was born in 1950 and brought £7, the cheapest model available who introduced himself to me at songs as a floor spot before they up in Chorlton cum Hardy, (preceded by several attempts half time by saying: “You should came on. At half time, Bob Diehl IManchester, where I lived until at playing the tennis racquet in be an opera singer.” Of course, the fiddler came up and asked me the age of 28. My mother sang a cap, dark glasses and harmonica I though he was bonkers at the if I wanted to join them as their very limited repertoire of songs holder in front of the mirror in an time, and it was just about the singer was leaving. And so my from various musicals of the attempt to look like !). least cool form of music I could career took a new turn. Bob Diehl, period, in what I later realised was think of, but 40 years later I found from London, was a top class a rather fine untrained contralto After what seemed like an eternity myself in love with opera and fiddle player, writer and arranger of voice, but at the time it never I finally managed to teach myself realised it might have been what I tunes. Gerry Murphy from Durham registered with me. I never heard to play three chords in the key should have been doing 40 years was the other international class my father sing or play a note, but of C and there was no stopping earlier. I still sing it for pleasure, musician in the band. He played what he did have was a Jones me; I joined the school “folk preferably when no-one’s tunes on Northumbrian pipes and English baritone concertina which society” which consisted of myself listening. English concertina and had gone lived in the shed throughout my and two others and made my childhood, and which I was told first ever appearance with this belonged to my grandfather, who group of three at a folk club at had died a long time before I a school in Hulme around 1967 was born. Every five years or so - in those days a pretty dismal “...in early 1991 I gave up, and didn’t I would open the case and have suburb of inner Manchester. I a look at the concertina, until one seem to remember we sang three sing or play a note for four years while I year I decided to take it out of the songs, the first of which was The box, pulled a bit too hard, and one Leaving Of Liverpool. Shortly half came out and the other half afterwards I read an advert in the was building up my new violin business. stayed in the case! Manchester Evening News for a talent contest at a working men’s But as the business got going and the My musical abilities extended club in Cheadle Hulme. This was to standing in front of my my second ever appearance. One violin shop began to settle down, I primary school year during rainy of the songs I sang was Dylan’s lunchtimes around the age of Girl From The North Country. I was realised that the music gets in your seven and singing the only two told by the judges that this was songs that I had in my repertoire, absolutely not what they wanted, blood and the urge gradually returned...” There Is A Green Hill Far Away and and that they were looking for the We Plough The Fields And Scatter, next Frank Sinatra! encouraged by an enthusiastic dinner lady who wanted the So it was a question of finding Epiphany number two came in to school with the likes of Alistair children to help pass the time somewhere to meet people who 1969 when I was 19 and still fairly Anderson and Dave Richardson by doing their party pieces. At did like , and I was directionless, though enjoying of Boys Of The Lough. Gerry secondary school I was put pointed in the direction of the Noel singing a few traditional songs. had met Bob at Manchester reluctantly into the school choir, Timpson Centre in Cheetham One Saturday night I went to do University and they decided to whose repertoire I found to be Hill, where I gazed in awe at a floor spot at a club called the form a Geordie band, which not to my taste, and having failed the residents, people like Rosie Three Legs of Man in Salford, originally consisted of Bob, Gerry, to learn the required songs got Hardman, Tony Downes and Tony and I was the first to arrive. I went Anthony Robb (also a piper) thrown out after a few weeks. and Arthur, which in turn led me upstairs to the club room, and and John Williamson (the singer to the M.S.G. (Manchester Sports found the landlord there asking who I replaced). Guitarist and Musically, as a child I continued Guild) - a well known club at the me where the resident band was, singer Bob Morton from South to be a disappointment, having time in the centre of Manchester as they’d failed to turn up. Not Shields was recruited to add been sent for piano lessons by which ran three nights a week knowing the answer, he said: some genuine Geordie flavour to my mother and finding them and booked national guests on “Well the club’s got to go on, we the band when Anthony left as I boring, didn’t practise, and was Saturdays and Sundays, and need an organiser – you’ll do!” would have had to (and did) sing again dismissed. The same result where I saw the likes of Mike Hence my unexpected move into all the Geordie repertoire in a occurred with violin lessons Seeger, Jasper Carrott, Alex the role of folk club organiser. As Manchester