maccannic Posted December 31, 2020 Share Posted December 31, 2020 Well done sir. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clive Thorne Posted December 31, 2020 Share Posted December 31, 2020 I just hope he doesn't put his lesson prices up! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
d.elliott Posted December 31, 2020 Share Posted December 31, 2020 excellent news, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jake Middleton-Metcalfe Posted December 31, 2020 Share Posted December 31, 2020 Awarded "for services to folk music"! Brilliant. Certainly he has always been an inspiration to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roger Hare Posted January 1, 2021 Share Posted January 1, 2021 Jolly good! This news has also been posted on melodeon.net, where the response has been similarly unanimous... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Mellish Posted January 1, 2021 Share Posted January 1, 2021 5 hours ago, lachenal74693 said: Jolly good! This news has also been posted on melodeon.net, where the response has been similarly unanimous... And likewise on Mudcat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robin Tims Posted January 1, 2021 Share Posted January 1, 2021 Terrific ! Could not have happened to a nicer chap. I have been fortunate to experience hugely instructive and entertaining workshops from John at Durham, Witney etc, as well as solo annual concert events in our local church in Grimston where I think John liked the acoustics so much he was always interested in returning with another show which was always a sell out and not just to Folkies. Rob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
inventor Posted January 1, 2021 Share Posted January 1, 2021 Congratulations John; I am so pleased to hear this good news. Brian Hayden. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clive Thorne Posted January 2, 2021 Share Posted January 2, 2021 Interesting JK fact re his bellows: I have had a couple of on-line lessons with him and we were chatting about stuff, and I asked him how many sets of bellows he'd been through. I was expecting a highish number, but was suprised that he's only on his second set. The originals were six fold, which managed to pull apart (during a gig apparently), so he got Crabbs to make him a seven fold set that he is still using! Two sets of belows in a fifty year professional career seems a very good going! Of course it might be a case of Trigger's broom. I didn't ask how many times thay had been repaired, or had bits replaced. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Acott Posted January 3, 2021 Share Posted January 3, 2021 Excellent news , long may he live to delight people with his brilliance! once the current problems are resolved. Mike Acott Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gcoover Posted January 7, 2021 Share Posted January 7, 2021 I asked John what his formal title is, now that he is semi-royalty, and he replied he can be addressed as "Your Memberness" - while bowing/curtseying, of course! Gary Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Wild Posted January 7, 2021 Share Posted January 7, 2021 In a small way, John popped up on BBC radio 4 yesterday. This is a short story set on Britain's canals, and at the start, we hear John singing/playing Poor old horse. bits of the song crop up at other points during the story. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000qx0c Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gcoover Posted August 30, 2022 Share Posted August 30, 2022 With John's permission, from the ceremony, here is a photo with his MBE award. I don't think the house was included with the medal. Gary 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robin Harrison Posted August 30, 2022 Share Posted August 30, 2022 And what a fine man he is too ! The largest influence on my trad. music life both for anglo and for singing. My personal "holy-macaroni" moment was listening to the album where he sings "Rambling Comber"; unaccompanied. It is with me to this day, it has everything I love about folk song. Robin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robin Harrison Posted September 1, 2022 Share Posted September 1, 2022 I meant to add a line at the end of my post yesterday saying I would love to hear any other stories about how he has impacted, lightened, enriched anyone's life, as he has mine. Please tell us a story about him. Thanks Robin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Besser Posted September 1, 2022 Share Posted September 1, 2022 1 hour ago, Robin Harrison said: I meant to add a line at the end of my post yesterday saying I would love to hear any other stories about how he has impacted, lightened, enriched anyone's life, as he has mine. Please tell us a story about him. I've been playing his tunes for years; I brought one (Unexpected Pleasure) into the Foggy Bottom Morris repertoire, and it's become one of our signature dances. Last year, in the midst of the pandemic, I took a series of six Zoom lessons with John, trying to understand how he did certain things in his concertina playing. Those lessons were enormously helpful, and had a major impact on my playing, especially for the Morris. He was a gracious and attentive teacher who listened to what I wanted and responded accordingly. And, as an aside: he liberated me from feeling terrible that I hate playing Jump at the Sun in Gm on a C/G Anglo in a harmonic style. He told me it was a bad idea; he tried it, and said that just confirmed his opinion. Like many Anglo players, I've spent time - probably too much time - trying to play things that just don't work well on an instrument that is in many ways limited. One of the lessons I took away from my time with John: it's much more gratifying to focus on music that fits the instrument; I'll leave Jump at the Sun to English concertina players, or Anglo players who prefer a single note style. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arti Posted September 1, 2022 Share Posted September 1, 2022 (edited) MBE: Not a moment too soon! Edited September 2, 2022 by arti Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clive Thorne Posted September 1, 2022 Share Posted September 1, 2022 I was 17 and in the sixth form in Shropshire when John moved into the area. One of the teachers was into folk music so when John wanted to start a morris team he (the teacher) recruited several sixth formers from the school to go along to the first ever practice of what was to become "The Shropshire Bedlams", so I was a founder member of that esteemed clan and stayed with them regularly until for around 10 years until work made it impractical. Being in the Bedlams at that time, for a young lad of 17/18 was a complete eye opener getting to some of the biggest festivals, going on foreign tours etc. All big and, fair to say, life changing stuff for a young lad from rural Shropshire. Johnsie was thus my first introduction to concertina and melodeon, and because of this how John plays is what I think these things should sound like. Obviously there are lots of other people and styles out there which are great, but hearing John play always gives me that extra buzz. I bought myself a melodeon a couple of years later and an anglo when I could afford one, and obviously already knew what I wanted to sound like (Sadly I don't) Had some concertina lessons with him this last 18 months, but currently taking a break as I was falling behind with the practising etc. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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