What ever happened to the Spinners ?

Subject: Origins: What ever happened to the Spinners ?
From: GUEST
Date: 14 Jan 07 - 03:42 PM

I just read the thread about the Settlers, who were fantastic I agree, loved Follyfoot, just bought the series on ebay.
What ever happened to the Spinners ?Remember their ad on tv for the blood transfusion service (Hi Auntie)

Subject: RE: Origins: What ever happened to the Spinners ?
From: Peace
Date: 14 Jan 07 - 03:49 PM

The Spinners

Subject: RE: Origins: What ever happened to the Spinners ?
From: guitar
Date: 14 Jan 07 - 03:52 PM

http://uk.geocities.com/davenhel_uk/spinners.html

this is the spinners from liverpool website.

Subject: RE: Origins: What ever happened to the Spinners ?
From: guitar
Date: 14 Jan 07 - 03:55 PM

there's the detriot spinners from America and the spinners from Liverpool, yet when they went to America they called themselves the Liverpool Spinners.

Subject: RE: Origins: What ever happened to the Spinners ?
From: Azizi
Date: 14 Jan 07 - 03:56 PM

You mean this kind?

Subject: RE: Origins: What ever happened to the Spinners ?
From: The Vulgar Boatman
Date: 14 Jan 07 - 03:57 PM

Oops - wrong Spinners I suspect. That was the Detroit Spinners, Peace. I think our guest may have been referring to the British 4 piece from Liverpool Hughie Jones, Cliff Hall, Mick Groves, Tony Davis. Hughie is still doing club gigs, Cliff, I believe took to market gardening but has been very ill. Take a look on Wikepedia or Google.
KYBTTS

Subject: RE: Origins: What ever happened to the Spinners ?
From: jacqui.c
Date: 14 Jan 07 - 04:19 PM

I believe that Mick moved to the West Country and is still performing locally. They were the group that really got me interested in folk music.

Subject: RE: Origins: What ever happened to the Spinners ?
From: JohnB
Date: 14 Jan 07 - 04:29 PM

A Spinners concert was the first date I had with my wife, it was April 26th (I think but don't let her know I only think) 1967 at the Free Trade Hall in Manchester. We however are still together ;)
JohnB

Subject: RE: Origins: What ever happened to the Spinners ?
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 14 Jan 07 - 04:33 PM

Yeh, you can say say what you want about them, but you don't get the Bleacher Lass of Kelvinhaugh on Pebble Mill at One nowadays. If you got it anywhere it would be some arsehole on Jools Holland at midnight trying to prove he was as street cred as Take That.

Well you don't get Pebble Mill at One - as Paul Downes wittily put it - Breakfast television for musicians.

Those days is gone.

Subject: RE: Origins: What ever happened to the Spinners ?
From: jacqui.c
Date: 14 Jan 07 - 04:36 PM

Just found one site.

The Spinners

Subject: RE: Origins: What ever happened to the Spinners ?
From: TRUBRIT
Date: 14 Jan 07 - 05:49 PM

I'm with Jacqui -- the music of these guys started me really listening to folk music......I can't thank them enough......

Subject: RE: Origins: What ever happened to the Spinners ?
From: bubblyrat
Date: 14 Jan 07 - 06:21 PM

If you wanted to increase your group"s repertoire, in the heady days of the 60s Folk Revival,there wasn"t that much that you could do .You could,of course, buy a new-fangled cassette -recorder & take it to the local club,if there was one.You could write to people you knew of ,or had heard,& ask them for lyrics,etc. ( I wrote, from carrier HMS EAGLE , to Tony Rose AND Rosemary Tawney--who both obliged ! )Somebody probably had a scratched & warped Clancy Brothers (no pun intended) record, BUT ---!! Salvation & instant gratification was always at hand in the form of    THE SPINNERS !! They were good ! They were reliable ! Their material wasn"t too demanding ! You could uderstand all the words ,especially if your folk-group included a Scally( We had TWO !! ) Thus it was that the music of The Spinners came to be heard in Singapore,in Hong-Kong, and in the far-off Antipodes .The resulting Fame and Notoriety of The Spinners means that, wherever folk are gathered together in the world,and one has a mouth-organ,Dirty Old Town will ensue, until the end of time !! Whatever Happened to The Spinners ?? Why,somewhere in the World,at this very moment,they"re Happening NOW !!!   Signor Tottoff

