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The Full English

Venue: The Atkinson
Town: Southport
Date: 25/10/13
Website: http://www.fayhield.com/the-full-english

As most readers will, no doubt, be aware, the Full English is a web portal which contains the world's biggest digital archive of English traditional folk song and dance tunes. It is also the title of a superb album that was born when Fay Hield was commissioned by the EFDSS to create new music using these archives. Fay assembled a veritable Who's-Who of contemporary English folk music to perform on both the album and tour of the album.

I was privileged to catch the tour when it came to Southport tonight, although it was touch-and-go as the band's minibus broke down en route, causing a delayed start. However, it was well worth the wait as the show was superb.

The Full English band comprises Fay Hield [vocals], Nancy Kerr [vocals,fiddle, viola], Seth Lakeman [vocals,fiddle,viola and bouzouki],Martin Simpson [vocals and guitar],Ben Nicholls[vocals,double bass, concertina],Ron Harbron [vocals,concertina, fiddle]and last, but not least, Sam Sweeney [vocals,fiddle,cello,nickelharpa],which is an impressive line-up, by any standards. Sound was by Andy Bell, who produced the album along with the members of the band.

To add to the spectacle, videos screens had been installed on the stage, to show appropriate photographs, documents and even vintage cine film. Also adorning the stage was rustic bunting and framed photographs of Cecil Sharp and Ralph Vaughan Williams.

The show began, as does the album, with the stirring, unaccompanied "Awake,Awake", with fabulous harmonies from the whole ensemble. This was followed by Martin Simpson's version of "Creeping Jane",the epic tale of a heroic racehorse, from his native North Lincolnshire. The song was collected by Percy Grainger from singer Joseph Taylor of Saxby, Lincolnshire. This colourful song featured Sam Sweeney accompanying Martin on nickelharpa, an instrument which aroused so much interest from certain members of the audience that, after the show, Sam gave an impromptu demonstration of how it is played.

Next up was "The Servant Man"which was collected by Lucy Broadwood from Walter Searle of Amberley in Sussex. The tune was added by Nancy Kerr, who, together with Fay, sang it beautifully.

Of course, the Full English archive contains its fair share of Morris tunes and the one selected by Ron Harbron for the album [and concert] was the lovely Cotswold Morris tune "William and Nancy", which Cecil Sharp collected in 1909. Ron's concertina was accompanied by a splendid string quartet of two violins[Seth and Sam], viola [Nancy] and double bass[Ben].

Seth Lakeman's "Collector of Choice" was Frank Kidson of Leeds and Seth sang a mournful version of the ever-so poignant "Portrait of My Wife" in his distinctive and passionate style, for which he is justly renowned. Seth also wrote the tune, with its beautiful string arrangement.

The next song was a departure from the Full English archive , in that it was piece which Fay was commissioned to perform for BBC Radio 3's Proms programme. A collaboration with Jon Boden, "The Willow Garden"is a charming Kidson broadside ballad.

It was back to the Percy Graiger/Joseph Taylor connection for a beautiful version of "Brigg Fair". Grainger heard Taylor sing this song at a singing contest in Brigg in 1905 and subsequently recorded him singing it in 1908.Tonight's performance began with that very wax cylinder recording before leading into Martin Simpson's stunning guitar-led version, complete with evocative string arrangement.

After the first rehearsal by the Full English band, Nancy Kerr was moved to write an original song, "Fol the Day-O", in tribute to Joseph Taylor and inspired by the rural tradition. This is a charming song and was beautifully sung by Nancy and Fay.

The first half of this excellent show came to a close with a rousing arrangement of "Arthur O'Bradley", the rather colourful and bawdy story of Arthur and his marriage to Dolly, which again featured some great vocals from Fay and Nancy, as they traded the tongue-twisting lyrics.

The second half got underway with Martin Simpson's version of "Peggy and the Soldier", a traditional song to which Bert Lloyd added some verses but Martin said that he doesn't care to know which!

The gorgeous song "Linden Lea" is not actually part of the Full English archive as it is a "composed" piece, consisting of a poem by William Barnes which was brilliantly set to music by Ralph Vaughan Williams. Fortunately, Fay thought that it would fit well with the rest of the project and decided to "take it back from the classical singers". As on the album, tonight's version was simply stunning, with Fay's superb vocals perfectly complemented by a string quintet of three violins, cello and double bass. Perfection ! If ever I had to nominate one song as being quintessentially English, this would be it. Nancy followed this with a similarly lovely unaccompanied version of "Seeds of Love".

Now it was back to Morris tunes, with Ron and Sam [concertina and fiddle respectively] playing the accompaniment to some priceless vintage cine films of Morris dancing performed by Maud and Helen Karpeles, George Butterworth and none other than Cecil Sharp himself. The tunes/dances included "Princess Royal" and "Lumps of Plum Pudding". Fascinating stuff! Equally fascinating was the cautionary tale of "The Hornet and the Beetle",the lyrics of which were written in a letter from W.H.Laws to Ralph Vaughan Williams a copy of which was actually projected onto the on-stage screens whilst Fay was singing.

Ben Nicholls swapped his double bass for a concertina when he impressively took lead vocals on that tale of seafaring and sailors "Rounding the Horn". Again the original manuscript was projected on the screen and I was amazed to see that the source of the song was W.Bolton of Southport, my home town and the venue for tonight's concert!

Staying with the nautical theme, we were treated to a dramatic rendition by Seth Lakeman of another Kidson broadside, "Stand By Your Guns",which depicts a naval battle in which the enemy ship "sinks to the bottom".

The wholly-deserved encore was the jolly sing-along chorus song "The Man in the Moon", which falls somewhere in between traditional folk song and music hall number.

This brought to a fitting end a superb night of music from a stellar line-up of gifted singers and musicians. However, I am sure that the artists would agree that the real stars of the show were the songs themselves and the men and women who had the great foresight to preserve them for posterity. If it had not been for the efforts of Cecil Sharp, Lucy Broadwood, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Percy Grainger, Frank Kidson and their like, the rich cultural heritage which now resides in the Full English archive might have been lost forever.

Peter Cowley
Photocredit Neil King: Not Taken at gig