Title
Memories of the Leicester Folk Song Club
Subject
Popular music
Description
Russ Merryfield talks about the music people played at the Leicester Folk Song Club
Creator
East Midlands Oral History Archive
Source
Interview with Russ Merryfield for the East Midlands Oral History Archive. Uncatalogued.
Publisher
East Midlands Oral History Archive
Date
1960s
Contributor
East Midlands Oral History Archive
Rights
You may use this item in accordance with the licence http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/uk/
Format
.mp3
Language
English
Type
Oral history
Original Format
.wav
Duration
2 min 5 sec
Bit Rate/Frequency
128kbps
Transcription
What sort of music was being played and sung when you first started the club up?
Well, first of all there was those who, like Geoff (Halford), who was a traditional singer. So, that would be the same sort of stuff as the London scene crowd would do, you know, MacColl, Ewan MacColl the singer. Because they made a few records anyway and people, you’d buy a record – I was going to say a CD but CDs weren’t out then - and you’d perform it. And as far as like Harvey Tucker would do and the likes, it wasn’t a lot of difference from Bob Dylan because we’re talking about Woody Guthrie you see and everything Dylan did was, at the beginning, most of it was Woody’s stuff anyway, and then the songs he did come to write then were more or less in the same style. So, people, if you like, were doing Bob Dylan’s stuff before Bob Dylan was Bob Dylan. You also had the Irish influence you see, ‘cos a lot of people used to like doing Irish folk songs, you know. You’d hear the odd Scottish folk song but there was something about Irish music that everybody liked, it was very popular, you know. The Kay brothers they used to do a lot of bluegrass and country music as well, you know, they’d got a fiddle going and they were very good, George and (?).
Local?
Yeah, oh yeah, very good. Yes, there was a very good variety of music. Me, I was doing blues and the odd jazz number, same as I do now. There were quite a few blues players in Leicester, I wasn’t on my own, you know.
Well, first of all there was those who, like Geoff (Halford), who was a traditional singer. So, that would be the same sort of stuff as the London scene crowd would do, you know, MacColl, Ewan MacColl the singer. Because they made a few records anyway and people, you’d buy a record – I was going to say a CD but CDs weren’t out then - and you’d perform it. And as far as like Harvey Tucker would do and the likes, it wasn’t a lot of difference from Bob Dylan because we’re talking about Woody Guthrie you see and everything Dylan did was, at the beginning, most of it was Woody’s stuff anyway, and then the songs he did come to write then were more or less in the same style. So, people, if you like, were doing Bob Dylan’s stuff before Bob Dylan was Bob Dylan. You also had the Irish influence you see, ‘cos a lot of people used to like doing Irish folk songs, you know. You’d hear the odd Scottish folk song but there was something about Irish music that everybody liked, it was very popular, you know. The Kay brothers they used to do a lot of bluegrass and country music as well, you know, they’d got a fiddle going and they were very good, George and (?).
Local?
Yeah, oh yeah, very good. Yes, there was a very good variety of music. Me, I was doing blues and the odd jazz number, same as I do now. There were quite a few blues players in Leicester, I wasn’t on my own, you know.
Interviewer
Colin Hyde
Interviewee
Russ Merryfield
Location
Interviewee's home address
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