The Not The Finger In Ear Show (1982)

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.

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: 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: 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: 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,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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: EnglishFolkfan
Date: 09 Mar 10 - 10:11 AM

Many thanks indeed Ian for making this available. I didn't see the original broadcast as we were a TV free household at the time but remember it being discussed by friends.

This is the sort of thing I'd love BBC Archives (@ArchiveAtBBC on Twitter) to make available but they've informed me it is the 'music' contractual restrictions that prevent them from doing so.

Surely any online archive of UK Folk is a 'good thing' as an aid to the future collective memory. Please don't criticise those who do make it available.

Subject: RE: The Not The Finger In Ear Show (1982)
From: Emma B
Date: 09 Mar 10 - 11:43 AM

Oh I enjoyed that! but, you've made a happy woman feel very old Ian :)

Subject: RE: The Not The Finger In Ear Show (1982)
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 09 Mar 10 - 11:45 AM

A fascinating glimpse into a world that hasn't changed too much in the past 28 years, apart from the general youthfulness of the faces. I would have been 21 that summer; lurking in Folk Clubs, doing the odd floor-spot of feral-wyrdness to general bafflement - & looking at this it's easy to understand why! Meanwhile, out in the real world The Fall released Hexenduction Hour which puts things into perspective, though Lawrence Heath's tank-top is worthy of Mark E. Smith's sartorial disregard.

Is that Dave Cousins sitting at the front (1.01 Pt 2)???

Subject: RE: The Not The Finger In Ear Show (1982)
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 09 Mar 10 - 12:09 PM

I thought it was brilliant. I wish there was more of it! :-) I liked the bit at the end where it said some things have changed - many haven't. I had already noticed Colins comment about people believing it is all either introspective singer songwriters or 90 verse Scottish ballads. One of the things that has changed is that it is no longer just the general public that believe that. Judging by some of the arguments here half the folk world believe it as well:-P

Cheers

DeG

Subject: RE: The Not The Finger In Ear Show (1982)
From: Folknacious
Date: 09 Mar 10 - 01:50 PM

Perhaps due to the usual Mudcat descent into fracas, nobody answered my question in post 2 about whether Webb's Wonders still exist: google doesn't help. For obvious reasons the spirit of Oak was in there, which I liked very much. I also thought it was a nice touch having everybody who played make up that fine English ceilidh band at the end. Did anything like that line-up exist in real life or was it cleverly contrived casting by Mr. A. which made that band fall together?

Subject: RE: The Not The Finger In Ear Show (1982)
From: Marje
Date: 09 Mar 10 - 01:58 PM

I'd like to thank Ian for directing us to these clips. I've really enjoyed seeing them and I think they capture the feeling of the time very well. It's interesting to see how those performers (nearly all of whom I've seen in the flesh in recent years) have developed and aged (or not!). I really can't see that carping on about the choice of performers shown has any more point than complaining about the Fair Isle jumper or those ill-advised trousers of Martin Simpson's.

It's a great snapshot of folk activity in the early 1980s.

Marje

Subject: RE: The Not The Finger In Ear Show (1982)
From: GUEST,Helen Pitt
Date: 09 Mar 10 - 02:10 PM

I would just like to thank Ian for providing the links above.

I lived in Guildford for a year or so in 1981/2 and always enjoyed the evenings at Shackleford. For me it rates right up there with The Longboat (Old Crown in my time!) in Birmingham and the Sun Inn, Stockton in terms of the quality of guests and residents, and in terms of the enjoyment it provided. Happy memories of many great guests including Peta Webb, Tony Rose, Eric Bogle, Maggie Holland and many others, and especially of the first occasion I saw Packie Byrne, who became a favourtie from then on.

I would like to think that a few of the 500 people who were motivated to write in for details of folk clubs after seeing these programmes are still enjoying the folk scene. That would be a remarkable tribute to the project. But I can certainly confirm that Shackleford Folk Club helped establish my continuing interest and participation.

Helen

Subject: RE: The Not The Finger In Ear Show (1982)
From: Murray MacLeod
Date: 09 Mar 10 - 02:16 PM

A thousand thanks to Ian Anderson for providing this absolutely fascinating snapshot of the folk scene in 1982.

The visual and audio quality is remarkable as well, better in fact than most videos which have been recorded and uploaded recently.

There was a lot to be said for the old analogue technology.

