1. The Fisherman's Friends 2. The Fureys 3.‘The Young ‘Uns’

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BRC
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1. The Fisherman's Friends 2. The Fureys 3.‘The Young ‘Uns’

Postby BRC » Mon May 11, 2015 11:32 am

I have been fortunate enough over the past few weeks to see some well-known and not so well known groups and have thoroughly enjoyed all of them.

All of them are classified within the ‘folk music’ genre, though that is a category which can sometimes be limiting and pigeonhole musicians, denying a wider audience. I make that comment because over the years, in discussion with others, there have been some very narrow views expressed on what ‘folk music’ should be or the criteria to be met to be called that. I am quite happy to accept the widest spectrum possible for folk music which, to me, is any music that has a story to tell or a message to deliver. I prefer the delivery to be simply acoustically, though I don’t have any hang-ups on some electronic instruments. There – that is out of the way.

23rd April 2015 – The Hawth, Crawley – ‘The Fisherman’s Friends’

As I live in mid-Kent this represented a round trip of just under 90 miles. That is not so bad really, however, add in the major part of the journey being on the M25 with the return journey being extended by the reduction of 4 lanes down to just one for quite a distance, that was a test of endurance.

Despite my above travel comment this proved a well worthwhile journey as ‘The Fisherman’s Friends’ were in very fine form. I am not going to cover all the songs they performed as that would end up as just ‘a list’. The most important thing was the excellent standard of performance of songs so familiar to me, plus some not so familiar, in an engaging and uncomplicated way. It was clear that they enjoyed the performance and gathered the audience in to that with their banter with each other and the audience.

The vocal harmony was superb and flawless – well apart from a momentary loss of memory of the words on one song by the lead singer on it, but that added to the overall entertainment value and did not phase them in the least. The words once recovered we delivered faultlessly.

As a fan of ‘Show of Hands’ I was particularly delighted with their own version of ‘Cousin Jack’, though no less delighted with all the other songs they sang. I had taken along a couple of friends who knew very little about ‘The Fisherman’s Friends’ but were soon enraptured by the performance – they left the theatre ‘buzzing'.

This was, I believe, their first proper UK tour since the loss of Trevor Grylls in February 2014 and sadly meant I would not be able to hear the beautiful and emotional ‘The Last Leviathan’ which he sang lead on. However, I feel the best tribute to Trevor is that ‘The Fisherman’s Friends’ continue to perform and in such a professional and friendly way as this.

25th April 2015 –Theatre Royal, Margate – ‘The Fureys’

Although not really that less of a round trip than to Crawley at least the roads were easily negotiable. This is not the first time I have seen this act.

‘The Fureys’ have been around for forty years – give or take a few – and have been broadly associated with Irish Folk music. A comfortable pigeon-hole to give, though a somewhat lazy description. Yes, the overall performance is well laced with Irish based songs, however the repertoire includes a fair sprinkling of songs from Billy Bragg, Tom Paxton and Eric Bogle to name but a few – and very well delivered in their own style.

Again, I don’t see any point in simply listing the songs and tunes performed as it ends up just a list. Naturally enough they performed ‘Sweet Sixteen’ – their ‘greatest hit’ – but added, poignantly, ‘The Greenfields of France’ (one of the many titles given to this song) by Eric Bogle and delivered in their own inimitable style to the great applause from the enthusiastic audience.

The longevity of their performing career pays testament to their musical skills – not overcomplicated but very professional – and the desire of audiences to be entertained by accomplished musicians who play for the audience and not their own egos.

An excellent evening’s entertainment.

9th May 2015 – The Bowerhouse, Maidstone – ‘The Young ‘Uns’

This performance is still fresh in my mind being less than two days since, so I will have to be careful not to over enthuse because of that.

I have known about ‘The Young ‘Uns’ for quite a while – I have bought all three of their published albums to date – but missed the opportunity of seeing them live at the ‘Great British Folk Festival’, Skegness, on 7th December 2014 as their performance clashed with that of a little known guitarist going by the name of Gordon Giltrap. I had already committed to the latter name’s performance by queueing for well over an hour and a half.

Fortunately ‘The Young ‘Uns’ are now on tour and were scheduled for an evening at the venue ‘The Bowerhouse’ in Maidstone (but a 12 mile round trip for me). Booking the tickets was the easy part – parking in Maidstone seems the most difficult I have encountered anywhere. This is the county town of Kent yet long term parking is poor, expensive and, frankly, off-putting. After research I was able to find somewhere (paid for parking) within reasonable walking distance of the venue – phew! Enough of my complaining.

Again, no list of songs – just an evening of exceptional harmony singing from the trio of David Eagle, Michael Hughes and Sean Cooney, otherwise known as ‘The Young ‘Uns’. Their repertoire took songs from all three albums that I have plus a good few that I had not heard before.

Despite the performance area being one of the smallest I have seen (not ‘the’ smallest) ‘The Young ‘Uns’ delivered a performance of immense quality – completely unaided by any amplification. They expressed their delight at being able to perform without microphones, something that would have completely phased many a modern day singer. The vast majority of songs were performed acapella in superbly crafted harmony.

