Around the Blooming Heather-Whitby Folk Wk Memoir

Subject: Around The Blooming Heather
From: GUEST,Gordon Tyrrall
Date: 26 Aug 19 - 10:02 AM

Whitby Folk Week has just finished for another year so I thought it a good time to report my book,published earlier this year. It's not a history of the festival (that has already been done), but subtitled "A Personal Memoir of Whitby Folk Week over 35 Years,including Scenic Diversions" and is a celebration of the characters and activities that make up not just the Week, but my take on the grass roots folk scene as it has evolved in Britain.There are extended passages about people like Peter Bellamy, but generally I avoided focusing on celebrities.It includes lots of drawings done from life.

It's not on Amazon yet but is available from me for £12 inc postage at [e-mail]

"A personal journey depicting the life and spirit of a unique festival of folk arts inspired by love of a person and a place" - Taffy Thomas

   "Deeply satisfying... a luminous essay...and in the latter section impossible to read without being moved" Clive Pownceby

   "a perceptive,funny and touching memoir" Bob Pegg

   "Very good - apart from all the lies" Malcolm Storey

Subject: RE: Around The Blooming Heather
From: GUEST,JAM
Date: 26 Aug 19 - 11:23 AM

That quote has made me laugh a lot Gordon. The book is great - really enjoyed it. Everyone who knows and loves Whitby Folk Week should buy a copy.

Subject: RE: Around The Blooming Heather
From: Vic Smith
Date: 26 Aug 19 - 12:41 PM

I had the great pleasure of being asked ro review this book for fRoots magazine. Here is the copy that appeared in it:-

GORDON TYRRALL
Around The Blooming Heather
A Personal Memoir of Whitby Folk Week.
Gaho Publishing ISBN 978-1-5272-3324-9
Two things ought to be made clear right from the outset of this review - this reviewer has the highest regard for Gordon Tyrrall both as a person and as a performer. It turns out that Gordon is a pretty good writer as well.
The reviewer also regards Whitby Folk Week as one of the most enjoyable, certainly the most egalitarian festivals in the UK. Not that he has anything like the experience of the festival as the writer who has spent over 35 August weeks there.
What we have here is a very affectionate, well observed but ultimately very personal memoir of an event that has been enjoyed by thousands over the years.
Like the festival itself, the book is full of encounters and it is heavy on names; celebrating and enjoying the company of like-minded others is one of the most enjoyable aspects of the folk scene. People who have been around the scene for a while are going to encounter lots of friends and associates; this reader reached page 40 before he came across a name that he has not met - and there were only a few after that.
Gordon takes us round the festival's many venues and tells us what their particular strengths are, sometimes inserting a story of something that happened there. Elsewhere he diverts into other aspects of his long life as a professional musician and there is short chapter on the merits and disadvantages of various guitar tunings.
It isn't an autobiography though there is one moving chapter on losing a loved one - also in the context of the festival.
If you've already been to Whitby Folk Week then you will be bound to enjoy this book. If you read it and you haven't been there then you will want to go.
www.gordontyrrall.co.uk
Vic Smith

Subject: RE: Around The Blooming Heather
From: The Sandman
Date: 26 Aug 19 - 01:09 PM

Did Bill Price get a mention?

Subject: RE: Around The Blooming Heather
From: GUEST,Gordon Tyrrall
Date: 26 Aug 19 - 01:55 PM

Sadly no I dont think I mention Bill - though I knew him slightly

Subject: RE: Around The Blooming Heather
From: The Sandman
Date: 26 Aug 19 - 03:06 PM

Well i hope it sells well.

Subject: RE: Around The Blooming Heather
From: GUEST,Derek Schofield
Date: 26 Aug 19 - 03:28 PM

Bought a copy at the end of the week and enjoying dipping into it.
A good read, and will be of interest to anyone who has never been to the festival, as well as festival regulars.
Derek

Subject: RE: Around the Blooming Heather-Whitby Folk Wk Memoir
From: r.padgett
Date: 27 Aug 19 - 02:40 AM

Whitby venues of late have been more of a moving target ~ times change, ages of people interested in dance, song and instrument playing and the specials such as re enactments of social history are being creatively sought and keep the interest alive

Musical ability of these youngsters ever pushes forwards ~ good luck to Whitby folk week and the celebration of social history through traditional and new song too!

