Making Music
I have been making music since I was a teenager.
I first began to play the mouth-organ at around14 years old.
My best friend Chris Sullivan's father used to play the mouth-organ and I have very fond memories of sitting in their house, in darkness except for the light from the open fire, and listening to Spen playing tunes such as Westering Home, Over the Sea to Skye, and other folk and popular tunes of the day, on his chromatic harmonica.
Inspired by this I bought a mouth-organ for myself, although I play a diatonic. (I couldn't get on with a chromatic).
There was an old melodeon in our house. It had come up from my Granny's and my mother's Uncles used to play it in their Christmas Mummers and blackface Minstrel troupe before the Great War. I soon discovered that it was just like the mouth-organ to play. Push-pull with a different note on each. I first mastered the National Anthem, moving on to When the Saints Go Marching In etc. I soon aquired a Hohner four stop in G for which I swapped a Mandola and an Erica C/C sharp bought for £20 in a Junk shop in Woking, some thirty years ago. I still play these.
Me playing melodeon, David Nuttall playing Concertina
at Sam's, Shedfield September 2003
Chris' mother was from Dublin and in the house were records of the Clancy Brothers, and other Irish Groups.

Chris and I voraciously went through these records and we soon began to play songs and tunes from them. Chris bought a guitar and later a tenor banjo and mandolin. I sang and played mouth-organ, jews harp and spoons.

We first went to Ireland in 1967 to look for real Irish music, when we were just sixteen. We stayed with Chris' Uncle Michael and Auntie Noola in their house in Rathmines, Dublin. We walked the length and breadth of Dublin, finding lots of good music as we went. We were too young to drink (officially) and our English accents and hippie hair styles meant that we stood out sometimes in the very 'local' bars and met with some reluctance

In O'Donoghue's bar in Merrion Square we found the music session in the back bar. Here Chris's hero, banjo player Barney McKenna, was leading the music. 'The Dubliners' sprang from earlier informal sessions at O'Donoghue's. We also found the Piper's Club, in Thomas Street. It was a very formal place, more like a barrister's chambers than the lively pubs. I'm still not sure if we should have been in there, but we sat and listened to some magnificent Uillean pipers such as Tommy Reck and Leo Rowsome.

We both started work in 1967 and so as the money came in we went back and forth to Ireland most years. Sweeney's Men were the band of the moment in 1968 and their counterpoint style of playing really hit home to us. We saw them in the Peeler's Club in Middlesex Street, London. Also in the club that night were Finbar and Eddie Furey, their first time over from Ireland, Robin and Barry Dransfield, fresh down from Yorkshire and Roger Nicholson, the leading exponent on the circuit of the Appalachian dulcimer. Chris, by this time could play almost anything with strings on. He also played the tin whistle, inspired in part by Finbar Furey.

A little later we heard the Chieftain's first LP and I decided that I wanted to play the bodhran. I wrote to Peadar Mercier, the bodhran player, asking where I might get one and for any tips on playing. It's VERY hard to believe now but the bodhran was a rare instrument in this country back in the early 1970s. Peadar arranged for me to have one made by Joey Walsh. I wrote to him care of Slattery's bar in Capel Street and a month or so later a beautiful bodhran arrived. It cost me £18 back in 1972. Chris and I at that time were only playing for fun and we didn't actually play out in public.

I joined the Winchester Morris Men in 1973 and met with others who shared my musical interests. Gwilym Davies told me about the old style music in Sam's Hotel, Shedfield. I started going down to the Saturday night sessions where I met with traditional musicians. George Privett and Ruth Askew who were the mainstay musicians of the evenings, Ruth playing melodeon and George exuberantly playing the spoons. I was soon joining in on the mouth-organ, melodeon or bones. I was shown the way to play the bones by Jimmy Ralph, a Sam's regular who 'clacked' along with the music each Saturday night.

Peter Eagling introduced me to Richard and Sonia Carver. Richard was the musician and Sonia dance director of the recently founded dance team, Woodfidley.

