Jackie Wesley

I wouldn’t describe it as tiny, but neither is it very huge, and you do have to scroll down a way before you see it. So yes, not exactly a blaze of publicity.

To augment that line in Wikipedia, here are Pete Atkin’s own words on the subject: ‘I’ve never ever spent much time trying to figure out why the songs Clive and I wrote in the seventies –…[Read more]

Wow, you mean I’ve turned somebody on to Pete Atkin? Result!

Yes, he is good live, preferably in an intimate setting. There are actually three gigs in very unusually quick succession lined up for next month – in the King’s Road, Ambleside and Middlesborough – plus one in October in Whitby. One 200 miles from me (and I’m reluctant to go back to…[Read more]

Ah, Ath, your wife is French, n’est-ce-pas?

I don’t find it particularly surprising that a folk music lover should like Pete Atkin. Folk audiences, right from the start of the revival sixty and more years ago, have always been receptive to more serious subject matter in what used to be called ‘contemporary folk’ – though it’s often been with a l…[Read more]

Thanks for that interesting link, Libby. One thing it doesn’t mention about Hawthorn is how fond he was of his beer – yes, despite the kidney problems – and of horseplay under its influence. I suspect the fate of the autograph hunter was his idea of a joke rather than any act of aggression. Hawthorn’s sense of humour was not subtle. Once Sti…[Read more]

Ah, I see Edmund Clydesdale’s at it again. I’ll have to catch up with him. And there’s plenty of scope for drama in those Arctic convoys. One sale made.

That straight road through the village is actually called Roman Road. It’s part of the old Roman road from Neath to Brecon.

I do actually have an idea of what Banwen used to look like when the mine was open, because in the corridor in the Dove Workshop (an adult education and community centre, just visible in the opening shot among the trees, top…[Read more]

Yes, and not least among its attractions is that those houses in the terraces can still be had for less than £100,000.

The Valleys have always been famous for community spirit, though anyone who was alive when the mines were open will tell you that it’s not what it was. The mine at Banwen closed as long ago as 1964 (that pretty pond was once an…[Read more]

Thank you, Ath. Your assessment of my efforts in very pleasing. I did worry that it might be too long, but there are so many interesting facets to the subject, and I didn’t want to leave any of them out. Also, I didn’t know that there was anyone in my potential readership who actually knew and liked Johnson’s music.

I came to the blues by a very…[Read more]