The Irregularity of Peter Bellamy

Subject: RE: The Irregularity of Peter Bellamy
From: The Sandman
Date: 08 Sep 20 - 05:51 AM

QANTAS, was that an airline for high flyers.
Lloyds ideas about singing are in my opinion not based on any tradtional uk singers, affected art song claptrap

Subject: RE: The Irregularity of Peter Bellamy
From: Brian Peters
Date: 08 Sep 20 - 11:46 AM

"it was not meant as a derogatory comment but as encouragement to sing!"

I think most of the people present took it in that way, Ray. He was amongst friends and knew he could get away with it, in fact, those who loved him loved him even more. He really did hate audience disengagement. Of course he did piss some people off as well, as I've always acknowledged when I've written about him.

In response to Henry's comment, I remember the moment when I introduced Peter to my Mum, who had seen a performance of the Transports and loved it. "Oh, so you're the man that wrote The Transports... I hope you made a lot of money out of it!" Peter clearly didn't want to upset an elderly lady, and his wan smile was tragic to behold.

Subject: RE: The Irregularity of Peter Bellamy
From: Jeri
Date: 08 Sep 20 - 06:30 PM

My only personal interaction with him was running down a high school hallway at the Niskayuna Festival to ask him the name of a man who wrote a song he'd sung. It was Nostradamus/Al Stewart. He was very nice to me.
Having lived in England for a couple years, and having a few English friends, Dick, I'll stick to my opinion that he was just encouraging people to sig. If he had a reputation for being crabby and overly sensitive, it might've been a different story. The guy I knew only slightly was a creative, exuberant smart-arse* who loved sharing his music with people.

*I mean that respectfully.

Subject: RE: The Irregularity of Peter Bellamy
From: Hagman
Date: 08 Sep 20 - 07:56 PM

QANTAS was/is the biggest airline in Australia, the equivalent of BA in its day. Bellamy often inscribed "The Transports" LP with the logo as a big nod to "transportation" to Oz.

Subject: RE: The Irregularity of Peter Bellamy
From: The Sandman
Date: 09 Sep 20 - 01:27 AM

Jeri ,earlier quote from John Mackenzie
Subject: RE: The Irregularity of Peter Bellamy
From: John MacKenzie - PM
Date: 03 Sep 20 - 01:56 PM

I wasn't a fan of Peter's singing, but I did like YT. Many moons ago when Adam was a lad, myself and a couple of others, tried to form a folk group, and we tried out a few numbers at Hammersmith Folk Centre in Dalling Road. Well the said PB was in attendance one evening, and after we had performed, he took me to task, for singing one of "his" songs, and asked us not to sing it any more. Now I can't remember what song it was, I can barely remember the names of the other members of the group (George & Charlotte) but I do remember being more than a little put out by his request. It was a traditional song I do know that

Subject: RE: The Irregularity of Peter Bellamy
From: The Sandman
Date: 09 Sep 20 - 01:46 AM

my memory of him was an intelligent articulate person , who liked to argue for the sake of it. Nick has mentioned his kindness and helpfulness,
my first impressions of him were of arrogance and on occasions a tendency to patronise, his public school accent exacerbated this impression as i got to know him a little, i realised that his arrogance was insecurity [imo].
he was talented creative kind articulate, annoying, interesting. arrogant argumentative, over the top, but rarely dull and never boring., fairly good at rubbing people up the wrong way

Subject: RE: The Irregularity of Peter Bellamy
From: The Sandman
Date: 09 Sep 20 - 03:55 AM

