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Direct location:
www.english-music.co.uk/fringe
This part of the site includes various things not specifically traditional English folk music, such as things which are:
There are thousands of notable British artists and this site cannot mention them all. However much British music is heavily influenced by American music, so this page will attempt to mention some of the notable musicians who have a more English style.
In the 1950's, while in America Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly and Elvis were strutting their stuff, Britain was a very different world. For a start, we were still suffering the aftermath of the terrible World War II. There was a lot of poverty. One thing which did survive the war was the great expertise in orchestral music. It had remained throughout the war because entertainment was good for morale and so still supported. British orchestras in the 50's (mainly centred in London) were as good as anywhere in the world. They were surprisingly commonplace and presumably a cost-effective way of making music. The BBC were a big contributor. Even radio comedy shows recorded in front of an audience would have an orchestra just for bursts of music to accompany the comedy.
It was into this environment there emerged:
A large industry built up around Cliff Richard, making use of existing studio resources and orchestras. All of this was of very high quality considering the time. The quality of music and sound was excellent and is clearly evident on the recordings. Much of this infrastructure was already in place because British music was at a high standard of excellence from the world of light orchestral music.
Most of the early singles by Cliff Richard were written by British songwriters, many by Ian Samwell in fact. Members of the Shadows wrote some of them.
Record sales were dominated by singles, and most albums were a collection of short songs, most of which were rather inferior to the singles that band would release. Also in the early 60's live concerts often consisted of several of the big name bands appearing in succession at the same concert.
In the very early 60's most records were by solo performers, mainly singers, and accompanied by unnamed instrumentalists especially orchestras. Gradually the pop groups started to gain strength and popularity. These were self-contained and usually played the whole recording themselves. Many songs were covers of American hit records which where little-known in this country in their original form.
Some songs started to be written by British songwriters such as Mitch Murray, and some pop groups gradually started to write their own material, notably the Beatles.
Around 1966-1968 the music scene began to change.
About 1968 there emerged a number of bands whose main output was on albums not singles, and many became hugely successful without releasing singles, or anyway without much success with singles. Alongside album success these bands also had successful and popular live acts. With little exposure on the radio and virtually none on TV their reputation spread by word of mouth especially through the student community.
There was a whole continuum of different genres which later became named Progressive Rock, or sometimes Contemporary Rock. With hindsight some are now considered to belong to other genres while others are still considered to be in the Prog Rock genre. The music encompassed folk, blues, jazz and sometimes bordered on classical. Of course individual music lovers had their preferences, but there were no great divisions and bands as diverse as Fairport Convention and Led Zeppelin were all considered part of this same musical movement.
The main features of this music:
Some existing bands embraced the new emergence of album music, notably the Rolling Stones. Other bands previously successful in the singles charts faded in popularity or in many cases broke up, with members joining or forming the more progressive bands. Notable examples are Graham Nash left the Hollies to form Crosby Stills and Nash, and Chris Curtis left the Searchers and formed Deep Purple.
The Beatles started doing a mix of covers of American songs and some of their own songs influenced by the American Style, but soon developed their own style and much of their work was in the European tradition (i.e. unrelated to soul and blues). The two film albums, A Hard Day's Night and Help were good examples of their early original song styles which was now breaking free from American foundations.
Previously a band whose main success was through singles. Initially their mission was to play rhythm and blues and this shared interest formed the basis of an early get-together between Jagger and Richards. In 1966 they released a distinctively different album, Aftermath, consisting entirely of their own songs and very little soul or blues content. Notably Aftermath included the song Lady Jane which was in the style of a courtly Elizabethan ballad. In 1968 they embraced the popularity of blues music with their album Beggars Banquet.
Another singles band but began to make concept albums before almost anyone else. Dabbled with the concept of a Rock Opera with A Quick One, and then Pete Townshend wrote his masterpiece Tommy.
He led a succession of blues bands which formed the basis of many others.
Started in the mid 60's as a roots blues band. The band was formed by guitarist/singer Peter Green, but strangely named after two other founder members, drummer Mick Fleetwood and bassist John McVie. Peter Green was the front-man and also became an excellent songwriter and soon the band's repertoire consisted mostly of his original songs. This was guitar based music, but now departed from blues.