There were some instrument accompanied songs with Michael Hughes sometimes using a ‘Vintage VE2000GG’ six string – not plugged in (plus another guitar, which I couldn’t quite see the details). David Eagle played accordion plus a new Yamaha electronic keyboard (no additional amplification used) and also the role of court jester – excellent! Sean Cooney delivered some lead vocal performances of his own compositions, and others, all very well backed up by the other two’s harmonies.

The audience was about 70 – 80 strong, which to some modern performers is almost a private audience not worth doing. But this is folk music world and the atmosphere reflected a knowledgeable gathering willing to be entertained – and entertained we were.

The blend of finely constructed songs, exceptionally accurately delivered vocal harmonies and a large helping of good Northern humour ensured proceedings extended well beyond the originally allotted time. I think we would have all liked this performance to have gone on for many hours longer, though, fortunately for ‘The Young ‘Uns’, no-one took up David Eagle’s offer to stay behind for piano lessons.

The evening closed, finally, with a roof raising (luckily not literally) performance of the ‘James’ song ‘Sit Down’ – which resulted in anything but that from the audience. Since then I have been searching for a single word to describe this performance by ‘The Young ‘Uns’. I have thought of ‘bravura’, superb, excellent and many other superlatives, though always finding each word as falling short or inadequate to use in describing them. So, with a good degree of reluctance, I have to settle for David Eagle’s oft used word – excellent.

As something of a footnote I have to say that the evening performance and atmosphere at ‘The Bowerhouse’ took me wistfully back to my youth and time spent in a few of the folk clubs I attended in Liverpool in the 1960s – 70s – both as part of the audience and performing. There was a sense of real social being, caring about the world and people and enjoying the songs of sadness and elation and being left with a warm feeling of humanity.
It was also good to hear Northern vowel sounds again, having been exiled in the South for 40 years come this June. The election results last Thursday left me quite depressed so this really did help lift me back out of that depression - not cured, though hopeful.

‘The Young ‘Uns’ won ‘Best Group’ at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards 2015 – what a shame they weren’t asked to perform on that over two hours show. They thoroughly deserved this accolade and, hopefully, many more to come.

Brad

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Re: 1. The Fisherman's Friends 2. The Fureys 3.‘The Young ‘U

Postby GORDON » Tue May 12, 2015 7:16 pm

Brad.

What a star you are sir.

This incredibly detailed report must have been very time consuming to write and we mightily appreciate it.

The Fisherman's Friends reside in Port Isaac and we have stayed with " Johnny Mac " many times with his wife Gill at their lovely B & B.

Be well.

G.

BRC
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Location: Kent, United Kingdom

Re: 1. The Fisherman's Friends 2. The Fureys 3.‘The Young ‘U

Postby BRC » Wed May 27, 2015 7:30 pm

Gordon,

Is that a gold star - I never got one of those at school?

Seriously, it does not require so much effort to make comment when the musical performances are as good as those referred to here. Music is something I have enjoyed all my life and, but for a couple of bad injuries to my left arm and back in my late teens, may have continued to improve my own musical abilities. Knowing the physical and, not least of all, the nervous energy that goes in to performing I feel it is always worthwhile letting people know when they have performed well. It is far more than a courtesy. It is a proper appreciation of and for the performer(s).

I had wanted to see 'The Young 'Uns' at Skeggy last December but had already planned to see and hear your performance (superb, as ever) so had to find a reasonable opportunity to see them as soon as possible. I truly hope that they manage to get over the 'fame' part since the BBC Radio Folk Award has widened the attention given to them, and remain the solid, excellent performers that they are now. I am sure they will as they seem very down to earth.

What I particularly like about all the mentioned acts is, like yourself, they recognise that they have to try their best for the audience and put the effort in to that and not a panel on a 'reality' show for a fleeting moment of fame.

I delayed writing this until I had been back to the venue where I saw 'The Young 'Uns' to try out the folk club held there monthly. Folk clubs involve a lot of talented people who are content to play mainly for fun and no prospect of reward other than appreciation from their fellow folk club members. Some clubs I have tried since I moved south 40 years ago are very much cliques and people like me are made to feel like interlopers. No such problem with The Three Ravens Folk Club and very pleasing to see that they have a wide latitude for 'folk music'. I shall return there for their next session.

Lastly, though no less important, thank you for the opportunity to use the forum to be able to express appreciation of good music and excellent musicians.

Brad

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Re: 1. The Fisherman's Friends 2. The Fureys 3.‘The Young ‘U

Postby GORDON » Fri May 29, 2015 7:31 am

It truly takes time and effort and you are not exactly reaching thousands on the Forum,so it really is appreciated.

Be well.

G.

BRC
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Re: 1. The Fisherman's Friends 2. The Fureys 3.‘The Young ‘U

Postby BRC » Sun May 31, 2015 10:37 am

Gordon just looked in on the forum.

What I should have mentioned in my original post is that I also sent the link to this post in the forum to the 3 sets of performers so at least they would have been able to look, if they wished. So, although your forum may not be directly read by thousands it may still reach those that want to know.

Anyway, who says the forum isn't read by thousands? I have just looked at some of the stats for postings across the forum and although the readership may take time to build quite a few are well into thousands of 'reads'.

The most important point is that your forum is read by people who care about music and better informed on music that any tabloid based forum/letters page.

Kind regards

Brad


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