Folk music and folk dance at Keele
Keele has been remarkably active and influential in the folk scene over the years.
An early precursor of the Keele Folk Culb was the Keele Kolliery Khorus - Colin Thomas (1962) tells the story..
"Sospan Fach (Little Saucepan) was the very first item in our repertoire. A group of Welsh men in the Keele Rugby Club had got together to sing it at the Rugby Club’s annual dance in 1959 and the poster for the event labelled us as the ‘Keele Kolliery Khorus’. Wearing glowing miners’ helmets and singing in semi-darkness, we were surprised to find that the rowdy audience fell silent and listened respectfully as if we were indeed an archetypal Welsh male voice choir.
So bass Lynn Jones (1962) from the Rhondda valleys and I, Colin Thomas (1962) a tenor from Cardiff, decided to keep our little choir going. I continued to wave my arms about as the conductor while Lynn, a much better musician than I, provided quality control. He had an uncanny knack of being able to pitch every piece without the aid of a tuning fork, not too low for the basses and not too high for the tenors.
The choir grew rapidly both in numbers – you didn’t have to be Welsh to join, just male – and in repertoire – a piece didn’t have to be Welsh to qualify, just singable. We borrowed "That Lucky Old Sun" from Buffalo Bill's Barbershop, "Avante Populo" from Italian partisans in the Second World War via Aberystwyth Rugby Club and the absurd but touching "Whiffenpoof Song" from the alumni of Yale University -
"See the Whiffenpoofs assemble
With their glasses raised on high
And the magic of their singing casts a spell."
Embarrassed by our jokey title, I pompously tried to change our name to "Cantorion Cymru" in the Students Union handbook. But by then we were known and - dare I say it - loved as the Keele Kolliery Khorus and couldn’t shake it off. We sang regularly at Keele events for the next three years, including at a Royal Ball to an enthusiastic Princess Margaret, and once toured the pubs of Newcastle as part of Rag Week’s charity fund raising. We were tolerated by the drinkers rather than rapturously received but at the end of that evening we found the back room of a workingmen’s club where, lubricated by pints of beer, we sang only to and for ourselves. I will never forget that sing-song which somehow symbolised Keele comradeship – each of us listening attentively to each other as we sang, our voices seeming to blend in perfect harmony.
Lynn Jones and I have remained good friends ever since and, nearly fifty years after our formation, we gathered together as many members of the choir as we could for a 2007 Pioneers' Reunion at Keele, among them Colin James (1962) all the way from Canada and Tudor Jones (1964). By then all our voices had become worn and faded but the audience, no doubt stirred by nostalgia, demanded an encore. We settled on "Avante Populo" but I rather regret now that we didn’t make it the Whiffenpoof Song, dedicated to the owner of a Yale bar -
"We will serenade our Louis
While life and voice shall last
Then we’ll pass and be forgotten like the rest."
Photo above right: The Kollierymen reform in 2007 for the Pioneers' Reunion - Colin Thomas conducting with Keith Anderson, Geoff Shakespeare, Cedric Parry, Moray Stewart, Tudor Jones, Ray Costello, Lyn Jones, Keith Bonham, John Samuel.
Tom Todd (1962) was also a Kollieryman:
"Great to read about the Keele Kolliery Khorus - and indeed to see my own photo among all the other singers in that memorable group! It brought a lump to my throat and reminded me of heady days at Keele. For the record I still remember most of the songs we sang with the KKK! I know you will not mind this Yorkshireman recalling that at least one of the 15 KKK members was not from Wales!"
Keele students were also among the pioneers of the revival of the "Rapper" dance, but what is Rapper?
Rapper (or "short sword") dance belongs to the family of hilt and point linked sword dances found in several regions of Northern Europe. However it is danced with a most unswordlike strip of spring steel with a handle at each end (the "rapper"). Many teams use rappers with a rotating handle at one end and a fixed handle at the other, Hawksword prefer two fixed handles. The introduction of the rapper had a major effect of the dance, allowing for much tighter figures and a faster, more exciting performance. Rapper is danced by a set of five dancers in a linked "hilt and point" ring accompanied by one or two characters (traditionally "Tommy" and "Betty") and usually a solo musician. (Wikipedia)
"Keele Rapper was started by Steve Linstead who, like me, started at Keele in October 1970. Steve had previously danced with Barnsley Longsword who danced both longsword and rapper, the two main “families” of English sword dance. Page 186 of Phil Heaton’s book “RAPPER The Miners’ Sword Dance of North-East England” gives 1969 as the start date of Keele Rapper but this must be at least a year early as Steve Linstead did not arrive at Keele until 1970, and I am pretty sure that 1971 is the right year. The first dance-out was a walking tour (hardly anyone had cars then) on 4th December 1971 at a number of spots in Newcastle-under-Lyme. The names were Steve Linstead (Singer) - he sang the Calling On Song which Steve usually sang at the start of each performance and, in the full version, introduces the dance and each dancer’s (fictional) background; Tim Beasant (Musician) - he played the piano accordion for rapper. Tim was a brilliant musician who played most musical instruments, and played them very well; Tudor Crum (Dancer No 1); Grant Glanville (Dancer No 2); Gadfan Edwards (Dancer No 3); Nigel Birchenough (Dancer No 4); Roland Goodbody (Dancer No 5). The side danced at a ceilidh in the evening in the Union Ballroom organised by the Folk Dance Society. Keele wore red shirts, yellow sashes (tied around the waist) and black breeches with red socks but the waistcoat was the eye-catching item. It was black with a narrow yellow bias border and the crest of the university on the back. I think it was modelled on a surviving waistcoat from an earlier Keele side about which I know nothing. Before the first dance-out, the girlfriends (including Karen Umpleby and Jane Burridge) worked very hard to get the kit finished in time. There were a number of changes in the following year when some people dropped out but we had a strong intake from the year that started about October 1971 including Alan Green, Mike Baldock and Derek Wood. In the early 1970s there was a strong interest in folk music, song and dance at Keele and the rapper side danced at the ceilidhs organised by the Folk Dance Society and at the Keele Folk Festivals (organised by students) in the summer of 1972 and 1973. We also danced at other events, some of which were outside the university.
