Folk For Christabel

 6th December 1969  Leyton Senior High School for Boys

Keith Brincorn remembers..

A snowy day in December 1969. Maxi-coats suddenly catch on as an antidote to the still ascending mini-skirt hemlines. Also soaring to new heights is Folk for Christabel, with folk evening number six attracting over 200 punters to a bill featuring no fewer than three recording artists.

The Winter of '69 also marks, in some ways, the Indian Summer of September Productions Ltd, Sandy Roberton's eclectic acoustic empire, showcased last week at St Pancras Town Hall in a concert featuring 'Lord of the Dance' composer Sydney Carter, satirist Jeremy Taylor, jazz-folk trio Synanthesia, bill-topping poetry collective the Liverpool Scene, and a duo featuring a still obscure harmonica-playing Tim Rice, along with our old chums Al Jones and Keith Christmas.

When the seasonably apposite Mr. Christmas came to Essex Road to headline tonight's concert, he brought along with him quite a retinue from his management, including Pete Sarner and a recording team, intent on capturing a live track for Keith's next album.

In fact, the Ballad of Robin Head eventually surfaced (misleadingly) on the '49 Greek Street' sampler, but now appears in its rightful place on this website's first charity CD. If you were there, you might hear your titters preserved for posterity thereupon!

September also kindly produced demo discs of Terry Martin's performance of Roy Harper's 'Another Day', and Colin Tucker's self-penned 'Christabel' (for Peter) and 'Trimmed in Grey' (for Patricia).

Colin also performed 'Manuscript' (with 'Gates of Eden' postscript). Cliff Jones was accompanied by Jean Garrard on 'Coast Road'. Laura Coleman read poems including Adrian Henri's 'Tonight at Noon' and apparently, a piece by the Bard of Markhouse Road, Tony Kingsbury.

Jenny Hay, spotted at Bunjies, got her name on the bill, while Shelagh McDonald was an unexpected but most welcome guest. Her first LP was to be released in the new year.

Ian Anderson performed a selection of 'traditional blues' and self-penned songs, including some from the LP 'Stereo Death Breakdown', by his now defunct Country Blues Band.

Keith consolidated his local fan base with his funnies ('Robin Head', 'Examinations', 'it doesn't pay to be hip', 'Mass Media Rag'), his strong ballads ('Travelling Down', 'I know you babe you can't lose') and his instrumental stormers 'Cats Squirrel' and 'Roundabout').

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