At some point Peter Green renounced their huge commercial success and wanted to give much of their earnings to charity. He is also said to have been 'spiked' and subsequently flipped. He left the band.
After various changes of line-up, but always retaining the core of Fleetwood and McVie, they incorporated Americans Stevie Nicks (girl) and Lindsey Buckingham (man) and moved their base to America. They had a hugely successful album Rumours.
Formed in the 60's by Dave Cousins. In the early days the group included Sandy Denny before she joined Fairport Convention. The Strawbs had some enthusiasts but never had great success until two successful singles, but the second of these Part of the Union was untypical of their work and its very success probably lost them a lot of credibility amongst lovers of folk and rock music.
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Notable for their zany front-man vocalist and avant garde flute player Ian Anderson. (It is hardly surprising that he was thought by some to be called Jethro Tull, especially when Jimmy Savile introduced the band as Mister Jethro Tull). They had an enduring popularity and still regarded by some as being part of the folk scene.
Led by singer Roger Chapman, and the band mainly performed his original songs. The band included Rick Grech who played violin amongst other things and later became a founder member of Blind Faith. Family were contemporaries of Jethro Tull with some similarities.
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Mike Oldfield has a genre entirely to himself. Structured instrumental music,
rather like classical, but played on modern instruments. His masterpiece
was Tubular Bells which was produced with multitrack
techniques and Oldfield playing all the instruments, though it is mainly the
electric guitar and its variants. He released more albums, notably Ommadawn.
The next great landmark in his work was the excellent Tubular
Bells II with a similar structure to the original but consisting of all
new music. The work makes use of the more advanced sound technology now available,
and is also superb sound quality.
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The great progressive rock band. Originally formed around Sid Barrett but who left relatively early in the band's career due to mental health problems, (or at least it was a problem to others if not himself). Pink Floyd are known for their long flowing instrumentals and impressive stage shows with light shows. Their album Dark Side of the Moon was hugely successful, but actually departed from their tradition of long instrumental-based tracks, being a collection of songs of normal length with much high-tech studio embellishment. Their next album Wish You Were Here returned to long songs with lengthy instrumental parts and featured a large contribution from guitarist Dave Gilmour.
Etherial, atmospheric and mainly instrumental. Some similarities with Pink Floyd but Hawkwind pushed the music still further into the realm of long abstract instrumentals. One of their principal albums was Space Ritual which was a double LP and recorded live.
Formed by Robert Fripp and began in 1968 in very spectacular way with a stunning live performance and the album In the Court of the Crimson King. They were different from anything else heard before but included some modern jazz influence. Notably Greg Lake was the powerful vocalist at the time. He later joined ELP.
Avant garde music, very much jazz based. They reached a peak with their double album entitled Third.
A virtuoso 5-piece band based on jazz styles with great instrumental content. Material consisted of some songs with extended instrumental solos, and some instrumentals. They were formed in 1968 by Jon Hiseman, (a contender alongside Ginger Baker to be considered the best rock drummer around). Other members were respected jazz sax player Dick Heckstall-Smith, Dave Greenslade - organ, James Litherland - vocals and guitar, and Tony Reeves - bass. Their first two albums were the best: Those Who Are About to Die Salute You, and Valentyne Suite.
'Heavy rock' without being blues based.
High powered blues/rock band who were probably the founders of the 'heavy metal' genre. Their first album had the same name as the band, and the next were named Led Zeppelin II, III, and IV respectively. Led Zeppelin III was the most folky. It made use of acoustic guitars and included at least one traditional song. IV included the classic song Stairway to Heaven. There was a cinema film The Song Remains the Same together with double album of the soundtrack. The film was a mix of documentary and lengthy concert scenes.
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Keith Emerson was clearly the main man in this band and the vast majority of their material consisted of his virtuoso performances on the Hammond organ. They were a great live act because of Emersons great showmanship in his organ playing where he would tilt and rock the organ around on stage.
