My interest in Folk Music probably has its roots in hearing Skiffle, at the impressionable age of ten, and before that, in listening to my grandad  playing Irish tunes on flute and melodeon. Then, when I was in my teens, in the 1960s, I used to hear Cy Grant, Robin Hall & Jimmy McGregor, the Kingston  Trio and Josh White on the Telly. Then people like Peter, Paul & Mary, Bob Dylan, Gordon Lightfoot and Joan Baez. We were treated to entire half-hour programmes of Folk on telly in those days, featuring quite a wide spectrum of British and American music. Of course, much of what I was hearing was contemporary, and American, but there were odd bits of traditional music filtering through. Interestingly, it was hearing Joan Baez singing ‘The Great Silkie’ and ‘The Four Marys’ on an LP, which really introduced me to Ballads.

In 1968, I started writing songs. After a few early experiments, I found myself  leaning toward a more ‘traditional’ style, both in writing and singing. I was also learning more traditional songs, and playing Irish tunes. I was singing at  friends’ houses, and was being encouraged to try getting into the folk clubs. My first floor spot was in the summer of 1968, at the Spinners’ Folk Club. The next week, I went to Jackie & Bridie’s, and over the next few months, was a regular floor singer at these and other clubs around Liverpool. In the summer of 1969, I got my first booking - shared  with a duo who were also making their first professional appearance -  at the P.O.T.S.S.A. Folk Club (Post Office Telephones Sports and Social Association).

I always included one or two traditional songs amongst my own efforts. Around the end of 1969, I seemed to run out of ideas for songs, and subsequently, my own songs were gradually replaced by traditional material. This was probably helped along by my joining The Wakes, in 1970. The group was, at that stage, a quartet - Tom Brown, John Howson, the late Frank McCall and meself. Our repertoire was mainly traditional. John left the group at the end of 1970, followed, a year later, by Frank. Tom and I continued working together until 1980. We also formed a Country Dance Band  (all right…Ceilidh Band then!) – The Radstock Band – in about 1972.

From 1980-83, I played with Il Danach. This grew from a partnership with George Faux – the Awkward Squad -  which had formed to do a summer season at Mctavish’s Kitchen in Fort William  in 1979 (I had done this job for several years with Bill Bracken). The other members of Il Danach were Shay Black, John Murphy and Tony Gibbons, with Ken Dunlop replacing George at an early stage – George having run away to Edinburgh to join Hom’ Bru.  I also got wed in 1980 and had a daughter. Having got the silly idea that I ought to find a more reliable source of income, I went to college to do a City & Guilds course in Furniture Studies. As I was coming to the end of the course, Il Danach Split up. With my son about to arrive, and me busy setting up a workshop, I dropped out of the folk clubs. I had, in any case, been too busy to do any solo work during the previous three years, and had also been feeling increasingly disenchanted with the folk clubs – not, I hasten to add, with the music. I didn’t appear in a folk club again until 1990.

I was not silent during this time; I had been involved with Early Music since about 1974. During the 80s, I played with the Chester Waites – mainly playing Elizabethan and Jacobean music with recorders, crumhorns, shawms, sackbuts etc. After several years of trying to earn a living from traditional upholstery (there’s that ‘T’ word again; see a pattern?), I gave up trying to compete with  staple-gun cowboys and foam rubber, and returned to college - this time taking a Higher National Diploma in Musical Instrument Technology, making Renaissance stringed instruments. Educational qualifications coming out of my ears. What I haven’t got is a workshop….

I returned to the clubs in 1990, my first floor spot – and, indeed, first booking – being at  Frodsham Folk Club (Tom and I had been resident there for a couple of years around 1975). My activities were, for some years, somewhat limited by family commitments of one sort or another. BUT NOW I’M BACK, AND YOU’D BETTER GET USED TO IT.

Apart from the solo work, my current activities also include playing with two ceilidh bands – Flaxmere and Saraband, and dancing. I dance with The Rumworth Morris of Bolton (men’s North West Morris); Abram Morris Dancers (men’s team performing the Abram Morris Dance around Abram & environs, last Saturday in June); Seven Stars Sword & Step Dancers (mixed, longsword, rapper & clog); and I play fiddle for Mind The Step (mixed, Appalachian).

John Kelly. September 2008.