On 2nd July 1974 we danced at the Senior Common Room Summer Ball before Princess Margaret who, as Chancellor of Keele, was attending the graduation ceremony. The names listed in my newspaper cutting are: Tim Bloomfield, Mike Baldock, Alan Green, Derek Wood, Ian Rycroft, Grant Glanville, Steve Linstead and Bill Howarth (musician). In 1976 Keele Rapper became a member of the Morris Ring at the Nottingham Ring Meeting from 23rd – 25th July. From the photos, the side was: Mike Baldock, Alan Green, Derek Wood, Nick Partridge, John Young, Grant Glanville (Tommy) and Steve Linstead (Betty). (The Tommy and Betty “clown” as the rest of the side is dancing). None of my photos includes the musician and I can’t remember who played for us. I think that the Nottingham Ring Meeting was the last time I danced with Keele until Mike Baldock’s 40th birthday celebration around 1994. Many Keele dancers went on to dance with or found other rapper sides. I started a rapper side within Bristol Morris Men with whom I have danced since 1974, and Mike and Alan founded and/or danced with other sides."
"A number of my friends were very busy with Rapper. Some names to go with the black-and-white picture of Keele Rapper: on the left is Martin Barrett, I shared a Hawthorns flat with him in 1978-9, next is Ed Charleton who moved to the USA some years ago. The man in the middle I don’t know, Mike Baldock is second from the right and on the right is Chris Pitt, who left after his second year. They folded around 1979 and the archive was given over to the University."
"I was at Keele for two years but I'm afraid my folk activities finally overwhelmed my protestant ethic re: studying, and I failed my second year exams and was cast into the wilderness. I well remember the rapper side because I was a founder member. As I recall we had Steve Linstead, Roland Goodbody, Gadfan Edwards, Grant Glanville and me, with Tim Beasant playing piano accordian (there were others but memory fails me I'm afraid). We were joined in the second year by Mike Baldock, Alan Green and others whose names escape me, and after I left such folk luminaries as Chris Pitt and Jon Hayward (fiddle) became part of the side. I recall the night we danced £200 out of the Students Union. SU meetings in those days were relentlessly left wing and worthy, so we decided to introduce a spot of physical into the proceedings. We got one of our girlfriends to propose the grant to the rapper side, and we then seconded it with a dance right there in the meeting. Didn't half go down well with the rank and file although some of the more politically inclined tut-tutted a bit We got our grant by a big majority. We also ran a thriving folk club in the Hexagon, booking the likes of Martin Carthy, Dick Gaughan, Diz Disley and Leon Rosselson. The Folk Club committee under Karen Umpleby achieved great things in organising folk concerts and other activities, and subsequently restarted the Keele Folk Festival which had flourished in the sixties but died a few years before we got there."
"Mike Baldock is correct that the start date was 1971 rather than 1969 as we both came up in 1970. Neil Darlington was also an early member. In I think 1972-73 we temporarily acquired a visiting American cellist, Tom Kanter, who learned jigs on the fiddle but played it sitting down, between his legs – another talking point of our performances. We were mindful that some years earlier the University of Newcastle had spearheaded a Rapper revival and we were given some advice by Professor Bill Fisher Cassie on swords. We had the wrong ones, and I remember hitching down to Cecil Sharp House in London to get the right set. We improved instantly. At Keele we practised in the gym on mats until we felt grown-up enough to try on hard floors! When David Gadfan Edwards joined us in 1971 from the Men of Sweyn's Ey (Swansea University) he made a big impact and coaxed and cajoled us out of the gym. His energy and experience came at a critical time for our development although we never anticipated his winning "Mastermind" and "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?". The tumble figure became our trademark and we experimented as the team grew and incorporated Tommy and Betty characters, moving on to "double tumble" and even "triple tumble" (three dancers simultaneously back-somersaulting over the swords, whilst still linked). I don't think any other side ever did that, but we went one better - we did it twice with different tumblers each time. One consequence of having six tumblers was that we had the lowest alcohol consumption on tour of any side in the country. We also invented two other figures, one of which was called "Windmill", which featured variations in stepping. Gad introduced us to some variations in formation and stepping that we incorporated and improvised around. I don't recall the waistcoat being based on an earlier rapper team, but it could have been based on an international dance team outfit. A couple of the dancers customised the Keele motto, which became "Thanke God for Al" (Al Green) and "Thanke God for Ale" (Derek Wood, whose father was a publican).
