Thanks to Nigel ward, Pete Willow and CVfolk for uploading this treasure of a tribute Coventry folkie Hazel Lester from 1984. I had fled Coventry by then but it's great to see this footage of those I knew back then - Derek Brimstone, Pete Willow, Dave Ragtime Bennett, Margo Buchanan Smith, Martin and Ray Jenkins etc. It's a great tribute to Hazel and a great time capsule of the Coventry folk scene and camaraderie therein.
Below is a video with all the musical audio from the above film featuring Derek Brimstone, Dave Bennett, Pete Willow, Mick Cullen, Dennis Clark, Mick Stuart.
Folk Fights Back - Coventry's CVfolk Inaugural Live Event in bid for City of Culture Status.
By Pete Clemons
This article is the blog for Pete Clemons articles - ie another of the Hobo Coventry Music Websites - HERE
At a time when young Teesside folk acts like Megson, Cattle and Cane, The Younguns are reinventing what folk music can be, filling venues around the country, and getting write ups in the Guardian and Independent, the Coventry folkscene is fighting back and celebrating its own historic and dynamic folk culture that has attracted the likes of Joe O'Donnell, Dave Swarbrick and many others to the City and boasts a range of singer songwriters giggling around the country. With Selecter star Pauline Black as patron, Pete Willow is working hard to put Coventry folk on the map!
Pete Clemons reports from CVfolks inaugural Live event..
"Whippersnapper was an English folk band formed in 1984, consisting of Dave Swarbrick (fiddle, mandolin, vocals), Chris Leslie (fiddle, mandolin, vocals), Kevin Dempsey (guitar, vocals) and Martin Jenkins (mando-cello, flute, vocals).
Swarbrick left the group in 1989, and the band continued as a trio until 1993, with the only album recorded that line-up being Stories. During that time, Dempsey and Leslie released an album called Always With You as a duo. The band split when Jenkins left the group in 1993.
Following Swarbrick's recovery from illness, Whippersnapper toured again as a full four piece in both 2008 and 2009. Martin Jenkins (born 17 July 1946, London, England) died on 17 May 2011, in Sofia, Bulgaria, from a heart attack."
This folk outfit consisted of two members of Coventry progressive folk band Dando Shaft - Martin Jenkins and Kevin Demsey and from the 80's, I think, Dave Swarbrick - formerly of Fairport Convention, has lived in Coventry.
"Whippersnapper were a four-piece acoustic band formed by Dave Swarbrick, Chris Leslie,
Kevin Dempsey, and Martin Jenkins in Northamptonshire during 1983. Although none of the others could quite compare with Swarbrick's long experience or near-legendary status, each of the others brought something substantial to the table at the outset of the group's history -- Chris Leslie was a musical instrument maker as well as an experienced violinist (who had Swarbrick's playing as a model); guitarist, singer, and percussionist Kevin Dempsey had played in Dando Shaft, and had experience with Latin music as well as Celtic and English folk repertory; and multi-instrumentalist Martin Jenkins had played with Matthews Southern Comfort and was also an ex-member of Dando Shaft, as well as a Bert Jansch alumnus. As a result, the group's work was highly anticipated by folk enthusiasts, as a unique all-acoustic supergroup. The group made its debut in January of 1984 at the Burnt Post in Coventry and subsequently played the Cambridge Folk Festival, a performance that was captured on video as well.
Their music was a deceptively complex brand of progressive folk, driven by the presence of four full-fledged virtuoso players. Whippersnapper spent most of their first year honing their sound and repertory, which started out fully formed, drawing on the songbags of all four members. As a result, their debut album, when it came time to do it -- recorded for their own Whippersnapper label -- came together very quickly. The Promises long-player was recorded in December of 1984 and in stores just about eight weeks later, and well received by fans and critics. A second LP, Tsubo, didn't appear until 1987, and it was similar in form and structure to the first. A third studio album was intended, but in the interim the quartet issued These Foolish Strings, a compilation of four years' worth of live recordings. The fourth album, Fortune, was released in early 1990, and also marked the end of Swarbrick's involvement with the group. The group continued as a trio of Leslie, Dempsey, and Jenkins, and Leslie and Dempsey recorded the LP Always with You, released in 1996. Dempsey eventually teamed up with Swarbrick anew, while Leslie joined one of the latter-day lineups of Fairport Convention."
"Geoff Smedley, whose clear, gentle voice and warm humourous personality has brought pleasure to uncounted numbers of people. I hope this LP will help him achieve some acclaim, Geoff is not - does not pretend to be - a superstar - but he IS worth listening to." Rosemary Hardman from the back cover of his LP Love is Mine 1972
I don't know a lot about Geoff Smedley but he was a member of The Idiot Grunt Band (Coventry) in 1967. Becoming The New Modern Idiot Grunt Band (Dando Shaft, Rob Armstrong, Rod Felton) and breaking in 1972 (Armstrong forming "The Music Box").
Geoff was a contemporary of Rod Felton and Rob Armstrong on the Coventry Folk Scene in 1965, and when the Coventry Mummers visited Germany to perform, Rod Rob and Geoff went over too, playing solo or together as The Gentle Idea and it seems Geoff played sometimes with The New Modern Idiot Grunt Band.
In 1972 Geoff Smedley made a limit edition (200 pressings) folk album Love is Mine on the Westwood label.
It has become increasingly obvious in the last two years that the whole music world - including the folk scene - has declared the 70's the age of the superstar. Names like - Steeleye Span, Ralph McTell and America's James Taylor, receive the acclaim that up to this time was only accorded to pop artists. There seems little doubt that the possibility of achieving that sort of acclaim - and the resultant ego-trip has affected the overall standard of folk music in this country. But whilst artists like Steeleye Span pack the concert halls and what the public's appetite for bigger and better things - it is still in the local folkclub that the average folk fans seek their music. These clubs rely to a great extent on the talents of semi-professional singers and it seems that many of these never receive an acclaim in proportion to the great contribution they make to the scene. Such an artist is Geoff Smedley, whose clear gentle voice and warm, humourous personality have brought pleasure to uncounted numbers of people. I hope this LP will help him achieve some of that acclaim. Geoff is not and does not pretend to be a Superstar - but he is worth listening to.
