What did it mean to be a man in post-war Briton? That is the question the journalist Len Doherty ponders in his punchy novel set in 1950s Sheffield where the mighty steel and coal industries still reign supreme. The main protagonist, Walt, regards colliers, hard as the anthracite they hew from the seam, as the Praetorian Guard of the working class; he leaves his family in the south to try to make it as a miner. Walt works hard and plays hard; you can almost taste the tobacco and beer of the pub, smell the sweat of the boxing gym and feel the claustrophobia of the deep, dark coal mine where rock-falls are an occupational hazard. First published in 1958, this coming-of-age novel is a memorable depiction of working class masculinity; highly recommended. http://www.1889books.co.uk
H G Wells, best known for his science fiction, wrote a compelling novel about the Great War. Mr Britling Sees It Through, published in 1916 while the war was still raging, became an acclaimed bestseller only to lost its lustre and languish in the doldrums of English Literature. Britling is based on Wells himself, a successful man of letters enjoying an idyllic Edwardian summer until “the war to end all wars” turns his comfortable, complacent world upside down. Maxim Gorky, the Russian writer, called it “the finest, most courageous, truthful and humane book written in Europe in the course of this accursed war”. Those interested in the Great War, and its lasting impact on the modern world, should seek it out.
H G Wells, photographed by Miss Compton Collier in 1916 in the garden that features in Mr Britling Sees It Through
McGoldrick, McCusker & Doyle, National Centre For Early Music, York, 26/02/2019.
Roland Walls, organiser of the Black Swan Folk Club, told me Mike McGoldrick, a maestro on flute, pipes and whistle, has been top of his “most-wanted” list for years.
However, they found it hard to come up with a convenient date, which is hardly surprising when you consider the much-in-demand McGoldrick is a founding member of Flook and Lunasa as well as holding down berths with Capercaillie and Mark Knopfler’s Band along with being involved in many other musical projects.
But 26/02/2019 proved to be a red-letter day for Roland after he managed to hook this musical Leviathan for a gig; and what a gig he landed. McGoldrick ripped through a dazzling set of jigs, reels and songs with fellow stellar musicians John McCusker (fiddle/whistle/harmonium) and John Doyle (guitar/vocals). Best of all, Roland was there to witness it; he was not going to allow motor neuron disease to prevent him attending this concert.
The three stalwarts of the BBC’s acclaimed Transatlantic Sessions are halfway through a 25-date tour of the United Kingdom and it was a privilege to witness such gifted musicians, with a deep passion for traditional music, share a stage inside the candle-lit interior of a former church.
The ancient stones resounded to the primeval, haunting sound of McGoldrick’s uilleann pipes, accompanied by McCusker’s harmonium, as the concert started with a slow air which soon developed into a fast tune. Sitting in the front row I could feel the musical energy generated by the multi-instrumentalists, a glorious fusion of sound textures that ended with a fist-pump from McGoldrick as he responded to the capacity audience’s cheers and applause.
There followed a Child ballad sung by Doyle which led into a set of three tunes written by McCusker: Jessica’s Lullaby named after his four-year-old daughter who calls her Dad “John The Custard”; Eddi’s Trip To The Mall, composed after the popular singer Eddi Reader experienced every performer’s nightmare by missing her stage entrance in Japan by choosing the wrong door and ending up in a shopping mall; and Billy’s Reel in honour of the Scottish comedian Billy Connolly.
After the interval, McGoldrick introduced a set of tunes from the trio’s studio album The Wishing Tree, released last year, followed by a song composed by Doyle about the notorious grave robbers and murderers Burke and Hare. We were taken from the dank, dismal and dangerous streets of 19th century Edinburgh to the West Coast of America, in particular Friday Harbor. Such was its natural beauty that McCusker, then 18, was inspired to compose a sublime waltz called Leaving Friday Harbor while touring the region with the Battlefield Band.
More beautifully arranged songs sung by Doyle enhanced the maritime flavour with the audience needing little encouragement to join in the chorus of a rousing sea shanty.
McCusker ended by praising Roland and his team at the Black Swan Folk Club for working so hard to keep traditional music hale and hearty in York; a fitting end to a wonderful concert.
