The Newsletter of Readifolk

The Newsletter of Rea difolk Reading's folk song and music club newcomers whom we have ‘talent spotted’ during the past year. that we bring you Issue Five of , the Readifolk Newsletter. It is a year since Stewart first suggested that we try an experimental newsletter, to see what people think of it. We are happy to say that it is entirely down to your help and support that we got beyond Issue One. The newsletter has been a great innovation and we congratulate Stewart and the many contributors for the high standard of this publication. , to review the past and look forward to the future. We would like the newsletter to have a wider reach, to spread the news of Readifolk and to help bring our The past year has been one of the most successful in guest performers bigger audiences. But we will need the chequered history of Readifolk. The RISC venue has some help to do this. At the moment, Stewart is at last brought some stability for the club and comments overseeing the production of on his own, but from our members and performers have been largely would like to involve others more. Please see his article complimentary. We have had some superb Guest Nights on page 5 about this. as you can gather from the various reviews given in the four quarterly editions of . that our neighbouring club, Bracknell Folk Club, is back on a Looking forward to the New Year, we have already a full sound footing again. They would appreciate your guest list up until the fourth quarter of 2010. The support, and now meet on Tuesday evenings at The programme for the first quarter can be found on the Sun in Windlesham. For more details, see their website back page and you will see that we have an interesting www.bracknellfolk.org.uk mix of established performers and a number of exciting and look forward to seeing you at the club. emerge from the undergrowth and return to on (born James Henry Miller) the voices of ordinary people to tell the stories. Many of the people’s words became incorporated into the songs that went into the shows. There were eventually eight of these When I first heard programmes on subjects ranging from the engine driver John being bashed Axton, to fishing, and the life of the travelling people. out by a skiffle group in the late 1950s I knew it From 1960 until his death in 1989 Ewan continued to work was something different. with Peggy Seeger touring and producing albums. He A song about places and remained politically active, lending support to many left wing things I knew rather than causes. During the 1985 miners’ strike Ewan and Peggy America where most of gave many benefit concerts. the pop music came Ewan MacColl wrote over 300 songs. Many of these songs from. have found their way into the folk tradition. If you hear a song James Henry Miller was that you think sounds traditional, but a little modern, the born in January 1915 in chances are it is a Ewan song. The strength and wide appeal Salford, Lancashire. His of Ewan’s writing was shown when BBC Radio 2 held its poll father had moved to to find the most popular songs of the 20th century. He won Salford because his two categories: best folk song for and best trade union activities made it impossible for him to get work soul song for . What in a Scottish iron foundry. Jimmie left school at fourteen and more need be said! was unable to get a long-term job. This meant that he had plenty of time for his political interests and he rapidly became a leader of the Young Communists League. He first came to Unfortunately there are not too many of Ewan’s recordings public notice through the mass trespass on Kinder Scout in readily available. There is no collection of his best written 1936. He helped to plan and publicise the event and wrote songs for example. his first successful song as a result of his experience. The double CD Ballads (TSCC576D) contains 29 Scottish ballads of murder, intrigue, love and discord. He developed an interest in drama and found himself writing, directing and acting in sketches and plays in support of his For a good cross-section of his work The Definitive Ewan left wing views. Through this interest he met and, in 1936, MacColl (HPO6006) or The Real MacColl (TSCD463) are married the actress Joan Littlewood. worth considering. Ewan and Joan took their theatre company on the road All of these are available from HMV or amazon.co.uk. If you touring in the North of England. The outbreak of World War II are lucky you may find other albums by trawling the net. Few put a temporary stop to theatrical work and in July 1940 of his albums of political songs have made it on to CD. The Ewan joined the Army. He deserted in December. The original albums occasional appear on Ebay. Those in good reason for his desertion and why he was not prosecuted condition sell for considerable sums. remain mysteries. Topic has issued all of the original Radio Ballads. These are From 1946 until 1950 Ewan, Joan and company were back good and show just how good a musical documentary can on the road. In 1950 the Theatre Workshop, as the troupe be, in the right hands. , had become, decided to settle at the Theatre Royal in and are particularly good Stratford, East London. Ewan was apparently unhappy with in my opinion. this decision and it seems that the break with Joan Littlewood was both professional and personal. By 1950 James Miller had become Ewan MacColl. The reasons for the name change are not clear but it seems that he wanted to get closer to his Scottish roots. He had always had an interest in the Scottish songs that he had heard his parents singing. He became associated with Topic Records as a performer and producer. From 1956 onwards he issued albums containing traditional and his own songs. He worked with folk song collector A L Lloyd and others, recording albums of the Child Ballads. A certain amount of scandal was caused when Ewan took up n n with Peggy Seeger, an American singer half his age. He was i g still married to Jean Newlove his second wife at the time. a M In 1957 Ewan and Peggy began working with Charles m i J Parker, a BBC radio producer on what was to become a y b groundbreaking series of radio musical documentaries. In s o the Radio Ballads, as the series became known, Ewan used t o h P Anne Lister drew an unusually large audience, demonstrating that she clearly has a significant number of fans in the Readifolk family, and I realise that I court controversy, therefore, in my assessment. A key theme in her songwriting is storytelling, drawing on resources from Greek mythology to Irish folklore. More specifically, she deals with the super-natural or other worldly possibilities of these stories - The views expressed here are entirely those of the ghosts, faeries, dragons, mermaids. Indeed, even when they promise to deal with the real world - such as the experience of women reviewers, and are independent of the Readifolk prisoners - her lyrics revert to the supernatural (ghost-sightings in organising team. prisons…). This storytelling theme is often combined with another theme - the area around Pontypool (where she lives) and its characters (such as the Rev. James, a sort of Derek Acorah in clerical or culture, beyond a few garb). received stereotypes. I have fleeting memories of Aphrodite's Child, a I was dismayed that, despite pop and prog. rock group from the late 60s and early 70s that is fast their other-worldly character, sinking into the quicksand of historical oblivion, which consisted of Anne’s lyrics were often literal Demis Roussos, Vangelis Papathanassiou and, err... another chap. and lacking poetic subtlety. I Two of them, of course, went on to achieve much greater international heard very little metaphor and success (and bodily weight) later on. Dunno about the other one. My sometimes very bald vague memory of the group left a lingering impression that there was formulations (“…somewhere really no detectable Greekness about them. Revisiting them on there might be a different scale YouTube, you can barely hear any influence of what I imagine (in my of values…”). Unlike many ignorance) their roots must be - a chord progression here and there, traditional stories, her lyrics an inflection in Roussos' warbling voice, but not much more. seemed to be simple word exercises with no particular purpose (other, So I really had no idea what to perhaps, than their shared purpose of claiming that there might be anticipate from George Papavgeris, but more to this world than we know). I found myself asking - what maybe half expected some energetic perspective, what sensibility is being articulated here? dance rhythms, played, perhaps, on bouzoukis, lutes, goat skinned drums Anne Lister is a very poised and confident performer, interspersing her and the odd odd-shaped double- songs with anecdotes and humour. Her singing is even and sure- reeded pipe (did I mention footed, although with her capo firmly stuck in the same position on a stereotypes?). But it was a surprise to little parlour guitar for the entire evening and using a limited range of find that it really wasn't obvious at all, keys, her songs quickly started to sound “samey” to me.

Load more