13 posts from April 2007

Hobo presents here - the 2nd part of Pete Willow's informative history of the Coventry Folk Scene from the early 60's

to the 70's form his 1978/79 magazine Folks. in this article he responds to feedback and makes corrections to some of the assertions in his first article; raids the Rod Felton Scrapbook for insights into the Coventry Folk scen, Rod's own career and that of Beverley Kutner (later Martyn).

EXTRACTS FROM THE FELTON FILES

Or how Roddy encountered the Great Dylan/ Donavan Cliche

Part 2 of Pete Willow’s look at local folk History –from Folks  magazine Jan / Feb 79

 

Over the last few weeks, I have been inundated with comments, some helpful, some critical, some complimentary and some not. So as a result of the Fifteen Folkin Years feature that appeared last issue, in which I undertook a fairly detailed look into Coventry’s Folk Heritage, I can only surmise from this reaction that the article has been a total success in what in what it was attempting to do.

For the most part people who have been closely involved with the development of folk music in the city have been extremely forthcoming with info and offers of assistance for future articles in the series, which means of course that the task of building up a complete picture will be even more complicated than I first imagined. History is being made all the time so I don’t imagine the series will ever be complete.

CLEARING UP SOME STATEMENTS

Before going any further, I’d like to try and clear up some of the statements in the last article that became subject to close scrutiny. For my own part, covering the mid to late 60’s period was a purely historical exercise. Although I was living in Coventry up until 1969, I was totally uninvolved with the folk music scene at the time and , to write the article, I had to rely on not only the word of others but also press cuttings, magazine articles etc., that came my way as evidence of what had happened. Since then I have been given access to more evidence that seems to contradict the stuff I had seen or heard previously.

For example, I stated that the Coventry Folk Club first opened at the Binley Oak in May 1963. Many people disputed this; I heard from somebody who had checked with Barry Skinner himself that the date was 1961. And yet I had found the date in a magazine, published in 1967, only four (or six/) years after the event. An historian’s life in not a happy one!, particularly as I know have in front of me an article published in the Coventry Standard (I presume, as it was written by Dougie Grosvenor who worked for them at the time) in 1965, stating categorically that the club was founded in March 1962!

I also refered to a Miss Beverley Jones in the previous article and I am pleased to have been informed almost immediately that the lady’s maiden name was in fact Kutner. So profound apologies about that. However another point still to be resolved is the exact beginnings of the Tavern Folk Club. I said that it opened in June 1964 at the Swanswell Tavern and that the venue was ‘short lived’ as the club transferred to the Wine Lodge to become Cofa’s Tree Folk Club. Some readers recall that in fact the Tavern went on for quite a time, at least a couple of years and I’d be grateful for any more information to throw light on this. For example, did the club continue at the Tavern under the same organisation or did somebody else take over when the Cofa’s Tree was formed?

I do have access to an article that appeared in the local press in 1964, stating that the club had been going successfully for about six months. A few quotations from the article should be of interest to those who remember the club:

 “…In these commercial days, the venture is non-profit making, and the admission charge 2/- for visitors – goes towards paying for visits every month or six weeks by nationally famous singers like the Ian Campbell Folk Group, featured at the club on Nov 22^nd. I asked Ben Arnold and Bernard Overton, two of the clubs organisers, what they thought had brought their members, now well over three hundred in all, and the answer seems undoubtedly to be the variety and the quality of the entertainment offered… I heard English and American Ballads from Ben, Scotch and Irish songs from the Kerry singers, modern ballads, English, French and German from Bernard and Lesley, American Ballads from the Brothers and American Blues from Rod Felton”

 
I would like to especially thank the last person mentioned for his help with this issue’s article. My original intention in this issue had been to look at Coventry clubs in the early 70’s but I would like to postpone that for another month or so. Roddy has very kindly lent me his famous scrap books, which contain a wealth of information on the local folk scene during the mid to late sixties, and more specifically on what Rod himself was doing musically during this time, which is what I’d like to concentrate on for the main part of this article. Hopefully in future articles, I shall cover the same period of time as seen through the eyes of other local musicians who played different styles of music at different venues.

