Talking To...Lucy Ward
Winning the Young Tradition Award can be quite a door opener as James Finday, this year's winner is about to find out and as last years winners, Megan & Joe Henwood discovered, you get to play a number of festivals and a fair chunk of media attention comes your way.
We thought we'd take a different tack and see how the year worked out for one of the other talented musicians from last year's final and get an idea what impact being a runner up can have. As it turns out, if you put in the graft, quite a lot.
Lucy Ward talks us through her 2009 and outlines what she hopes to be doing in 2010.
#LW=Lucy Ward #NK=Neil King
#NK Lucy first of all thank you for talking to us. We've just had James Findlay announced as this year's winner of the young tradition award and congratulations to him. Last year you were pipped to the post by Megan & Joe Henwood. We know what winning the contest means in terms of the doors it opens for the winners, but what impact does it have on the other finalists, who just by getting there have shown considerable talent?
#LW Of course we don't get the joys, like Megan and Joe of getting to play the likes of Towersey, Cropredy and Cambridge, but it's definitely a real door opener. For me the last year has been…It's a great calling card to help convince people that it's not just me that thinks I'm worthwhile at having on at your club, I was a BBC Young Folk Awards finalist. It's sort of like a rubber stamp that says I'm here, listen to me.
It very much opens the door and makes people more willing to give you an opportunity, a chance. On a personal level it gives you the chance to meet all those amazing young musicians that are interested in the same music as you.
I know all my mates, even though their taste in music is great, have never heard of the likes of Frankie Armstrong and Martin Simpson, it's all the Kings Of Leon and The Rolling Stones. That's fine, but for me it was lovely to meet other musicians that shared my passions for traditional music.
#NK How did you get into 'the tradition'? Were you born to it or did you come to it?
#LW I definitely came to it. My mum and dad, when I was fourteen, bought me a guitar. I was always interested in music, singing in choirs, that sort of thing. I learnt three songs and went down to a local open mic night. Really it was there, going there regularly, still learning to play the guitar, that I started to hear folk music. It was something I grew into, heard a song, learnt it. I'd go away and start listening to different albums, The Watersons, Peter Bellamy, all sorts of people like that. It's really grown so organically. My mum and dad really weren't what you would describe as folkies, but now I think they're more into it than I am.
#NK When did you come to realise that music was something you could think about making a living at? Make the move from playing for free at open mics and move into paid sets?
#LW That's a really interesting question. I'm at the age now, I recently turned twenty and I'm into a second gap year since doing my A-levels. All my friends are at university . I've had to ask myself why am I doing this? Is it realistic of me to put all of my eggs into this one basket?
I'm lucky, I've got really good support from my parents. I want to do what makes my heart sing. I know that I could be a good shop assistant, have great rapport with people who came in. I know that at the end of the day, the thing that I'm best at is standing on a stage singing people songs.
The reason I know I'm good at that is that people have said that to me over the years. It's that organic thing, it grows into being the only thing you want to do, the only thing you think about.
If you plug away at it….there's always people in folk music that are willing to give you a chance with support. I think outside of folk there's a lot of all or nothing. You either play at open mics or you're Cold Play.
We're lucky in folk music that there's lots of live music and professionals able to go around the country and make a living. They're not on the front of NME magazine, but they are able to make a living.
#NK Following that through, how did you become aware of the Young Folk Award and how to take part? Did you get a nudge in the right direction
#LW Yes, basically. Coming to this genre relatively late and not really knowing anything about it. As a fourteen/fifteen year old, I had no idea the BBC did folk awards, let alone the Young Folk Awards.
I was lucky enough to have been able to perform for Mick Peach who was the presenter of a local folk radio program on the BBC. He's also active in putting on gigs around Derbyshire. Someone had seen me in a club and put me in contact with him, he'd seen and heard me.
It was a year after we'd met, with no contact in between, he announced on the radio 'If anyone knows Lucy Ward or knows how to get hold of her, tell her that I want to get her involved in the Young Folk Awards."
Some friends of mine just happened to hear it and rang me up and that was the first I'd ever heard of it. I entered that year and didn't get through, so I entered again the following year and was lucky enough to get through and into the final.
Again, it was really strange how I got to find out about it, but I'm so glad I did.
#NK It's also not just about turning up and performing. There's so much more to it as you go through the heats.
#LW That's it. Everyone has to send in a cd of eight minutes. The lucky acts are invited to go along to semi-final weekend. Basically you stay in a youth hostel and you jam, listen to each other play and sing. There's mentors there to help you. The year I went, it was Damien Barber and Tom McConville.
It was amazing, you wake up in the morning and the first thing you hear is Damien Barber playing on his concertina. To me, that's just incredible. It's such an exciting time, meeting all these young passionate people. To sit around jamming all day, that's every musicians dream.
At the end of the day, there's a big concert and you are judged on the eight minutes that you perform at the end of the workshop. They try not to make it just a competition. It's also about meeting other great talents, that's really the whole point of the semi-final weekend.
The final, if you're lucky enough to get there is all a bit of a blur. You turn up, do your sound check, get totally overwhelmed by the size of the concert hall. You do it and then it's over. In all honesty it's such a blur in many ways the semi-final weekend is so much better.