Random Folk Reflections

Subject: Random Folk Reflections
From: Nigel Paterson
Date: 30 Jan 11 - 08:36 AM

These snippets from my memory come from time spent at Chelmsford Folk Club (Essex, UK) in the 60s, both pre & post Halliard. Each, in it's own way, has left an indelible impression. In no particular order....
                                     Johnny Silvo out performing just about everyone...Paul Simon singing 'Kathy's Song' (Kathy in the song worked on the door at the club)...The talent & humour of The Strawberry Hill Boys...Jackson C. Frank singing 'Blues Run The Game'...John Foreman singing 'If It wasn't for the'ouses In Between'...Dave Moran singing 'The Old Triangle' with more passion than was decent!...Pete Sayers & his stunning banjo playing...The Singing Postman (Have you got a Light Boy?)...Doris Henderson & her autoharp...Davy Graham playing 'Angie'...Bert Jansch singing/playing 'Needle of Death'...Art Garfunkel appearing solo, covering for an absent Paul Simon...John Renbourn doing things on a guitar I could only dream of...Alex Campbell, spellbinding, drunk or sober...Martin Carthy getting his guitar tuned 'just right'...the energetic Malcolm Price Trio...Jacqui & Bridie singing/performing 'Seth Davy' with puppets...Diz Disley putting more notes into an improvised solo in the middle of 'Sweet Georgia Brown' than was humanly possible...Geoff Harris singing 'The Shoals of Herring' with a tear in his eye...Roy Guest performing 'Cosher Bailey's Engine'...the club audience joining in with the chorus of 'The Wild Rover', stamping their feet in time.
                I've forgotten as many as I've remembered, but I'll add a few more if & when they come to me.
                     Nigel.

Subject: RE: Random Folk Reflections
From: Will Fly
Date: 30 Jan 11 - 08:47 AM

Redd Sullivan doing "I Live In Trafalgar Square" with gestures and no front teeth?

Subject: RE: Random Folk Reflections
From: Nigel Paterson
Date: 30 Jan 11 - 10:44 AM

Julie Felix in very 'un-folky' high heels, captivating the audience nonetheless...Cliff Aungier & his emotionally charged 'white blues'...Gerry Loughran in similar vein, UK style blues at their best...Dave & Tonie Arthur singing traditional material in a fresh & unstuffy way...

Subject: RE: Random Folk Reflections
From: Nigel Paterson
Date: 31 Jan 11 - 03:36 AM

Noel Murphy & that certain sense of 'danger' he brought to every performance!...The Corries with their interesting collection of instruments & well-rehearsed, almost 'showbiz' style presentation...Harvey Andrews singing his own, beautifully crafted songs & Chris Rohman (introduced to us by Harvey) whom we only managed to book once or twice before the American military came a-knocking...Al Stewart before fame came a-knocking...The Ian Campbell Folk Group performing with enough verve & energy to rival the National Grid!...The Leesiders, with whom we became good friends (their families looked after us when we were touring in & around Liverpool)...The Black Country Three with their unique repertoire, meticulously researched by Mike Raven...Shirley Collins, who even back then, commanded the respect of the audience with her love for & obvious knowledge of the genre...Nic Jones' first steps playing the fiddle (I had tried first, but quickly realising that the fiddle was not for me, casually passed the instrument to Nic, who took to it like the proverbial duck to water)...

Subject: RE: Random Folk Reflections
From: johnadams
Date: 31 Jan 11 - 06:17 AM

Ah - the elusive Jones fiddle style!!

In my early days of learning the fiddle I sat next to Nic on numerous occasions, including extended periods when I toured with Bandoggs as sound engineer, TRYING to pick up his way of playing. Every time I'd walk away from the session thinking I'd cracked it, only to have it evaporate in very short order.


.... and may I add, Mr P, that I still have a clear picture of visiting Matlock Folk club one night (circa 1967?) and seeing The Halliard for the very first time - a very fine night indeed.

Subject: RE: Random Folk Reflections
From: Nigel Paterson
Date: 31 Jan 11 - 06:41 AM

Good to hear from you John. Yes, I remember the Matlock Club too. We enjoyed playing there...well run & a really responsive audience. 1967 sounds about right. A little Halliard trivia...we had a set of professional publicity photos taken on The Heights Of Abraham in Matlock...haven't seen them in years, but I seem to remember that 'moody' was the order of the day!
             Nigel.

Subject: RE: Random Folk Reflections
From: GUEST,Julia
Date: 31 Jan 11 - 06:51 AM

A very young Davey Johnstone brought along by Noel Murphy.
Jonesey trying to flog me raffle tickets - look where that got me!

Subject: RE: Random Folk Reflections
From: johnadams
Date: 31 Jan 11 - 07:18 AM

Ah yes - banjo x ferrari = Shaggis (aka. Mr D Johnstone).

(Surely you didn't win him in the raffle?).

Subject: RE: Random Folk Reflections
From: Nigel Paterson
Date: 31 Jan 11 - 10:41 AM

I can confirm that Shaggis was NOT on the list of raffle prizes, although had he been, I think we could probably have tripled our sales at the very least! Staying with raffles for a moment longer, during one particularly bibulous evening, I offered my guitar up as a prize. The offer was taken seriously & I watched my guitar leave the club at the end of the evening in the arms of another man! What I still don't understand to this day is why no one tried to stop me?!             Back to the plot...Nigel Denver, full of gallic charm & wit...John Martyn, supreme guitarist, idiosyncratic performer clearly destined for greatness...Bert(A.L.)Lloyd, one of the greatest traditional performers ever to grace our boards, as was Cyril Tawney too...