Kate Rusby and her band getting festive at York Barbican on 18/12/2018
Petite folk singer Kate Rusby banishes “Bah Humbug!” from Christmas with her touring festive show, writes RICHARD FOSTER for the award-winning website YorkMix.
Oh the weather outside is frightful (wet and windy) but the music inside is delightful – thanks to the dulcet tones of Barnsley songbird Kate Rusby and her beautifully packaged 10-piece festive band.
Rusby’s stage persona is as cosy as the fluffiest Christmas jumper; she soon had the enthusiastic York audience singing, clapping and cheering. The stage is festooned with fairy lights and there is even a rocking reindeer called Ruby to add a touch of kitsch. The Danes have another word for it – hygge (pronounced hue-guh) – to describe a cosiness and togetherness where everybody feels safe and content despite the harsh winter.
Rusby loves Christmas and her touring Yuletide show has become a vital part of the festivities for countless fans of her family-friendly style of folk music. She is steeped in the tradition of “Song Valley” near Sheffield where people gather in rural pubs every November and December to sing carols to vibrant tunes seldom heard in church. Different versions of familiar carols have evolved organically over the years as fresh tunes are composed and passed orally from generation to generation.
She told her audience there were more than 30 versions of While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks By Night and it was a dream of hers to perform them all in a single concert; such is her charm, she would probably get away with it. She managed to fit in three versions of While Shepherds… at York, with the final one wrapping up the show as the climax of a well-deserved encore.
Rusby’s band breathed new life into well-known carols, such as O Little Town Of Bethlehem and Joy To The World, with sumptuous arrangements that made the most her five-piece brass ensemble.
The Moog synthesizer came to the fore in a febrile rendition of a moody song called Paradise. To lighten the mood, Rusby sang a rousing version of Santa Never Brings Me A Banjo, adding that her nine-year-old daughter Daisy is already getting to grips with this demanding instrument. More comedy was added to the festive concoction when Rusby left the stage to allow the band, led by her husband Damien O’Kane on banjo, to let rip with some blistering tunes; they peppered their boisterous medley with evergreen Christmas favourites.
Rusby and her band of gifted musicians conjured up a charming Christmas concert in York that generated enough warmth to melt the heart of the meanest Scrooge.
Charming; that’s the word I would use to describe The Secret Garden, an exuberant and colourful family show currently enthralling audiences at York Theatre Royal.
The stage adaptation of Frances Hodgson Burnett’s much-loved novel involves music, dance and puppetry as the protagonists are given licence to cavort on a verdant, Edenesque set.
The evergreen story of a young orphan forced to live with her deformed uncle deep in rural Yorkshire after the death of her parents in India is a classic of children’s literature
Even Philip Larkin, that Eeyore of English poetry, was impressed by the book’s warmth and humanity. After reading it as an adult in 1953, he wrote: “If [the novel] has any message, it’s surely that, well, I can’t put it in a sentence, but it’s that life is strong and joyful enough to push up and overturn the strongest and heaviest morbid fancies and fears: it calls on everyone to put aside distrusts and shrinking-back, and live to the utmost while life is for the having.”
The Secret Garden also struck a chord with the late Jack Danby, who survived both Dunkirk and D-Day to become an acclaimed teacher in East Yorkshire. He named his son Colin after one of the characters in the book. Sadly, Colin, a gifted geologist, was killed, aged 21, by a rock-fall in a gold mine at Kalgoorlie, Western Australia, in 1961.
Jack was not one to wallow in self-pity. He decided the best way to honour the memory of his son was to encourage other youngsters to make the most of their lives. So he carried on teaching; he also served as a magistrate in Beverley as well as being on the Board of Visitors at Everthorpe Borstal.
Jack sowed many a seed as a teacher and, inspired by The Secret Garden, he helped to nurture many a beautiful bloom. *The Secret Garden is on at York Theatre Royal until 25/08/2018.
Virtuoso Guitarist Clive Carroll playing at the Black Swan Folk Club, York, with American duo Steve Cooley on banjo and Brigid Kaelin on accordion in February 2018.