Their material contained very little original composition but was instead based on existing material from various sources which were reworked into a highly dramatic form far removed from their original versions. Much of this was classical music.
One of their first albums, Ars Longa Vita Brevis was probably their best. (The title is Latin for "Art is long, life is short"). This had a long playing time and included some great epic instrumentals including their instrumental version of the show song America and which was a hit single.
Formed along similar lines to Keith Emerson's previous group The Nice, that is with Emerson as the main man, playing keyboards together with bass and drums, but ELP made greater use of synthesizers instead of relying entirely on the Hammond Organ. Also now included Greg Lake who introduced a significant element of Songs into the group, and sometimes played guitar rather than bass. The band seemed to switch between Emerson's keyboard based instrumentals, and occasional songs from Lake. rather than to merge the styles.
Formed out of the break-up of Cream and retaining members Eric Clapton and Ginger Baker, but replaced Jack Bruce with singer and keyboard player Steve Winwood, and Rick Grech from Family.
Formed in 1969, surprisingly by two former members of the Yardbirds, noably their lead vocalist Keith Relf, though Renaissance were very different. Very soon all the original members had drifted away and replaced by others. Their main work was from 1972 to 1983. Worth looking into through their own web site, Wikipedia or Amazon.
There is a document available in various places on the Internet: "The History of Renaissance" by Russell W. Elliot.
Renaissance web site: www.nightsweb.com
From the North East of England. They had a successful single Fog on the Tyne, and considerable album success for a brief period around 1970. Their style was towards the more folky end of the Contemporary Rock genre.
Black Sabbath were a long way from what you would regard as English music, but nevertheless had a home-grown brand of music, strongly instrumental based on the electric guitar of Tony Iommi, but not a blues band. As their name suggests they had a theme of black magic in their music, but contrary to beliefs, their early work did not advocate it, but was more about suffering from the adversity of dark forces, and some songs were just another angle on the well established song theme of unhappy love.
Their first album Black Sabbath is said to have been released on Friday 13th February 1970, and is one of their best.
Cat Stevens' great period was around late sixties to 1971 or so. Initially he was writing and performing pure pop music aimed at commercial success, which he got. Later became recognised as a more serious musician especially after his hugely successful album Tea For the Tillerman.
Singer, pianist, and songwriter mostly writing the music to the lyrics of his old friend Bernie Taupin. Became a superstar.
Formed by Brian Ferry in the early 70's. Brian Ferry is a cross between an old "ted" rocker and Noel Coward. Roxy were an arty rock band aimed to be commercially successful and with much emphasis on visual presentation. Their early music was innovative with a style based on the roots of 50's American pop rock but taking it into a new league. Songs had long avant garde instrumental interludes which hovered on the border of discordance - just enough to make it wildly exciting - but still musical.
Their first album Roxy Music released in 1972 was as good as any.
Roxy Music personnel in 1972:
Bryan Ferry: Singer and writer of all songs.
Phil Manzanera: Electric guitar.
Andrew Mackay: Saxophone.
Eno: Electronic signal generators.
Graham Simpson: Bass
Paul Thompson: Drums.
Ten years later, one of the last albums was Avalon and some reviewers regard it as one of their best. It is pleasant enough, but by now Roxy Music were very different and Avalon is a gentle easy-listening collection of Brian Ferry's songs, and with a soul music style. It is bland and unexciting and more suited to playing over a romantic candle-lit dinner. By now there had been changes of personnel, and the original instrumentalists are subdued into the task of providing backing for Ferry.
Roxy Music remaining original personnel in 1982:
Bryan Ferry: Keyboards and vocals.
Phil Manzanera: Electric guitar.
Andrew Mackay: Saxophone.
Formed in the early 70's by singer-songwriter Jeff Lynne who was the musical mastermind behind the concept. Their main work consisted of singles. Lynne composed the songs and put together elaborate musical productions using multitracking techniques and adding many additional voices and instruments including the use of real orchestras. Much use was made of session musicians. Where multiple voices are heard, many of these are Jeff Lynne himself singing the various parts.
