Folk On The Moor - Our Newsletter

GRAHAM'S EDITORIAL

I thought I would kick off this time around by congratulating Ben on his wonderful guest list. This year has given us some fantastic evenings.... I thought Kirsty and Mat were a true delight, their music was beautifully presented and the songs were witty and incisive. And I would imagine that guitarists were green with envy at the dazzling skills of Martin Simpson. Ben has also lined up some great acts for later on this year. Papa G will be, as always, unmissable and I am really looking forward to the astonishing instrumental talents of the two Pauls when Belshazzars Feast appear.

I am sure that The Westward Inn’s easy access has brought us some new faces in the audience ( and one or two old ones! ). For me, it’s just like some of the venues I knew in the seventies when I started going to Folk Clubs. My very first one was our own College Club in Canterbury. We used to get lots of superb acts from London. Mind you, I was banned from the raffle because I won it three weeks in a row... albums by Fairport Convention, Gordon Lightfoot ( have you heard Don Quixote? ) and Ralph McTell ( see the song in a list later on in these pages ).

What has been made clear to me by our guests is how much they enjoy their time at FOTM. One duo have called it the best club in the country ( after their own!! ). Others have said how friendly it is. For me the key ingredient is the audience and all the wonderful joining in with choruses. Believe it or not ( and this is true ), I used to sing in the college club and at other venues. I am not making this up. Scout’s honour!

I think live music is essential. I have been doing a lot of family tree research recently and have come across many photographs of people making music. Were it not for Folk Clubs and the like, this wonderful delight could well be lost. Perish the thought, as they say.

If you notice me waving a microphone at Singers’ Nights, I am attempting to record some samples for our website. I thought it would be a bit of fun for you all to hear some bits on-line; it will also serve as swish publicity for us, I hope!

I’ll finish here by wishing Rick good luck in his recording project. I am sure you will want to support him. I admit to having heard some of his practice sessions with Hilary. B****y good they were.

Meanwhile, keep the faith and support the best club in the business.... and our warmest wishes to Otto and Gerda.

IRONBRIDGE an article by COLIN CAMPBELL

Some 50 years ago, a ten-year old cyclist stood awestruck on the edge of Ironbridge gorge…. So different from the rolling farmland he cycled over around his rural Shropshire home! Here the River Severn is buried between huge, overgrown cliffs with a small town clinging to the slopes to the North, joined to the southern slopes by what appeared to be a rickety, rusting iron bridge set high above the unkempt river banks. To the North stretched a plateau of land covered in scrub-laden ruins and bare areas where nothing would grow.

Since then, a band of enthusiasts have cleared away the vegetation, revealing a lost landscape of blast furnaces, track-ways, kilns and old mines - inventing the rather grimy Science of Industrial Archaeology and creating a World Heritage Site; the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution, no less. The wasteland to the North is now the brash new town of Telford, though some would have it is still a wasteland… of souls.

What a change for that cyclist to return half a century later to roll along the new cycle tracks at the bottom of the gorge connecting the several brilliant working museums that both illustrate the history and keep alive the working traditions in the Gorge. Most impressive is the Bliss Hill Open Air Museum - a noisy, smelly, bustling recreation of a Victorian town, with pubs, shops, foundry and workshops, a mine, steam engines, canals, tile works and a full-size working replica of Trevithick's first steam locomotive, proudly driven by a Cornishman, the flag of St. Piran fluttering above.

So what's the story?

In a nutshell, a Quaker Iron Master - Abraham Darby and his young apprentice John Thomas, the real brains of the outfit, discovered a way of smelting iron stone using coke. The cheap and plentiful supply of iron enabled them to make the best and cheapest nails and pots in the oven, therefore unwittingly triggering the whole of the Industrial Revolution.

Pretty soon anything that could be made of iron was within the Gorge: railway lines, buildings, boats, trucks, steam engines and steam locomotives; not forgetting the famous iron bridge that gave the town its name.

There are so many facets to the story that make Ironbridge endlessly fascinating….