accent. (Nobody ever offered by the school, for which Campbell, Jeremy Taylor, Ewan usual, I hadn’t got a clue what said anything – maybe they didn’t I also seemed to have no talent. MacColl and a host of other to do having no experience, but notice!) I was with Canny Fettle The unexpected epiphany influences. I bumbled along. Fortunately, for seven years, during which time occurred when at the age of about there was already a list of guests we recorded a compilation album, 15 I finally got a record player and Monday night was singers’ night, booked and a week or two later Room For Company in 1971, on moved away from musical silence and you got two songs. One night I turned up on the night when which I sang half a song, not after buying a Beatles record. The I decided to go along and make Dave Burland was booked. I was being considered good enough ability to actually play records led an impression, so I started with waiting to meet him when Mike to sing a whole song! I listened to me one day to bump into a fellow a short Tom Paxton song, then Harding walked into the room and the album recently and, by God, pupil who lent me an LP by the hit them hard with 11 minutes said: “Dave’s in hospital and can’t they were right! Next was a group American folk singer, Caroline of Dylan’s Desolation Row, after do the gig, but I’ve got a young album, Varry Canny, in 1975 on the Hester. This seemed to have which Drony, the compere, who lad downstairs who’s doing his late Brian Horsfall’s Tradition label. an effect on my dull pubescent had never deigned to speak to me first tour of the northern folk club Bob and Gerry then unearthed consciousness, and I enquired before, came up and whispered in circuit, and will stand in for Dave. the Joshua Jackson collection of what else might be available along my ear: “If you ever f***ing do that He’s downstairs in the bar – come Yorkshire fiddle tunes, highlights the same lines. The answer was again, you’re banned!” and meet him.” It turned out to be of which we recorded on A Trip To Bob Dylan, whose first album I Nic Jones. Incidentally, Nic’s fee Harrogate in 1977. Soon we made borrowed from this progressively So I continued to wander round that night was £10, which he gave our first trips away from the North musically aware new friend, and the folk clubs of Manchester in to Dave. West, doing a tour of London and Steve Turner that was it. I was now hooked on my torpid teenage daze, and the South East organised by Pete Dylan, Leadbelly, Buffy St Marie, finally got my first booking via an One night in 1970 I went to watch Woods when he was teaching Pioneer of the English concertina and stalwart of the folk scene, Steve Turner T Bone Walker etc., and thus agent called Dave at a folk club a Geordie band called Canny in London and where we played had to have a guitar, which came in Styal in Cheshire. Here I met a Fettle play at Broughton Park Ewan MacColl’s Singers’ Club at recalls some of the highlights from his first (and second) career in folk music. from Barratts in Manchester for “character” called Paul Connor, Rugby Club. I did a couple of least twice in two or three years. I

The Living Tradition - Page 28 The Living Tradition - Page 29 was later told that this was a pretty Things started to come together and travelled from the top to the to get enough air to keep them After this, and other similar events, there to greet me, only they were prestige gig, and many great when Frank Harte and Tony bottom of the country on the bus, functioning, and feeling very I began to wonder if I was cut out 13 years older! names failed to get the gig once. O’Halloran noticed me at a doing 12 bookings in 12 nights, glad for once that I wasn’t Alistair for a career in folk music. Also, singing session with Nic Jones including the famous Bunker Folk Anderson! in order to create the lifestyle to In my professional career, I was Throughout my time with the band at Norwich festival and offered Club situated on top of an extinct which I thought I’d like to become doing up to 180 bookings a year, we worked closely with Harry me a tour of Ireland, and over volcano overlooking Auckland 1986 saw me making my fourth accustomed, I’d started to but this, of course, was impossible and last LP with Fellside, which Boardman, one of the founding the next couple of years I ended harbour - surely the best view supplement my derisory income with a business to run, so now was released in 1987 to the fathers of the North West folk up doing four or five tours there from any folk club in the world, but by dealing in folk instruments on I’m doing 50-60 concerts a year, ranging from a week to a month. not quite as weird as Darwin Folk greatest acclaim I’d had so far. revival in the 50s and 60s, and the side. One day I discovered which works well as I can play the These started to tie in with the odd Club in Australia. It took place on This seemed to do the trick to a we were privileged, though I that the odd violin I was buying clubs that I want to rather than didn’t realise it at the time, to be tour of Germany, including the the narrow walkway surrounding certain extent, and I appeared to made more money than a bashed playing to survive, like I had in the residents at his folk