I think he craved the adulation that is normally associated with the popscene,it is as if he he understodd the Music side, but did not really understand the concepts of the revival and the ideas of it being music that involved local communities, That at that time it also had a Political edge, one that Peter openly made a point of disagreeing with.
With the involvement of MacColl Lloyd and a lot of left minded people who volunteered their time running clubs for no financial reward, people like the Communist Ted Poole who ran a folk club for over 50 years.
   I think the idea of MacColl Lloyd Poole etc, was that this was the peoples music, music of local communities i think they hoped that people would sing tradtional music, and be creative writing songs for the sake and enjoyment of it,not with the hope of being something akin to a pop star.
IMO Peter expected the wrong things from the folk revival, in more ways than one
Success is sometimes down to being in the right place at the right time, Luck,Diplomacy,Networking Organisational Skill,Favopurable Media Coverage.
Southern Rag, IMO did Peter no favours with the caricature of Elmer P Bleatty, I am sure it only was meant as a joke but it did him career damage imo.
Peter, mistakenly thought the uk folk revival would bring adulation and career success during his lifetime, that was not the case, but he has achieved recognition to some extent posthumously

Subject: RE: The Irregularity of Peter Bellamy
From: graham_t
Date: 09 Sep 20 - 04:26 AM

I've alway's thought that Dick Gaughan's views on Bellamy were very interesting, given that they were so different in many of their views. This appeared in his "Links in the Chain" section of his long defunct website and recovered using Wayback Machine


"People often used to register surprise when informed that I counted Peter among my friends. Neither of us ever made any secret of our political, social or philosophical views and they were about as far apart as you could get. But, even though I disagreed profoundly with many of his views, and he with mine, I respected the fact that he was prepared to defend them and argue his corner. He could also be extremely funny and was excellent company.

I also respected the integrity and single-minded determination which ran through his work. He did what he wanted to do and had no interest in altering his approach or the content of his work in order to seek popularity. He spent his life in the place Hugh MacDiarmid called "where extremes meet", the place where I believe all artists should live.

His love of traditional song was clear but he did not place the tradition on any pedestals. He understood that it is a living process of evolution and development and he played a major part in contributing to that process. Like any serious artist, he was able to break all the rules because he had a profound understanding of them and knew what they were for.

One of my fondest memories is of the night at Norwich Festival where he introduced me to Walter Pardon and had to act as interpreter as neither Walter nor myself could understand a word the other said.

Many others will passionately disagree but it is my belief that Peter never quite produced the masterpiece which his talents suggested; he came close on many occasions but always gave the impression that each was just another step on the road to truly finding his real voice. I have a suspicion that frustration with this search may have played a part in his death.

I met him first in 1966 and the last time I met him was about 6 months before he died. I am left with memories of late-night intense debates where neither of us took prisoners and of a man who walked his own road. I liked him and I respected him and I wish he'd stuck around a bit longer"

Subject: RE: The Irregularity of Peter Bellamy
From: Hagman
Date: 09 Sep 20 - 04:45 AM

I'd be happy with that as my epitaph, Sandman. I hope it's in the public domain? :-)

Subject: RE: The Irregularity of Peter Bellamy
From: Hagman
Date: 09 Sep 20 - 04:47 AM

Referring to this thread...

"my memory of him was an intelligent articulate person , who liked to argue for the sake of it. Nick has mentioned his kindness and helpfulness,
my first impressions of him were of arrogance and on occasions a tendency to patronise, his public school accent exacerbated this impression as i got to know him a little, i realised that his arrogance was insecurity [imo].
he was talented creative kind articulate, annoying, interesting. arrogant argumentative, over the top, but rarely dull and never boring., fairly good at rubbing people up the wrong way"

Subject: RE: The Irregularity of Peter Bellamy
From: Phil Edwards
Date: 18 Sep 20 - 10:58 AM

Update: last night, for the first time, I sang The Two Brothers/Two Pretty Boys in a song session* "after" Lucy Stewart, rather than after Peter Bellamy. It sounded surprisingly different, and people seemed to think it worked. I did wonder about sliding back into Bellamese for the last verse

("Aa-aa-aa-and WHAT! SHALL I- TELL! YOUR STEP MO-o-o-o-ther")

but in the event I thought better of it.

Next stop On Board A Sweet Lovely 98...

*by which of course I mean, sitting right where I am now.

Subject: RE: The Irregularity of Peter Bellamy
From: Howard Jones
Date: 27 Sep 20 - 07:00 AM

Spotify has just invited me to become a "fan" of Peter Bellamy "so i don't miss any new releases". If only.