Subject: RE: Origins: What ever happened to the Spinners ?
From: Susanne (skw)
Date: 14 Jan 07 - 06:38 PM

Same for me, in a way. I had a teacher of English (in Germany) who liked teaching us songs occasionally. Having a crush on him, I found his singing acutely embarrassing. On my first stay in Britain I came across a Spinners album with one of those songs on it. I managed to talk the owner into selling it to me and still have it, the first of a collection of 12 Spinners albums and about 200 LPs, 200 CDs and 70 tapes all together. I still like listening to the boys, and the Bleacher Lass is one of my favourites. Does anyone know what Tony is doing?

Subject: RE: Origins: What ever happened to the Spinners ?
From: the lemonade lady
Date: 14 Jan 07 - 06:47 PM

These will give you clue as to where some of the Spinners have gone;Everyman Folk Club:, Everyman Theatre Bistro, Hope St. Liverpool. 8.30 (01517 093336). www.tonystradtime.co.uk

sal

Subject: RE: Origins: What ever happened to the Spinners ?
From: Blowzabella
Date: 14 Jan 07 - 07:41 PM

Hughie Jones (the bby faced one with the fringe) still performs regularly and has had brought out several cds - see The Chaney Cabin

Subject: RE: Origins: What ever happened to the Spinners ?
From: GUEST
Date: 14 Jan 07 - 10:15 PM

I well remember that 'Give Blood' informertial that the Spinners did. In it the 3 white members jokily expressed amazement on discovery that the back guy in the band had red blood ! Oh how we laughed ? The new Lenny Bruce's !!!

Subject: RE: Origins: What ever happened to the Spinners ?
From: GUEST,Sailorboy
Date: 15 Jan 07 - 03:40 AM

Mick Groves is alive and kicking and lives down here near Exeter. He is sighted regularly at local folk clubs and village halls and made a CD of Ewan Mcoll songs a while back. Cliff now lives in Australia but was over for a visit recently.
More at
www.mickgroves.com

Subject: RE: Origins: What ever happened to the Spinners ?
From: GUEST
Date: 15 Jan 07 - 04:30 AM

Tony was at the recent Stan Hugill centenary celebrations in Liverpool - although he was in a wheelchair (the hips are gone). I think he's more involved in playing and singing jazz these days.

Subject: RE: Origins: What ever happened to the Spinners ?
From: Scrump
Date: 15 Jan 07 - 04:50 AM

I think Tony Davis started out as a jazz musician before getting involved with folk, via skiffle (like a lot of people in the 1950s).

The group was only called the Liverpool Spinners in the US to distinguish them from the soul group The Spinners (who were called the Detroit Spinners in the UK to distinguish them from the folk group).

Subject: RE: Origins: What ever happened to the Spinners ?
From: Les in Chorlton
Date: 15 Jan 07 - 05:56 AM

I'm not sure if fashionable is the right word, but it was certainly common to knock the Spinners from about 1964 onwards.

Like thousands of others they brought me to folk music. I had seen Robin and Jimmy, Pete Seeger and various others on TV. But an article in the Liverpool took a gang of us to Liverpool Phil and so to the folk clubs of Liverpool.

Jaqui and Bridie, Pete McGovern, The Bothy, The Kings Shilling, the amazing Tony Wilson(?) who ran a singers club on a Saturday night naer the tunnel entrance, Willy Russel, Andy Seagroat, Bernie Davies, Tom Brown and John Howson and so many more. I guess we would have disvovered them with out the Spinners but they did create a public face of folk music that led to all the other things that were going on.

Subject: RE: Origins: What ever happened to the Spinners ?
From: Scrump
Date: 15 Jan 07 - 07:31 AM

The Spinners did get criticised by many folkies because of their very popularity - often a problem for folk stars who cross over into the mainstream, even today. They did do a lot to popularise folk music in the 1960s and 1970s, even if they weren't to everyone's taste.

