45 f
writing has continued through his developing catalogue to the present day. The first of Richard’s songs that Dave recorded was The Old Changing Way on his third album, Songs And Buttered Haycocks. Two decades later, Dave made a whole album of Richard’s songs, His Master’s Choice. “John Tobler, a big Fairport fan, started a record label called The Road Goes On Forever, and suggested the album to coincide with a Fairport anniversary. John Leonard produced it, and it had some great players on it.” Indeed. They included Richard Thompson himself!
Richard Thompson isn’t the only songwriter that Dave admires. Back in 1978, Dick Gaughan, Tony Capstick and Dave recorded an album of songs by Ewan MacColl. Dave remembers that, at the time, MacColl’s best-known songs were not being sung because they were considered “old hat”. As a songwriter, MacColl had a “huge effect on me,” Dave recalls. Cyril Tawney was another admired songwriter: “He could write an unashamed romantic song without it being cloying or too sentimental – a great song- writer.” And then there’s Mythical Kings And Iguanas, a song writ- ten by Dory Previn that has featured in Dave’s sets for over 30 years: Dave still tells a wildly improbable story about the day that André Previn stole his capo!
While continuing to do some solo gigs, in 1975 Dave decided to share the stage with a couple of other musicians and joined the band Hedgehog Pie. They’d been a full-blown electric folk- rock band with drums and bass, but then they virtually disband- ed, leaving Mick Doonan and Jed Grimes to reform a scaled down acoustic trio with the addition of Burland. “We did an album, Just Act Normal, which got some good reviews, and we worked consistently in the clubs and abroad, but then it ran out of steam,” Dave remembers. “But we had some excellent fun for the four or so years that it lasted. We did a tour as Mike Hard- ing’s backing band at the height of his popularity. It was just barmy! You forge friendships for life in those circumstances, and Mick and Jed, and Mike, are best buddies.”
B
Another band involvement came about accidently. In the early 1980s, Dave was booked at the London club at the Empress of Rus- sia and ended the evening with a couple of rock’n’roll songs. Bob Davenport asked him to come back and do a whole night of them and Dave enlisted a friend from Barnsley, Dave Fisher, to accompa- ny him on acoustic piano. Whitby Folk Week then booked him to do a night in the middle of the week and, with the addition of other musicians, including photographer Bryan Ledgard, the band Shagpile was born. “I took it very seriously, it was good fun,” Dave says, “and it continued at Whitby for almost 30 years; it only ended when the band got a bit fed up with it.”
arnsley has of course spawned a few other folk singers down the years. “I’ve known Kate Rusby since she was a little girl. Steve and Anne Rusby would come to the house and bring the kids. When she was about thir- teen, she took part in the local Mystery play. I didn’t know she was in it, but I heard this voice singing off stage – ‘My god, who’s that?’ I thought. It was Kate. I knew then that she’d make her mark. She does some Richard Thompson songs – per- haps that’s my influence! I’ve certainly been influenced by her.”
All the time Dave had been doing solo gigs, which he contin- ued in earnest after Hedgehog Pie disbanded, but he also embarked on a new career as a radio presenter. John Leonard, then a presenter and head of music at BBC Radio Sheffield, asked him to present the folk show that Tony Capstick had vacated to move into daytime programmes. He enjoyed the experience and when the programme controller moved to the new independent station in the city, Radio Aire, Dave moved with him to present a longer folk show, and soon his broadcasting expanded with gener- al music programmes. “I had a free hand to play what I wanted. I’d play Ry Cooder, Queen, and then Suffolk traditional singer Cyril Poacher. People phoned up and asked, ‘what was that?’ They were interested in what they were listening to.”
The folk scene was then in the doldrums, so although he con- tinued with solo gigs through the 1980s and ’90s, having this other string to his bow was essential. Further albums followed – includ- ing Rollin’ which was mainly recently-written songs by the likes of James Taylor and Bob Geldof. He returned to his traditional reper- toire for his most recent CD, Benchmark in 1996, but there’s been nothing since. “I wonder, who wants to listen to another Dave Burland album?” he asks.
Then for ten years from 1997, Dave worked alongside his sec- ond wife, Sandra, in her business. Solo gigs continued, and now, in his early 70s, he still does two or three gigs a month. “I’ve never been the best at self-promotion,” Dave admits, “but although I don’t do a huge amount, I really enjoy it. I love the whole ethos, the music, the people – the social side is its real strength. And the young kids are just great!”
www.daveburland.com F
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84