Above is an attempted reproduction of a photo of Rod that appeared in the Coventry Standard on July 22^nd 1965, accompanied by an article headed Rod Felton- A newcomer in the Bob Dylan Folk Tradition – (See the article here..).

 
Not a journalistic masterpiece, but at least the local press were showing more interest in local folk acts than of late.

Digressing if I may for awhile, I referred in the last issue to the change of venue in 1965 of the Coventry Folk Club, from

Binley Oak to the Craven Arms (now the Bear), High Street. There is more detail of that in another cutting form the scrapbooks headed

 

“Folk Wave Hits City Scene”

It describes a particular evening at the Coventry Folk Club and then runs briefly through other Folk events in the area and mentions Rod’s popularity as a local singer. Articles like this appearing in the local press did much to bring the local folk scene to everyone’s notice. Not only did the people of Coventry know there was a growing movement of folk enthusiasm in the city, but they knew where to go to see it for themselves and who they could expect to see on stage. Local acts, like Rod, were given particular encouragement.

I hope journalists reading this take note.

 
Here are a few quotes from that article:

 

“The fact that the Coventry Folk Club at the Craven Arms was packed out by 7.50 on Thursday night makes its own comment on the subtle change coming over the folk scene in this country.

 
Sure enough the visitor was American, Tom Paxton. Sure enough he does sing a few protest songs. But Paxton is a vastly different kettle of fish to Bob Dylan…..Donovan and their subsequent cult of demi-clad, hirsute ‘folk poets’ and revolutionaries.”

 
The article the describes Paxton as a ‘real professional’ and implies he’s not a ‘weirdo’ like the others, then goes on; “Meanwhile folk music session are taking place in the city most nights of the week, including Sundays” (and here is a list I could have done with when compiling the article last issue!). “When fans congregate at the Weavers Arms Hotel in Bell Green Rd., The Cofa’s Tree Folk Club…, the Heart of England Folk Club at the Fox and Vivian, Leamington.”

 
Then back to the original theme when the article quotes The Heart of England F.C. Chairman Pete Fairley “…One of our most popular resident singers is a Coventrian. He is Rod Felton, the blues artist, who has shown interest in the club since our formation 18 months ago.”  The article makes reference to a club Roddy ran at the Market Tavern in Coventry on Wednesday evenings.

Whether it is journalistic flair or whatever, constant mention is made in these articles about the enthusiasm and the packed audiences at these clubs. 1965 seems to have been the year when folk was ‘new Wave’ although the impression seems to be (from the newspapers viewpoint at least) that this was due to the cult heroes, Dylan and Donovan. American influence, including country music, and of course Irish Traditional music appeared to be two main factors in the folk scene, skiffle becoming a thing of the past by this time. I mentioned last issue that anthologies of English Traditional material were not so abundant in the early to mid sixties as they are today; publications by such collectors s Karl Dallas were still being prepared. It could be that the so-called traditional folk clubs as we know them

today are, strangely enough, a more recent innovation than clubs where more ‘contemporary’ music is played. Please write in your thousands if I’m wrong!

Roddy and Rob Armstrong formed the New Modern Idiot Grunt Band in the mid sixties and quickly achieved fame throughout Britain and Germany. A selection of quotes from various newspapers reveals a little of their past.

