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eanwhile back in Yorkshire, neously and without hesitation the rest
Lal and Mike were busy writ- will follow but still find a way of landing
ing songs. Lal had married again. We made a terrible mistake one day
George Knight and after a and did a recording for the BBC and
spell in Leeds they moved allowed them to record us on separate
back to Hull. Mike, also married by then, mics. It was rubbish. We couldn’t blend
took his lunchtime breaks at Lal’s place with one another and nothing sounded
from his job painting houses. “I’d go round right and when we heard it back it sound-
there, tune her guitar because she never ed really feeble. Since then we’ve always
could, and George would come in with a recorded around one mic.”
couple of bacon sandwiches and two mugs
Norma: “We never planned anything,
of tea and we’d play away and swap ideas
never wrote anything down on paper.
for songs. Probably 90% of it was rubbish
We’d just sit in a room and sing to each
but I was chuffed to write with Lal. The ter-
other until we liked what we heard. That’s
rible thing about her was she’d play you a
how we did it. Nobody was more surprised
song and say ‘What do you think of that?’
than us when we got the reception we did.
and you’d say ‘That’s amazing’ and then a
We just loved the music and we loved
week later she’d play it again with a totally
Photo: John Bryan
singing together. Still do.”
different tune. And then a week later
Mike at the Bright Phoebus recordings.
she’d changed all the words. It was still
brilliant but she’d left behind two equally
er’s house for a welcome home party. It
brilliant songs in the process.”
was Leader who played her tapes of the
“I was working with a lad called Brian,
songs Mike and Lal had been writing. T
he Watersons evolved into
Waterson: Carthy in the nineties
when Lal and Mike opted out
after becoming disenchanted
with the travelling and, with
lovely lad, and we were painting a win-
“When I heard it I was in tears because all Eliza absorbed into the family business, a
dow in a big Victorian room. I got the the songs were about our childhood.”
new chapter was written. Lal’s magical
steps up and he said ‘What do you do
Norma went to live with Lal and
songwriting, meanwhile, belatedly found
when you go to your sister’s?’ and I said
George and on her second night back she
more acclaim – when she released the
‘We write songs’ and he said ‘How do you
trooped off with Mike and Lal to the folk
Once In A Blue Moon album with her son
do that then?’ And I got a brush and paint-
club and Norma, naturally, sang with them.
Oliver Knight. This and A Bed Of Roses,
ed a top bar on the window and at that
The Watersons were back. “We got home
posthumously released following her sud-
moment the sun burst through the clouds
and Our Ann – Mike’s wife – said ‘If you lot
den death from cancer in 1998, is being
and hit the window and I just started to
go back on the road that’s it, I’m going!’”
rediscovered by new young audiences all
sing… ’Today bright phoebus she smiled
“She’s still here!” laughs Mike. “Yes and the time. Rachel and Becky Unthank, for
down on me… ’ And I got down and said
now she’s singing with us,” adds Norma. example, who were among those watching
‘Sorry Brian, I’ve got to go and get me gui-
The Watersons did go back on the
the Watersons in open-mouthed awe at
tar and fix that tune’ and I went straight
road with a series of triumphant albums,
Cambridge, have covered Lal’s At First She
back to Lal’s, fixed the chord sequence and
For Pence And Spicey Ale, Sound Sound
Starts on their new album. There have
went back to work. I went back to Lal’s
Your Instruments Of Joy, Green Fields and
been two Lal tribute albums recently (Lal
afterwards to work some more on it.”
all, with a style that’s never been emulated
by Jo Freya and the Migrating Bird various
Bright Phoebus subsequently became
– though God knows, plenty have tried –
artists set put together by Charlotte Greig).
the inspirational title track of the extraor- and continued to set the standards for As for the rest of the Watersons, it’s
dinary album of Mike and Lal’s songs unaccompanied singing. an ongoing dynasty. Waterson:Carthy
released on Bill Leader’s Trailer label in
People always imagined they had a
continue to charm and delight, Eliza
1972, which remains one of the most enig-
formula and that the harmonies and
Carthy is still riding the wave of her
matic – and elusive – records of the British
arrangements were meticulously planned,
Dreams Of Breathing Underwater album,
folk revival. A jamboree of top musicians,
but they never were – everything was com-
Oliver Knight runs the Panda Sound stu-
including Carthy, Richard Thompson, Bob
pletely intuitive; which makes it difficult
dio and, buoyed by the Albert Hall and
Davenport, Tim Hart, Maddy Prior and
for a fourth voice to link in, as Martin
Cambridge Festival shows, there are signs
Ashley Hutchings joined them on the
Carthy discovered after joining the family
of activity from the others too. Oliver and
recording of a series of startlingly good
following his marriage to Norma.
his sister Marry are working on an album
songs like Rubber Band, Red Wine And
“I realised early on that I just had to
together, there’s the Norma-Eliza album
Promises, The Scarecrow and the Lal song
try and fit in with what was already going
on the way and surely it can’t be long
that all but reduced the Royal Albert Hall
on,” says Carthy. “I started off trying to
before Florence Daisy makes her first
to rubble when it was sung there by her
sing a part but that’s just not possible.
album. The mighty river of song goes on.
daughter Marry a couple of years ago, Fine
Basically you have to sing the tune until “The only thing that gets me is the
Horseman. A trail of people came up to
you can’t any more and then you sing a travelling,” says Norma, “but as soon as we
Marry after that performance to tell how
harmony. You find a key that nobody can get on stage I love it. I love the singing and
emotional it made them feel because she
sing in properly and you take it from I love it when people come up afterwards
looked and sounded exactly like her moth-
there. The tune will always be there but it and say they didn’t realise English music
er. “How do you think I feel?” said Marry,
won’t always be the same person singing was so beautiful. And I love it that so many
more emotional than any of them.
it. One of the things about the Watersons young people are taking an interest now.
Lal and her husband George collected on stage is how things can change quite So we’ll keep singing. Our Lal is with us all
Norma from the airport on her return suddenly and dramatically. One person, the time and we’re carrying that memory
from Montserrat and took her to Bill Lead- often Norma, may go off quite sponta- on and we’ll do it until we die… ” F
Some of the Waterson family (plus Tim Van Eyken on melodeon) at London’s Royal Albert Hall in May 2007 (photo: Sam Lee)
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