Subject: RE: The Not The Finger In Ear Show (1982)
From: Sugwash
Date: 09 Mar 10 - 02:20 PM

Well done Ian, a great picture of how things were back in the day. I wonder if anyone else has archive film of folk clubs/events, I, for one, would like to see them.

Subject: RE: The Not The Finger In Ear Show (1982)
From: George Papavgeris
Date: 09 Mar 10 - 03:11 PM

I just got round to watching it - WONDERFUL, thank you again, Ian!
I hadn't seen Martin Simpson until recently - wow, the guy was something else, his delivery of the song so impassioned, and his guitarwork of course needs no accolades from me, it's way up there.

The 80s and early 90s were a "dead" period folk-wise for me as far as English (and American) folk music is concerned, as I was traipsing around Europe and following other musical threads. To see Pete and Sue, Maggie and Peta (not to mention a youthful Ian) in their heyday was a special treat for me therefore, and filled a yawning gap in my experience.

Thanks again, Ian!

Subject: RE: The Not The Finger In Ear Show (1982)
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 09 Mar 10 - 03:11 PM

Well worth while reviving, and Murray is very right about the quality - lucky a VHS tape of that age was not a lot worse.

Subject: The Not The Finger In Ear Show (1982)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 09 Mar 10 - 03:31 PM

Well, let's try this again. This thread is not about Dick Miles, and he is not welcome to post in this thread. Please do not make any reference to him in this thread. I'll move posts I can salvage from the other thread - but I have a lunch date now and don't have time quite yet.
Thank you.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: The Not The Finger In Ear Show (1982)
From: RTim
Date: 09 Mar 10 - 03:36 PM

Thank you Joe for leaving the original post!


Tim Radford

Subject: RE: The Not The Finger In Ear Show (1982)
From: Phil Cooper
Date: 09 Mar 10 - 04:11 PM

I really liked watching the clips, thanks for posting them, Ian.

Subject: RE: The Not The Finger In Ear Show (1982)
From: Ian Anderson
Date: 09 Mar 10 - 04:31 PM

Thanks Joe.

I'll try to reconstruct from memory some info I gave before it all went pear-shaped.

To make Open Door programmes you had to pitch the idea at the BBC and put in quite a bit of legwork to justify and then develop the idea. They could only be made by or on behalf of charitable/ community organisations, not by individuals, but in those days I was on the EFDSS NEC so that was legit.

By 1982, many of the folk clubs that had emerged in the 60s/70s boom years were struggling, so we decided to try and put a bit of the good music that you might find in a typical (not specialist) folk club in front of the public. Everybody involved did it for free including all the artists and the venue. The budget was minuscule. I asked artists I knew, on the basis that a) I thought they were good and up to it, b) between them we got as wide a cross section of music as we could in the four songs possible while c) having a good variety of instruments played and d) a decent gender balance. On top of that, the idea was that put together they would make a nifty ceilidh band for Eddie to call to. Oh, and I didn't think it was appropriate to play/sing or MC myself - I didn't want it to be wilfully misinterpreted as self-promotion.

Of course there could have been many alternative artists/ permutations of the above, but I think the set we had was very decent.

Of course it's dated now visually. Of course the clothes, haircuts, trousers etc look amusing - but then so do clips of the audience for Top Of The Pops in the same era. It was how people looked then. I hope the music stands up though. Oddly, the most criticism I remember after it was broadcast was that the women performers "let the side down" because they didn't have glam TV make-up, haird-dos and frocks!.

What I wasn't to know was that this might well turn out to be one of the few bits of reasonably professional documentary surviving from the folk club scene of that time.

Thanks to everybody who made positive comments before the thread got zapped. When I have time, I've also got a VHS tape (off-air again) from a nice full-length documentary that one of the southern region TV stations made of a later 80s Bracknell Folk Festival that I organised. I'll try to digitise that and upload it in the same way before long.

And yes, I know it's strictly illegal ;-)

Subject: RE: The Not The Finger In Ear Show (1982)
From: Steve Hunt
Date: 09 Mar 10 - 04:46 PM

I would LOVE to see that Bracknell film resurface. I've still got a VHS tape of it knocking around, but sadly nothing to play it on these days. In amongst all the great footage of Muzikas, Davy Spillane and Dembo Konte & Kasau Kuyateh there's a nice little sequence involving John Maxwell and Jess - my old Staffordshire Bull terrier, and it would be really nice to see both of them again!

Subject: RE: The Not The Finger In Ear Show (1982)
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 09 Mar 10 - 04:50 PM

Hmmm. I say no more pending the resurrection and the life everlasting (of innocuous previous posts).