The geology that led to cottage industries for iron, coal and stone extraction since Roman times; the lives of the ordinary working people - the boatmen, miners, quarrymen, clay-pipe makers, potter, tile makers and their families; the social and religious ideas that came with the New Age Quaker families; the port and the River Severn trade highway and its eclipse by the advent of the canals and railways.

What a story!

Well worth a week's holiday to explore. Take care, though, as there is a surprising dearth of songs both traditional and modern relating to Ironbridge - you may even feel compelled to write one. It can become an obsession… witness a CD demo-collection of songs named "Abraham's Furnace", available on request ( with much grateful thanks for Graham's time and expertise ).

SINGER-SONGWRITERS by GRAHAM

One of the more pleasant tasks in running a Folk Club is when, having arrived early and set up any P.A., you chat to the guests. The other week, on one such occasion, we had a spirited discussion about the merits of British singer-songwriters. This particular chap was keen to expand on the merits of writers from elsewhere, but professed less than a fulsome knowledge of stuff on our lovely islands.

Now I don’t know if you ever make up CD compilations for your own pleasure ( I’m not even sure how legal this is! ), but I thought I would wade in with the index card list from my “recording” of British singer-songwriters. The songs I chose were, for me, indicative of tremendous individual talent... and, as you will see, having thought of one for each person, Mr. Lowe appears twice! I know I have missed lots off, I know no ladies appear; but it’s my choice of what is representative of the art of writing. If you don’t approve, do let me have your list....

Jez Lowe - Will Of The People - Lovely, subtle word-play intertwined with a delicious melody and an opening riff to be deeply envious of!

Johnny Coppin - The Winding Stair - Bookshops have memories that hang in the air; this piece is about a real haven in Dublin run for years by Kevin Connolly.

Richard Thompson - 1952 Vincent Black Lightning - Still one of the most requested songs on USA radio, this tale of true love is done with wonderful power.

Steve Tilston - Anthony Believes - This lovely song about an old man missing his wife is a true story. It’s actually about one of Steve’s late neighbours who he had curry cooking competitions with!

Steve Knightley - Cousin Jack - If you have not heard this masterpiece about the everyman nature of Cornish Miners, then why not?

Mike Silver - Waiting In Your Heart - Utterly enchanting and honest, this piece was created for Mike’s lovely wife. Listen to how he hangs on to notes!

George Papavgeris - The Flowers And The Guns - Written and sung with heart-wringing ease, Papa G has a song which shows all the horror of war... yet it is couched in beauty.

Ralph McTell - The Ferryman - This is my all time favourite song. It was inspired by a fine novel by Herman Hesse entitled “Siddhartha”.

Mick Ryan - Tommy - This hauntingly presented number is from a Folk Opera entitled “A Day’s Work”. It’s an amazing evocation of how ordinary folk can become extraordinary.

Vin Garbutt - The Troubles Of Erin - A man who can face any subject; the bravest of souls; and a song that begs for peace with tremendous passion.

Robin Laing - Ulysses - Visions of Homer whirled up in my mind - it’s a priceless retelling of a man’s need to wander, done brilliantly from Penelope’s viewpoint.

Lester Simpson - Standing In Line - One of the creative giants in a unparalleled trio; Lester tells, with real poetic bitterness, the sad fate of so much lost youth.

Bill Caddick - Unicorns - I have always wanted to believe in magic. This wonderful creation summons up the ultimate mystic beasts and suggest that magic is always there if you look for it.

John Tams - Look Up, Look Up - Appearing on a stunning folk rock album by The Home Service, this is a gorgeous tale of redemption, with a truly stunning arrangement.

Nick Drake - River Man -Beautiful, breathy singing; a lost love within a song by a tragically lost talent. Simple, tear jerking, just... lovely!

Jez Lowe - London Danny - Perhaps the ultimate song by one of our very best singer-songwriters. Proof, as if it was necessary, that the art of great writing and performance is both vibrant and fully fit!