Subject: RE: Origins: What ever happened to the Spinners ?
From: Les in Chorlton
Date: 15 Jan 07 - 08:16 AM

They sang a bit of everything so that always vexed some. The played guitars and not squeeze boxes and sometimes sang silly songs. They even did African songs as I remember - a bit of "World"?

Subject: RE: Origins: What ever happened to the Spinners ?
From: the lemonade lady
Date: 15 Jan 07 - 08:31 AM

Like i said www.tonystradtime.co.uk

sal

Subject: RE: Origins: What ever happened to the Spinners ?
From: GUEST,Billbunter
Date: 15 Jan 07 - 09:03 AM

Hughie just recorded a another collection of songs I believe with amongst them a monologue on the Hillsborough disaster called 'Red and Blue' by Bernie Shaw local banjo layer. I met him once in Liverpool playing - really decent guy with an infectious smile. Still sounding good

Subject: RE: Origins: What ever happened to the Spinners ?
From: GUEST,Skipper Jack
Date: 15 Jan 07 - 10:32 AM

Hughie does quite a bit on the maritime scene these days. He has written some fine songs on the aforesaid theme.
A great performer - well worth seeing if you get the chance.

Subject: RE: Origins: What ever happened to the Spinners ?
From: Tootler
Date: 15 Jan 07 - 11:26 AM

My wife (girlfriend in those days) and I used to go to Spinners Concerts regularly in the 1960's.

We saw them at Middlesbrough Town Hall on their farewell tour in the early 80's. They were still as good then.

I saw Hughie Jones last Summer at the Festival on the Moor - a good evening. Pity there weren't more there, though the FotM is admittedly quite a small festival.

I first got interested in Folk Music via Peter Paul and Mary and Bob Dylan. The Spinners were my introduction to the folk music of my own country. Their style was always very accessible, but I don't see them as ever having "sold out" as some seem to think. They set out to entertain their audiences and unlike some, were not too purist or precious about the music. Their repertoire was pretty much the same in they type of songs they did the first time I saw them and the last time.

Subject: RE: Origins: What ever happened to the Spinners ?
From: GUEST,Sailorboy
Date: 15 Jan 07 - 12:22 PM

I have a copy of Mick Groves album (Journeyman) of Ewan Mcoll songs as I mentioned earlier. Its a good album. He's still in very good voice and does gigs locally.

Subject: RE: Origins: What ever happened to the Spinners ?
From: Les in Chorlton
Date: 15 Jan 07 - 12:26 PM

Is it time they were recognised in the same way the Dubliners and the Clancy Bros. and Tommy Makem? They also went in and out of "fashion"

Subject: RE: Origins: What ever happened to the Spinners ?
From: Schantieman
Date: 15 Jan 07 - 12:37 PM

Hughie is indeed still active on the folk scene in Liverpool. He's the leading resident at the Everyman FC in the bar of that theatre in Hope Street (Tuesday nights, 8ish) that Sally mentioned above. He is also still writing and performing new songs and doing clubs and festivals.

(Christine, Hughie's wife, was a founder member of the Bothy FC in Southport in 1965 and, with Stan Ambrose and the late lamented Tony Wilson/Molyneux and Stan Boardman, formed "The Bothy Folk", the original resident band. Hughie and Chris still turn up occasionally).

Tony Davis was indeed at Stan's 100th, in which Hughie also played a part. Sad to see him in a wheelchair, but he was still singing well.


Hard to overestimate the importance of The Spinners in the folk revival. I wasn't really aware of it at the time, being nobbut a lad, but they were the secondary source for a lot of singers' repertoires, including mine later on, in the 70s and, no doubt, earlier. This as well as publicising it all on TV and radio.   We all owe them an enormous debt: without them many of us wouldn't have come into folk and many of the songs would have been ...well, if not lost then certainly not widely known and sung. Thanks, guys.


Steve

Subject: RE: Origins: What ever happened to the Spinners ?
From: Les in Chorlton
Date: 16 Jan 07 - 11:32 AM

Did they get any gongs?

Or any BBC Awards?

Subject: RE: Origins: What ever happened to the Spinners ?
From: Scrump
Date: 16 Jan 07 - 11:45 AM

No, just their own TV series, which is more than most of today's top folk acts can expect :-(

Subject: RE: Origins: What ever happened to the Spinners ?
From: Schantieman
Date: 16 Jan 07 - 12:26 PM

I should add to yesterday's post that it was Stan Hugill's 100th birthday party I was referring to, not Stan Ambrose's!   That happy event is still a few years off.