The original red shirts were a matter of myth too - red shirts were really expensive so we bought white ones and I was responsible for dyeing them. Unfortunately I forgot to put the salt in to fix the colour, so our second dance was in salmon pink. We danced as a guest display side at the Inter-Universities Folk Dance Festival at Oxford and did some street displays too, and also at the Newcastle-under-Lyme Octocentenary celebrations. We were memorably manifest at an event at Chester College of Education, supporting the band Dando Shaft (led by multi-instrumentalist Martin Jenkins, later of Fairport Convention) and guitar god John Martyn. We also danced at the Barnsley Easter Folk Festival around 1973 and again in 1975. I sang the calling-on song ("Good people give ear to my story") and for the Morris Ring induction in 1976 wrote a humorous supplement ("The Keele Rapper Team" to an Irish jig learned from Sean Cannon, who later joined The Dubliners). The legendary Keele Folk Festival moved to Loughborough in 1970, but in 1972 the folk scene was so strong on campus that the folk club launched a Mini-Keele Festival as we called it, for one day, which the following year became a weekend, and the Rapper team were a core part of that – including leading a dwile-flonking team one Sunday morning to challenge the High Level Ranters, no less. We had big feet, but bigger ambitions."
"I was at Keele for eight years, and a member of Rapper for a bit over seven of those. When I last saw Tim Beasant he had a mound of material that he kept promising to organise and present back to the Library. One of Keele Rapper's founders went on to win both Mastermind and Who Wants to be a Millionaire. Another Rapper member - Nick Partridge - was knighted."
"I attach a photo (left) of some of the members from 1969-1970. I am pretty sure it was taken at the Intervarsity Folk Dance Festival, held at Reading that year. I am afraid I can’t identify everyone, but here are some names: Back row, far left as you look at the photo is Gilles Berthiaume (glasses and beard); Back row, exact centre is me, Paul Brownsey (1970);Keele Folk Dance Club 1969-1970 Back row, far right is Michael Parry (1971), I'm about 95% sure; Front row, far left is Janine Wilkins (1972). I discovered folk dance when I was exchange student at Swarthmore in 1968-9. I had never done it before. Previously, at Keele, I'd attended the ballroom dance classes run in the sports centre by the lovely Vera Baxter. When I got to Swarthmore I looked for the same. No-one did ballroom dance but I was steered towards folk dance. On May Day, the Swarthmore folk dancers did English dances on the Swarthmore town village green; we marched on to Elgar Pomp & Circumstance No. 1, which felt surreal. When I came back I looked for folk dance at Keele. The dance we did at Reading was a German schuhplattler I'd learned at Swarthmore."
Tony Barrand (1968); Paul Brownsey (1970); Gilles Bertiaume (?); Gadfan Edwards (1971); Michael Parry (1971); Tudor “Ted” Crum (1972); Jan Guyatt (Wilkins/Beasant) (1972); Nigel Birchenough (?); Tim Beasant (1973); Anne Copley (Readshaw) (1974 ); Neil Darlington (1974); John Fletcher (1974); John Dunlop (1974): Grant Glanville (1974); Tom Kanter (?); Steve Linstead (1974); John Young (1974); Karen Ralph (Umpleby) (1974); Ian Rycroft (1974); Jane Burridge (1975); Roland Goodbody (1975); Mike Baldock (1976); Ed Charlton (?); Janet Dowling (1976); Alan Green (1976); Jon Hayward (1976); Chris Pitt (?); John Atkin (1977); Tim Bloomfield (1977); Nick Hammond (1977); Bill Howarth (1977); Derek Wood (1977); Nick Partridge (1978); Chris Pitt (1978); Anne Armstrong (1979); Ed Charlton (1979); Martin Barrett (1980); Ian Radcliffe (1982)
Peter Graystone: Did there use to be a Keele rapper group?
"There was a female counterpart to Keele Rapper, Lady Sneyd’s Swans. Chris Barrett (Dixon) (1979) married Martin Barrett (1980) and they live in Ireland. In the Swans image, Chris Dixon is in the foreground and the one in the background was (I think) a Chemistry graduate at the same time as me, but I don't remember her name."
"I was one of Lady Sneyd's Swans and I still have my little embroidered waistcoat".