Their best work was their various hit singles centred around the mid 70's, and ELO have released various Greatest Hits albums. Their main original album was A New World Record around 1978.
Yes were a strongly vocal band. Notably, for a time, included keyboard player Rick Wakeman who later performed (with a large band) under his own name.
Formed while all members were at Charterhouse public school and Included Peter Gabriel and Phil Collins who later established reputations for themselves under their own names.
Full name Donovan Leitch and actually a Scot (but he always seemed to be Welsh to me). Donovan's heyday was the second half of the 60's. He was presented as the British Bob Dylan, and indeed in some of his live performances there was a resemblance, but not so on the records. He wrote some great original songs with poetic lyrics. If you want to compare two songs which mention the wind, his Catch the Wind knocks the spots of Dylan's Blowin' in the Wind. He took a break from professional music for many years but has resumed performing (at time of writing this, 2008).
www.donovan.ieGerry Rafferty came from a folk background in Scotland and had some success with the band Stealers Wheel which was based on a partnership with Joe Egan. The band had a few hit singles, notably Stuck in the Middle with You. Joe Egan was more inclined to rock and american influences, and the two fell out around 1975.
Gerry Rafferty started recording under his own name and in 1978 released the album City to City consisting entirely of Rafferty's own compositions, and with an abundance of great session musicians playing a wide variety of instruments, but also including several traditional folk instruments such as accordion, mandolin. The immensely popular Baker Street single grabbed everyone's attention and the album reached number 1 in the USA. (£££'s!).
The following year came the album Night Owl together with a single of the same name. This followed the same formula and was also hugely successful. Night Owl is a strange CD because it is no longer available on its own, and is a rare collector's item sometimes selling for about £50.
These two albums are packed with great songs performed excellently. There is something about these songs that they seem to glow with LOVE. The albums are almost perfect, being consistent in mood throughout, but with plenty of variety too, and they represent Gerry Rafferty's best work. At time of writing (2007) you can get a set of both CDs, City to City and Night Owl, for the price of one CD, but best obtained by import.
There is also a budget CD compilation from 1999 called Baker Street, which is great value and a genuine attempt to include some of the best music, but if you want all the songs of this period, the double CD is the best choice.
It's a misleading name. It sounds a lot more instrumental than they are and
most of the 'strings' involved are plucked not bowed. Their strength is in their
songs. Formed in Scotland in 1966 from Robin Williamson, Clive Palmer,
and Mike Heron and recorded their first album the same year. Williamson
and Palmer had previously worked together as a duo. The band split up, but reformed
soon after as a duo of Williamson and Heron. Their second album The 5000 Spirits
or the Layers of the Onion consisted entirely of songs written alternately by
Williamson and Heron, and each had an entirely different style. Heron's songs
were happy and full of fantasy. Williamson's were more serious (you might say
more dreary if you were unkind). Their greatest success was in 1968 with
two albums, The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter,
and Wee Tam and the Big Huge. They split up in 1974,
but reformed later with less success.
They were a fusion of jazz and folk with female vocalist Jacqui McShee and two already respected folk guitarists Bert Jansch and John Renbourn. Danny Thompson played upright string bass. Basket of Light was their first album and probably still their best.
A folk trio strongly vocal and somewhat in the style of contemporaries from USA, Peter Paul and Mary. In the early 60's this was about the only folk music you would encounter on TV and radio. Notable members were real-life brother and sister Dion and Mary O'Brien who became Tom Springfield and Dusty Springfield. Tom was an accomplished songwriter, but his songs had greater success through The Seekers.
A 60's folky pop group from Australia. One of the first folk groups to be dismissed by serious folk fans for being too commercial. They had some great original songs mostly written or co-written by Tom Springfield, and had considerable success in the singles charts.
One of the pioneers of folk music in the early 60's. Wrote several original songs which have acquired the status of traditional songs of the past, notably Dirty Old Town.
Ian Dury was a refreshingly innovative and lyrically anarchic songwriter.
Singer songwriter as much known for his socialism and political campagning as he is for his music. Perhaps something in the tradition of Ewan McColl or Woody Guthrie. His roots are from the punk or new-wave music in London. (London, with its deeply urban and multicultural society is almost a separate place from the rest of England).