Subject: RE: The Not The Finger In Ear Show (1982)
From: Leadfingers
Date: 09 Mar 10 - 04:55 PM

As I recall , in that Bracknell film , there is a short sequence of an Hairy Oaf sat in the tailgate of his estate Car playing his banjo !

Subject: RE: The Not The Finger In Ear Show (1982)
From: NormanD
Date: 09 Mar 10 - 05:18 PM

Excellent film - a good document of its time. It's been said elsewhere that all (?) the performers are still active, one way or another. Martin Simpson was as good then as I've seen him in the last couple of years. And I know the 70s were the years of lost style.....but, that bow tie, not to mention the trousers.

Subject: RE: The Not The Finger In Ear Show (1982)
From: Ian Anderson
Date: 09 Mar 10 - 05:32 PM

Yes, Terry & Steve, I think you're both right. One of the more priceless bits is where they do a vox pop interview with said Maxwell (RIP) as a punter and ask him who he's looking forward to seeing at the festival. "Tiger Moth", he squawks. They obviously rumbled him in the editing suite as it then cuts direct to him at the drum stool!

Trying to remember who else is in it now . . . June (in her New Order look) & Maddy as the Silly Sisters, Roy Bailey & Leon Rosselson, Pilgrim Morris, Feet First . . . lots of campers . . . more finger-in-ear and pewter tankard denial from Ms Coxson . . . and haircuts. 1988 I think.

I'll get to it a.s.a.p.

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

I said it elsewhere, but just to repeat - thanks for putting those up Ian. I had heard about them before, but never saw the programme at the time. For me it's entertaining to see the earlier MC'ing of Lawrence .. not a lot changed there then!! (Mind you the tank top seems to have disappeared these days) Interesting to note that this must have been in the days before Pete started flatfooting with bouzouki in view of Lawrence's comments at around 7 minutes in in the first clip!! Great to see all those earlier performances (and also one or two of our current club regulars all that time ago).

Subject: RE: The Not The Finger In Ear Show (1982)
From: GUEST,Ralphie
Date: 10 Mar 10 - 02:12 AM

I too set my VHS machine for this. Lord knows where it's gone now. Well done Ian for finding it.
I would imagine that the original Open Door strand of programmes would not have been very high up on the Beebs archiving food chain, and has long since been wiped. So, Ian, you may have the only extant copy! Transfer it to DVD/Hard drive instantly, against the day when BBC4 turn their spotlight on English music again.
I don't think that contractual issues would be a problem, After all repeat fees, would be silly, as everyone did it for free anyway!

Now heres an idea. Why not issue it as a cover DVD on a future fRoots mag? Saves you compiling a CD for once! And then some of your overseas readers might get a chance to see the sartorial elegance!

Oh, and I'm with Joanie. Re-adjust Mr Simpsons contract to include those trousers for every gig, or no fee!

Personally, I remember driving down the M3 on a regular basis to visit Stagfolk. Lawrence even gave my little beat combo a couple of gigs there. Top Man.

Subject: RE: The Not The Finger In Ear Show (1982)
From: Murray MacLeod
Date: 10 Mar 10 - 03:14 AM

Since Martin Simpson's trousers and bow tie have attracted rave reviews (and justifiably so imo) I would just like to draw attention to his nails as well. My guess is that in 1982 there were no nail salons in Scunthorpe doing acrylic nails, so it would appear that he has done a DIY job using offcuts of a table-tennis ball. Pretty damned effective, whatever. That is an amazing rendition of "The Red-haired Boy" (or "the Jolly Beggarman" if you prefer)

If I have one teensy criticism, production -wise, of this wonderful video, it is that Ian talks over the first half of Martin's rendition, so we hear him in the background, but only get a minute or so close-up of him playing. Still, it's probably the only video clip in existence of MS with his old Abnett guitar, and the sound (the quality of which is incredible, as I said above) makes me wonder why he ever changed to Sobells.

Subject: RE: The Not The Finger In Ear Show (1982)
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 10 Mar 10 - 03:36 AM

I noticed the nails. Surely one could get acrylic nails in the 80s. Simpson's whole nails were covered, and the curvature on a table-tennis ball would be wrong for that. And the colour of his was not a sufficiently dead white (on my screen) for that to be the explanation.

Some Abnetts were very good. But I know of at least one Abnett dreadnought that I think is horrid, all thin and scratchy with no thud or boom.

