Subject: Folklore: Royston Wood biography
From:
GUEST,Max Bolch
Date: 20 Apr 25 - 06:58 AM
Dear Mudcat community
I’m Max, a young physician, musician and occasional writer from Germany, and I am currently working on a biography about Royston Wood. I have been listening to his music and the music of his various ensembles for more than a decade now, and it continues to be very inspiring. I always wondered why so few information about his colourful life are publicly available, so when last year I stumbled upon a couple of comprehensive sources detailling his life, I thought I’d try to write something down for what would have been his 90th anniversary this year. The first 170 pages are already done, albeit in a rough state.
The text should not be strictly about Royston’s life, but also provide – especially to the younger generation – an idea of the folk scene he was involved in, a scene which arguably did greater justice to the beautiful music than the modern digital art market. As I haven’t witnessed the 1960s myself, my hope was to include as many accounts by those lucky people who were around at the time. The research has already allowed me to zoom with many tremendously nice people, including Maddy Prior, John Kirkpatrick, Roger Watson, David Amram & Suzie Adams; more chats are yet to come.
So if among you someone wishes to contribute to the project, you’re very welcome (Maximilian Bolch on Facebook, maximilian.bolch@gmail.com via mail). Interesting aspects would be: memories of Royston; memories of gigs & concerts by Royston, the YT, the ’72 Albion Country Band, Swan Arcade or ‘No Relation’; reflections in how far Royston or the YT influenced you (e.g. inspiration to start making music yourself, to go out on stage, to take up an instrument), general accounts of the English and especially the London folk club scene in the mid-1960s (the ‘flair’, the sociocultural situation, anecdotes); names/addresses of people whom I might write to.
Also, the English music newspapers seemed to follow closely what Royston and the ex-Fairporters. Unfortunately, it’s incredibly hard to access these articles from Germany. Below is a list of articles which exist, but are not available digitally. So if anyone has a copy of one of the articles, and feels like sharing it privately, I’d be extremely grateful (maximilian.bolch@gmail.com).
All the best,
Max
Wanted sources:
Melody Maker 17 May 1969: Young Tradition splitting / Melody Maker: Sue Draheim feature mid-1971 (including story of "jamming with Packie Byrne at the Loughborough Festival") / Sounds mid-December 1971: Royston dreaming of his ideal band / Melody Maker 11. Dec .1971: Karl Dallas about the West Country Tour of Shirley Collins' Albion Country Band / Disc January 1972: "Tyger is still working on getting his own group together" / Melody Maker Jan 1972 (same day as Disc): "Reunited Fairports?" / NME early 1972: "a new seven-piece group is currently engaged in rehearsals" / Folk & Country Feb 1972: Royston reviewing John Martyn’s Bless The Weather / NME spring 1972: "Tyger-Nicol album" / Melody Maker April 8 1972: about the ACB incl. photo / Melody Maker 27.5.72: Andrew Means interviewing Royston Wood / Sounds July 1972: Karl Dallas interviewing Sue Draheim, Royston Wood and Simon Nicol / Melody Maker August 1972: review of the Courtyard Arts Trust gig / Disc September 1972: interview with Steve Ashley / Melody Maker later 1972: Ashley Hutchings complaining about the Albion Country Band / NME late 1972: "the music lacked the quality expected" / Melody Maker late 1972: announcing the Caretaker Albion Country Band / Sounds late 1972: Keith Roberts revealing that Richard Thompson and Linda Peters have only joined until the end of the year. / Melody Maker 20. Jan 1973: Royston Wood about joining Swan Arcade / Melody Maker 7 Dec 1974: Young Tradition about the Argo release of the Christmas single / Swing 51: issue 2 (Shirley Collins about The Holly Bears The Crown); issue 4 (YT/Peter Bellamy discography), issue 5 (Peter Bellamy interview from his early days until the end of the YT)
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sj