The Black Swan Folk Club is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year (2018) by doing what it does best… putting on quality live music in an intimate room reached by a lopsided staircase. The club aims to present the very best professional and semi-professional performers in what is a delightfully atmospheric setting for acoustic music with its 17th century timber panelling and mock Tudor tapestry. Many folk luminaries have carried their musical instruments up those eccentric stairs, including Martin Carthy, Vin Garbutt, Chris Wood, Bob Fox, Wizz Jones, Tom McConville, Andy Irvine, Dick Gaughan, Kathryn Roberts and Sean Lakeman.
The club takes its name from the historic York pub which has always been its home. The landmark building on Peasholme Green dates back 600 years, its first mention being in a 1417 document. In the 18th century, the parents of James Wolfe, later General Wolfe who was killed leading his troops to victory over the French at Quebec in 1759, lived there.
The folk club’s relationship with the distinctive building may not go as far back to the days of Wolfe’s red coats, but it still amounts to a remarkable achievement in an era when numerous pubs are closing and there are fewer folk clubs booking professional artists. The club staged its first concert at the Black Swan on Thursday, February 9, 1978, according to an old diary belonging to folk musician Paul Buckley. That was when Brotherhood Of Man topped the pop charts with Figaro while, on the previous day, BBC1 showed the first episode of the long-running school drama Grange Hill.
Paul, now living in Donegal, Ireland, recalls: “I inherited the folk club at the University of York in 1976 and after running it in the form of club nights and concerts in university rooms, moved it into the town. As far as I can remember, together with a friend of mine Piers Jackson I started making ‘extensive enquiries’ in a few York pubs, particularly the real ale ones. Eventually we settled on the Black Swan, not so much as we chose it, but more, and fortunately for us, that it was the only place that seemed interested.” And so began a long and fruitful relationship between pub and club.
Folk music enthusiast Roland Walls moved to York in August 1982 and attended the club on his very first week in town. He recalls: “I didn’t know anybody in York and the people at the club were very welcoming.” A librarian by trade, Roland was quickly identified as a willing workhorse and soon became involved in helping to run the club. His first responsibility was publicity, followed by taking money at the door, keeping the accounts and, finally, booking the artists. The latter role involved a great deal of leg work particularly in the early days when mobile phones were expensive “bricks” and the worldwide web was still to be invented. Roland lived at first in a phoneless rented flat and sometimes it was a challenge to find a working public pay phone in the vicinity. Eager to book Leeds blues guitarist Brendan Croker in November 1987, Roland tried three different kiosks before finally finding a phone that had not been vandalised.
Unusually for a folk club organiser, Roland is not a musician; he prefers to listen rather than perform. As a sixth-former he bunked off games at his school and listened to LPs by the likes of Hendrix, Cream and Fairport Convention at a fellow pupil’s house. His passion for traditional music was kindled by an adventurous English teacher who introduced him to the popular ballads of England and Scotland; while a history teacher illustrated lessons about the Industrial Revolution by playing Ewan MacColl’s Steam Whistle Ballads. In his late teens, Roland attended many a folk club in his home area south of Teesside – he’s still the proud owner of box virtuoso John Kirkpatrick’s first LP Jump At The Sun which he won at a club raffle – and saw bands like Steeleye Span and Lindisfarne at Newcastle City Hall.
Roland’s tenure as folk club organiser is based on goodwill and trust. He has surrounded himself with an effective team of dedicated helpers. One of them, Chris Laurence (aka Chris Euesden) was the guest artist for Roland’s first visit to the club; another, Eddie Affleck, was already an occasional floor singer while American musician Phil Cerny started attending the club regularly a few years later.
The final member of the core team is singer-songwriter Stan Graham, whose first visit to the club got off to a shaky start. It was a Thursday evening in 1992 when the Black Swan’s then landlord had double-booked the upstairs room. An alternative venue was hastily arranged and Roland re-directed club attendees as they arrived at the now unavailable Black Swan; one of them, carrying his guitar, was Stan, an army officer newly posted to York. Fortunately, he was not put off by what some military types would have called a “cock up” and returned to grace many a club night, trying out freshly-composed songs on the appreciative and enthusiastic audience. Stan was able to devote more time to his musical career after he retired from the army and still keeps himself busy by gigging, leading songwriting workshops and recording albums. His compositions have been covered by stars, past and present, of the folk scene, including Martyn Wyndham-Read, John Wright and Vin Garbutt.
