Nutters in Folk Clubs

Subject: Nutters in Folk Clubs
From: GUEST,Graham Bradshaw
Date: 30 Jan 07 - 07:37 AM

The recent thread about Isherwood, Nelson and Disley got me to thinking.
Back in the halcyon days of the British Folk Clubs in the 60s and 70s, they used to attract a surprising number of 'eccentric' characters, both the artists and the audience!
I used to travel around the circuit way back then, and just about every club had its resident nutter.
A lot of the performers then were 'larger than life', and this was a time when the comedians reigned supreme. I wonder if it was they that attracted the nutters?
I may be wrong, but I don't seem to detect so many interesting characters in the folk scene of the 2000s.
I'm sure we can all list, with only a moments thought, a long list of legendary characters. Where are they now?
Graham

Subject: RE: Nutters in Folk Clubs
From: GUEST
Date: 30 Jan 07 - 07:44 AM

Don't know about the legendary characters, but the nutters all went into politics.

Subject: RE: Nutters in Folk Clubs
From: GUEST
Date: 30 Jan 07 - 07:52 AM

You are sure we can list them but you can't list one?

Subject: RE: Nutters in Folk Clubs
From: Jean(eanjay)
Date: 30 Jan 07 - 07:57 AM

Harrogate

Subject: RE: Nutters in Folk Clubs
From: GUEST
Date: 30 Jan 07 - 08:17 AM

Devon

Subject: RE: Nutters in Folk Clubs
From: bubblyrat
Date: 30 Jan 07 - 08:19 AM

Like I said in the other thread, there was a bloke who used to go to the "Den of Folk " in Gosport around 1970.He couldn"t sing,or play the guitar, but could turn nasty if he didn"t get a spot, so he was often allowed a self-penned diatribe or two.He reckoned that he had a Bofors 40 mm anti-aircraft gun in his garden--it was generally agreed that he did,indeed,own something like that !!! So if you refused him a spot,it was best not to fly over his house !!In the same area, we had a bloke called Sean Kennedy,who ended up in the local Cuckoo"s nest after going berserk & kicking his TV to death.He wrote some quite interesting songs,actually !!Then there was Jon Isherwood, of course, but he wasn"t a Nutter nutter-----He was a Genius nutter !! Oddly enough,there actually seem to be MORE about today,not less,Graham !! I could name several I have encountered in the last 5 years !!

Subject: RE: Nutters in Folk Clubs
From: GUEST,Bainbo
Date: 30 Jan 07 - 08:38 AM

What do you think Mudcat exists for?
It's the home for retired folk-club nutters.

Subject: RE: Nutters in Folk Clubs
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 30 Jan 07 - 09:38 AM

We have nutters on the other side of the pond as well. One of the regulars at an open-mic I helped run in the late '80s and early '90s was a defrocked literature professor named Bobby Long. Bobby had been sacked from one too many teaching jobs for showing up drunk in class one too many times, so he'd decided to become a "real poet" and drink himself to death. Bobby's friend Everett Capps (father of folksinger Grayson Capps) used him as the principle character in his book On Magazine Street which was adapted into the movie "A_Love_Song_for_Bobby_Long", in which John Travolta played Bobby.

Subject: RE: Nutters in Folk Clubs
From: GUEST,Pantokration
Date: 30 Jan 07 - 10:53 AM

Go to Glasgow, or many places in Scotland, and you'll find LITERAL nutters everywhere. "Waant a faceful o' heid, Pal?" is a cry normally followed by the crunch of nasal bone.

Subject: RE: Nutters in Folk Clubs
From: Kevin Sheils
Date: 30 Jan 07 - 11:00 AM

I saw the Bacup Dancers in a few pubs at folk events

Subject: RE: Nutters in Folk Clubs
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 30 Jan 07 - 11:08 AM

Bacup Coconut Dancers onYouTube

Nuff said...

Subject: RE: Nutters in Folk Clubs
From: Bill D
Date: 30 Jan 07 - 11:09 AM

ummmmm, yes...well....the stories I could tell.

Subject: RE: Nutters in Folk Clubs
From: GUEST
Date: 30 Jan 07 - 11:58 AM

"Like I said in the other thread, there was a bloke who used to go to the "Den of Folk " in Gosport around 1970.He couldn"t sing,or play the guitar, but could turn nasty if he didn"t get a spot, so he was often allowed a self-penned diatribe or two.He reckoned that he had a Bofors 40 mm anti-aircraft gun in his garden--it was generally agreed that he did,indeed,own something like that !!! "


I think the bloke you are referring to was called Phil Tree, who is mentioned on the Jon Isherwood website.
He used to go around in a Nazi leather thigh length coat (probably Gestapo or SS). He was only a little bloke, and spoke with a lisp.
He used to get around all the South coast clubs and told unbelievable stories - most of which were pretty fanciful, I hope!

