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Kenneth Loveless Morris Tunes On Efdss 78S


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This may be of interest to those of a morris persuasion.

 

Several years ago in Oxfam, Cambridge I picked up a two disk set of 78s of Kenneth Loveless playing some Headington morris tunes on Anglo. It appears to be a private pressing made by EFDSS. What was of more interest to me at the time was that the sleeve was hand made and hand printed / painted, and on further inspection had the words "To Peter from Royston Christmas 1965" in letraset on the reverse. Didn't take much to put two and two together and conclude Peter was Peter Bellamy, Anglo Concertina player and member of The Young Tradition and Royston was Royston Wood of the same band. Peter Bellamy was the reason I started playing Anglo. I contacted Peter's widow who confirmed the record was his and that he had a crate of belongings stolen in a house move several years earlier where he lost a record collection and she allowed me to keep this record. I've attached a snapshot of the sleeve for those who may be interested.

 

I've posted videos of the four sides as below:

Twenty Ninth of May: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2iAqunrTrqQ&

Rodney: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6r3Vh_Lky5k

Jockey to the Fair: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iHlOjWvBow

Morris Reel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_L6kOjp8B4

 

Hope some people find this interesting.

 

Regards

Christian

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Edited by makeitfolky
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Cool! I remember reading that the Reverend Loveless played a 26 button, rectangular Henry Harley Germ-An-glo (maybe I've coined a new term? Harley imported and tarted up wooden levered German concertinas with nicer bellows and fretwork, and some extra notes, presumably to hit a price-point somewhere between the German and English made instruments) I have a Henry Harley -my avatar picture-which came to Canada with my Yorkshire Great-Grandfather when he homesteaded in Saskatchewan, and is what inspired me to take up the instrument. I wonder if he is playing his Harley here?

Edited by Bill N
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Christian, thanks so much for posting these, and also for having the presence of mind to contact Jenny Bellamy to learn their provenance and get permission - that's a rare thing today!

 

These recordings of Reverend Loveless are so much better than what else has been available - I'm now so much more impressed with his playing!

 

There is a good chance these were played on William Kimber's Jeffries Anglo, since Reverend Ken inherited it from Kimber (and was still playing it when I met him back in 1979).

 

 

Gary

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Christian,

 

This is wonderful stuff. Gary is right - these recordings give a much more favorable impression of Loveless' playing than anything else that I have heard. I can't help but compare his playing to his teacher - Kimber. Loveless has the basic style nailed - the melody right, snappy chords left is perfect. The versions are somewhat different than those of Kimbers, however, which I find interesting. The Twenty-ninth of May is pretty close, but the others have little alterations scattered here and there. I would strike this up to the fact that Loveless learned, I would think, mostly from periodic visits with Kimber in person, not from recordings. It certainly doesn't detract; they are all well done indeed. I'll have to compare tempos with Kimber - Loveless is really blazing along.

 

Would it be too much to ask you to send digital copies to Wes Wallace at the ICA for archiving there? These are significant enough that they should be formally saved, and ICA is the best place for that at present.

 

Thanks so much for sharing this!

Dan Worrall

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Hello all,

Yes, on behalf of the ICA Committee I would be very happy to receive a copy of these recordings. Many thanks. librarian@concertina.org. I recall meeting Kenneth Lovelace in 1976. I'd be about 10. My father took his picture which I have posted here before. Regards, Jeremy.

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Apologies if I've posted these before, but here are a couple of photos of Rev KNJL in action somewhere near Thaxted in 1979, playing the Jeffries Anglo originally presented to William Kimber in 1911.

 

According to John Watcham, Reverend Ken was nicknamed "Reg" by the members of Challice Morris when he was president of the side. Loveless would boast (as only he could) "they call me Reg, how wonderful!" What he didn't realize was that they called him Reg because he looked remarkably like a Coldstream Guards Regimental Goat! Thanks, John, I'll never look at KNJL the same again!

 

​Gary

 

 

 

 

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I have emailed Jeremy to draw his attention to this topic. I believe Wes is not now an ICA committee member but has an extensive archive of his own.

- John.

No, I'm not ont' commitee any more. The ICA has an extensive archive of paper stuff that I scanned up and put online before I left. But I also have one or two tapes of Ken in my personal archive. I think one was published by a Morris side, so may still be available.

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