33 f
“T
he aim was always to be self- sufficient. We’ve been offered grants and we’ll occa- sionally have small grants for specific pro- jects but the problem with a grant is you come to rely on it and the people giving
them usually have their own agenda. They always want things to be in towns. The great thing is we’ve got a lot of youngsters involved. Jon Loomes [who played in the Sidmouth resurrection of Bandoggs] is one of our residents and we’ve got a lot of youngsters in our longsword team.”
A former primary school teacher in Birmingham, he’s also heavily involved in schools, teaching singing games and appropri- ate folk songs, hence the new Tall Tailes CD. The folk club on the last Wednesday of the month at The Works in Sowerby Bridge with a broad scope of guests (this year they’ve included American acts Debra Cowan and John Roberts, the great Irish singer Len Gra- ham and Appalachian singer Joe Penland) is also going well, lead- ing Pete on to one of his pet subjects…
“See, when the folk clubs really got going in the ’60s, a lot of the clubs were run by singers. The High Level Ranters in Newcastle, The Watersons in Hull, Ian Campbell Group in Birmingham, The Spinners in Liverpool, Roy Harris in Nottingham, Derek & Dorothy Elliott in Barnsley and then me and Chris ran one in Birmingham. But as we went on the road we all drifted away from organising clubs. I’m perpetually grateful to folk club organisers who aren’t singers for doing what they do and generally they do a great job, but when singers stopped organising clubs they weren’t replaced and you lose an enormous repertoire. I’m very pleased to see Sheffield is so good again, especially with Jon Boden and Fay Hield, Martin Simpson and Roy and Kit Bailey opening the Bright Phoebus club. I played there and it was full – we had a great night. There’s still a lot of great folk clubs around…”
Oh hang on, he’s off on another tangent, recalling how it all started… “I started hearing and singing my first traditional songs in 1964, at college in Cheltenham. I ended up in ’65 running the college folk club. Teachers training college. But there was already a very well-established folk club in town run by the Songwainers. There was a circuit of clubs then which brought singers in. Swin- don on Friday night, Bristol on Saturday, Sunday was Cheltenham and Monday was Cyril Tawney’s club in Plymouth. Nice little circuit. Saw people like the McPeakes. They once gave me a lift to their own gig. I was walking through Cheltenham and they were lost in the one-way system. They stopped me and said ‘Do you know the way to the Shaftesbury Hall?’ I said yeah I’m going there, I’m on my way to a McPeake Family concert. They said ‘We are the McPeake Family – get in!’”
“Those three years at college when I was a student I was skint but there was a lot going on locally. Only came to London about once to see the Charles Parker / Ewan MacColl Festival Of Fools show. Moved to Birmingham in the late ’60s. Lizzie Higgins stayed with us quite regu larly. Chris used to organise tours for her. Won- derful singer, great character.”
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