Reason I didn't mention any names in my original thread was that some of them may still be alive!! Dave Sampson in Warwickshire has run some of the best and most successful clubs in the Midlands, but is still a nutter, although a likeable one.
Some others that immediately spring to mind - Dave Calderhead (the singing Toby Jug), Rod Felton (like Isherwood, another Genius nutter), Brian Coote (used to go on 'missions with the Secret Service' or so he said).
I'd better be careful, because as Guest Bainbo said, many of them are lurking in MudCat!
Graham

Subject: RE: Nutters in Folk Clubs
From: GUEST,billbunter
Date: 30 Jan 07 - 12:14 PM

The Bacup Coconut Dancers are clearly not nutters. They are working well within the framework of their social boundaries I, on the other hand, am a nutter

Subject: RE: Nutters in Folk Clubs
From: Midchuck
Date: 30 Jan 07 - 12:19 PM

...we had a bloke...who ended up in the local Cuckoo"s nest after going berserk & kicking his TV to death.

Why? I call that behaviour unimpeachable evidence of an advanced state of sanity and rationality!

Peter

Subject: RE: Nutters in Folk Clubs
From: GUEST
Date: 30 Jan 07 - 12:57 PM

I think I was Resident Nutter in a few Folk Clubs in my time !

Subject: RE: Nutters in Folk Clubs
From: bubblyrat
Date: 30 Jan 07 - 01:21 PM

Phil Tree !! Yes ! That was him ! Of course,you"re right ----he could well be "out there ". Naturally,I always liked him,personally,you know.I mean,none of us REALLY thought of him as a "nutter",just mildly eccentric.! I mean, who doesn"t admire SS attire & have artillery in the garden ?? I"m sure he"d be welcome anywhere today !!
SSidmouth ,perhaps ?? Or MiSSkin?? Anyway,I have to go now--I need to go up on the roof & grease my Oerlikon !!

Subject: RE: Nutters in Folk Clubs
From: Greg B
Date: 30 Jan 07 - 01:55 PM

Filk.

Subject: RE: Nutters in Folk Clubs
From: The Sandman
Date: 30 Jan 07 - 02:15 PM

There used to be one in the sheffield grapes folk club.he used to pretend he had a dog on a lead,and then he would bark occassionally,and tell the non existent dog to be quiet.

Subject: RE: Nutters in Folk Clubs
From: lilly
Date: 30 Jan 07 - 02:33 PM

Just watched Brittania nutters video....great!
ps think bubblyrat has fallen into 'the nutters in folk clubs' bag in the past! But wouldn't life be boring without them?

Subject: RE: Nutters in Folk Clubs
From: Andy Jackson
Date: 30 Jan 07 - 02:57 PM

I cannot remember a folk club without at least one "nutter" or at least someone who wouldn't fit in or be accepted anywhere else. That is what makes our scene so special.
There is a difference though between nutter and eccentric. Luckily we still have a good supply of both.

Andy

Subject: RE: Nutters in Folk Clubs
From: danensis
Date: 30 Jan 07 - 03:32 PM

Does the definition extend to bodhran players who are consistently a quarter of a beat behind everyone else?

John

Subject: RE: Nutters in Folk Clubs
From: Bee
Date: 30 Jan 07 - 04:03 PM

Nutters frequent Arts and Music settings because they blend in better with the crowds. We had a pair at the art college I attended. The younger one believed he was a secret agent, and was following a ragged elderly man who, it turned out, was exactly what he claimed to be - a university engineering professor who'd done one too many hits of sixties acid.

The 'secret agent' got somewhat straightened out by the medical establishment - I say somewhat since last I saw him he was a mall security guard and still exuded a very furtive manner.

The engineer had quite brilliant ideas, (he carried pencilled diagrams, including one of a device he'd designed for licking up oil spills) and showed up every spring for years, having holed up with his family for the winter. I recall walking down a main street with a newish boyfriend one spring day, and seeing the prof hiding behind a tree in the Public Gardens, peeking out every few seconds to smile and wave. Boyfriend was rather horrified when I immediately dashed in to have a happy chat with this old, very dirty, mostly toothless and decidedly smelly fellow. He had a poem for me he'd written months before. Finest nutter I have ever known, rest his soul.

