51 f K
arl Dallas, back in the fray with a vengeance, fires a whole new cauldron. “Are folk singers over- paid?” he asks. “When you com- pare the £4 or £5 even quite
inexperienced singers now expect for a cou- ple of spots with the pay received by the average dance band musicians, something seems to be seriously adrift.” He calls for two levels of pay – £10 or £15 for experienced singers and “a lot less” for the inexperienced.
A new Baez single, It’s All Over Now,
Baby Blue, is released, the rapidly growing Les Cousins is now open five nights a week (including a Saturday all-nighter) with Al Stewart and Roy Harper among the names making a mark there, and Reg Hall of the Rakes produces an LP of traditional music from Norfolk, announcing that other discs of traditional music are in the pipeline. A survey estimates that the number of clubs in Britain is now 500, but few of them seem to thrill one of the burgeoning new heroes, Bert Jansch: “The people on the scene don’t really know what’s going on and I don’t think they ever will.”
Stoke Folk Club is one of several clubs who announce an all-British policy. “It’s very commercial, suddenly, to be uncommercial,” observes Karl Dallas wryly. Ewan MacColl attempts to explain why in an exhaustive MMinterview. “What the pop-folk boom does is to give people a false idea of what folk music is, so that when they hear real folk music, they can’t recognise it. They say ‘Where’s the beat?’ The best thing would be for the folk boom to end as quickly as possi- ble so that the clubs should continue their steady development.”
This one is to run and run. Ready Steady
Go! editor Bob Bickford is incensed, describ- ing MacColl as “pathetically ill-informed and full of political naïvety”, while Manfred Mann, Paul Simon and Marianne Faithfull are hauled in to the argument. In Novem- ber, Peggy Seeger makes a milestone announcement at the Singers Club when Tom & Claudia Paley are the guest artists. “This is an American night so only American songs can be sung. Anyone who wants to sing an American song is more than wel- come – as long as they come from America.”
Martin Carthy – most imitated since MacColl
The Johnstons (with Paul Brady, left) – topping the Irish charts. D
onovan guests in MM’s cele- brated Pop Think-In column and among the subjects fired at him are Ewan MacColl (“He has a cold in his ear”) and Pete
Seeger (“A beautiful cat. He is on one road but he is beautiful.”)
The infighting fails to dent the boom. “THE PRESS ARE FLOGGING PROTEST TO DEATH SAYS LENNON”, but it makes no dif- ference. Phil Ochs tours Britain to rapturous receptions, Martin Carthy’s first album and the Watersons‘ Frost And Fire are issued, and Paul Simon plays a Saturday all-nighter at Les Cousins (membership now 3,000) as a farewell to Britain on his return to the States. For him, life will never quite be the same.
1966: The stench of McCarthyism still pollutes the air. Alex Campbell is refused entry to the USA because of his involvement with CND. Alex is outraged. “Hell, I’m not even a Communist – I’m a Socialist.” He also announces that he’ll “cut down on the hors- ing around and be a serious singer.”
Karl Dallas is predicting a great future
for the Young Tradition, and MMhigh- lights “NOW IT’S A NEW WAVE IN FOLK“ fronted by the YT, Tony Rose, Jim Daddy
Eric Andersen – touring
and Dick Snell… Simon & Garfunkel‘s Sound Of Silence LP is issued in Britain… Cyril Tawney becomes the first British artist signed to Elektra… Martin Carthy & Dave Swarbrick form a new duo together… and as The Byrds take off, MMasks “WILL FOLK-ROCK BE THE NEXT BIG INFLUENCE?”
In May, Bob Dylan tours with The Band and all hell is let loose as the folkies don’t take too kindly to his adoption of electric music… Dick Fariña is killed in a motorcycle crash… The Incredible String Band, a new trio from Scotland, stun everybody at Les Cousins… and the newly inaugurated folk chart is topped by Bert Jansch.
The Johnstons top the Irish charts with their version of Ewan MacColl’s Travelling People… Shirley Collins teams up with her sister Dolly… Eric Andersen tours… the Honest John 3 (including Dave Peabody) win the national jug band contest organised by Johnny Joyce… and Karl Dallas notes that “Martin Carthy seems to have taken up the position of most imitated singer once held by MacColl or Louis Killen.”
The summer is brightened by further bickering. Bob & Carole Pegg are running the Yorkshire Folk Centre in Leeds boasting
Photo: Roy Esmonde
Photo: Brian Shuel
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