20 replies to this topic

[jdms]

Here's an interesting thing...

jdms

[Rod]

Here's an interesting thing...

jdms

I understand that Kimber was a bricklayer by trade and may therefore have laid every single brick in that house. Another admirable achievement.

[Dirge]

It's a nice piece and great that the actual family are still keeping it going.

[swig]

I read this. What an awful article. Sharp the 'godfather' of folk music ? Don't think so. And what about that moronic quote from the EFDSS rep (if it's true). Without Sharp there would be no ceilidh dancing ? Ethnocentricity at its worst.

[Steve Mansfield]

I read this. What an awful article. Sharp the 'godfather' of folk music ? Don't think so. And what about that moronic quote from the EFDSS rep (if it's true). Without Sharp there would be no ceilidh dancing ? Ethnocentricity at its worst.

That's a bit harsh isn't it?

I thought the quote from Katy Spicer (who is Executive Director of EFDSS btw) was entirely reasonable, and the whole tenor of the article is sympathetic and fairly error-free (and certainly pleasingly lacking the default aren't-morris-dancers-all-funny-nutters tone of most media coverage).

Meeting Kimber and the Headington Quarry team was an important moment in Sharp's collecting activities, and did directly lead on to his investigation of morris and then social dance.

Sharp's ruthless undermining and political outmanoeuvring of those with other philosophies (most notably Mary Neal), and the attitudes and emphases that Sharp's work and those of his supporters and followers put on the importance, performance style, and usage of the material they collected (and of course also the material they didn't consider worth collecting or promoting) is undeniable, and I'm no Sharp hagiographer by a long, long way.

However it's pretty much unarguable that (in terms of English folk dance and song) we are largely where we are today, and we have a good proportion of what we have today, standing on the shoulders of the work of C# and the people he inspired or co-opted. EFDSS may have dropped the ball spectacularly in the second half of the 20th Century, but that's a whole different kettle of fish.


The phrase 'the godfather of folk' does bug me as well though, but hey, it's a working soundbite for a soundbite culture.

[Dave Rogers]

The phrase 'the godfather of folk' does bug me as well though, but hey, it's a working soundbite for a soundbite culture.

We'll just have to hope that Ashley Hutchings doesn't threaten to sue.

[MichaelF]

I read this. What an awful article. Sharp the 'godfather' of folk music ? Don't think so. And what about that moronic quote from the EFDSS rep (if it's true). Without Sharp there would be no ceilidh dancing ? Ethnocentricity at its worst.

This is a newspaper article!!!!!! It's meant to catch peoples attention so they will read it.

Remember most readers of the paper won't know anything about Sharp or Kimber, but they now be prompted to find out more especially with the placement of the blue plaque.
At least the owners of the property know a lot more.

Sharp the 'godfather' of folk music; maybe some of us wouldn't use the term 'godfather', but then using this word may make some become curious to know more about him.

In the 1970s/early 1980s I remember a central Oxford hotel used to have old photographs of Headington Quarry Morris on the walls. They were removed early 1980s? Did the owners realise what they were? I hope they did, but maybe not.

This article raises historical awareness.
I think that, for a newspaper, it conveys the 'facts' quite well and reasonably accurately.

[Paul Woloschuk]

I take it that Kimber's instrument is now in the hands of Headington Quarry MM and being regularly used?
I recall back in the 1970s hearing that Father Ken was going to leave the concertina to EFDSS for display in C# House.

[Mike Franch]

I think the really important thing about Kimber for us (i.e., concertina nuts) is that he introduced the concertina to morris dancing. Sharp assumed that this was the way it had traditionally been done--but it was a tradition that started with Kimber!

[michael sam wild]

Hs father taught him So what dances did he play for?Fiddle, pipes and pipe and tabor would be played before the concertina

Edited by michael sam wild, 28 June 2012 - 09:01 AM.

[Dave Rogers]

I take it that Kimber's instrument is now in the hands of Headington Quarry MM and being regularly used?
I recall back in the 1970s hearing that Father Ken was going to leave the concertina to EFDSS for display in C# House.

According to Roger Digby (27/10/2005 on this forum):

"the concertina is now back in Headington with Julie Kimber-Nickelson (William’s grand-daughter)."

http://www.concertin...topic=2976&st=0

[Mike Franch]

I probably got my idea about Kimber and the concertina in the morris revival from Stuart Eydmann's excellent "The concertina as an emblem of the folk music revival in the British Isles" at http://www.concertin...vival/index.htm, where he writes of Kimber, he "played a then 'trendy'instrument laden with connotations of music hall and popular dance and song . . ." It would be interesting to know what inspired Kimber to acquire a concertina and to know something of how he learned to play it, but he does seem to be the one who popularized it for the revival of morris dance.

[Dave Rogers]

It would be interesting to know what inspired Kimber to acquire a concertina and to know something of how he learned to play it

Kimber appears to have learnt concertina from his father - Dan Worrall, referencing Neil Wayne, says:

"He played for a rural Morris tradition that was in serious decline, where the number of all musicians on all instruments was small. In the late nineteenth century, only two other concertina players besides Kimber and his father (William Kimber, Senior) are known to have played for Morris in the southern Midlands.

http://www.angloconc...for_website.pdf

[Dave Rogers]

Sorry, I've just noticed that Michael Sam Wild mentioned earlier about Kimber being taught by his father!

[Robin Harrison]

the really important thing about Kimber for us (i.e., concertina nuts) is that he introduced the concertina to morris dancing

...........but also the way he played as well. I've always thought that if William learnt from his father, then it would be fascinating to know how his father came upon this unique style. Did he develop it in isolation.......... did he learn it from someone else's playing. Was William or his father the creative force behind this wonderful way of approaching chording.

We'll never know but it's an intruiging speculation .
Robin

[michael sam wild]

There was a choral tradition, pianos and fairground organs all using chords so he may have picked stuff up thatw ay. Before that there were viol consorts playing parts in harmony.

[RP3]

Wonder if William Kimber was related to the famous founder of the MG Car Company, Cecil Kimber. As a lover of both concertinas and old MGs, that would be a wonderful convergence of interests for me.

Ross Schlabach

[Dirge]

the really important thing about Kimber for us (i.e., concertina nuts) is that he introduced the concertina to morris dancing

...........but also the way he played as well. I've always thought that if William learnt from his father, then it would be fascinating to know how his father came upon this unique style. Did he develop it in isolation.......... did he learn it from someone else's playing. Was William or his father the creative force behind this wonderful way of approaching chording.

We'll never know but it's an intruiging speculation .
Robin

I'd always assumed that the chording happens naturally on an Anglo, that all it took was to grab several, not just one, button, and a lot of the time it harmonised automatically. Surely it's not clever to think of doing this? "I need more noise to compete with the crashing of hobnail boots I'll hit a few more buttons." would do it for starters, and hadn't all the Midnight Mohawks been doing exactly this for years?

I didn't realise Kimber was seen as an innovator. I had the idea that he was exactly the opposite, someone keeping old traditions that had almost gone alive, famous mostly because it was HIM that Cec' tripped over and subsequently worked with.