Subject: RE: Nutters in Folk Clubs
From: Rasener
Date: 30 Jan 07 - 04:14 PM

Guest
You have stunned me.

you mentioned Dave Calderhead (the singing Toby Jug)

I got to know Dave when I lived in Amsterdam and we became friends through playing squash.

I did an evening of concert hall music and he was the main guy.

His best number was "Proper Cup Of coffee"

That was around 1980 ish.

Haven't seen or heard of him since. I always thought of him as a sort of Arthur Lowe :-)

Subject: RE: Nutters in Folk Clubs
From: breezy
Date: 30 Jan 07 - 04:16 PM

no nutters in St Albans

anymore

vacancies

attend next Tuesday at the King Harry for audition, talent not a prerequisite

then Sunday 18th Feb at the Rose and Crown

Subject: RE: Nutters in Folk Clubs
From: Fliss
Date: 30 Jan 07 - 06:29 PM

There's is one Ive seen at Folk Festivals who 'plays' the whistle... just trills tunelessly but makes a great show about it.

Why do all nutters play the bodhran holding it completely wrong and banging it loudly through everything including songs and slow airs?

Subject: RE: Nutters in Folk Clubs
From: Andy Jackson
Date: 30 Jan 07 - 08:35 PM

Are we getting a bit close to washing our linen in public here?
Even so called nutters have feelings. (If I pinch myself am I not surprised? )

I think the aim of the thread was more towards the eccentric performer. MR Smith, Les Barker, Bonzo and Doris etc.
Sorry just checked, it did include the audience. My comment still stands though.

Andy (friend of nutters everywhere)

Subject: RE: Nutters in Folk Clubs
From: GUEST,Richard Rowntree
Date: 30 Jan 07 - 09:11 PM

The FolkMob club in Eltham is full of nutters.

There's this auzzie bloke called Nigel who sings about witches & planets and jumps up and down in a mad frenzy. Then there's woodsy who thrashes his guitar to breaking point while hollering about Rollin & Tumblin. Another bloke called Ken Ingram who sings the same song every time (Ride On) Old bloke called Bill croaking Frank Sinatra. Old Hippie called Jim who hands out leaflets that support Muslim terrorists. A right bunch of nutters, but it's a friendly enough place and worth a visit.

Subject: RE: Nutters in Folk Clubs
From: Anne Lister
Date: 31 Jan 07 - 01:54 AM

I think there are different categories of nutter. There are the floor singer nutters, who are generally of a far, far milder degree of eccentricity than the audience nutters (some of whom are really quite special). I have to say that since discovering the worlds of historical re-enactment and public transport models I've realised that the audience nutters are not unique to the folk world. And then there are the geeks, who are fringe members of the audience nutters - there are guitar geeks, uillean pipe geeks, synthesiser geeks and so on.

And in case I've inadvertently offended any Mudcatters, let me say I love all nutters - without them what would we do?

Anne

Subject: RE: Nutters in Folk Clubs
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 31 Jan 07 - 02:39 AM

Villan - Dave Calderhead has posted to Mudcat as a member (Tobyjug) - I've just found a post he sent to the "Lyrics req Nobody loves a fairy" thread in April 2005!

Kitty

Subject: RE: Nutters in Folk Clubs
From: Rasener
Date: 31 Jan 07 - 02:43 AM

Thanks Kitty

Les

Subject: RE: Nutters in Folk Clubs
From: GUEST,P. Nutt
Date: 31 Jan 07 - 04:06 AM

I don't mind the nutters, it's the smelly ones i find hard to bear.

Subject: RE: Nutters in Folk Clubs
From: skipy
Date: 31 Jan 07 - 04:46 AM

Thank God I'm completely stable!
Skipy

Subject: RE: Nutters in Folk Clubs
From: Lanfranc
Date: 31 Jan 07 - 05:12 AM

Nutter performers? The Amazing Mr (Derek) Smith, Peter Buckley-Hill, Joe Stead, Les Barker, to name but four.

Alan

Subject: RE: Nutters in Folk Clubs
From: bubblyrat
Date: 31 Jan 07 - 06:48 AM

Yes !! It"s all a question of definition. As I said on another thread,quite a few performers are "eccentric" rather than "nutters ". Examples ,for me, would be the delightfully potty "Hard Core Fluff,"the refreshingly bizarre "Apicella" from Portsmouth,and my friend from Godalming,in Surrey, Kevin,musician & painter,who makes bagpipes out of plumbing fittings & stuffed cats !

Subject: RE: Nutters in Folk Clubs
From: GUEST
Date: 31 Jan 07 - 08:43 AM

and Stanley Accrington. The nicest nutter of them all!

