Entries by Norman Warwick

REAL ALE AND GOOD CONVERSATION

´Spencer’s songs came out of a 1970s scene that blurred folk, punk and pub rock, but were grounded in the work of the likes of Woody Guthrie and John Lee Hooker. Between 1974 and 1978, he gigged and recorded with his group, the Louts, then, in 1980, teamed up a collective of musicians who outgrew the Albion Band to become the Home Service. This group represented a major development in folk-rock, and members of it featured in variants of the John Spencer Alternative.

a blur of legs and arms; TWO TONE

Punk had opened the doors for all-girl bands like us. The energy levels on those tours was insane. The Specials would get the audience on stage. Venues just weren’t built for that many people jumping. At one gig on a pier I looked down and I could see the sea beneath the floor. Afterwards there’d be schoolgirl pranks like apple pie beds and water pistols. I was 20. Miranda [Joyce, saxophone] was 16.

FOLK IN HIGH PLACES

September’s Official Folk Albums Chart has been announced, featuring a new top seller and eight other new entries that demonstrate the breadth of music to be found within the wider folk genre.

all across the arts  Right Round Rochdale (2)

On one particular Burns Night event, attended by all the Lord Mayors and Lady Mayoresses and several other dignitaries of Greater Manchester, I and a dozen practitioners from the writing group I facilitated in the Borough overcame that acoustic difficulty by stomping around that same Hall proclaiming I Will Walk Five Hundred Miles until, finally, the gold-chained audience joined in our chanting conga line.By then they had drank enough to be convinced we were reciting a lesser known piece by Burns himself.