Peter Bond songwriter

Subject: PeterBond songwriter
From: The Sandman
Date: 09 Apr 20 - 04:11 AM

The Baron and The Busker by Peter Bond

It's the longest running play of all
Expectant people line the wall
The busker's playing tunes he used to march to on parade
And high above the theatre queue
The rich man gazes at the view
And thanks his Gods that he has made the grade
Ladies chatter cheerily, brandy flows around
The rich man draws the velevet curtain shutting out the sound

Ch
Slowly, Slowly turns, Slow turns the wheel
Still it turns

Down below across the square
Down a thousand miles of love and care
The busker's bright but broken tune floats up the foggy street
Now and then he takes a rest
To cough the weather off his chest
And gather up the coins around his feet
His hands upon the clarinet too cold to feel the keys
Dance out their melancholy air of merry misery

I knew a man who used to care
He sat all day in the same old chair
His eyes were sunken in his face like pebbles in the snow
He remembers nineteen twenty six
And now we're in the same old fix
Good God he'd say by now you think they'd know
And like a spluttering gas lamp he slowly flickers down to die
His missis understood his moods and so at last do I

Subject: RE: PeterBond songwriter
From: Raggytash
Date: 09 Apr 20 - 09:02 AM

Great songwriter Dick but why the post?

PS The words are nearly right.

"The busker's bright but broken TUNES FLOAT up the foggy street"

"BUT like a spluttering gas lamp he slowly FLICKERED down to die"

Subject: RE: PeterBond songwriter
From: GUEST,akenaton
Date: 09 Apr 20 - 10:29 AM

One of the finest songwriters! Why is he not more appreciated.
Did Pete Bond perform his own material? I don't think I have heard anything from him other than the famous "Joe Peel" by June T.

Subject: RE: PeterBond songwriter
From: Raggytash
Date: 09 Apr 20 - 11:01 AM

Peter more or less stopped doing gigs in about 1983. On stage he was simply superb but, as that time pre-dated the era of the internet, nothing that I know of was recorded. There was a little bit of Peter and his brother Trevor but that seems to have disappeared into the ether.

Subject: RE: PeterBond songwriter
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 09 Apr 20 - 11:52 AM

I’ll PM Trevor and let him know about this thread - he might be able to add to it.

Subject: RE: PeterBond songwriter
From: Joe G
Date: 09 Apr 20 - 12:07 PM

A superb songwriter - saw him quite a lot when I was still living in Hartlepool in my teens but very little after that

Subject: RE: PeterBond songwriter
From: The Sandman
Date: 09 Apr 20 - 12:51 PM

WHY NOT?if it exposes some good songs and a good songwriter to more people, apart from being a good songwriter and a good performer he was/is avery decent bloke a very caring man.
I had experience of his good nature, when he spent several hours fixing a folk club committee members car, so the guy could go to a work interview, a decent bloke

Subject: RE: PeterBond songwriter
From: Raggytash
Date: 09 Apr 20 - 01:09 PM

Agree 100% Dick, I've known Peter for over 40 years.

Normally though, it be an idea to actually post a comment not just the words of a very good song.

Subject: RE: PeterBond songwriter
From: GUEST,akenaton
Date: 09 Apr 20 - 03:35 PM

Just found   
THIS looks a cracking album. I'm going to order it tomorrow

Subject: RE: PeterBond songwriter
From: JHW
Date: 09 Apr 20 - 03:50 PM

Joe Peel is one of the great songs of all time. You hear about Joe rather than hear the song. What a way to be remembered.

Subject: RE: PeterBond songwriter
From: Raggytash
Date: 09 Apr 20 - 03:55 PM

You wouldn't be disappointed Akenaton. I'm still playing this album after 45 years!

Subject: RE: PeterBond songwriter
From: GUEST,Trevor Bond ,
Date: 09 Apr 20 - 04:04 PM

The album Is Peters first album. I am pleased, and know he will be that people remember him with such affection. I do sing some of his songs and it he is knockede out when I tell him that people still remember the songs.