The programme seems to me to be an important historical document that ought to be preserved - but one would need BBC permission and performers' consents (unless the BBC got total transferable waivers) to put it out as a fruity cover disc, and I can imagine lawyers having nightmares over the Data Protection Act consequences of showing the audience, from whom waivers might well not have been obtained in 1982.

Subject: RE: The Not The Finger In Ear Show (1982)
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 10 Mar 10 - 03:39 AM

http://coolnailsart.com/acrylic-nails-history/

Subject: RE: The Not The Finger In Ear Show (1982)
From: GUEST,Ralphie
Date: 10 Mar 10 - 04:02 AM

Table tennis balls for fingernails?
Abnetts for Sobells?
Jumpers for goalposts?
Those were the days Eh!
Agree about Mr A daring to talk all over the sainted Mr S. (Bigging up his part as per usual!)
As for a DVD release. Publish and be damned. Pretty sure that the artists oncerned would be grateful for the publicity (indeed, any publicity!).

Subject: RE: The Not The Finger In Ear Show (1982)
From: Stower
Date: 10 Mar 10 - 04:11 AM

Ian, as others have said, thank you so much for putting this up. Wonderful.

Subject: RE: The Not The Finger In Ear Show (1982)
From: GUEST,Ralphie
Date: 10 Mar 10 - 04:23 AM

Richard.
Legal point acknowledged, But I doubt if anyone still working at the Beeb was even there when this programme was made. Even so, would they care much? This wouldn't be a worldwide release (a la Michael Jacksons last rehearsal tapes).
Just a Freebie giveaway, as an historical artifact. And I think that members of the audience on the night would be delighted to appear on a fRoots cover DVD. (Unless they were committing unspeakable clothing offences that they wouldn't want their children to see!)

Subject: RE: The Not The Finger In Ear Show (1982)
From: Ian Anderson
Date: 10 Mar 10 - 04:43 AM

Midnight oil burned . . .

TVS broadcast a half hour documentary about the 1988 Bracknell Folk Festival, filmed at South Hill Park. I've digitised an off-air VHS. I think it nicely captures the atmosphere of the event with lots of audience participation plus artists like June Tabor & Maddy Prior as The Silly Sisters, Leon Rosselson & Roy Bailey, the Davy Spillane Band from Ireland, Marta Sebestyen & Muzsikas from Hungary, kora masters Dembo Konte & Kausu Kuyateh from Gambia/Senegal, morris and clog dancers, workshops, singers in the cellar bar and all sorts.

Locals and regulars will spot lots of yourselves!

I.i.r.c. this was my second year as festival director. Good though this little film is, unfortunately the production company only had the budget to film one day, so they missed lots of other great artists I had on that year's bill including the Copper Family, Blowzabella, Najma Akhtar, Andrew Cronshaw, Peter Bellamy, John Kirkpatrick & Sue Harris, Danny Thompson, Dave Burland, Bill Caddick, Taxi Pata Pata, Wizz Jones, Hassan Erraji, Andy White and loads more. Such is life.        

Part 1.
Part 2.
Part 3.

Subject: RE: The Not The Finger In Ear Show (1982)
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 10 Mar 10 - 04:56 AM

Has anyone got a set of copies of the Anglia TV specials on Cambridge? They used the whole of a song sung by my then band (my late wife, youngest daughter, Royston and me) one year and even though I had contacts at Anglia in those days they wanted to charge me £80 for a copy!

Subject: RE: The Not The Finger In Ear Show (1982)
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 10 Mar 10 - 05:15 AM

What about 'Songs from the Two Brewers'? I think it was 70's - The Two Brewers was a pub in Salford and I think the programme was made by Granada. I remember Steeleye Span featuring but can't remember much else:-( ANyone know if any of those could be 'resurected'.

See what you have started here, Ian:-)

Dave

Subject: RE: The Not The Finger In Ear Show (1982)
From: SteveMansfield
Date: 10 Mar 10 - 05:17 AM

TVS broadcast a half hour documentary about the 1988 Bracknell Folk Festival, filmed at South Hill Park. I've digitised an off-air VHS. I think it nicely captures the atmosphere of the event with lots of audience participation plus artists like June Tabor & Maddy Prior as The Silly Sisters, Leon Rosselson & Roy Bailey, the Davy Spillane Band from Ireland, Marta Sebestyen & Muzsikas from Hungary, kora masters Dembo Konte & Kausu Kuyateh from Gambia/Senegal, morris and clog dancers, workshops, singers in the cellar bar and all sorts.

