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smith, co-author of The Diary Of A Nobody. “My last CD was Tunes From The Trenches; the songs were upbeat and cheerful but the background, both world wars, was gloomy and poignant”, John explains. “Sally had just died, and I realised that on the previous CD of Shropshire material, almost all the songs were about death. I wanted to do something that was positive. I’d met Donna and I wasn’t feeling miser- able!” The CD has a selection of traditional and self-written songs and tunes – a famil- iar mixture from his live performances.
T
John spends good deal of time researching his music, and in addition to using the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library digital archive, he has always listened to traditional or ‘source’ singers. “My intro- duction to folk song in the 1960s was at Folk Camps – mainly traditional, chorus songs, similar to the big, hearty singing that came after a day’s dancing with Hammersmith Morris Men,” John recalls. “Hugh Rippon, who started Hammersmith, had the Topic Records/Caedmon ten-volume set of field recordings, Folk Songs Of Britain, and I thought they were fantastic. I loved the strangeness and the mystery in the tradi- tional singing styles. I couldn’t get enough of that. The first LP I bought was of the Wil- lett family, Gypsy singers. I still put that on as first choice when I’m firing up my tradi- tional singing juices.”
The new CD includes songs learned from the singing of Dorset singer Charlie Wills, Geordie Hanna from County Tyrone and the more local Bill Smith from Shrop- shire. Not that John feels constrained to keep strictly to how these singers sang them, as the notes for the new CD indicate.
The album also includes several of
John’s own songs. He had always written both songs and instrumental tunes, but developed his skills at North Staffordshire’s New Victoria Theatre. “Peter Cheeseman was the director there; he loved folk music, and used to get AL Lloyd to curate folk con- certs. Sue and I sang at one of these, and when we played two local tunes, it was if a light bulb had appeared over Peter’s head, and he asked me to do the music for a play about local potter Josiah Wedgewood.”
In those rep theatre days, Peter always employed actors who could play and sing, especially for his local documentary-style plays, and John became the regular musical director for the productions, researching and adapting appropriate traditional songs, tunes and dances and, where there was nothing suitable, writing his own. “It was everything I liked doing, and I found I could do it quite easily and it just worked,” John says. This came in the 1980s, just at the right time for him. The folk club scene was declin- ing and some years he was working more in the theatre than doing live gigs. Some of the people who worked there moved on to other theatres and projects and into radio, and they would also call on his expertise.
John’s theatre experience stood him in good stead when Folkworks commissioned him to direct their Wassail tour of mid-win- ter and Christmas material for a band of musicians. After that finished, John devel-
his summer saw the release of John’s new solo album, Coat- Tails Flying, a phrase from one of the songs, See Me Dance The Polka, written by George Gros-
oped his own, solo version, which eventually became Carolling And Crumpets, a full evening show of songs and tunes and later a CD. He’s still doing that show in folk clubs and village halls.
From that
came the idea of a similar themed show that could be performed at any time of year. “I’d been on Victorian Farm, the television series where peo- ple dress up and re- enact older ways of farming,” John explains. “It was filmed a few miles from here, and I popped up singing traditional songs and talking about folklore. So I thought I’d put together a show of farming songs, with me dressing up in period cos- tume.” The Victori- an Farmer’s Year In Song is the result, with the accompa- nying CD, God Speed The Plough.
The third of John’s current themed shows is the aforementioned Tunes From The Trenches. “For several years there was a community event near here around Remem- brance Day – a talk about an aspect of the two world wars with me providing some songs. I took their title and put together a show in the run-up to the First World War centenary. I hope to do more performances next year, to commemorate the end of that war, but there are Second World War songs as well, so it will hopefully run until 2045!”
lthough all these shows get booked by folk clubs, they are perfect for village halls, and despite the rural touring scheme being depleted by arts funding cuts, he is still receiving bookings in these venues. “The shows go down a storm. Some folk club audiences have fixed ideas about what to expect, but I find the village hall crowds are more open, and being in costume gives me licence not to be me! And as there’s only one of me, I’m cheaper than an opera company or a jazz band and I don’t need PA: vocally and with the instruments, I’m good at being loud!”
A
John was barely a teenager when he started playing the melodeon and soon he acquired a three-row button accordeon, followed by an Anglo concertina and one- row melodeon. He has recently been reflecting on his choice of instrument. “Whereas most people have at least had a go on the guitar and know the basics of how to play it, the vast majority of people who hear me have no idea about how the instruments work, and no conception about how easy or difficult some of the
things are that I’m trying to do. I’m not say- ing that to brag, but I’ve often worked hard on something really tricky, and people just applaud as usual!”
Perhaps that’s because he makes it look
so easy, I suggest, and he would never have got the chance to play with Richard Thomp- son’s band if he’d been yet another guitar player. John then waxed lyrical about his new melodeon, made to his specifications by ace-melodeon player and maker Emmanuel Pariselle. “I loved the sound of the one-row with four big stops, four metal reeds in each note and a big fat noise. You don’t get that combination of reeds on a two-row. It’s a two-row melodeon with a one-row sound. No-one else had worked out how to do it!”
A third new project has been a new family dance band – Kirkophany – in which John is joined by his four sons. “I’ve always played for dancing, from Dingle’s Chilly- bom Band and Umps & Dumps in the ’70s through to the more recent Mr Gubbins’ Bicycle. I play and call, with George on melodeons, Benji on banjo, Jobie on bass guitar and Fergus on percussion.” There’s such a similarity to the instrumental line-up of Umps & Dumps that I wondered if the boys were all given specific instruments as children with this in mind! “George was the only one who didn’t have piano lessons as a child, but eventually he caved in and learned the melodeon! All four danced in the morris team, Shropshire Bedlams, and it’s such a joy to play with your own kids; the best thing in the world.”
www.johnkirkpatrick.co.uk F
Photo: Derek Schofield
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