Subject: RE: PeterBond songwriter
From: GUEST,akenaton
Date: 09 Apr 20 - 04:40 PM

There are only a very few songs which bring me to tears, but Joe Peel has that effect on me every time I hear it. You see, I was brought up by a Scottish "Joe Peel" who had lived almost the same lifestory as Peter's
fictitious? character including the mining and the sport.   I feel the song is too moving to be totally fictitious.

"The day you left, I stayed outside
With scalding tears, no comfort knowing
We all turned up to say goodbye
The church was filled to overflowing
You'd never have believed it if you'd seen
How many people mourned your going
And just how lucky folks still feel
To say they knew Joe Peel"

Subject: RE: PeterBond songwriter
From: GUEST,Trevor Bond
Date: 09 Apr 20 - 04:44 PM

It is not ficticious. But I cant remember exactly the relationship to Peter . Next time I talk to him I will try to verify.

Subject: RE: PeterBond songwriter
From: Raggytash
Date: 09 Apr 20 - 04:59 PM

I think it was his wife's uncle …………….. I think

Subject: RE: PeterBond songwriter
From: GUEST,akenaton
Date: 09 Apr 20 - 05:12 PM

Thanks to you both....Ake

Subject: RE: PeterBond songwriter
From: alanabit
Date: 10 Apr 20 - 03:20 PM

I saw him a couple of times in the seventies at Chris Smyth's excellent Cap and Gown Folk Club on the Kings Road in Reading. I can only endorse everything that has been said about him here. He was an excellent songwriter, a fine performer and a good bloke. I may still have a copy of that album in Koeln. I hope so!

Subject: RE: PeterBond songwriter
From: GUEST,Tom Patterson
Date: 11 Apr 20 - 07:03 AM

I did a couple of floor spots when Peter played in the Birmingham area in the late 70s or early 80s. He was a great performer and someone who gave me encouragement. As a songwriter I think he is up with the very best I have seen playing on the folk circuit. I don't have any of his recordings but still remember sections of several of his songs even though I have not heard anyone sing them since, with the exception of Joe Peel. What a song that one is but I also really liked Ne Coals Off which is, in my view, one of the best "new" songs about World War one.

Subject: RE: PeterBond songwriter
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 11 Apr 20 - 01:04 PM

I thought there might be a mention of Laycock, Caddick and Bond, and A Duck On His Head on this thread, but until now there hasn't been.....

Kitty

Subject: RE: PeterBond songwriter
From: Raggytash
Date: 11 Apr 20 - 01:25 PM

It's a bit like Winter Quarters …………… stuck in one place for so long.



I'll get me coat!

Subject: RE: PeterBond songwriter
From: Mark Dowding
Date: 11 Apr 20 - 04:03 PM

Good to see Pete is still remembered. It's also interesting to see that a song that he wrote is associated with another singer - June Tabor. He definitely wrote that one!
Peter performed all his own material - there may have been the odd exception but I can't think of anything at the moment.
I'm still singing his songs.
We had him at our club in 2012 when he started doing a few gigs after a long absence and people still talk about that night.
He did three solo LPs - It's Alright For Some, See me up, See me down, Awkward Age and as mentioned above "A Duck On His Head" with Tim and Bill.
I hope he's OK in these troubled times.
Stay Safe
Mark

Subject: RE: PeterBond songwriter
From: Raggytash
Date: 11 Apr 20 - 04:33 PM

After much persuasion on my part and one other club member at the White Hart in Mickleby (Nr Whitby) we booked Peter about 5 years ago. The club had never been that packed, never.

Peter as always was superb.

The additional bonus was two-fold. One a good number of "well-known" names came out to see him so the floor spots were a bit special and we actually made a profit on a guest night which had never been done before ………….or since.

Subject: RE: Peter Bond songwriter
From: GUEST
Date: 11 Apr 20 - 05:50 PM

I used to have that LP, but it went along with all my other vinyl a while back. Someone should digitise it and put it on somewhere such as Bandcamp which gives artists a decent share of the money.