Talented prolific songwriter
whose songwriting deserves greater recognition. Simone has kindly
allowed a sound clip from one of her songs to be included here.
There are about 20 radio stations available on DAB, satellite, and cable. They are nearly all music stations, but almost universally those on FM and DAB play only chart pop and rock.
The only national station which plays any folk music at all is Radio 2. There is only one 1 hour programme, Folk on 2 on Wednesday evening.
Even this, in the last few years, plays a significant amount of American folk, bluegrass, and C&W. There was once, under the previous presenter Jim Lloyd, a respectable acknowledgement of instrumental music, but now there is even less. In short, out of hundreds of hours of radio music per day on FM and DAB, you might be lucky to get 5 minutes of traditional english Instrumental dance music in a week.
It is bizarre that the best source of English folk music can be found on BBC Radio Scotland, Radio Wales, and Radio Ulster which are available nationally on satellite and cable radio, and worldwide at the BBC web site www.bbc.co.uk. Saturday evening is a good time to listen live, but also many programmes are available to listen to at any time over the following week. These stations give preference to the local artists of their respective regions, but also include other folk music from a wider area including England.
There is also some excellent folk music, much of it celtic, at the Scottish Gaelic language radio station Radio nan Gaidheal. All the dialogue is in Gaelic but the music is excellent with plenty of traditional instrumental content. Some songs are in Gaelic and some in English.
Note that all the following times are UK time.
In winter these times are GMT. In summer, subtract 1hr to convert to GMT.
| BBC | 7pm | 8pm | 9pm | 10pm | 11pm |
| Radio Scotland | Take the Floor | Pipeline | Archie Fisher's Travelling Folk | ||
| Radio Wales | Celtic Heartbeat | ||||
| Radio Ulster | Folk Club | ||||
Take the Floor. Thoroughly Scottish traditional instrumental dance music. Presented by Robbie Shepherd who has clearly been involved with Scottish dance music for many years. Usually a large part of the programme has a live recording of a Scottish ceili.
Pipeline. A rather intellectual programme of Scottish bagpipe music.
Archie Fisher's Travelling Folk. This is one of the best folk programmes on all of radio. For me, the best music (in any genre) on the radio, modern, contemporary, it's like the advanced class. Worthy of being an national programme. Far Far better than anything BBC national radio has to offer. Archie Fisher is a veteran folkie well known in Scotland, and with something of the same manner as Bob Harris. The programme is not exclusively Scottish and in 2008 they did a one hour feature on the Old Swan Band!
Radio Wales' Celtic Heartbeat. Presented by Frank Hennessy. Some great folk music, with a fair share of instrumental dance music but this programme is rather like listening to hospital radio. It's the old old problem of music on the radio, the talk between the music tracks is too prominent. Maybe they could just simply reduce the volume of the speech.
Radio Ulster's Folk Club is a very pleasant programme with a relaxed mood. Presented by Colom Sands, a mixture of songs and instrumental music with a broadly celtic feel, but fairly diverse.
Wednesday 7pm to 8pm. Mike Harding. (folk music). I must admit this programme has improved as it has matured. It still has a predominance of singer-guitarists and is rather low on instrumental content from fiddles and accordions. (I have heard entire programmes without hearing a single fiddle). Also, considering that it is the only national folk programme in England there is too much american style music of a sort which is catered for in other programmes on Radio 2. Despite the BBC's attempts to modernize Radio 2, it still hasn't lost its old fashioned image especially evident in jingles and trailers. Another problem is that it sits amid incongruous programmes before and after, you really have to go out of your way to turn it on and off again.
Thursday 8pm to 10pm. Archie Fisher's Travelling Folk. This is first presented on the Thursday and then repeated the following Saturday.
Sunday 1pm to 3pm. The Reel Blend described by the BBC as "Traditional music and song" and consists mostly of tracks from modern CDs, but notably it is all traditional Scottish music. By the same presenter as Take The Floor.
