A CURIOUS MIX OF BRITISH FOLK MUSIC AND AMERICAN POLITICS
Auntie Beeb
Sam Lee and forty members of London’s Roundhouse Choir perform a capella at the Folk Awards 2016 in London.
lyrics
I once was a ploughboy, but a soldier I’m now,
I courted wee lovely Molly, as I followed the plough;
I courted wee lovely Molly, at the age of sixteen,
But now I must leave her, for to serve James, my king.
Bert Jansch, the influential Scottish folk guitarist and member of Pentangle, performed on BBC Radio’s “Country Meets Folk” show, most notably a live solo session on January 25, 1969. While his solo performance was broadcast, Pentangle also appeared on the show, with a performance recorded on June 15, 1968. These broadcasts featured Jansch’s unique fingerstyle guitar and were significant appearances during the British folk revival of the 1960s
A lost Goon Show sketch written by revered comedy duo Ray Galton and Alan Simpson will be performed later for the first time in 70 years after being unearthed in a university archive.
The skit was found among a trove of work by the pair, who created hit shows including Steptoe and Son and Hancock’s Half Hour and are often credited with inventing the British sitcom.
Running on the BBC from 1951 to 1960, the Goon Show featured Spike Milligan, Peter Sellers and Harry Secombe.
Richard Usher, chair of the Goon Show Preservation Society, said the discovery of the sketch – found amongst a portion of the Galton and Simpson collection owned by the University of York – was “insanely exciting”.
Gary Brannan, keeper of archives and research collections at the University’s Borthwick Institute for Archives, said: “Galton and Simpson invented modern British comedy as we know it, with their wit and humour leaving a profound and lasting imprint on the shows we watch today.
“Real-world or situation comedy simply didn’t exist before them.”
He described The Case of the Missing Two Fingers sketch, which will be performed later at the York Festival of Ideas, as a Shakespearean parody, believed to have been first written by Galton and Simpson just before Hancock’s Half Hour started and the pair became household names.
“They’re just on the edge of their big career moment when here they are writing these Goon Shows, which to me I think are brilliant and are really very funny,” Mr Brannan said. [ . . . ]
Continue at source: Lost Goon Show sketch to be performed for first time in 70 years
A celebration of the 90th anniversary of poet, humourist and absurdist Ivor Cutler.
The deceptively quiet wordsmith was born on 15th January 1923 near the Rangers ground at Ibrox Park in Glasgow. “I have a harmonium and it’s going to explode in two minutes”, were the opening words spoken on BBC Radio 1’s Andy Kershaw Show in 1980 by a gentle voiced Scotsman called Ivor Cutler.
Championed by everyone from the Beatles to Billy Connolly, Ivor Cutler was a poet, humourist and absurdist whose appearances on BBC radio and TV span over 5 decades. As well as producing a vast body of records, books and plays, Ivor was a notable eccentric, often seen cycling around London in plus fours, handing out homemade stickers and badges to strangers.
To mark what would have been Ivor’s 90th birthday in 2013, BBC Radio 4 held a ‘party’, to celebrate his life and BBC archive in particular, with a full house, with performers, fans, collaborators and even his long-term partner, Phyllis King, introducing their favourite poems, songs and memories of Ivor. Weirdness from the archives, pleasure for fans, and a singular introduction to those encountering him for the very first time. Highlights include Bramwell and King re-enacting a morse code performance of “The Little Black Buzzer”. Presenter David Bramwell is a writer and musician. He is the founder of the “Catalyst Club”; a place for enthusiasts to speak on any subject close to their heart. Ivor Cutler is a subject close to his, having kept correspondence with him in the 1980’s.
Ivor died aged 83 in 2006. Producer: Sara Jane Hall First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in August 2013
Listen to the broadcast at: Archive on 4 – Ivor Cutler at 90 – BBC Sounds