f32 Folk In The Posh
This year’s BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards came to the Albert Hall with a geographical theme. Judith Burrows took the photos, while Tim Chipping has his way with words.
T
he Royal Albert Hall, eh? If the old song is to believed, the Italianate arena is the home of Hitler’s other ba… wait, no. That can’t be right.
Any fears the 143-year-old building might be too posh a venue to host the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards were allayed when we saw the stage set. That shed you lost in the storm was put to good use.
Given the surroundings you’d have expected a higher calibre of celebrity envelope opener than usual. But we were at least spared Frank Skinner doing his joke. Early rumours suggested appear- ances by someone from Sherlock, that woman who does the swimming and Mr Tumble. Instead we got Jarvis Cocker from Sheffield, Richard Hawley from Sheffield, and Tony Christie from Sheffield. If any younger readers are wondering, Tony Christie is the man who originally sang Is This The Way To Amarillo? in 1971. It was annoying back then too.
Jarvis was on hand to present Martin Carthy with his Lifetime Achievement Award. Both men resisted the urge to jump on stage and wiggle their arses dur- ing Clannad. Though the temptation must’ve been strong.
What’s always puzzling about the guest presenters is why they all feel the need to justify their presence with a tor- turous anecdote regarding a tenuous connection to the traditional arts. Does that happen anywhere else? “You might
be asking yourselves, what does Fearne Cotton know about structural engineer- ing? But when I was five years old I watched a documentary about box girder bridges and ever since then I've had a passing interest in how big things stay in the air.” Your job is to be famous. Our job is to fetishise an indefinable musical con- struct. Now say something funny and read out the winner.
But stories about having once bought a Mathews’ Southern Comfort LP are preferable to the well-meaning but ulti- mately patronising greeting from radio presenter Zoe Ball who referred to the crowd as “a lovely bunch of folkers”. Yeah, bless us and our 120-year legacy of collect- ing, studying and performing the tradi- tional music of Britain and Ireland. Ain't we just the cutest?
As for the performers, what can one say other than none of them went on so long as to require a loo break before they’d finished. That’s not been true in previous years. Suzanne Vega did one of her new ones, missing an opportunity to get the whole hall singing the “doo doo do do” bits in Tom’s Diner. Peggy Seeger did get the audience singing her late brother Pete’s song Quite Early One Morning. But with Peggy you always get the feeling that if you don’t sing you’ll be very publicly told off. And Fisherman’s Friends managed to bring a tear to the eye, even as we bellowed the words “A roll in the clover wouldn’t do us any harm.” It really wouldn’t.
Young Folk Award winners the Mischa Macpherson Trio.
And this time we had a themed presen- tation, a bit like when they did Riverdance at the Eurovision Song Contest. Celebrating the most promiscuous of all the folk song collectors, it was thrilling to see that Cecil Sharp had lost none of his bicycling skills. But then Bella Hardy informed me that it wasn’t Cecil Sharp but Ashley Hutchings of Ashley Hutchings & Rainbow Chasers fame. And Cecil Sharp was in fact dead. What a way to find out. I’ve been to his house, browsed his library and even been in his downstairs toilet (it smelt pleasantly like Trebor Refreshers). I’d always assumed the reason he never came out of his office was because he was shy or out bothering Appalachians. Still, Ashley will probably bring something new to the role, like Peter Capaldi in Doctor Who. Apparently his bike was supposed to fly past the Albert Hall organ, like that scene in ET, but it was abandoned shortly before broadcast as the producers feared it might look ridiculous.
I missed the performance by Morris
Offspring as I was too busy watching Jarvis Cocker watching Morris Offspring. When I am I going to get that opportunity again?
Personally speaking I was furious that some people I know and like didn’t win, and elated that some people I know and like did win. But when oh when will these awards accurately reflect my taste in music and acknowledge the musical achieve- ments of my friends and lovers? I will be writing to the BBC just as soon as the phone company reconnects my broad- band. That’ll teach me to try and down- load the Internet to read later.
F Lifetimely Awarded Martin Carthy played a song with Eliza Carthy.
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