There are only three other occasions when club meetings have not been held at the Black Swan Inn; that was in December 2008 when the then landlord went bankrupt. They met at alternative venues until the Black Swan re-opened under new management. The club certainly bounced back in style when, a few weeks later, it was named Folk Club of the Year at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards 2009. The BBC said the award was “voted for by professional folk musicians to honour the often-lifelong contribution of those who run the venues which provide folk’s lifeblood”. At the time Roland said: “We’re delighted that a panel of hard-working and experienced musicians has chosen us above a host of other venues for this prestigious prize. We hope this reflects the efficient organisation, friendly welcome and great atmosphere of our events. In particular, we’re very pleased that our small venue, comfortably full with 50 people in the audience, has taken an award that has usually gone to much larger clubs seating upwards of a hundred or more.” Roland, along with Eddie, Stan, Chris and Phil, travelled to London for the Awards ceremony and they received the trophy, now proudly on display at the Black Swan, from Phil Beer who, along with songwriter Steve Knightley, are the acclaimed duo Show Of Hands.
Another memorable night for the club happened in April 2002 when singer Nic Jones, of Penguin Eggs fame, performed in public for the first time since his career was cruelly curtailed by a car crash 20 years previously. Pete and Chris Coe had stepped in as club guests after their old Bandoggs friend Tony Rose was forced to cancel by what would prove to be his final illness. Pete in turn persuaded fellow Bandoggs veteran Nic, then living in York, to come along and sing a few songs, accompanied on guitar by his son, Joe.
The folk club has been able to present in York many acts that are too big for the Black Swan Inn, such as Show Of Hands, Waterson:Carthy and Blazin’ Fiddles, due to the relationship it has cultivated with another atmospheric York venue, namely the National Centre For Early Music. This 180-capacity concert room is housed in a converted medieval church on nearby Walmgate. Local folk musician-cum-technical wiz Michael Jary acts as the sound engineer for these atmospheric gigs; Michael also runs the club’s website.
Roland regularly attends folk festivals to scout for new acts for the club and he is proud of the way the club has encouraged exciting new musical talent. Artists such as Eliza Carthy, Kate Rusby, The Unthanks and Spiers & Boden all appeared there early in their careers, and the club continues to regularly book “up-and-coming” singers and bands; it also hosts an annual “young performers night” in association with the New Roots organisation. The club’s regular “singers nights” are another important part of its programme; musicians, with a variety of instruments, travel from far away to attend them and those that impress are booked for future guest nights. They are also an important showcase for the club’s regular floor singers.
Roland believes there are “six Ps” to running a successful folk club: Purpose, Programming, Pricing, Publicity, Presentation and Performance. On publicity, in this age of social media, Roland is still a great believer in the humble leaflet that you can keep in your pocket; he produces several editions each year, distributed around the city and mailed out across the wider region. He also writes an electronic newsletter that he emails to more than 1,000 subscribers on a roughly monthly basis; it’s a handy digest of musical news from both within and outside the club. Most years the club manages to break even and when any surplus cash is generated it is invested back into the club; recent projects include upgrading the PA system and improving the ambient lighting.
The Black Swan Folk Club is part of a much bigger acoustic music scene in York, with its informal open-mic nights and sessions. To bring all these strands together, the club organises an annual free folk event in the early summer. What started as a single day in 2003 has now developed into a busy weekend of music, dance, singing and poetry with every room in the Black Swan hosting activities while the pub car park is transformed into a concert venue thanks to a hired marquee. All the concert artists performing have a connection to York and there are also singarounds and tunes sessions, morris dance displays and a ceilidh, a children’s event and more. Since 2009 the club has also been supporting the annual York Residents’ Festival in January by organising a day of free folk music at the Black Swan, again showcasing local singers and groups.
Club records survive from September 1979 onwards and Roland has loaded all of these into a spreadsheet. This shows that up until the end of 2017 the club had run a total of around 2,150 events, including approximately 1,400 guest nights, 550 singers nights and 175 concerts in other venues.