 
Newspaper quote – Three Coventry folk singers plan to spend a fortnight in Germany…

 
More extracts from the Felton scrapbooks are included on the next page, although there isn’t space to include everything in them. Suffice it to say they are packed with letters, cuttings, photos and posters relating to people involved in the local and national folk scene from the mid sixties to the early seventies. They also contain many details of Rod’s own career as a folk singer, including tickets, ads, posters and other publicity of concerts he has performed along with Savoy Brown, 10cc, Bronx Cheer and Julie Felix. A brief rundown of  Rod’s career up to the age of 25 appears in the programme of the concert at the Playhouse, Harlow, one of the venues where he appeared with Julie Felix;

“He has played guitar since the age of twelve and started playing in clubs at the age of 15. He teamed up with Beverley Kutner who later married and partnered John Martyn.

He then formed the New Modern Idiot Grunt Band which was a great success in Northern England and Germany. When they disbanded, Rod decided to build a solo career and recently signed management and recording contracts with Barry Murray and Harry Simmonds – managers and producers of Mungo Jerry, Savoy Brown, Chicken Shack etc. who in turn signed him with the newly formed British Talent International Agency who handle Mungo Jerry. Savoy. Prelude, Peter Skellern, Weather Report and Herbie Hancock. Rod is currently working on his first Album and single.”

Another local artist who received much attention in the  local and national press was Beverley Kutner, or just  plain

Beverley. The Daily Sketch (Aug 23^rd 1966) ran an article headed “Now Beverley has the key to the top” which read:

 
“If there was an award for sheer will-to-win in the pop business it would go this year to an 18 year 0ld singer singer billed simply as Beverley. Just a year ago she came to London and Demmy Cordell, who makes discs for Georgie Fame and the Moody Blues, heard her sing in a club. Cordell told me: I offered her a record contract. She is the only person other than Georgie Fame and the Moodies, I’ve wanted to record.

 
But Beverley told him; ‘I’m going away – I’ll see you when I think I’m ready….’ Beverley went back to her home in Coventry with a guitar – which Denny Laine of the Moody Blues had given her – and learned to play. Now she is rated by Jimmy Page or the Yardbirds, as the ‘best girl guitarist’ he’s heard.”

Here is a typical selection of other cuttings about the lady, proving the press moves in mysterious ways;

 
“She’s an 18 year old Chelsea-looking brunette from Coventry who has just cut her first record. The title is ‘Happy New Year’ (Deram). “Beverley…wore a cool black satin pyjama suit – with enormous flapping trousers – at London Airport yesterday. To keep away the chill winter breezes she wore a snug fox fur on top. Beverley was flying to Munich to make a broadcast and promote her new record….” She admires Donovan’s interpretations and was particularly thrilled when, in a London club recently, he stepped from the audience and offered to accompany her on guitar.” “Beverley.. claims that at 20 she has at last found her real self thanks to a visit to the Love thy Neighbour hippies of San Francisco. Beverley has just returned from Hippie-land after taking part in the Monteray Pop Festival.”

Beverley Kutner / Martyn - article.

It seemed for a while that Beverley was the limelight of press attention and attracting a lot of interest in the national folk/rock scene. When she married and worked with John Martyn, interest in her from the music media lost much of its previous intensity. The sleeve notes on John and Beverley’s album Stormbringer

simply refer to the fact that she once worked for a Jug band in Coventry, mentioning no names.

 

 

 

Two flow charts from Folks magazine.

The English Huntsuppe - Lute Music contributed to Folks Magaine by Pete Rigg

ANDY – ROCK / JAZZ / FOLK GUITARIST

Andy Cairns is a Coventry guitarist and musician who has worked his way through Rock, Jazz-Funk and folk

styles; was involved in the Hobo Workshop in the mid 70’s; played in a Jazz-funk band with bassist Horace Panter (later of the Specials); achieved a doctorate in micro-biology – and became a researcher in the field while remaining active as a musician, Morris Muso and organiser on the Aberystwyth folk scene. In 1984 he produced his first folk/ dance Album on Cassette as a beautiful tribute to his late girlfriend and went on to create his own self-sufficient eco-house.

