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DEDICATION

Ewan MacColl

1915-1989

Ewan MacColl. Even now the mere mention of his name fills me with awe and reverence. He was an idealist. An individualist. An innovator. A fighter. A passionate songwriter. A theorist. A fierce champion of the working class. A visionary. A warm and sincere stage performer. A beautiful singer.

Yes, a beautiful singer. People foget that. His influence on the whole development of folk music over four decades was so profound and his personality so powerful that we tend to forget his great vocal prowess. Listen to his performance of 'Cam Ye O'er Frae France' and 'Sheath And Knife.'

There can't be a single artist remotely touched or influenced by folk music who hasn't been in contact in some way with Ewan MacColl. His songs, his singing, his campaigning...the man was a giant. He was the 'godfather of the British folk revival', but he was also much more than that. He was the only singer Shane MacGowan of the Pogues ever went to see in a folk club. Elvis Costell's first live appearance was playing a floor spot at a Ewan MacColl gig! Even Elvis Presley recorded one of his songs ('First Time I Ever Saw Your Face').

So where do we start? In Salford where he was born in 1915 and where he spent much of his youth? (Salford, incidently was the inspiration for the song 'Dirty Old Town'). In the highly innovative Theatre Workshop which he cofounded with Joan Littlewood and where he was resident dramatist? Or perhaps the Ballads and Blues Club (later the Singers Club), Britain's first ever folk club where he made his famous and controversial dictum about singers only performing material indigenous to them. Or his meeting with American singer Peggy Seeger whom he married and forged a musical partnership that was to last until his death?

Then there was 'The Ballad of John Axon', the very first of his legendary series of radio ballads, a documentary about the railways which interspersed music with the thoughts and words of real working people. The series brought prominence many great songs, among them 'The Shoals of Herring'.

He was a superb interpreter of traditional songs. He wrote love songs of exquisite tenderness. He wrote songs that broke your heart. He wrote songs that filled you with rage. And far from mellowing with age, the last songs he wrote were among the most savage of his career.

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