Wow, looking forward to seeing that later. Thanks for putting that up Ian!

Subject: RE: The Not The Finger In Ear Show (1982)
From: Folknacious
Date: 10 Mar 10 - 11:00 AM

Bracknell film - great! What a nice mixture of music, in some ways more adventurous than many festivals programme these days, and it felt like you'd be among lots of very nice relaxed people if you went. It's funny how the band that was probably considered the most "modern" then, Davey Spillane, seems the most dated now, that and a snatch of one ear-poppingly nasal shanty singer in the basement.

PS I think I may have fallen in love with Marta Sebestyen . . .

Subject: RE: The Not The Finger In Ear Show (1982)
From: Brian Peters
Date: 10 Mar 10 - 11:16 AM

Thanks Ian - both 'Not the Finger' and Bracknell films are fab. And no-one's changed a bit...

I only experienced Anderson-era Bracknell once, but it was one of the best festivals I ever went to. I remember striding up to Mr. A. and telling him portentiously, "Here's one sceptical Northerner [up here we hated 'Southern Rag' on principle] who thinks your festival is great." His reply was more diplomatic than I really deserved.

Subject: RE: The Not The Finger In Ear Show (1982)
From: GUEST,David E.
Date: 10 Mar 10 - 11:42 AM

Wonderful stuff. I must agree with the Spillane comment, funny how the kora masters music is so timeless but some is so... "80's." Again, thank you Ian. Oh, and Tiger Moth still sound fine to these ears.

David E.

Subject: RE: The Not The Finger In Ear Show (1982)
From: Mavis Enderby
Date: 10 Mar 10 - 03:42 PM

Excellent stuff Ian - thanks

2 questions though:

What else have you got in your loft?

Are you planning to direct any more festivals?

Pete.

Subject: RE: The Not The Finger In Ear Show (1982)
From: Ian Anderson
Date: 10 Mar 10 - 04:13 PM

What else have you got in your loft?

Nothing else along the lines of those two. I have loads taped off the telly over the years but nothing else I was personally involved in like that so I couldn't YouTube them. I only feel able to be a video bootlegger within strict limits! I'm working on putting some of my old radio shows from the 80s/90s up on Podomatic as vintage podcasts even though that's quite questionable too: I wouldn't do it with anybody else's programmes.

Are you planning to direct any more festivals?

I haven't been asked to for a long time so I think it's very unlikely. Anyway, if you look at the bills of festivals now, that kind of variety is quite unusual and so presumably not really wanted by current audiences. Back then people were excited by the voyage of discovery. Now they're excited by evolutions within stuff they already know, which I suppose is equally valid but not so appealing to me. Times change.

Subject: RE: The Not The Finger In Ear Show (1982)
From: Mavis Enderby
Date: 10 Mar 10 - 05:02 PM

I'd enjoy that sort of variety, I bet quite a few others would too.

Thanks again for posting these programmes, and I look forward to the radio shows.

Pete.

Subject: RE: The Not The Finger In Ear Show (1982)
From: George Papavgeris
Date: 10 Mar 10 - 05:50 PM

Watched the Bracknell fest set. So lovely to see Maddy & June as still pretty fresh Silly Sisters, Ian Giles, Tony "Cap'n" O'Neil, and Leadfingers with dark hair (though I noticed, already with hat firmly wedged)! Overall, a great half-hour pot-pourri giving us a taste of all manner of things, from singarounds, shanties, English, celtic, clog and Morris, songwriter/protest and world music.

Once more thanks, Ian.

Subject: RE: The Not The Finger In Ear Show (1982)
From: Ian Burdon
Date: 11 Mar 10 - 02:47 AM

re. getting permissions from the Beeb for releasing material on DVD: this may not be a precisely similar situation but 3 or 4 years ago I was trying hard to get a licence to remaster and release on DVD all of the surviving footage in the BBC archives of the late Jake Thackray. The BBC were very helpful and supportive, particularly since we already knew the library index codes for most of the footage, but the arm which handles the licencing would not budge from the position that they had to charge the same rate whether I was looking for a very limited release to a small group of fans or a world-wide release of a blockbuster. As I recall the rate then was around £1000 per broadcast minute of video footage which blew the project out of the water.

Subject: RE: The Not The Finger In Ear Show (1982)
From: GUEST,Chris B (Born Again Scouser)
Date: 11 Mar 10 - 08:17 AM

I must have a look at this when I get home.

As it happens, I've got a fair bit of stuff on old VHS tapes but I don't have the kit or the know-how to put it on the PC. What sort of gear would I need (without spending a fortune)?