club. Harry BFPO bases, and my next album, a massive empty WW2 gun turret be moving forward. I got a phone up or concertina, and it 80s, at places that weren’t always chose the highest quality singers Jigging One Now, came out in emplacement, where I peered call from Paulo Nuti in Italy, saying escalated from there. So in early suitable for a traditional singing that he could find as guests at the 1982. By then I was beginning to across a 20 foot chasm to the that he wanted The Steve Turner 1991 I gave up, and didn’t sing concertina player. club, from all over the country, so I do a bit of work on the east coast audience 20 yards away on the Band to play at a major festival at or play a note for four years while was lucky to see people like Kevin of America and in 1983, just as opposite side of the walkway in Fiera del Primiera in the north of I was building up my new violin Mick Peat also persuaded me to Mitchell who turned up for one of my third album, Eclogue, was the pitch black tropical night. the country that summer. When I his gigs covered in paint saying told him that there was no such business. But as the business got get back in the recording studio Subscribe he’d been working up a telegraph band, and that the four musicians going and the violin shop began and, after a false start, in 2007 I pole that day! I also heard people he wanted (George Faux, Dave to settle down, I realised that the recorded my fifth album, Whirligig like Tim Lyons, Alison McMorland Walters, Steve Czwortek and Bill music gets in your blood and the Of Time, with Olly Knight, for Pete and The High Level Ranters, Martin) who’d accompanied me urge gradually returned. Heywood’s Tradition Bearers to the leading most of whom I recorded on my on the album, had never actually label, my first album in CD format. portable cassette recorder and all been in the studio at the same Fairly typically, I’d stopped Having had the opportunity to time, he wasn’t fazed and offered was influenced by in different smoking after rather than before compare it with the old LPs it me a fee the size of which was ways. I stopped singing, and after I shows what a difference the Traditional Music hard to imagine at the time (and stopped singing for a living, I new recording techniques, and even now) with our fares and a I played guitar and banjo in the started having singing lessons! hopefully the singing lessons, top hotel included, to play one band, and only started learning At the beginning of 1996 I began have made. It received some concert during a three day stay at the concertina at the age of to learn how to sing opera and positive reviews and went as far as magazine the festival. 23. Inspired by Gerry, I wasn’t wished I’d had the lessons at the getting on the long list for the BBC able to play my grandfather’s I managed to get the guys start. I know I had a voice but I Folk Awards. concertina because it was away together with ease, taking the realised I hadn’t known what to do Packed with information, news, with a repairer (who shall be fee into account, and we had a with it! In the early 2000s I began By this time, I was going back nameless) for eight years, having couple of rehearsals. Coach loads to go to the local Irish sessions, to touring Australia and New reviews and features leading you new bellows made. So I had to of people from all over Europe just to play tunes on my banjo, Zealand when I could get time find another one to learn on. I arrived for the festival, and we, which led to my getting up to off the day job. The highlight was to the best live and recorded put out a mournful plea around being the headline act, were to sing a song (paralysed with fear, I being chosen to top the bill at the the Manchester folk scene and a music, clubs, concerts and go onstage for our hour-long set should point out, having been off Auckland Folk Festival in New kind lady came to my rescue with as the last act of the three British the scene for so long) at a Whitby Zealand in 2011, which is the a very basic English concertina festivals in the UK, Ireland and bands. And that’s where it started festival singaround. prestige gig in that country. This with a small problem – it had no to go downhill. The two previous led to the release of my “difficult further afield. straps to hold it with, and, being bands overran, and instead Whitby was the only contact I had second album” Rim Of The Wheel the world’s least practical person, of starting at 11pm to finish at with folk music in the 13 years I instead of making temporary in 2012 which has been reviewed midnight, we started at 11.55pm. was off the scene, as I used to go favourably. When asked what was thumb straps with tape or string or We were halfway through the Keep in touch with the definitive for one day to play in the festival the best live act she’d ever seen the like, I learnt to play by gripping first song when I felt a tap on my cricket match each year. By the in her Rocket Launcher interview it firmly between my chin and my shoulder from George Faux who guide to the traditional music end of 2004 I began making very in Froots, Nancy Kerr said: “The knees. was playing the fiddle just behind occasional visits to the local folk best spot I’ve seen