Playing percussion, including my 'new' bodhran, I joined with Pete who played the fiddle, Richard on the piano accordion and Glyn Evans, who played wind intruments such as recorders and crumhorns.
We became the regular musicians for Woodfidley and soon branched out as a ceili/barn dance band.
The Woodfidley band with David Slater as caller were very popular across Southern Hampshire in the late 1970s. We were also involved with the music at the first and many of the subsequent highly succesful Winchester Folk Festivals. These drew on local talent, who performed free of charge, the monies raised going to children's charity Action Research. I left Woodfidley band in September 1977 after playing 78 bookings, going out times 3 or 4 a week!
In November 1977 I joined the Bursledon Village Band, formed from regulars at a session in the Jolly Sailor at Bursledon, hosted by melodeon maestro Dave Ingledew. We soon became a very popular dance band and in 1978 we toured the British Forces bases in Germany! It was great fun, I played the 'dirty' percussion with crazy sound effects ably assisted (?) by the Bursledon Village Band's Euphonium player and total nutcase Pete Theobold whist the rest of the band tried to keep to the tune and the dancers in time. I left the band after a year during which I'd played 48 bookings in places as diverse as the Mountbatten Theatre Southampton, the Attic Folk club in RAF Gütersloh and Queen Mary's College in Basingstoke!
Upper Clatford Folk Club used to meet on alternative Fridays at The Crook and Shears, Upper Clatford, Nr Andover, Hampshire. Run by Steve Roud it was a very popular local club during the mid to late 1970s. I went along to most evenings with fellow singers Albert and Ron. We all had our 'party piece'. I used to sing Jim the Carter Lad and the Blue Haired Boy. I sang it there so often that the club regulars knew it better than I did, shouting out the words if I made a mistake. If there were 'guests' they were drawn from the local scene. Regulars Ralph, Pauline and Colin joined with Steve and Me in The Adelaide Band, an occasional barn dance band.
The Adelaide Barn Dance Band 1984
Pauline, fiddle, Ralph, drums. Steve melodeon,
Me, melodeon and Colin, banjo.
In 1978 I was invited to be the guest at an evening at The Foc's'le Folk Club. I sang and played the mouth-organ but I also took along my old mate Bob Mills and his son Rob.
Bob was in his seventies then but he had been a successful Guernsey cattle breeder and showed them at Agricultural shows across the south. It was after the day's events were over that Bob picked up many of his songs, from the herdsman from all over the country that gathered together for a pint and song.
Never one to be out of bands for long I cajoled some friends into forming a band specialising in Celtic music. BELTANE consisted of Pete Harris, Vocals, Guitar, Tenor Banjo, Mandolin; Dave Lambert, Fiddles, Mandolin and Concertina; my best friend Chris Sullivan, Bouzouki, Mandoline, Tenor Banjo and Tin Whistles and myself playing Bodhran, Bones, Spoons, and Mouth-Organs with Vocals.
We had our first public performance in June 1979 and soon became very popular playing 49 bookings at Folk Clubs, Festivals and guesting on BBC Radio Solent's Folkscene with Sibby.
Sadly this band was short lived and our last booking was February 1981, a few months before Dave Lambert got married and emigrated to Australia, where he still lives.
In 1980 I was asked if I would provide the music for a new Morris side that was being considered in Winchester.
I agreed and City Morris was formed. Steve Jordan, one time Squire of the Winchester Morris Men, had left Winchester and brought several dancers with him. It was Steve's wish to push the boundaries of Morris dancing. He 'invented' many 'new' dances that become City's own tradition. The costumes were white trousers and shoes and blue football style shirts with a red and white stripe with red hankies. Steve wanted to get away from the image of shaggy bearded Morris men with hats and coats covered in badges and the usual trappings. The dancers were very able and agile and much admired.
City Morris in their distinctive 'modern' costumes
with me playing amplified mouth-organ 1988.
Dancing in Arthur's garden at his wake.
I played the mouth-organ amplified (much to the consternation of the old guard) through a guitar practice amp. I could introduce guitar effect pedals, such as choruser and octaver. It made a distinct and exciting sound. Dave Williams, a well known singer and musician on the local folk scene, joined and played on his the melodeon in his own anarchic style. Dave had a very electic view of dance music and City often found themselves dancing to American Patrol or The Banana Boat Song midway through a traditional Morris tune! We also had Arthur Marshall, a retired builder in his 80s, who played the bones – four in each hand!!
Dave Williams, Arthur Marshall and me
City Morris took an active part in Winchester's social calendar, taking part in the Carnivals, building and parading a Guy for the Bonfire Night celebrations and dancing at the late night Christmas shopping evenings. City are remembered by many as one the best Morris sides in the country at the pinnacle of their success. City Morris packed up around 1988 after Arthur died.
Throughout all this time I was going down to Sam's Hotel and playing the old style pub music with Ruth, George and the others. I'd met up with Mervyn Plunkett and along with Steve Roud during the late 1970s and early 1980s Mervyn , Steve and I organised 'ad hoc' gatherings of the ‘North Hampshire Band of Musics', assembled from traditional players that we had met. There was Bill Hiscock and Albert Hawkins, mouth-organ players from Baughurst; Sam Bond, mouth-organ player and singer from Basingstoke; Ruth Askew and George Privett, melodeons, up from Shedfield, plus Fred Lewis, the Goddard brothers and George Fisher on mouth-organs and assorted brass and percussion players from Pewsey's Kings Korner Band. Steve and Mervyn and I had joined the Kings Korner in 1979 although we had joined in with them at sessions after the carnival for a couple of years previous and we went over every time we could to play with them. I played my C melodeon or mouth-organ. At times there could be as many as twenty musicians belting out ‘Sussex by the Sea’ or ‘Eton Boating Song’ just for the pleasure of playing together.
We played on Saturday nights at pubs across Hampshire, Berkshire and Wiltshire including The Royal Oak at Goodworth Clatford, The Railway at Whitchurch, The Pineapple at Baughurst, the French Horn at Pewsey and Adelaide Tavern in Andover.
After City Morris packed up at the end of the 1980s Dave Williams and I continued to play music together. Dave had an occasional Barn Dance Band, with his old friends Vic Wilton, Geoff Brammer and Albert Wilkins. We played for local dances. In 1994 Dave met Stan Seaman, a traditional melodeon player from Buckler's Hard, New Forest, Hampshire. Stan was keen to get the old 'Village Hops' going again and with our help he put on several in the Beaulieu area. It was around this time that the monthly musical get-together of traditional players from the New Forest began. In 1995 Dave Williams organised many of these players to meet with interested parties for a grand get-together at Colbury, Hampshire. It was a great success but sadly a one-off. Dave died in 1997 and we didn't have the heart to try it again.
A day of music making led by Dave Williams (centre) with traditional Hampshire musicians and others from folk scene sharing a common enjoyment in making music. Colbury 1995.
But the musical evenings have continued ever since. Originally held in the 'pigsty' at the Countryside Education Trust in Beaulieu they moved to the village hall in East Boldre after
a couple of years. They are still held there on the 3rd Saturday of the month. We regularly have some 15-20 musicians playing a wide range of traditional and popular music on all types of instruments: fiddle, accordions. melodeons, mouth-organs, mandolins and songs.
Just some of the many traditional musicians that gather at East Boldre in the New Forest for the monthly musical evenings led by Stan Seaman. Stan is second from the left in the back row (next to me).

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