;-)

Steve

Subject: RE: Origins: What ever happened to the Spinners ?
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 16 Jan 07 - 01:37 PM

Hmmmm!

all the traddies were really nasty to them at the time.


I remember, there was a poll in the Melody for your favourite female folk singer, and one wag nominated 'the tall one in The Spinners'.

I'm not sure what the animosity was about. there was an interview in Froots a few years back with Ian Campbell and apparently they were Ian's professional rivals at one time. I was never aware of the rivalry. can't remember Ian's exact words, but they weren't exactly a ringing endorsement.

Subject: RE: Origins: What ever happened to the Spinners ?
From: Bernard
Date: 16 Jan 07 - 01:57 PM

I've never denied that the Spinners kick-started me into performing. Well, I have to blame somebody!! ;o)

Hughie Jones is still gigging - we had him as a guest at the Open Door (Oldham) last year, and he hasn't lost any of the fire or enthusiasm.

Hughie explained that Cliff Hall lives in Australia these days, Tony and Mick have been mentioned above, so I won't repeat it, and Jacqui McDonald occasionally gigs with Hughie. Jacqui (of Jacqui and Bridie) was in the Spinners prior to Cliff.

The reason why we have the Detroit Spinners over here, and the Liverpool Spinners over in the US is because of a contractual agreement to avoid confusion between two bands both called 'The Spinners', despite being completely different genres. At least, that's Hughie's story, and it sounds right enough.

Subject: RE: Origins: What ever happened to the Spinners ?
From: GUEST,banjoman
Date: 16 Jan 07 - 03:29 PM

Great to see so many still remember the sixties in liverpool and the contribution made by the likes of the Spinners to the Folk Revival.
It was fashionable to knock them mainly because of their popularity, but they were one of the all time greats to me and my wife Maggie who were part of the scene in liverpool in the sixties & seventies.
Somewhere I still have my membership card (N0 2 I think) for the Spinners club at the Gregsons Well. I recall one occasion when fan adulation went over the top there, when the Spinners were on a tour of Sweden (I think) but a local group of youngsters (Swindlefolk) were on at the Gregson. At 10.pm, they were bustled off stage and a television wheeled on so that the fans could watch "The Spinners Live " from somewhere or other. Thats what you call adulation. No one there complained although I would have prefereed to listen to more from Diane Swindlehurst and her group of youngsters

Subject: RE: Origins: What ever happened to the Spinners ?
From: danensis
Date: 16 Jan 07 - 03:48 PM

I've been trying to recall all the folk clubs I went to in Liverpool. There was one round the back of the hotel opposite St George's Hall, and one above the fire station in Canning Place. Yet another was in something like a student union bar across a bit of waste ground behinf Tithebarn Street.

Then of course there was Atlantic House - what was that amazing guy called who ran it?

John

Subject: RE: Origins: What ever happened to the Spinners ?
From: VIN
Date: 17 Jan 07 - 08:46 AM

Nice one Banjoman. They were a great influence, turned me on to folk music probably more than anyone - great atmosphere at their Free Trade Hall gigs - usually a sell-out. Great thing about them was theire warmth and how they liked to direct their music at a whole family audience 'the family of man' to quote one of their album titles. Saw Hughie last year and he's as good as ever - great yarn 'spiinner' too

Subject: RE: Origins: What ever happened to the Spinners ?
From: Scrump
Date: 17 Jan 07 - 09:01 AM

IMO The Spinners were not (by and large) great musicians or singers, but as others have said, they conveyed their enthusiasm for the songs they sang, and encouraged audience participation, which had become a bit of a rarity back then, except in folk clubs, so they caught on with the mainstream public.

They had a knack of finding good songs too (although I didn't like all their output, by any means) - maybe if they 'pinched' other peoples' songs, it could explain some of the animosity towards them from certain quarters of the folk world. This is just speculation on my part, I hasten to add, and I don't know of any examples where this happened.