(A Note on the Audio – Most of the audio has been abstracted from jam sessions and practices that weren’t intended for a wider audience - they  were just works throughs and try outs - although there are a few folk and folk dance tunes towards the end from Andy’s Cassette album of 1984)

I met Andy Cairns at

Henley College in 1974 – I was studying Sociology and Andy’s course was science based. Andy, then a young, long-haired rock guitarist, responded to a poster I’d put up at the college advertising the first Hobo Music and Arts Workshop at the Holyhead Youth Centre. At that time Alex Murphy (whom Neil O’Connor wrote the song about (Here) was there too studying Art and literature. We would often go around to see Alex with Phil Knapper (blogged about elsewhere on this site). Andy became one of my closest musician friends.

I don’t know many details of Andy’s earlier musical activities (if he read this maybe he’ll tell us!), he was only about 20 when I met him, but I know he’d played in a band doing covers such as Do You Really Want to Hurt Me with Karl (who was I think a guitarist and a bass player – whose name eludes me but who later in 1979 was roadie / van driver for The Selecter as well as the upright string bassists of a Pentangle Style band Andy and I were in around 1980 (before we both left Coventry).

WE’RE JAMMING

Andy got well involved with the Hobo Workshop attending sessions both at the Holyhead Youth Centre and later the

Golden Cross, often joining in jam sessions and playing in a band. The all important Jam Session is key to a lot of informal musical development. It’s where you swap musical ideas, riffs, sequences, give each other essential feedback such as “your timing’s out” “if you play it like this you will find it easier to..” “how do you get that effect?” “I like that – maybe if you begin the song with that” etc. It’s also a good place to generate new material. If you read the IS interview on this blog – they reveal how a lot of their material was developed through informal jamming. If you tape the jams – the tapes may also throw up ideas years later that weren’t developed at the time. It’s where you might find that elusive bass player, drummer, crumhorn player – whatever!

ORGANISED JAMS

In Coventry Neol Davis sometimes organised public jam sessions like the one described in Umbrella Club band post on this site – marathon weekend sessions day and night in which musicians dropped in – picked up an instrument and then took a break while another popped in. Neol knew all the musicians and could rally them round. He helped organise one for the Hobo Workshop at the Golden Cross – it took some kick starting but eventually people like vocalists Nicky Hawkswell, John Gravenor, Neol and many others joined in. It was Neol’s befriending and jamming with some of the West Indian musicians in the basement of the Holyhead Youth Centre that built some of the relationships that led eventually to the classic Two Tone line ups.

More often though jamming happened more informally, sometimes in the Cathedral grounds on a sunny day or on the grass outside the Herbert Museum – or two or three musicians with guitars, bongos, harmonica, outside pubs – for example I witnessed an informal folk – blues jam with Rod Felton and Pete Waterman (on flute) outside the Earsldon Cottage folk club in 1970 . Often they would happen in someone’s house – it may be an open house affair or where you invite a few musical friends back. The jam session is the engine of a healthy music scene and possibly a few of you will be waxing lyrically on this.

JAMS AS A LEARNING TOOL

Andy and I began jamming periodically at each others house over the next 10 years, both in Cov and less frequently after we left  Cov in 1980. In one of the first sessions Andy taught me a bunch guitar riffs like Day Tripper, Paperback Writer and I Feel Fine. In his own words his technique was ‘crowd teaching’ – in one session he taught me more riffs than I ever thought I could remember. He assured me I would remember and he was right – when I got bored practicing one riff – there was another to remember and practice. Further more once you have Day Tripper under your belt it’s not such a stretch to work out others based around much the same notes such as Pretty Women and then to work your own effective riffs out. Not that I was there to be ‘taught’ – we were jamming but the jam could be a highly effective learning tool.