The club’s plans for 2018 are more of the same. The Black Swan Inn’s new landlady, only the sixth in the club’s 40 years, has said it is “business as usual” so far as she is concerned, and the Thursday night diary is almost full already, including a 40th Anniversary Event on the Thursday before Easter with club founder Paul Buckley travelling over from Ireland to make a guest appearance. Several concerts are already lined up at large venues and the annual City of York Folk Weekend is being planned for 1st-3rd June.
The Black Swan Folk Club has certainly woven itself into the fabric of York’s live music scene and long may it continue its sterling work which, in the opinion of many a music fan, is more precious than rubies.
*This article appears in the February/March 2018 issue of The Living Tradition magazine.
Hugh Jackman swaps his Wolverine claws for P T Barnum’s egotistical top hat in the entertaining musical The Greatest Showman. He excels as a flamboyant song-and-dance man who dared to chase a dream; entertaining the public by shining a spotlight on society’s timid misfits, transforming them into fearless, showbiz divas. The film’s ambitious song-and-dance numbers are exhilarating; the ideal antidote to the January blues.
Little acts of kindness have the power to transform people’s lives for the better. That’s the message I took from York City Screen after watching Paddington 2.
It is a Christmas cracker of family film with Hugh Grant sending himself up to dizzying heights as a has-been stage ham. He had tremendous fun portraying an archetype luvvie craving a captive audience.
For me the movie was a tremendous fillip for the festive season as the little bear, with a penchant for making marmalade, demonstrated his wonderful talent for making friends and softening the hardest of hearts.
From left, Benedicte Maurseth (Hardanger fiddle, voice), Clare Salaman (nyckelharpa) and Jean Kelly (clarsach).
Take three gifted musicians with strange and ancient instruments, put them into a medieval church illuminated by candlelight on a cold, frosty night and get them to play tunes and sing songs about myths and legends inspired by the winter solstice.
Mix all these potent ingredients together and you have a musical seasonal dish that lives long in the memory.
Jean Kelly (clarsach or Celtic harp), Benedicte Maurseth (Hardanger fiddle, voice) and Clare Salaman (nyckelharpa or Swedish keyed fiddle) presented a sublime concert at the National Centre For Early Music, York, last night as the Society of Strange and Ancient Instruments.
The capacity audience were enchanted by the trio’s musical virtuosity and their Scandinavian stories about St Lucia, a third-century martyr who helped Christians hiding in dark catacombs, using a candle to light her way.
The trio also mentioned the dark side of the Lucia story: Lussi, a terrifying enchantress. Legend has it that on the longest night Lussi flies through the sky, amidst smoke and flame, hunting those who have failed to prepare properly for Christmas. She puts her long arms down the chimney, blows out the candles and hits the lazy and work-shy with her hand, causing immediate paralysis.
So the message from last night’s concert is crystal clear: don’t put off your Christmas preparations. You have been warned!
Loving Vincent is both a sumptuous visual feast and a compelling portrait of an outsider.
Each of the film’s frames is an oil painting created by a team of more than 100 painters, each one inspired by Vincent Van Gogh’s own seminal art.
The film investigates the circumstances surrounding the artist’s death from a gunshot wound to the stomach; was it suicide, an accident or murder?
Rather than give a definitive answer to this question, filmmakers Dorota Kobiela and Hugh Welchman focus on Van Gogh’s artistic passion. Using his pen, rather than brush, to provide the film’s emotional heft, they quote a letter he wrote to his brother Theo: “What am I in the eyes of most people — a non-entity, an eccentric, or an unpleasant person — somebody who has no position in society and will never have; in short, the lowest of the low. All right, then — even if that were absolutely true, then I should one day like to show by my work what such an eccentric, such a nobody, has in his heart. That is my ambition, based less on resentment than on love in spite of everything, based more on a feeling of serenity than on passion.”
These are the words of an outsider who painted pictures in obscurity; vibrant pictures bursting with movement, colour and vitality that are now world famous as a cornerstone of modern art.
Paul Gachet, the French physician who treated Van Gogh in the weeks leading up to the artist’s death, recognised this untamed talent. He is portrayed in the film as a frustrated artist jealous of his patient’s genius. So fascinated was he by Van Gogh’s paintings that he devoted countless hours to carefully copying them, astonished that such a crude, self-taught painter could instinctively produce a masterpiece in a mere couple of hours; something he could not achieve in a lifetime.
rjefoster 