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another round of teas. “He was a genius,”
concludes Mike, “but not for the reasons
he thought he was a genius.” “It was the
acting,” says Norma. “He was a great snob,
Ewan. He tried to make English traditional
song something it wasn’t. He’d say he was
singing something in the English tradition-
al style, but I never heard an English tradi-
tional singer that sounded like him – ever.
He seemed to think that there was one
Scottish style and that Scottish singers
should have this funny singing that came
from Europe. But whether you’re in Scot-
land, England, Ireland or wherever, every-
where has loads of different styles.”
1965 was also the year Derrick Knight
made his famous BBC TV documentary
about them, Travelling For A Living, fea-
turing guest appearances from Anne Brig-
gs and Louis Killen which, among other
things, opened the door to the treasure
trove of material that lay behind the previ-
ously forbidden walls of the Cecil Sharp
House library. “In the film you see us going
into the library but that was the first time
they’d allowed us in there,” says Norma.
“It was really hard getting into the music
there,” says Mike. “It was all rich people
and teachers and they wouldn’t let us in.
Photo: Keith Morris
They thought we were scruffs.”
Watersons 1986: Martin, Norma, Lal, Mike.
T
hey also had problems on their
first visit to Sidmouth Festival in
All these hotels on the surrounding islands
1964, then a dance-dominated advertised at Radio Antilles and I got loads
event run by the EFDSS. They’d of free travel… Guadeloupe, St Lucia, Bar-
gone there on spec after a pre- bados, I visited them all. I sang there too
vious adventure in London, recording five with this black guy called Charles who
“I
loved the life. There was no
tourism then and Montserrat
island was so safe. It really
was paradise. I met a French
boy and I might have stayed
tracks for New Voices, another Bert Lloyd- played guitar.”
and married him but I missed the family
driven LP that also featured Harry Board-
“The first Christmas I was there a gang
and I could see what was coming there.
man and Maureen Craik. They arrived in
of people came to the door and they had
All these rich people started arriving.
Sidmouth, slept under boats on the beach
One woman ran her own airline and she
this hobby horse thing with them and they
and, much to festival organiser Bill Rut-
built this house on the hillside with seven
ter’s disgust, started turning up to sing at
knocked on the door and said ‘Good mas-
bathrooms and a ballroom on the roof,
various sessions and dances.
ter and mistress we come to remind you
while there’s people living in shacks…
it’s Christmas’ and they did this heel and
Norma: “Bill Rutter found we were
and a poverty of ideas and education.
toe dance, like an early morris dance, all
getting into places for free and threw us
Kids went to school until they were 15
done to calypso music. The next year I
out but Taffy Thomas, who was about 17
and the smartest of them then taught
then, and the Yetties went to Bill and said
found out the tradition was you got a pan
the next ones to come along. There was
‘Look they’re not doing any harm, they’ve
and put in all your pennies from the year
never any stretching. All they wanted to
got good voices, let them sing’. He said
and heated the pan on the stove and then
do was become a maid in a white per-
‘No, they don’t have a green card’ so this
threw the pennies on the ground for son’s house or work for a bank or be a
side called themselves the Green Card
them. And they were all whited up… taxi driver and ferry people around. I
Morris Men and did a protest dance for us
nothing racial, it was just what they did.” didn’t want to be a part of it any more.”
and Bill had to climb down. The EFDSS
made him apologise.” At the ICA in January 1986: Norma, Mike, Rachel – and Billy Bragg. That photo started rumours!
The Watersons split up in 1968, they
were knackered. “All that year we worked
really hard, travelling by night train to
Manchester to sing at the Free Trade Hall
at lunchtime and then we’d go down to
the Isle of Wight for a concert in the
evening, all for £20 a gig – and Roy Guest
took 15% of that,” says Mike. The final
nail in the coffin, however, was Queen’s
festival in Belfast when the entire audi-
ence were encouraged to get up on stage
to do a turn before the main act… with
the result that dawn was breaking before
the Watersons finished their own perfor-
mance. “We didn’t turn pro to be rich and
famous,” says Mike, “we did it because we
loved the music. Then suddenly it was our
living. We all hated touring anyway.”
Norma Waterson took off for the hot-
ter climes of Montserrat with her then
fiancé Brendan Power, a DJ on the pirate
station Radio 270 moored off the coast at
Bridlington, who’d been offered a job on
Radio Antilles. The relationship quickly dis-
integrated but Norma was offered her
own DJ spot at the station and stayed for
four years, “I really enjoyed it – it was
exactly what I needed. They provided you
with a house and good wages and so many
complimentary things it was unbelievable. Photo: Ian Anderson
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