Subject: RE: Random Folk Reflections
From: Old Vermin
Date: 31 Jan 11 - 01:10 PM

The Yetties in a shack next to Ash vale railway station c 1966. I didn't believe any unamplified band could be so loud.

Dave Swarbrick and Martin Carthy somewhere in London with wood panelling. Hadn't heard anything like them before - so young, such energy, and such tunes.

Watersons - probably at the White Lion - now gone - in Guildford. My brain had difficulty handling the harmonies.

Alex Campbell working his way through a bottle of Scotch at Addlestone. About 1970 or 1971? Past his best by then.

The excellent 'Eric' doing Jones's Ale in the Red House at Woking and the thing about the Dun Cow catching fire, and Danny Denningberg - saw him in Godalming the other day - invariably and very seriously doing [probably the Gresford] Mine Disaster or whatever it was in the same venue. Also someone would do

'I don't care if it rains or freezes
long as I've got my plastic Jesus
Riding on the dashboard of my car...'

and

'LBJ looks after me, with Uncle Harold, Georgie Brown and Marshall Ky
They have got me well protected from the mean and disaffected
They're by buddies and they're looking after me.

- that'll be before 1970, then.

And of course -

Will ye go Lassie, go
&
The Leaving of Liverpool.


I associate Redd Sullivan with the Candlelight Fisherman, perhaps wrongly.

Can't remember any performers from the Guildford club in the Trades & Labour and Star save a lad doing 'They're burning down the house I was brung up in...'

Subject: RE: Random Folk Reflections
From: Leadfingers
Date: 31 Jan 11 - 05:31 PM

Louis Killen MC ing at Hitchin , and finally playing Fox Hunters Jig without any Hiccup !
And Redd Sullivan in 1964 as Guest the first time I went to a Folk Club !

Subject: RE: Random Folk Reflections
From: Nigel Paterson
Date: 01 Feb 11 - 02:39 AM

Some good memory joggers here...Louis Killen, Redd Sullivan appearing at Chelmsford too & not forgetting Colin Wilkie & Trevor Lucas. There was a Johnny (I just can't recall his surname) who played a mean twelve string guitar...one of the nicest guys on the circuit at the time. Anyone figure out who I'm thinking of?

Subject: RE: Random Folk Reflections
From: Nigel Paterson
Date: 02 Feb 11 - 06:11 AM

This trip down memory lane would not be complete without mentioning Jim & Maureen McLister (fairly sure I've got the name right), the incredibly supportive, generous & amazingly tolerant licensees of The White Hart where the Chelmsford club was based. The 'after hours' sessions on a Sunday night were not for the faint hearted. The local liver transplant coordinator must have been kept VERY busy! The White Hart offered B&B to the occasional weary traveller, but often as not, on a Sunday night, whatever rooms were free were occupied by the 'tired & emotional' who had missed the last train/bus & were just too wrecked to venture out into the cold night air. I don't remember Jim & Maureen charging much for the rooms either, certainly not the going rate.
          Ok, I think my nostalgia trip is just about done...good times...good music...good company...six years of my life that have relevance to this very day.
                                                                                                                      Nigel.

Subject: RE: Random Folk Reflections
From: Will Fly
Date: 02 Feb 11 - 06:18 AM

Pete Maynard & Marion Gray - aka The Thamesiders. Booked them at Clanfolk in the late '60s. Anyone else remember them? They (with Martin Carthy) were on the EP "A London Hootennay" with Davy Graham.

Subject: RE: Random Folk Reflections
From: GUEST
Date: 02 Feb 11 - 06:24 AM

meeting leadfingers second time ever at folk club (Capital) **shudder**
Mike gibson

Subject: RE: Random Folk Reflections
From: Splott Man
Date: 02 Feb 11 - 08:01 AM

Would that 12 string player be Johnny Joyce?

There was another bloke I remember in the Kingston area who did Leadbelly stuff on a huge Zemaitis 12 string, I can't remember his name though.

Subject: RE: Random Folk Reflections
From: Nigel Paterson
Date: 02 Feb 11 - 12:37 PM

Splott Man, yes, Johnny Joyce it was...well remembered...thank you,
                                                                                                                      Nigel.

Subject: RE: Random Folk Reflections
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 02 Feb 11 - 02:42 PM

Martin Carthy at the Topic when it was still at The Star at Westgate, when he picked up his guitar to start his second spot a large moth flew out of the soundhole.

Dave H

Subject: RE: Random Folk Reflections
From: Lighter
Date: 03 Jan 23 - 07:26 PM

I'll post this here because it's "random," and the jig was mentioned above.

Indianapolis Journal (Nov. 17, 1889):

"Therre will be solos on the Irish pipes by Garrett O'Sullivan. He is known all over Ireland as 'the Kerry piper.' One selection which he plays never fails to excite the enthusiasm of his audience. It is an ancient Irish hunting tune called 'The Fox-chase,' introducing a description of the fox hunt, the meet of the huntsmen and hounds, the sound of the horns, the cry of the dogs, and the death of the fox, concluding with the fox-hunters' jig,"

Some eighty years later, I heard Irish piper Finbar Furey introduce his performance on vinyl in almost exactly the same words.