Subject: RE: Origins: What ever happened to the Spinners ?
From: VIN
Date: 17 Jan 07 - 09:12 AM

Get your point Scrump, but i don't reckon you can 'pinch' a folk song as i believe passing songs on or even allowing your songs to be 'passed on' is what makes folk music, errrrrr well... 'folk'. Tho i understand there could be copyright and maebbe royalty probs and all that stuff especially with contempory songs .

Subject: RE: Origins: What ever happened to the Spinners ?
From: Les in Chorlton
Date: 17 Jan 07 - 10:08 AM

Perhaps we should bother Mike Harding and Smooth Opps to give them a life time Award?

OK steady now ..................

Subject: RE: Origins: What ever happened to the Spinners ?
From: VIN
Date: 19 Jan 07 - 08:46 AM

Be a fab idea that Les - honest

Subject: RE: Origins: What ever happened to the Spinners ?
From: Bernard
Date: 19 Jan 07 - 03:57 PM

Yup - good idea. Whilst they are still alive, which would be even better!

Subject: RE: Origins: What ever happened to the Spinners ?
From: Fliss
Date: 19 Jan 07 - 05:27 PM

I saw them a couple of times at the Fairfield Halls in Croydon in the early 70s. They were always great fun. Still have the one album I bought.

I still sing Ellen Vannen at folk evenings.

Subject: RE: Origins: What ever happened to the Spinners ?
From: Les in Chorlton
Date: 20 Jan 07 - 04:35 AM

Oh, Ellen Vannen
Of the Isle of Man Company
Oh! Ellen Vannen, lost in the Irish Sea.

Philomonic Hall 1964?

Subject: RE: Origins: What ever happened to the Spinners ?
From: Flash Company
Date: 20 Jan 07 - 11:15 AM

I think the possible cause of the 'anti Spinners' feeling was that Jaffa Cakes commercial!
That said, they still sounded like four ordinary blokes singing folk songs, and along with Pete Seeger, The Clancy's and the Dubloners made a lot of us think 'Hey, I could do that!'
Sorry to hear that Tony is in a wheelchair, but a few of us with hip problems are heading that way, I guess. Hughie was always the one who was likely to keep going on his own. Good luck to all of them.

FC

Subject: RE: Origins: What ever happened to the Spinners ?
From: GUEST,Alan Bradley
Date: 20 Jan 07 - 02:14 PM

reading through these posts brings back some very nice memories of the folk in the 60's Diane Swindlehurst was indeed a great influence and her group the Swindlefolk one of the best of their type, met them when they were formed at in Kirkby had their records but alas now lost and have been unable to obtain new copies. Great grout though i wonder what they are doing now and if any continued singing when they left school

Subject: RE: Origins: What ever happened to the Spinners ?
From: GUEST,Shimrod
Date: 21 Jan 07 - 06:11 AM

"It was fashionable to knock them mainly because of their popularity.."

No it wasn't! It was because some people considered them to be a bit bland and uninteresting. There is no doubt that 'The Spinners' were very professional, and very popular in some quarters, but that didn't, necessarily, make them very interesting. As some people keep telling me, "it's all a question of taste".

Subject: RE: Origins: What ever happened to the Spinners ?
From: GUEST,sailorboy
Date: 21 Jan 07 - 07:35 AM

As I've said earlier in this thread. I have Micks recent solo album of Ewan Mcoll songs. The accompianment is plain simple Spinners style guitar playing with some string bass an a few bits of fiddle and other instruments. Very uncluttered and to the point. The songs and the vocal performance are just fine and any more sophisticated musical approach would in my opinion be wholly unnecessairy and even detrimental. I enjoy the musical sophistication of many younger folk musicians but feel there is often a case for direct simplicity. No one expected these guys to be virtuoso musicians but they got it across to a lot of folks over the years.

Subject: RE: Origins: What ever happened to the Spinners ?
From: Schantieman
Date: 26 Feb 07 - 01:20 PM

Only if it's pink.

Subject: RE: Origins: What ever happened to the Spinners ?
From: Les in Chorlton
Date: 26 Feb 07 - 01:20 PM

Ok the Spam has gone and we are all(?) bothering Mike Harding to get the Spinners a Life-time Achievement Award. The feeling is he is positive about it.