RICKY’S JAZZ FUNK BAND WITH HORACE ON BASS

Early on in 74 / 75 I’d met a guy called Ricky through Jed And Arthur – two Mancunian acoustic guitar players who

had become involved with Hobo magazine. I’m not totally clear on this point, but I think Ricky was a former roadie with Indian Summer and later A Band Called George – (but I may be mixing up my Ricky’s here!). I sometimes jammed with Ricky on some of his riffs and chord sequences and took both Phil Knapper and Andy Cairns with me on one occasion. Anyway I think Ricky came along to the Hobo Workshop. I’m not quite sure how it all happened but Andy ended up playing in a Jazz funk band with Ricky and Horace Panter was the bassist (a good few years before the Specials were thought of). Andy or Horace would be able to give more details on how they got together and what they were called (if their memory holds out on it) but the band played for us at the Hobo Workshop after it’s move to Golden Cross in 1975.

EARLSDON COTTAGE JAZZ CLUB

Our early jams began around of some of Ricky’s jazzy sequences as a

means of Andy practicing his lead licks (Hear a snippet of audio). As our meetings developed we got more in to Jazz funk rhythms and sequences. Jazz Funk was the flavour of the month with many of the bands who played the Hobo Workshop playing in that style – bands like Khayyam and also Trigon, Analog (two of the bands that begat Ens, Bung, Reluctant Stereotypes (My Space Link)-, Pink Umbrellas and leading eventually to the formation of Paul King’s chart topping 80’s band King.) See Pete Chamber’s Pop into the Past columns for more on that heritage. The place to go for Jazz Funk in Cov in 1974/5 was the Jazz Club at the Earsldon Cottage (see pic of Khayyam at the Cottage)

. Andy got pretty involved with musicians at the cottage and soon swapped his rock licks for jazz rock structures – learning better

ways to hold his pick – (short sharp upward lead plucks rather than downward plucks – it did make a difference to the sound and style you got). The cottage had a good reputation – it was allegedly the place the Pink Floyd sought out after their gig and sax player Steve Tayton (Playing sax in the pic) played there. Although an accomplished jazz player he also played in the pop band Staveley Makepiece (an off shoot of the Lieutenant Pigeon band).

During our jams Andy would throw more and more challenging jazz chord

sequences and rhythms at me, including the Benny Hill Theme. I really wanted to jam on my own songs and some of Andy’s but it was a learning curve for me and I later recycled a few of the sequences into my later songs, while Andy honed his lead playing. By this time Andy was into people like Chick Corea and Joan Armatrading and the like.

COVERS BAND

During the Hobo Workshop period  74 –75 we formed an informal covers band with Andy and myself and Karl from his former band and Phil Knapper. Mostly we did a few parties at places like the Boatyard and also played the Hobo Workshop a few times. I’d also been jamming (and learning from Phil Knapper – who was learning classical style) but had a fully developed rock and folk style of playing. We did a mixtures of some of the covers that Phil like to lay and some that Andy and Karl favoured – including Get Back, All Along the Watch Tower, Bowie numbers, Mrs Robinson – Knocking on Heaven’s Door, and later Cockney Rebel’s Come up and See Me.

A new phase developed in the late 70’s – Andy had moved to Wolverhampton to do his degree and we continued to

jam during the holidays – After Two Tone had exploded I stayed over in the Halls of Residence a couple of times – we went to see the Specials and Selecter at the Town Hall (I think this was 79 or early 1980). Halfway through trouble broke out at the back – luckily we were near the front. The Specials stopped playing and tried to calm the trouble and the security managed to usher the trouble makers outside. The concert continued but when we got outside it was obvious there had be a streetbattle – handcuffed to the little trees in the shopping mall were skinheads, while the battle with the police continued elsewhere. It looked like calvary – criminals on crosses etc! Andy knew a long way back to the Halls that would avoid the trouble spots.  Pete Chambers interview with Jerry Dammers

