Subject: Re release of Derek Brimstone's 1st albu
From:
Big Al Whittle
Date: 17 Dec 05 - 04:19 AM
Just yesterday I heard a most remarkably good folk cd. It was the re-release of an album that few of us have heard although we may have heard of. This was Derek Brimstone's first album. recorded originally for the Fontana label in 1968, which must have been just about the first year I ever saw Derek perform - I seem to remember him mentioning the fact that he had an album when he gigged the teacher training college where I was sequestered at the time.
However such are the fortunes of war in the music business, that Fontana was taken over and this wonderful album was lost to posterity until a Japanese fan of Derek's sorted out all the paper work and got this album remastered.
When Derek told me this was happening I was I admit cautious in my optimism to say the least. The only track I knew, was She Loved a Portuguese, which had been widely anthologised in the 1970's. I can remember counselling Derek to concentrate on the future and use the modern recording technology to create something new.
However having said that, with digital re-mastering this album is revealed as an absolute gem. The sound quality sparkles and we hear a young folk singer with truly remarkable instrumental facility giving several absolutely top rate performances.
The album kicks off (as so many Brimstone gig's) with John Martyn's Fairtytale Lullaby. The choice of songwriters for this project must have been cutting edge in 1968 - The Incredible String Band, Jackson C Frank also featuring. Cripple Creek gets 1000 miles an hour Scruggs style banjo picking, rather than frailing (- nice guitar accompaniment there as well, doesn't say who dat man!). There are nods to his cockney heritage with She Loved a Portuguese and Salvation Army Lassie. And above all else there is the coffee bar cowboy chic of Rambling Jack Elliot, which clearly entrances and captures the imagination of this young feller who can really handle a Gibson guitar.
Its also interesting to hear the light delicacy of Derek's voice in those years - heard to good effect on a calypso - an attempt to welcome what was to be the new multiculturalism of modern Britain. Of course coming from the East End of London - Derek had always come from a cosmopolitan sort of background, so he was always going to be one step ahead of us provincial types there.
When I rediscovered Brimstone for myself around 1975. To me, his music was absolutely inspirational. It was the start of my performing career. By that time the 'traditional' approach to folk music was everywhere except the more showbizzy type venues like the Boggery in Brum. Brimstone was being hailed as a founding father of the 'folk comedian' movement - by Jasper Carrot and Billy Connolly amongst others. The schism in folk world was a mile wide - with not much respect coming from either side for the other.
however it was always Derek's music that did it for me. I came from a fairly folky family - clog dancing Grandad, mandoline strumming dad, Irish Banjo playing/ballad singing uncles - but none of them danced jigs an reels and none of them would have related to Martin Carthy or the late great Peter Bellamy's approach to folksinging.
The music on this album is traditional folk music that goes right back to something your parents could have understood. When the record company decided to skip this album, they turned their back on what could have been a whole era of accessible folk music - eschewing the bland populism of The Spinners, but speaking in an intelligent manner the common tongue of the English people.
That's record company folk for you - well you always knew THEY were wankers without me telling you!
This cd is an absolute must for any Brimstone fan - buy it yourself for Christmas!
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sj
