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to achieve anything much in his own right. But those intents and purposes – what are they like? They got it hopelessly wrong.
Seth’s first solo album The Punch Bowl – with contributions from both brothers and sisters-in-law (Cara had by now married Sam and Kathryn Roberts was married to Sean) – was a very subdued, homespun and unremarkable affair recorded at The Firs and released with no fanfare whatsoever. Hardly surprisingly it barely sold a bean, but it got him seriously into the songwriting game, underlined his distinctive skill with a driving fiddle tune, brought out his ebul- lient character and introduced him to the notion of being a frontman.
His second album Kitty Jay seemed ini- tially to be similarly low-key, but there was something startlingly vivid, real and com- pelling about it. Seth also knew a thing or two about marketing, launching the album with a special show at, erm, Dart- moor Prison, close to his home.
And what a funny ol’ night that was, Seth guardedly telling his audience he passed the prison most days, wondering what went on inside, while one of the inmates got up and played some impres- sive blues guitar with him. Not exactly Johnny Cash at San Quentin, but some- thing of an eye-opener when a few of guests got to have a chat with a couple of the inmates after. They had necks like tree trunks, those boys, and were covered in spider tattoos, but they seemed charming enough as they explained the dreadful miscarriages of justice that had incarcerat- ed them there.
It wasn’t until we were a few beers down the road in a nearby pub afterwards that one of the warders rather indiscreetly told us the prisoner we’d been laughing and joking with and had promised to share a beer with the day the wrong was righted and he was released from prison, had actu- ally killed a man with his bare hands and wouldn’t be coming out any time soon.
A few months later somebody on the Mercury Music Prize panel took a shine to Seth’s album [can’t imagine who that was… Ed.] and explained in intricate detail the colourful back story to the legend of Kitty Jay, an unfortunate servant raped and impregnated by a nobleman and who committed suicide rather than suffer the shame of an illegitimate child; a fresh bunch of flowers was – and still is – still placed on her unconsecrated grave on the wilds of Dartmoor on a daily basis by per- sons or creatures unknown. Agog, the other Mercury Music Prize panellists – especially Lauren Laverne – lapped it all up, fell into line and Seth found himself shortlisted for the prize.
And then somebody [can’t imagine who that was either] tipped off Seth that he’d made the Mercury shortlist and he turned up – fiddle aboard – at the press conference announcement; he didn’t need an awful lot of persuasion to play Kitty Jay there and then for an open-mouthed press corps, unused to seeing such a sponta- neous outburst of bare intensity and furi- ous passion. And in that moment the great denizens of Her Majesty’s Press conferred official coolness on folk music.
S
eth Lakeman was suddenly the “poster boy of folk” (a phrase that still makes me gag) and yes, found himself back on a major label (oh, the irony), appearing
regularly on TV, kiddies shows and all, play- ing major rock festivals, touring endlessly in far-flung lands (including Libya), doing a million interviews, making it to the lower end of the charts and banging out a series of increasingly loud and more frenetic albums. Hard-working, energetic, upbeat, cheery and infallibly amenable, Seth – per- haps immune to razzmatazz after the Equation experience – took it all in his stride and a splendid time was had by all.
He calmed down a bit when all that fizzled out and returned to the mother ship of traditional song, recruited by Fay Hield to join the award-winning Full English album and touring project pro- moting the launch of the English Folk Dance & Song Society’s exhaustive digital folk music archive.
No such craziness pursued the last remaining original members of Equation – Kathryn Roberts and Sean Lakeman – who came home from America and fell into the welcoming bosom of Dartmoor and a new musical path that was wholly quieter… although… although… Sean did play a key role in Seth’s dizzy ascent, co-producing his first four solo albums and playing gui- tar on tour with him.
In 2011, Kathryn joined the likes of Steve Knightley, Jackie Oates and Jim Moray on the splendid Cecil Sharp Project album and tour and in 2015 she stepped into Sandy Denny’s shoes to tour with a revamped Fotheringay promoting an Island box set. And together their progress has been one of quiet excellence, includ- ing five rather fine duo albums that have found favour with the grass roots as well as on the wider folk scene.
Indeed, I’d go as far as to say that their heart-rending narrative about the 1984 miners’ strike The Ballad Of Andy Jacobs from their 2012 album Hidden Peo- ple is one of the top ten contemporary folk songs of the last ten years (lend me
The 1995 post-Kate, plus Cara line-up
ten pounds and I’ll buy you a drink and tell you about the other five – suffice to say Chris Wood’s Hollow Point is number one).
Kate Rusby, of course, missed the party but her decision to walk out of Equation at the point the adventure was about to start in earnest has surely been vindicated a thousand times over by events as she and her family swiftly established their own highly successful Pure Records cottage industry, taking absolute control of every aspect of recording and touring, maintain- ing her profile and popularity all these years on, which even extends to their own Underneath The Stars Yorkshire festival.
And good old Geoff Travis has done alright, too, releasing consistently intriguing – sometimes challenging – music of varying roots and styles on Rough Trade and beyond and even getting involved in folk music once more by launching the River Lea imprint label (with Jeannette Lee and our own poster boy of folk, Tim Chipping) which – and I’ll shout this from the rooftops – has just released one of the best albums of the decade, Lisa O’Neill’s extraordinary Heard A Long Gone Song (and I’ll be leading a protest march to Salford if her Factory Girl duet with Radie Peat doesn’t get traditional song performance of the year when they get around to having another Folk Awards sometime late in 2019).
So, Equation… perhaps a cautionary tale of youthful enthusiasm and vigour, teenage kicks, breathless anticipation, hope, experience, setbacks, disappoint- ment, renaissance and ultimate triumph and redemption.
It has produced kids galore (the three Lakeman brothers have all fathered twins), a plethora of BBC folk awards (four each for Seth and Kate, three for Cara and two for Kathryn and Sean), a fund of anec- dotes and admirable, ongoing careers for all of them. So all’s well that ends well. But the buggers still won’t talk to us about it...
sethlakeman.co.uk
kathrynrobertsandseanlakeman.com
caradillon.co.uk katerusby.com
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Photo: Ken Shappe
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