Subject: RE: Nutters in Folk Clubs
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 31 Jan 07 - 09:50 AM

I resent the poster who suggested that the nutters were all retired.

I haven't retired, I just haven't been able to make it to many folk clubs recently...

And I know who Fliss means by the bloke who plays along to tunes on a penny whistle, using extravagant movements and 'look at me' style. Stood next to him once. He couldn't hit the right note if it were nailed to a barn door and he had hold of the doorhandle, but boy, does he enjoy himself!

LTS

Subject: RE: Nutters in Folk Clubs
From: GUEST,Diva
Date: 31 Jan 07 - 10:38 AM

Ahhh the penny whistle nutter......I removed a whistle from one of his ilk...he was 'playing' it during a ballad and i took exception to it and took it off him. Took him a couple of minutes to notice as his eyes were closed and he was in penny whistle heaven at the time....still he never did it again!!!!!!!!!

Subject: RE: Nutters in Folk Clubs
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 31 Jan 07 - 11:23 AM

Brownsville Banned - the greatest live show I ever saw.

http://www.angelfire.com/band2/brownsville/from1977.htm

Subject: RE: Nutters in Folk Clubs
From: GUEST,Chris Murray
Date: 31 Jan 07 - 01:12 PM

There's that bloke who accompanies the performers at the Cambridge Folk Festival on his bugle.

Subject: RE: Nutters in Folk Clubs
From: synbyn
Date: 31 Jan 07 - 05:03 PM

Whatever happened to Mr Gladstone's Bag?

Subject: RE: Nutters in Folk Clubs
From: Jim Lad
Date: 31 Jan 07 - 05:11 PM

Folded? Just a guess.

Subject: RE: Nutters in Folk Clubs
From: Muttley
Date: 31 Jan 07 - 06:36 PM

G'day 'Drummer - haven't seen you around lately.

God bless all nutters - the world would be a far worse-off place without them.

Oh! And, hey, bubblyrat (love the name) - YOU have an Oerlikon?????
COOOOOOOOOOLLLLLLL.
Can I borrow it?
I need it to shoot down the zeppelins that keep circling my house playing piped Uillean Pipe musicat me which is accompanied by really bad bodhran backing.

Nutters are an essential element of a sane society - they're what keeps the rest of the population's collective feet on the ground - except for politicians and bus conductors.

As I often say - I don't suffer from insanity; I enjoy every bloody minute of it.

Muttley

Subject: RE: Nutters in Folk Clubs
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 31 Jan 07 - 06:52 PM

Mr Gladstones Bag - I remember them. They weren't really insane though - they were pretty good. very entertaining. very professional.

Victorian dress and they sang amusing Edwardian ballads.

There was a group from Portsmouth way back called Black Parrot Seaside who were completely insane.   They had the misfortune to be reviewed by an offshoot of melody Maker. Sense of Humour bypass. I think it was just the break they didn't need.

I also remember this psychobilly band from Aberystweth University called The Elephant Men. the had a song called the JCB men and the chorus was Oh no! Not the Diggers!, their other show stopper was called Your Shit Stinks.

Subject: RE: Nutters in Folk Clubs
From: Girl Friday
Date: 31 Jan 07 - 10:15 PM

So glad that there's no mention of Tone Deaf Leopard on this thread!
there is now

Subject: RE: Nutters in Folk Clubs
From: Splott Man
Date: 01 Feb 07 - 04:17 AM

Then there was Gasworks, Cocky, The Pigsty Hill Light Orchestra...

Subject: RE: Nutters in Folk Clubs
From: Leadfingers
Date: 01 Feb 07 - 04:34 AM

Pigsty Hill reformed after a 25 year lay off - I saw them at Sidders ! Just as hilarious , however poor old Barry Back went and died , just when it looked as though they would take the Folk World by storm again .

Subject: RE: Nutters in Folk Clubs
From: Scrump
Date: 01 Feb 07 - 06:49 AM

Ah, now yer talkin' Splott Man and Leadfingers. I still have my old albums. There was another lot called 1812 or something like that. And what about Mechanical Horsetrough, the Cowshed Cleaners, etc.?

Subject: RE: Nutters in Folk Clubs
From: John Routledge
Date: 01 Feb 07 - 08:29 AM

One great advantage in having a nutter or two in your club was that getting stale was not an option.

Subject: RE: Nutters in Folk Clubs
From: Anne Lister
Date: 01 Feb 07 - 03:39 PM

I was a huge Gasworks fan ...."Verbalise your pre-orgasmic tensions" ..think I still have the vinyl somewhere. Must transfer this stuff to CD - or iPod - or something ...

Anne