PENTANGLE STYLE BAND 1980

In the summer of 1980 after Andy had graduated we formed a Pentangle style band – yes Pentangle at the height of the Two Tone phenomenon! A time when every band (and well beyond) were skanking their music in the hope of a contract! The irony was that our bass player was Selecter’s roadie – he used his dad’s long wheel base van to transport them to gigs and we rehearsed in the place where Selecter stored their gear – in one of the Cavern type units under the railway bridge on . It was his dad’s plumbing (or whatever) workshop. In the early 70’s I remember going to a Cavern style all night ‘heavy music’ disco there with Al Docker and others. On one occasion Desmond – and I think Charley of Selecter came in to collect some gear – what nice guys they were – always polite and friendly whenever you saw them. I remembered them from the Holyhead basement in 74. Our bassist (I think his name was Martin but I can’t remember for sure) had

traded his bass guitar for an upright bass. He loved the bass on Pentangle’s Cruel Sister –where it comes in quite effectively half-way through. We spent a lot of our sessions honing Cruel Sister. I played acoustic picking style and Andy played lead – we also had a female singer join after a while. We covered a few Pentangle numbers but worked on some numbers I’d jammed on with Andy – and a few of my songs. Just as Andy had taught me Jazz sequences I had introduced him to finger picking and using 3rds and 4ths etc (the style that McCartney used for Blackbird) and the music of Bert Janch. There are plenty of sequences on the tapes where I’m showing him these styles which he developed and are well in evidence on his later folk album (Andy went far beyond me with them though - he picked up and absored things so quickly and made them his own) and on the other hand I began writing songs using some of the Jazz funk structures he had shown me. By 1980 we had been exploring in our jams a hybrid of folk and jazz styles. The surprise to me was that Andy took off on the folk side – working out his own pieces using the 3rds and 4ths style

and dragging us off to the Warwick Folk festival in 1980. Later he would be listening to Nic Jones and Martin Carhty's guitar styles. We loved the Two Tone music, it was infectious – you had to dance to it and it had something to say. I used to be EMF’s resident dancer (Mojo’s band) to get others dancing and Hot Snacks was another of my fave bands at the time but musically we were developing something of our own. There is some audio of some of the jams that led to more developed numbers.

However the band never came to fruition. Andy announced that he was moving to Aberystwyth in September to do his PhD in biology and I got on degree course in Teesside. By October we had both left Cov.

THE SPECIALS ILLUSTRATED SONGBOOK BY NICK DAVIS

Meanwhile before we left – one night while working on some songs at Andy’s - Artist Nick Davies came round – a

friend of Andy’s - with the drafts of the Specials Illustrated Song book asking what we thought of them. They were incredible illustrations cartoon style with the Specials typified as Boris, Tommy, Winston, Slug, Noddy, Leroy and Corky! And the band were called The Spare Shells on the Syphilis label! Nick had been working day and night on the book and it was very creative – better than the average songbook. Nick gave us the option of being immortalised in the book by scrawling our names on a cartoon of a urinal. As it was a urinal – our mention wouldn’t be too flattering – Andy’s name is on it – I declined, not knowing what he might write! It was a fantastic work and Nick was making last minute adjustments as we talked. I still have the book but you can view the pages on the net by Nick Davies and Ian Haygood here.

JIGS AND REELS

I next saw Andy in 1981 (we continued to meet in Cov

at the Oak inn in the hols for a while) but when he arrived in Middlesbrough  – he carried a mandolin not a guitar! He had immersed himself in the Aberystwyth folk scene and as we jammed with Andy on Mandolin, playing endless jigs and reels I was amazed at Andy’s ability to hold a tune and play it from memory. It had only been a few months and he now had a vast repartoire of folk tunes under his belt (here are a couple we jammed on – me doing my best to keep up with him on guitar!). Later Andy discovered a form of folk music that is played on the off beat and although I never saw them play – he formed a little band in Aber playing folk -ska!. 

