f42 Head Of Bellows
John Kirkpatrick, king of any instrument you can squeeze, fills Derek Schofield in on his latest projects. He’s a busy man…
J
ohn Kirkpatrick. Singer of tradi- tional songs, songwriter, multi- instrumentalist on anything-you- can-squeeze, morris and ceilidh dancer, dance musician and caller,
theatre musical director… is there nothing this man cannot do?
In the past, he was a member of both Steeleye Span and the Albion Band, he sang in a duo with his former wife Sue Harris, played in pioneering English dance band Umps & Dumps, performed in the National Theatre’s productions of Lark Rise and Can- dleford, toured with Richard Thompson and even recorded with Dembo Konte & Kausu Kuyateh. He played a critical role in the two seminal, but different, albums of morris
dance music, Morris On and Plain Capers. More recently, he has been a member of Brass Monkey, toured in a duo with Martin Carthy and appeared on stage and record with Roy Bailey and Shirley Collins. I think you get the message… he’s multi-talented, and busy.
But John had a rough time recently when his dear wife Sally sadly died, quite suddenly, at the age of just 50 in 2014. She was his constant companion, accompanying him to gigs, helping with merchandise, per- forming on his CDs and playing and dancing with the morris team. Her loss was a massive blow. John stopped gigging for a while, but he’s picked himself up, thrown himself into several new projects and now –as the title of his new CD puts it – his coat-tails are flying!
After settling with a coffee in the new
shepherd’s hut in his garden in a remote corner of Shropshire – the Welsh border is just over the hill – I ask John about the first of the new projects, Home Service.
“The band goes back to the National Theatre days and grew out of The Albion Band. It became a touring band with John Tams and Bill Caddick writing and singing songs,” John recalls. Its very name is evoca- tive of 1950s British broadcasting but, as with the band’s origins in Lark Rise, the musical approach was determinedly contemporary – folk-rock, but resolutely not following the already-established formula for the genre.
With a variety of musicians, including brass players who worked mainly in differ- ent musical genres, it was difficult to arrange or even get the gigs in the 1980s. They dis- banded, but when a live recording was dis- covered a few years ago, a CD was released, and the band re-formed without Bill. The old repertoire was welcomed by new and old audiences, and there was a push within the band to develop new repertoire. Tam had too many other projects on the go to give time to this idea, and eventually left the group. The rest of the band tried out a few other singers, including John’s son Benji Kirkpatrick who was just too busy to join.
“As a final resort, they asked me!” John says. “I always enjoyed Home Service. I knew them all and had been in the initial rehearsal sessions but left as the band was going to be way too big. I’d played with most of them; brass players Paul Archibald and Roger Williams were both in Brass Mon- key,” John explains. “It’s a natural fit, with me contributing songs I’ve written as well as arrangements.” The band recorded a CD A New Ground last year, John and his col- leagues have all enjoyed the live gigs, with more festivals anticipated next year.
John is the lead singer, but doesn’t play on all the songs: “I’m still working out what to do with my hands!” John laughs. “At gigs, we’re doing all the new album and about six from the old repertoire, including Tam’s Look Up, Look Up, which is such a joy to sing.” The title track of the CD is based on a Henry Purcell composition that band mem- ber Andy Findon arranged, asking John to write some words. “We were rehearsing and after a few pints one evening, I sat down and scribbled out the words. This was a new start for the band, new impetus, new mem- bers but with the same outlook, and it also fitted my personal circumstances, as I’d just met my new partner, Donna,” John explains.
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