The Music Well, Musical Traditions, Mike Absalom, the New Rope String Band and Peter, Paul and Mary

This was the last column I sent off to Folk on Tap. I had previously written it for Issue 108: Jul-Sep 2006, but heard very little from the editor until early 2008 when he let me know there would be another issue coming out, so I rewrote it and sent it off for Issue 108: Spring 2008. I don't know if it ever got published...

I feel I should have lots of news about how things in my hi-tech world have changed dramatically in the 18 months that FoT has been taking a sabbatical, but I’m not so sure they have. The PlayStation 3 is now vying for supremacy over the Nintendo Wii, rather than the PS2 over the DS; Blu-Ray has kicked HD DVD into touch in much the same way as VHS did with Betamax; and my FeedReader is full of stories about Brown letting us down rather than Blair. So it’s all a bit same old, same old. The music industry is still under threat from people sharing their mp3s. Digital rights management is a bit of a hot potato at the moment, especially with video files. If you use the BBC’s iPlayer to download a few performances from the Cambridge Folk Festival - which of course you have paid for with your licence fee - you must watch it within four weeks or it will spontaneously combust. There is a flicker of sanity on the horizon, with a public consultation under way at the time of writing into allowing music to be copied for personal use. We have of course been breaking the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 each time we copy CDs to our PC or mp3 player or make an extra copy to play in the car, let alone share with a friend. The idea is that copying will no longer be illegal as long as it’s for private use. Minister for intellectual property Lord Triesman said the proposed changes would explore “where the boundaries lie between strong protection for right holders and appropriate levels of access for users”. So apparently owners will not be allowed to sell or give away their original discs once they have made a copy. How exactly are they going to police that one? It seems CD burning is killing music where home taping clearly failed. Ecclesiastes 1:9 - “There is no new thing under the sun.” Here endeth the ranting. On with the surfing.

A few folk-orientated sites have been going from strength to strength while we’ve been away. I am pleased to be able to report that although it has a new name, Radio Britfolk is still up and running. Now known as The Music Well, “The site continues to provide the best in traditional and contemporary folk music from Wales, Ireland, Scotland and England and we welcome visitors old and new to share the enjoyment in our cultural heritage.” The best news is that it has moved from being a subscription site to being free - although donations are welcomed. There is an impressive archive of old programmes on subjects ranging from John Connolly, Harry Boardman and Fred Jordan to June Tabor, Nick Drake and Steve Tilston. In fact I defy you to click on the site’s archive and read down the list of programmes without salivating. Much of Tradmusic consists just of links to external sites, such as the BBC Radio 2 Folk and Acoustic news page and online newspaper articles such as a Scotland on Sunday interview with Bert Jansch, but there are also original articles about artists such as our own (ie they are from the Southern Counties) Band of Two. Pete Fyfe seems to be the resident CD reviewer as well. It also has a gig guide, a large database of musicians and a discussion forum. Musical Traditions is the online version of the paper magazine of the same name begun by Keith Summers in 1983 and carried on by Rod Stradling. With an archive of more than 200 articles available as well as regularly updated news and reviews, it is quite comprehensive and well worth the occasional dip. You never know what you might find. There are articles on subjects as esoteric as Ted “Darkie” Duckett, the New Forest bones player and step dancer, or as mainstream - in a folk music sort of way - as Joe Heaney interviewed by Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger. As well as an obituary for Gordon Hall, the fine Sussex singer who died in 2000, there is the transcript of an interview with him that Vic Smith did for BBC Radio Sussex in 1991. It is interesting to read that when he lived in Horsham he lived “under the same roof” as Henry Burstow. “Recollections of Henry Burstow” has been digitised and is available on the South Ridings Folk Arts Network site, another website well worth a visit. The recollections are a fascinating glimpse into the life of this “celebrated bellringer and songsinger” and include a list of the “400 and odd songs he sang from memory”.

I must confess that I no longer know the words of the National Anthem unless I have a hymn book open, but I do remember “WPc Sadie Stick, hit me again with your big black stick, I’ll have a word with you when I find my dic - tionary,” words from a song which I probably heard only once, when I visited my ex-wife’s cousin in Salisbury in the early Seventies. Delighted to find we shared not only Christian names but also a taste for folk music, he slipped his prized shiny black copy of Mike Absalom’s LP “Henry and Other Peccadillos” on to the stereogram for me. Like it was only yesterday. Every now and then I have googled Mike’s name to no avail, but at last I have found a website dedicated to the legend that is Mike Absalom. After living in Canada for 20 years - which might have had something to do with his disappearance from the folk scene here - he has returned to the UK. You can find out what he has been up to, read the comics and listen to mp3s on his website.

A brief intermission - with no hint of nostalgia for at least 100 words. I was delighted to see the New Rope String Band when they came to Croydon FC. They were superb, as expected. I also bought their ORSB DVD. Though tinged with sadness (the late, great Joe Scurfield is on top form throughout) it is so hilarious that you feel privileged to watch it. The NRSB website has video clips that will remind you of (or introduce you to) just how incredibly inventive they still are.

Back to the nostalgia, and I hope you will forgive me finishing with even more self-indulgence than usual. I would have thought that I had written before about Peter, Paul and Mary, who probably did as much as anyone else during my teens to turn me on to folk music and guitar playing, though I have just done a quick check through past editions and can find nothing. It is good to see that Mary Travers is still campaigning, albeit now for bone marrow donation. Mary was diagnosed with leukaemia in 2005, and received a bone marrow transplant that autumn. PP&M continued their reunion tour late in 2005, and continue to tour now, although their recent “fall” tour was postponed while she had back surgery! These days she is as likely to be found campaigning for America’s National Marrow Donor Program as for peace or civil rights. Having lost my brother-in-law to the disease, I wish her luck, though I am including the web address of Britain’s Anthony Nolan Trust, and encourage you to visit it. Oh, and the PP&M website is cool.

Damien Barber and Mike Wilson @ The Music Institute, Guildford

Just got back from a superb gig at Guildford Folk Club thanks to Damien Barber and Mike Wilson. All the more astonishing as Damien had only got back from China a couple of days ago so was still considerably jet-lagged. And tomorrow he's playing at Boris's party celebrating all things English in Trafalgar Square along with the Demon Barbers! But it was Mike who had worried organisers reaching for the tranquilisers by getting himself delayed (it's not as if he had any choice) in Guildford's notorious one-way system.

Anywho - the songs, the music and the banter were all as I expected them to be. MacColl's Kilroy was Here and My Old Man; Bellamy's Nostradamus and On Board a 98; The Green Linnet and Westlin Winds from Dick Gaughan, and loads more besides, all sung and played beautifully by two friends who have the knack of breathing new life into songs even though they have sung them many times before - each time it's as if it's only recently come into their repertoire. And as for The Joy of Living, it was majestic. And all without the opportunity for so much as five minutes' practice!

A great evening in a nice little venue.