Ewan MacColl
On Oct 27 at Peel Hall, , there will be a memorial concert and book launch celebrating the life and work of .
Amongst the confirmed artists appearing are , , , and .
The book being launched is a re-issue of 'Journeyman', MacColl's
autobiography which has been re-edited from the original script by
Ewan's widow, who has also written a new introduction.
Peggy herself will be heading the concert line up. Born in Salford to Scots parents, MacColl was a truly amazing man -co-founder with of , which went on to produce 'Oh What A Lovely War!', 'A Taste of Honey' and 'The Quare
Fellow'.
MacColl was one of the prime movers behind the folk revival of the post-war years, what has come to be known as the First Wave.
The Radio Ballads, dozens of albums and songs like 'Dirty Old Town', 'The First Time Ever I saw Your Face', 'The Ballad Of Accounting', 'My Old Man', 'Manchester Rambler', 'Forty Foot Trailer', 'Shoals Of Herring', the contribution MacColl and his partner Peggy made to the
artistic life of these islands is simply immense.
All of us on the folk scene have been touched, directly or indirectly, by the work of MacColl and Seeger.
If you can't get to the concert, then try and get hold of the book, or at the very least listen to 'Black And White - Ewan MacColl The Definitive Collection' - it's terrific.
Comment number 1.
At 16th Sep 2009, Elfhild wrote:I was sorry to hear Ewan MacColl described by Mike Harding on his otherwise excellent 鈥楾opic Records鈥 tribute show as 鈥渁 fighter for the rights of man鈥. I take my hat off to McColl as a songwriter and a giant figure of the folk revival 鈥 but he was a dedicated and unrepentant Stalinist to the last.
During Stalin鈥檚 reign of terror he was informed that folk singers were going round the Soviet Union 'spreading bad news' through their songs. 鈥楾he ogre with hairy hands鈥 invited a few hundred of them to the Kremlin for a fraternal meeting, with plenty of entertainment and vodka. Once inside, the doors were closed; the NKVD secret police herded the entire group of folk singers into black cars. They were taken off to the gulags for special treatment.
Ewan MacColl wrote a ballad in gushing praise of this inhuman monster, Joseph Stalin, and had it copywrited. But the 鈥渇ighter for the rights of man鈥 never wrote a song for the hapless folk singers. Moscow was a real Dirty Old Town.
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Comment number 2.
At 11th Oct 2009, Blaeberryfool wrote:Yes, Ewan MacColl was a wonderful songwriter. Sobering however to read about what happened to the folk singers in the USSR. Slavish adherence to ideology is frightening...would appear to create a blindspot.
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At 13th Aug 2010, U14583353 wrote:This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.
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