Overnight Monday night, (i.e Tues 00:30 to 06:00. The Celtic Zone - a compilation of extracts from other celtic music programmes
on Radio Scotland.
Daily on weekdays.
10am to 11:30am. A Mire ri Moir (folk music). This is mainly recently recorded songs in the Gaelic language, often recorded live as there are few other sources.
2pm to 4pm. Caithream Ciuil (celtic music). Some of the best music you are ever likely to hear on a weekday afternoon!
Thursday. 4pm and 10:30pm Crunlath (pipe music).
Friday 8 to 9pm and Saturday 11am. Tiompan (celtic music) This is a lovely programme with a gentle-voiced woman presenter, Margaret MacLennan (or Mairead NicIllinnein in Gaelic).
Radio 4 is the general speech channel but sometimes has documentaries on folk, pop and rock performers, musical instruments etc.
Sometimes features some world music.
Has a regular weekly half-hour programme Charlie Gillett's World of Music.
You can listen to most of the above programmes for the week following the programme by listening online through the BBC web site. The following locations are a good starting point.
| Radio 2 | www.bbc.co.uk/radio2 | |
| Radio Scotland | www.bbc.co.uk/radioscotland | |
| Celtic Zone | www.bbc.co.uk/radioscotland/zones | |
| Radio Wales | www.bbc.co.uk/radiowales | |
| Radio Ulster | www.bbc.co.uk/radioulster/ | |
| Radio nan Gaidheal | www.bbc.co.uk/radionangaidheal/ |
Thank heavens for BBC 4 on freeview, cable and satellite TV. No regular folk music but sometimes there are some excellent documentaries and concerts. There have been recent concerts of Maddy Prior, Martin Carthy, Eliza Carthy, and Spiers and Boden.
Many hymns throughout the world are of English origin. Charles Wesley was a great early English hymn writer.
This is the name given to church music from the period when traditional acoustic instruments were used to support the hymn singing. The author Thomas Hardy played the fiddle and was brought up at a time when such traditional instruments were used in churches. Such a band was known as a Quire. Unfortunately they were replaced by the introduction of the organ.The story of this is told in Hardy's semi-autobiographical novel Under the Greenwood Tree.
The West Gallery Music Association:
www.wgma.org.uk
The words and the tunes of hymns tend to be written separately, and many hymn words can be sung to a number of different tunes. The convention is that hymns (i.e. the words part) use the first line as the title. Tunes of hymns have their own name independent of the name of the hymn they are used for, and these are often place names.
Tunes are specified with a metre, which is a list of numbers representing the number of notes in each line. The principle is that tunes with the same metre are interchangeable.
The concept of metre can be a bit confusing at first sight to a musician. It is nothing to do with tempo or rhythm. It is very simple, and relative to modern music, naive. It assumes that you will use one syllable per note.
These are all very small files, typically 2KB. Click on the logo to play or download.
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Repton by Charles Parry, 1888. |
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Blaenwern by William P. Rowlands, 1905. |
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Sine Nomine by Ralph Vaughan Williams, 1906. |
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Little Cornard by Martin Shaw, 1915 |
There are many web sites with details of hymns such as composer information and the words. They usually also have the music in Midi format and sometimes printable formats such a PDF.
A large resource of information with tunes in MIDI format and words. This
is a serious site with complete and accurate information and offers free downloads.
Note new URL.
www.hymntime.com
This site has some wacky modern arrangements of hymn tunes available as Midi
files.
www.familyfriendlychurches.org.uk/midihymns
A good site but has confusing navigation. Best go to:
www.ccel.org/cceh
A huge resource of free choral sheet music in various formats including
Midi. Includes search facility.
www.cpdl.org
Great writers of light and comic opera in Victorian times with a fair amount of satire. The pop music of the day. They are outside the scope of this site but no doubt plenty of material could be found from a web search.
Early English Musick 1385 to 1714 A huge resource on early composers and publications. Also has a good links page.
Medieval Music & Arts Foundation
British Composer Index Mainly classical.
Web site owners, please put a link to this site if you wish:
http://www.english-music.co.uk
This page is written and maintained by S. J. Farthing, Portsmouth, England.