Ray

Subject: RE: Around the Blooming Heather-Whitby Folk Wk Memoir
From: The Sandman
Date: 27 Aug 19 - 03:32 AM

ray, do you remember the singarounds in the cutty sark back in the seventies
i was one of the people that got that going along with wilsons chris timson, old man knight, we wanted a change from the official drill hall singarounds,

Subject: RE: Around the Blooming Heather-Whitby Folk Wk Memoir
From: GUEST,Malcolm Storey
Date: 27 Aug 19 - 07:38 PM

Gordon

First let me say that we both enjoy/enjoyed the book - well done!
I did not, by the way, say that the things Judy complained about were lies, only that it would have been sensible to check with me before publication.
It took a fair bit of effort to acquire my ferocious reputation and I hate to think how many scurrilous remours we started.
If, hopefully, you do need to do a second imprint please do not omit anything - but, yes, let us look at addenda.
Enjoyed your input at the Brunswick on Friday.
All the very best

Malcolm

Subject: RE: Around the Blooming Heather-Whitby Folk Wk Memoir
From: The Sandman
Date: 28 Aug 19 - 02:20 AM

Malcolm , you were better at running the festival than playing cricket, BUT England need you now,, your country needs you Malcolm.

Subject: RE: Around the Blooming Heather-Whitby Folk Wk Memoir
From: r.padgett
Date: 28 Aug 19 - 02:44 AM

Yes Sandman the Cutty Sark/Tap and Spile and now Station ~ venue was an important singing place and like the old Plough yard a melting pot for singers and harmony ((?) part of the magic of the week ~ the drill hall where I first came across the embryonic Wilsons as a group

The Young'uns ~have they been booked or seen at Whitby folk week yet ~I saw'em at Saltburn first!!

Ray

Subject: RE: Around the Blooming Heather-Whitby Folk Wk Memoir
From: GUEST,Gordon Tyrrall
Date: 28 Aug 19 - 08:45 AM

Thanks Malcolm - in fact I did try to contact you, through Sue, but she didnt have an email address. I didnt try very hard,I have to confess.In the second edition (ha ha) it will say something like - "Sara Grey told me about this incident but it has been disputed by a higher authority".

Subject: RE: Around the Blooming Heather-Whitby Folk Wk Memoir
From: The Sandman
Date: 30 Aug 19 - 01:33 PM

A higher authority?

Subject: RE: Around the Blooming Heather-Whitby Folk Wk Memoir
From: GUEST,Malcolm Storey
Date: 30 Aug 19 - 08:43 PM

I noticed that Dick - but Gordon has always had a way with words!

Subject: RE: Around the Blooming Heather-Whitby Folk Wk Memoir
From: GeoffLawes
Date: 01 Sep 19 - 04:32 AM

I have stewardeded for about 20 years and always finished off the week by attending the heather ceremony - but I have now stopped.Why? Well my wife now comes to Folk Week with me and attends events on an event by event basis. I have entry to the Spa with my Steward's ticket but my wife can only get in for the ceremony by paying £12 . A small charge of a few pounds would be reasonable but not £12.

Subject: RE: Around the Blooming Heather-Whitby Folk Wk Memoir
From: GUEST,Derek Schofield
Date: 01 Sep 19 - 06:03 AM

To be fair, a ticket for the final night, which includes the heather ceremony, also covers the dance/ceilidh or the concert in the theatre (I assume concert goers could go into the heather ceremony) from 7.30.
Derek

Subject: RE: Around the Blooming Heather-Whitby Folk Wk Memoir
From: GeoffLawes
Date: 01 Sep 19 - 09:13 AM

Yes Derek but I'm suggesting a ticket for just the bloomin' heather ceromony for a reasnable price.

Subject: RE: Around the Blooming Heather-Whitby Folk Wk Memoir
From: GUEST
Date: 01 Sep 19 - 04:08 PM

The heather bit is in the final dance price if you don’t like it vote with you feet and don’t go dead easy why should everyone pander to what you want support the festival

Subject: RE: Around the Blooming Heather-Whitby Folk Wk Memoir
From: GUEST,Guest
Date: 01 Sep 19 - 07:02 PM

Haven't been to the bloomin' heather for years.

Could not stand the sound of people patting themselves on the back.

Subject: RE: Around the Blooming Heather-Whitby Folk Wk Memoir
From: The Sandman
Date: 03 Sep 19 - 04:44 PM

Gordon, may your book do well, and i hope Malcolms contribution is mentioned[ he kept the show going many years] including calling me a wanker at a cricket match, hardly conduct befitting either a yorkshire man or a gentlemam ,more reminiscent of the way the fat controller treated his tank engines including the ones called Thomas and Gordon