recently was scene. me. He pointed to the wings The time came to make a decision where the organiser was making clubs in Nottingham where we’d Steve Turner – total intensive one morning in Holland after a frantic cut-throat gestures; to such moved to start the violin shop that musical focus and a vast serious festival concert. We sat around I currently run with my wife Liz. repertoire.” NEWS, REVIEWS AND INFORMATION FROM THE WORLD OF TRADITIONAL MUSIC NEWS, REVIEWS AND INFORMATION FROM THE WORLD OF TRADITIONAL MUSIC UK £3.25 • EUROPE €5 • USA $7 • CANADA $7 UK £3.25 • EUROPE €5 • USA $7 • CANADA $7 an extent that we thought it best Incorporating deciding whether to give up our to stop immediately. That’s when I’m grateful to Bernard Blackwell, jobs and turn professional. The the lights went out, and the sound who ran a club in Plumtree, for I found overall that the folk scene ISSUE 101 ISSUE 109 answer from the others was a system cut out, leaving 2000 encouraging me to sing the odd continues to change in many resounding “No”, so that left me drunken Italians stumbling around song and eventually gave me the ways. There’s the frequently as the only one harbouring a in the darkness of the huge first booking of my “comeback” in observed fact that many folk

NEWS, REVIEWS AND INFORMATION FROM THE WORLD OF TRADITIONAL MUSIC NEWS, REVIEWS AND INFORMATION FROM THE WORLD OF TRADITIONAL MUSIC

All photos: Pete Heywood UK £3.25 • EUROPE €5 • USA $7 • CANADA $7 UK £3.25 • EUROPE €5 • USA $7 • CANADA $7 romantic desire to travel round the marquee. It turned out that there early 2005. clubs are finding it harder to Incorporating world sleeping on people’s floors was a bylaw in that village which continue in their old formats and scratching a living as a full said that there should be no music That first booking I did for Bernard and with ageing audiences. FIONA ISSUE 104 ElizaISSUE 110 time folk singer. after midnight, and the police had was memorable. I was so nervous There are more festivals, and Bob Fox Carthy HUNTER Rura  Baltimore Fiddle Fair Pete Seeger • Shane McAleer • Allan Taylor come and shut everything down.  that I walked off the stage in the more competition for bookings. Mayday! Mayday! • Cheltenham Folk Festival Barry Kerr Shepley Spring Festival By 1985 I was touring three or four Issue 101 • April/May 2014 released, I was offered a nine Issue 109 • August/September 2015 I had to go round doing floor The organiser quickly assured first half, having lost count of the There are far more recordings week tour of Australia and New times a year in the USA, with an spots and hustling for work me that we would get our full fee, number of songs that I’d done; available, with access to material and at that time the scene was Zealand. Not many British artists agent in the Midwest getting me for basically doing nothing, with Bernard asked me what I was far more readily available via the Jimmy going through one of its regular had toured over there at the time, enough work to briefly move to the proviso that I, as leader of the doing, as I’d only been there for internet. Also there’s the growth of WARWICK lulls, when comedians ruled so it was quite an honour and I Chicago for a few months. One band, should go back on stage a Crowley ended up flying around Australia of the scary experiences (which 15 minutes and sung four songs. concert venues and the seeming FOLK FESTIVAL Aidan O'Rourke and traditional singers with the few minutes later when the lights Leon Rosselson • Emily Smith • Mandolin Journey The Teacups  Jackie Oates Rachel Newton • Kevin Madden • Jean Redpath I made up for it in the second half,  preference for younger groups, Steve Tilston Durham Miners' Gala Issue 110 • October/November 2015 concertina were not flavour of the (anticlockwise!) because you only a bellows instrument player were back up and apologise to the Issue 104 • December 2014/January 2015 and ended up getting two more duos and trios above solo singers, month (and interestingly enough, could get a special deal on the can have) was playing in Flagstaff, audience for the abrupt halt to the bookings at other clubs from local still aren’t, and never have been!) air fare in those days and played Arizona, which is 7000 feet above entertainment, as the organiser for reasons which cynical old However, I persevered, and having nearly every folk venue in the sea level, and where the air is so didn’t feel like doing it himself! I folk organisers who’d come to fogeys like me couldn’t possibly made my first solo album, Out country over seven weeks. thin that I found myself getting came back off stage unscathed, see me. And so it continued, with be drawn into giving views on disorientated by having to pull Stack, which was released on the which must say something for my me gradually getting back in the here! www.livingtradition.co.uk the concertina bellows in and Fellside label in 1979, I managed I went straight to New Zealand in persuasive charm or my innocent swing of things and finding that out twice as much as normal to survive. the autumn of 1983 for two weeks trust in human nature! most of the old faces were still www.steve-turner.co.uk

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