Bill Taylor writes: If I had another penny, I would have another gill… Even I’m not old enough to remember when beer cost tuppence a pint (“And it was beer then, not like the muck you get nowadays”), but I... Read more →
Colin Randall writes: On first hearing of the Pitmen Poets' new album Re-union, experience told me to stand by for a rebuke from Bob Fox. Twenty-four years ago, when I made Fox's Dreams Never Leave You my Daily Telegraph folk... Read more →
... there’s something appropriate about seeing Pitmen Poets this year, the 40th anniversary of the British miners’ strike, since they are all steeped in the songs and culture of Britain’s coalfields. Read more →
The long history of the miners’ fight for better pay and conditions was brought to life by Alan Plater in Close the Coalhouse Door. The songs of Alex Glasgow were central to the telling of the story. Read more →
Jagged forks of lightning tore across the sky above Marseille as I began a two-hour drive home from the airport, listening to the opening tracks of Bare Knuckle, a copy of which had been waiting for me on a fleeting... Read more →
Roberts and Rusby: Barnsley's finest Picture: Bryan Ledgard MY FOLK ALBUMS OF THE 1990s * Kate Rusby and Kathryn Roberts (Pure), album of the 1990s (1995) * How Are You Off For Coals? (Fellside) Bob Fox and Benny Graham (1997);... Read more →