PLANXTY IRENA ALBUM

In 1984 it was a Dr. Andy Cairns that arrived in to see me. This time with a couple of hand made

guitars. Andy had unfortunately lost his girlfriend in a tragic hit and run and had recorded a cassette of folk songs and Welsh dance tunes that she loved, to commemorate her – Planxty Irena. Andy played one of the songs – The Lakes of Ponchartrain  when he jammed with a group of my backing musicians in .

Andy continued in Aberystwyth as a research biologist and last I heard was building a self sufficient eco home. The

Alternative technology centre is not far from Aber which may have inspired him. He took me there on one of my visits to Aber.

I haven’t seen or heard from Andy since around 1990.

Q OF Q'S by Pete Rigg

The Qizzard of Quixel has mislaid his quill
In a delinquent moment of thought!
He suspect that he left it just here on the sill
but he isn't as young as he ought.

Profounding the purpose he ponders his choice:
To confess himself victim of fate?
Or retreat to a corner and practice his voice -
And hope he's not left it too late!

........................

Preparation for Progress - by Pete Willow

See the waterfall give way
hear the sudden cease of sound
feel the humid beast of day
pray upon the crumbling ground.

Smell the roses taste the fungus
don't stop there - there's more to come
use the senses dropped among us
cosmic anatomic bomb

there's more to this than meets the eye
the nose the tongue the nerve the ear
we've many more in store set by
for revelation when it's near

for evolution now its here.

.........................

HYPOTHESIS - by Pete Willow

the telephone voice is in the mind
the speaker is not really there
the misty source you cannot find
between your ears beneath the hair

A personality to sell
without the visual technique
commended by a ringing bell
yu sit and listen to him speak

he imitates yur every friend
beyond perception of the eye
and also strangers with no end
of propostions to imply

a telephone is tangible
obtained by those who wish to show
that though life is material
they do believe in GPO

OFFSEASON by Nick Lawrence

The last crisp packet flutters slowly to the ground,
The streets all lie deserted, devoid of human sounds;
Soon the winter winds come rushing through
all these untidy tired ports we knew;
summer months of wear and tear
Leave paths for only sheep to stand and stare;
Rocks crumbled by the dust of hurried feet
are washed down again by driving sleet
chilled by the icy northern blasts
tearing down man's futile summer tasks;
I see the land that used to be
washed down again by rain and sea.

I breath sharp air with salty tang
as all around me blow lazy summer sands
soon jagged ciffs and sheltered caves
are set free in autumnal green and mauve;
once again the fulmar flies
on stiff-winged swoops and lofty glides;
cliff-tops bare and gullies harsh
sweep rain from moorland into marsh

And suddnely I know I've been shown
all such beauty is not for my eyes alone;
If like me you'd stayed and seen
The winter moon on wet sands gleam
and heard the thundering of the waves
whistling with the wind through Merlin's cave,
You'd see that man is just a passing phase
that time and patience will erase
for the wave that sweeps the human race
out of time and out of place
will leave the rocky cliffs and sandy bays
for only the eyes of sheep to gaze;

Fowever with the changing tides.....

Top man on the Coventry Folk Scene - with one of his most popular songs of the early 70's - "And I Love You" (not

the Beatles song but Rod's Own - played in open D tuning. He'd sing the verses soft as if singing to his lover and then for the chorus would bring in his considerable vocal power. Pete Willow tells me that several Coventry singers covered this popular Coventry song.

SPENCER THE ROVER
Arrangement for guitar by Mick Stuart (Coventry Blues Guitarist)

Mick has been a long standing player on the Coventry and Midlandfolk scene. This piece was published in Folks October 1978 in issue 3.

Yet another from Coventry's Folks magazine contributed by Dave Garelick - Robert Johnson classic

Another gem from Coventry's Folks magazine of the 70's. The Floorsinger's Blues by Dave Parker. I remember seeing this one performed - I also remember doing a lot of floorspots - you got in free as the song says!!

Another musical feature from Coventry's folk magazine  - Folks - 1978 / 9. Tabs for St James Infirmary Blues.