I will do Jim - any other questions :-)

Subject: RE: Big Bill Campbell and his Rocky Mountaineers
From: Jim McLean
Date: 09 Apr 10 - 07:04 AM

Lisa, thanks, it's because, as I posted earlier, I was visiting my brother then and he introduced me to this big man who my brother said was Big Bill Campbell.

Subject: RE: Big Bill Campbell and his Rocky Mountaineers
From: GUEST,Doc John
Date: 09 Apr 10 - 05:01 PM

Glad this is still going - and getting more interesting all the time. Shows how memories play up! I orignally posted it as '..Rocky Mountaineers', so mine's doing the same!

Subject: RE: Big Bill Campbell and his Rocky Mountaineers
From: GUEST,Mal from Brighton
Date: 10 Apr 10 - 05:21 AM

Big Bill and Peggy used to stay with my mother when they were playing at the Hippodrome Brighton during the war. Peggy was a lovely lady who became very friendly with my brothers and I.   She was only very young then but she seemed very mature to us - I was only about 11/12 years old at the time.   I remember they had a very big car (with seat belts!) and it was a very big thing when we went out with them. It was with Peggy I had my first taste of wine - happy days. I would love to know what happened to them and their later life

Subject: RE: Big Bill Campbell and his Rocky Mountaineers
From: GUEST
Date: 11 Apr 10 - 05:28 PM

the song was the gypsy rover

Subject: RE: Big Bill Campbell and his Rocky Mountaineers
From: Fortunato
Date: 11 Apr 10 - 06:29 PM

very cool stuff.

Subject: RE: Big Bill Campbell and his Rocky Mountaineers
From: GUEST,charlie
Date: 25 Jun 10 - 06:32 AM

hi Mal

im afraid to say Peggy passed away a few years back im not sure about Bill as she had re-married and moved to staffordshire some years back. I know at least one daughter was born in Brighton (my mum) who has also passed and strangely enough a week to the day before nan (peggy) if anyone knows what happened to bill and weather he is still around or went on to have more children i would be really interested also if anyone knows if peggy had any siblings i always presummed she was an only child as she never talked about family.

thanks

Subject: RE: Big Bill Campbell and his Rocky Mountaineers
From: GUEST,john kellett
Date: 19 Jul 10 - 10:18 AM

Memories from my childhood.Also,I remember a discussion with army mates when I was in Egypt in '54-56.It was mooted that the mountie[was it really Ted Hockridge?]always sang "There's silver on the sage tonight" and that Peggy always sang "Prairie Rose" I remember that there were meat sandwiches to go with the applejack;and who could forget thatline from Little Red Caboose ----and the angels are all sober as they ride along in the little red caboose behind the train? In a radio interview,Bill explained that caboose referred to the brake van.Thanks to foregoing contributors for reminding me of agreat show

Subject: RE: Big Bill Campbell and his Rocky Mountaineers
From: GUEST,Polly
Date: 21 Jul 10 - 04:53 PM

Hi all, Big Bill Campbell was my Grandfather! He was a very interesting character!! To set the record straight; he was Canadian, had three wives, two sons, two daughters. Peggy Bailey (The Sweet Voice of the West) was his last wife. Peggy's first daughter was not actually Big Bill's!! I could go on and on...glad to answer any other queries..

Subject: RE: Big Bill Campbell and his Rocky Mountaineers
From: GUEST
Date: 25 Jul 10 - 01:06 PM

ray      Big Bill Campbell (Clarence Church Campbell) died in 1951 and is buried in the churchyard at Littlebury on the Cambridgeshire/Essex borders. I met Peggy a number of times when she lived in Bedford near her daughter (from her marrage to Ernest Durose)but I think she died a few years ago.

Subject: RE: Big Bill Campbell and his Rocky Mountaineers
From: GUEST,guest
Date: 06 Aug 10 - 04:17 AM

If I remember correctly, Big Bill Campbell always sang " Peg o' my Heart, I love you" on all his BBC Saturday early lunchtime shows, before Billy Cotton came on.

Subject: RE: Big Bill Campbell and his Rocky Mountaineers
From: GUEST,Bazjaz
Date: 22 Aug 10 - 03:44 PM

My memory of Big Bill Campbell and his Rocky Mountaineers is the radio progamme always finishing with a line or tune saying 'The clock on the wall say's it's time to go home'

Subject: RE: Big Bill Campbell and his Rocky Mountaineers
From: Jim McLean
Date: 22 Aug 10 - 05:05 PM

Guest posted that Big Bill Campbell died in 1951. This can't be correct?

Subject: RE: Big Bill Campbell and his Rocky Mountaineers
From: GUEST
Date: 11 Sep 10 - 10:14 AM

Ray    Big Bill DID die in 1951. I have been to his grave in Littlebury ,and also had long talks to Peggy when she lived in Bedford . She was known as "The sweet voice of the west",Buck Douglas was "the old cowpuncher" Norman Harper "The yodeling buckeroo" Mervin Saunders and later Eddie O'docherty "The sargent of the mounties" and Ronnie Braun played his old squeese box. Big Bill died in Ipswich in April 1951 while touring with the band. I have three CDs,a recording of the radio show and a touring programme signed by Peggy. I would answer any questions the best I can.