Two days in Hartlepool
Oct. 12th, 2025 06:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shewhomustHartlepool Folk Festival has not been lucky this year. Two weeks before the Festival was due to start, the council condemned the main hall of their central venue; and the actual weekend of the Festival was been subject to the first named storm of the season. So everything was more complicated than it might have been, and some things did not happen: I started to write this (yes, a week ago) sitting in the bar and drinking coffee, when I had planned to be watching Robb Johnson on the Outdoor Stage. Last year I sat in a deckchair in the sun to watch the outdoor events; this year most of them were cancelled. Sigh. Despite which, there was more to do than I could keep up with.
Unexpectedly, Friday's highlight was a talk by Brian Peters about A.L. Lloyd and his contribution to the Folk Revival (which we would probably have missed, were it not for a last minute timetable switch). Short version: songs which passed through the hands of Bert Lloyd emerged changed (into something rich and strange) and he was not truthful about this. Which was naughty of him, but resulted in many of the best - and best-known - songs in the repertoire.
Runner up, more Folk Revival history: The Auld Triangle is an account of the formative period Luke Kelly spent in England, becoming the musician who founded the Dubliners. Not so much a talk as a co-operative performance, hosted by Macdara Yeates, but with contributions from those who were there. So the story of how Luke was saved from an addiction to jazz clubs by a friend who took him along to the Bridge Folk Club was told by Johnny Handle: I heard Lou Killen singing and I never entered another jazz club, said Kelly. Also entertaining, Sandra Kerr talking about what she - and Luke Kelly, among others - learned from the Critics' Group (including the song The Black Velvet Band).
I'd missed most of Macdara Yeates' own set, as we were at the ever-entertaining Folkies on Film show: some old friends and some new discoveries. So we arrived at St Hilda's in time for a much-needed coffee and his last two songs. I'd have been glad of more, but it was time for Culverake and then the Goblin Band. Of the two, the Goblin Band were more quirky and distinctive, and I ought to have preferred them to the smoother, safer a capella of Culverake: but I didn't. I blame the hurdy gurdy, which set my teeth on edge.
Saturday's highlight was Robb Johnson, which was not unexpected in the least.
A worthy runner-up was Here's to Thee, an unseasonal presentation about wassailling from Jim Causley, who has written a new wassail song not only to the apple trees but to the microbial and fungal participants in the production of cider. Historical rigour was provided by Eleanor Janega, whose podcast I need to check out. They sent us on our way with a mouthful of bread and cheese, and a taste of Devon cider.
Having caught the bus to the Town Hall Theatre for Robb Johnson's gig, we stayed there for the afternoon's performances. Re:Vulva were a disappointment: we've enjoyed three of the four participants separately, but failed to engage with the band - in fact, we did a runner. To be fair, they were very - very - loud, and I was hungry and bad-tempered.durham_rambler made a foray to Morrisons, and returned with sandwiches, which we ate in the bar: from here, the band were still too loud, but not otherwise disagreeable. Our final act of the day was John Tams: he has a devoted following, and I don't really know why: he told a story which I couldn't quite follow, but it included someone dismissing someone else as "almost too entertaining." Well, John Tams was entertaining; but he was almost too entertaining.
We came home and ate pizza and ended the evening in front of the television. And why not?
Unexpectedly, Friday's highlight was a talk by Brian Peters about A.L. Lloyd and his contribution to the Folk Revival (which we would probably have missed, were it not for a last minute timetable switch). Short version: songs which passed through the hands of Bert Lloyd emerged changed (into something rich and strange) and he was not truthful about this. Which was naughty of him, but resulted in many of the best - and best-known - songs in the repertoire.
Runner up, more Folk Revival history: The Auld Triangle is an account of the formative period Luke Kelly spent in England, becoming the musician who founded the Dubliners. Not so much a talk as a co-operative performance, hosted by Macdara Yeates, but with contributions from those who were there. So the story of how Luke was saved from an addiction to jazz clubs by a friend who took him along to the Bridge Folk Club was told by Johnny Handle: I heard Lou Killen singing and I never entered another jazz club, said Kelly. Also entertaining, Sandra Kerr talking about what she - and Luke Kelly, among others - learned from the Critics' Group (including the song The Black Velvet Band).
I'd missed most of Macdara Yeates' own set, as we were at the ever-entertaining Folkies on Film show: some old friends and some new discoveries. So we arrived at St Hilda's in time for a much-needed coffee and his last two songs. I'd have been glad of more, but it was time for Culverake and then the Goblin Band. Of the two, the Goblin Band were more quirky and distinctive, and I ought to have preferred them to the smoother, safer a capella of Culverake: but I didn't. I blame the hurdy gurdy, which set my teeth on edge.
Saturday's highlight was Robb Johnson, which was not unexpected in the least.
A worthy runner-up was Here's to Thee, an unseasonal presentation about wassailling from Jim Causley, who has written a new wassail song not only to the apple trees but to the microbial and fungal participants in the production of cider. Historical rigour was provided by Eleanor Janega, whose podcast I need to check out. They sent us on our way with a mouthful of bread and cheese, and a taste of Devon cider.
Having caught the bus to the Town Hall Theatre for Robb Johnson's gig, we stayed there for the afternoon's performances. Re:Vulva were a disappointment: we've enjoyed three of the four participants separately, but failed to engage with the band - in fact, we did a runner. To be fair, they were very - very - loud, and I was hungry and bad-tempered.
durham_rambler made a foray to Morrisons, and returned with sandwiches, which we ate in the bar: from here, the band were still too loud, but not otherwise disagreeable. Our final act of the day was John Tams: he has a devoted following, and I don't really know why: he told a story which I couldn't quite follow, but it included someone dismissing someone else as "almost too entertaining." Well, John Tams was entertaining; but he was almost too entertaining.We came home and ate pizza and ended the evening in front of the television. And why not?
