A book not to be missed

The book that accompanied the exhibition is now published, priced £15 and all profits from the entire project are being donated to The Teenage Cancer Trust. The book is a limited edition of just 2000 copies world wide. A great gift for anyone interested in the history of the British Folk Music scene!

All the subjects are artistes who have had a major impact on folk music over the past 30/40 years. The black & white portraits are accompanied by biographies and will give readers not only the opportunity to put names to faces but find out more about the person behind the music. An introduction to the book has been written by the actor Geoffrey Hughes.

Among those included are Maartin Allcock, Harvey Andrews, Aly Bain, Derek Brimstone, Eliza Carthy, Martin Carthy, Gerry Conway, Bob Copper, Phil Cunningham, Richard Digance, Diz Disley, Julie Felix, Bob Fox, Finbar Furey, Vin Garbutt, Gordon Giltrap, Rosie Hardman, Ashley Hutchings, Bert Jansch, Bob Johnson, Nic Jones, Rick Kemp, John Kirkpatrick, Peter Knight, Chris Leslie, Beryl Marriott, Jacqui McShee, Ralph McTell, Noel Murphy, Simon Nicol, Hazel O'Connor, Tom Paxton, Dave Pegg, Maddy Prior, John Renbourn, Kate Rusby, Ric Sanders, Peggy Seeger, Pete Stanley, Dave Swarbrick, John Tams, Cyril Tawney, Jeremy Taylor, Danny Thompson, Richard Thompson, Mike Waterson, Norma Waterson, and The Yetties.

For further details contact A Gathering Of Folk, The Studio, Braeside, St Sampsons, Guernsey, GY2 4FF. Tel; 01481 249719.

Payment On-Line: I have offered to help Mark by providing an on-line payment facility, using PayPal. If you wish to purchase the book this way, please use the button below. Upon receipt of your order I will immediately pass the details of your order to Mark by email - so please remember to include your full postal address with your order.

Price: £15 plus £2.00 (UK ONLY) postage & packing (£7 Europe, £10 rest of world).

Reviews to date:
"If you love folk music, you'll love this book. This collection of superb black & white portrait photographs features some of the most important folk influences over the past four decades."
William Cheung F.R.P.S. Editor Practical Photography

OTHER NEWS

A quick look on the web reveals that some of my earlier albums have been selling at staggering prices - £100 for Queen of Hearts, £50 for Stopped in My Tracks and an amazing £350 for Jerseyburger! So it could be that a copy of The Weakness of Eve will be a good investment!

You can pay for copies of this album by PayPal by using the button below. If you wish to pay by personal cheque, please email me for details.

If you have any of my albums that you wish to sell - PLEASE let me know by email. I would be delighted to try and sell them for you. ONLY records in Very Good/Excellent/Mint condition and at realistic prices please!

RMC CD - 'TAKE ME AWAY' (KM023)

Somewhere way back in the mists of time (i.e. the early 70s!) I was lucky to have Andy Caven as my roadie for a few years. As well as being an excellent sounds-man, driver and good buddy, Andy was an excellent singer/guitarist/songwriter as well... so it was inevitable that eventually we would go our separate ways.

Andy moved south to Colchester and has been a well-respected stalwart of the music scene ever since. His latest venture is as part of RMC - a trio comprised of Andy, Paul Marfleet and Paul Riley and although I haven't seen them play live I can tell that this CD will be welcomed enthusiastically by their fans.

My personal favourites on the CD are the title track 'Take Me Away' - boy can I get into those lyrics in my over-worked world! - and 'Turbulent Ego' where I honestly didn't know whether to laugh, gnash my teeth or cry - I've known a few guys of the 'Medallion Man' mentality so it well and truly struck a chord!

There is something for everyone here - from gentle love songs to out and out rock 'n' roll (I'd have been amazed if a bit of that hadn't crept in with Andy around!). By the way - one riff in One Love Two Hearts reminded me of a tune from way back but it drove me nuts trying to remember what it was. Finally I remembered- it was a line from 'Memories Are Made of This' - the old Perry Como (?) song.

The musicianship throughout the whole CD is excellent, as are the arrangements and vocal harmonies. Production values are high - the sound is clean and crisp - reflecting the ear for perfection that I remember Andy having as a sounds-man.

Some of the sleevenotes also raised a smile but I'm not going to mention them all here - I'll leave them for you to discover for yourself. However I just HAVE to mention...... a drummer called Bangelot and a guy called Noirbox who used to work for an airline??? Hmmmmm... lower limbs are being yanked a little here methinks... ;-)

Nice one guys!

If you want to read more about the band, visit the Kid Menthal website.

To order the CD, post a cheque ( for £12 within the UK, £14 outside the UK - postage is included) made payable to "A Caven-Atack" to: KM RECORDS, 20 Meyrick Crescent, Colchester, Essex, CO2 7QY. Please ensure your order is accompanied by the correct Title and KM catalogue number (KM023) for the CD.