Subject: RE: The Not The Finger In Ear Show (1982)
From: Folknacious
Date: 11 Mar 10 - 08:31 AM

I have no idea about PCs, but iMacs come with iMovie installed for doing the editing (and iDVD too, for burning DVDs), so you just need an analogue-digital converter box to stick between your VHS player and computer. iMovie is very easy to use and intuitive for professional-looking edits, fades, credits etc. Looks like what Ian A used I'd say. I expect there'll be PC equivalents. The only other thing you need is a decent size hard drive as video files are huge. On YouTube I think you are limited to max 10 mins per clip, which will be why these programmes discussed here were edited that way.

Subject: RE: The Not The Finger In Ear Show (1982)
From: Leadfingers
Date: 11 Mar 10 - 09:21 PM

WHEEEE !! There I am at the end of Part 1 ! Still have the Maya Banjo , but the Marina Estate went the way of all Marinas a LONG time back .
And that CANT be Steve's dog at 6.50 during Pilgrim Morris's bit can it ?

Subject: RE: The Not The Finger In Ear Show (1982)
From: GUEST,PeterC
Date: 12 Mar 10 - 02:55 PM

Webbs Wonders? No they don't still exist. Peta once told me that they gave up when the gigs stopped being fun and started feeling like work.

Subject: RE: The Not The Finger In Ear Show (1982)
From: Folknacious
Date: 16 Mar 10 - 01:56 PM

Thanks for finally answering that one. Shame.

I've watched those Bracknell ones a couple of times now. Things seemed more adventurous and carefree then, and the music well worth exploring for people who came later. I continue to be besotted by Marta Sebestyen but find that her 80s album with Muzsikas doesnt seem to be available at an affordable price, not via Amazon anyway.

Talking of old TV, does anybody else remember a little series of short programmes called something like Souvenirs Of Sidmouth that went out every evening for a week, sometime -I'm guessing now - around the early 1980s? I particularly recall an Irish musician playing several tin whistles at once, joined together with rubber tube, but generally they were magical.

Subject: RE: The Not The Finger In Ear Show (1982)
From: Howard Jones
Date: 16 Mar 10 - 02:29 PM

"I particularly recall an Irish musician playing several tin whistles at once, joined together with rubber tube".

That would probably be the wonderful Packie Byrne, using a shower attachment designed to push onto bathroom taps. I've been racking my brains to remember what he called it, but without success. I hope Bonnie sees this and can tell us.

Subject: RE: The Not The Finger In Ear Show (1982)
From: GUEST,Ralphie
Date: 17 Mar 10 - 03:36 AM

Yes Howard....Twas indeed Packie!
I recently found his home mede Lagerphone...(a crucifix encrusted with bottle tops) Which will emerge in the percussion section when Paddingtons Molly side come out of retirement in a couple of months time.
Also, I still have the blue bowler hat he made for me!
I'm also the temporary custodian of the cut down harmonium that Bonnie used on the road.
And, at the ripe old age of 93, he's still going strong in Donegal!
Sorry for the thread drift....Nostalgia isn't what it was, But then again, it never was what it was!

Subject: RE: The Not The Finger In Ear Show (1982)
From: GUEST,Ralphie.
Date: 17 Mar 10 - 03:42 AM

Looking forward to the podcast of your Kershaw show dep.
Also looking forward to the cheque for the repeat fees!

Subject: RE: The Not The Finger In Ear Show (1982)
From: GUEST,guest, Dave in Michigan
Date: 05 Nov 10 - 01:10 PM

Ta ever so, Ian, particularly for Webb's Wonders. Anyone know the background of the song they sang, "Forgive and Forget"? It clearly has much common ancestry with the Carter Family's "Gold Watch and Chain".

(Yes, this really deserves a separate thread, but as a guest, I can't start one.)

Subject: RE: The Not The Finger In Ear Show (1982)
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 05 Nov 10 - 07:44 PM

Great stuff in there. I still think of 1982 as quite recent - it's how time plays tricks with us.

To drift a bit - 'it's cringe-makingly dated (check the perms, squint at the jumpers.' Why is it that happens? Who finds the customs and styles of any period "cringemaking", apart from the one just a few years previous to the present? Any present, that is to say.

It always seems to be the case. As if somehow whatever period we happen to be living in wasn't equally ridiculous.

When it comes to the music the same thing happens often enough. Not so much with folk music people, but we still sometimes fall into the trap.