Memories Of Father Ken

[Stephen Chambers]

Be warned: if you’ve not heard Ken before, make sure you’re sitting down!

Also "ear defenders" would be no harm!

 

I hope it’s not too early to wish all of you on this wonderful site a very Happy Christmass.

And as they say in Ireland, to the great confusion of we English: "Many happy returns!"

 

I guess we might say "Compliments returned!"

Edited December 15, 2007 by Stephen Chambers

[Roger Digby]

Thanks for that offer Dan. It's on its way to you.

I think Alan will find that it is not the recording of which he is thinking. This one was not a concert performance. but was recorded by his friend at his home in Clothmakers Cottages.

I hope it arrives smoothly on the site. Heaven knows what those will make of it who are hearing him for the first time!

Roger

[Ken_Coles]

This recording is not in any copyright and I would be very happy to post it on this site if I only knew how! I don’t even know if it’s possible to post audio files here. Last year, as a kind of remembrance of the Annual Christmas messages that Ken always placed in the ICA newsletter I emailed it to a number of concertina friends some of whom, I know, visit this site. If one of them has kept it and has the know-how to post the sound file then, please, go ahead and do so and it will be a Christmas present for all. (Ken always insisted on the spelling ‘Christmass’ to emphasise the word’s liturgical origin!)

If no-one can do this or inform me of how to do it and it has not appeared after a few days, then please feel free to email me and I will send you out an mp3. Be warned: if you’ve not heard Ken before, make sure you’re sitting down!

I hope it’s not too early to wish all of you on this wonderful site a very Happy Christmass.

Roger

 

If there is trouble posting any of these sound files, let me know and I will put it/them in the root directory of the server and let you all know where it is/they are. Have a Happy.

 

Ken (Can not claim a relation to subject of this thread!)

[hjcjones]

Father Ken was widely known as a bit of a "character", even by those who'd never met him. He certainly had a reputation in Morris circles as being a bit of a stickler for doing things the correct way, and I think a lot of us found him a bit scary!

 

I came across him a few times at Morris meetings, but only met him once, at the ICA Music Festival in 1983. He was rather soberly dressed by his standards, as I recall, but with a black cape and cane with a silver duck's-head handle he still made an impression. I was entered in the "playing by ear" section of the competition and I still have his adjudication sheet, in the flamboyant handwriting evident in Peter's earlier post. He was kind enough to be complimentary about my playing, which coming from him meant a lot to me.

 

As the sub-title to this thread says, they don't make them like that any more. Ironically, in view of his small stature, he truly was a larger-than-life character of the sort we don't seem to get nowadays. I regret that I didn't hear more of his playing when he was alive, and look forward to hearing Roger's recording when it finally reaches the internet.

[Dan Worrall]

If there is trouble posting any of these sound files, let me know and I will put it/them in the root directory of the server and let you all know where it is/they are. Have a Happy.

 

Ken (Can not claim a relation to subject of this thread!)

 

OK, Ken. I have the file now, and it is too big to post (nearly 6MB). If you will send me your email address (I can't attach it via the FOrum email feature), it will be on its way to you immediately. It is too good not to get up there in time for Christmas!

Dan

ps, many thanks Roger!

[Dan Worrall]

OK, Ken. I have the file now, and it is too big to post (nearly 6MB). If you will send me your email address (I can't attach it via the FOrum email feature), it will be on its way to you immediately. It is too good not to get up there in time for Christmas!

Dan

ps, many thanks Roger!

 

That route didn't work. My next try is to email it to Henk van Alten (done)...let's see if he can get it on the Recorded Tune Link Page.

 

Cheers,

Dan

[Dan Worrall]

With thanks to Henk van Alten for posting it, and of course to Roger Digby for providing it, here is the good Reverend playing 'The Bells'.

http://www.anglo-concertina.net/sound/loveless.mp3

 

Better be sitting down when you put it on!

 

Merry Christmas all,

 

Dan

[malcolm clapp]

Edited to add that if posting this track without permission constitutes a breach of copyright, I apologise unreservedly to all concerned and will remove it upon request.

 

Further edited to remove track upon receipt of legal advice.

MC

Edited February 2, 2008 by malcolm clapp

[Stephen Chambers]

And here ... is the Morris tune medley

That's interesting, he has a much lighter touch on the recording than I remember from real-life performances. Do you know when that was recorded?

[Dan Worrall]

And here, hopefully, is the Morris tune medley

 

MC

Malcolm,

 

Many thanks for posting that. That's the first time I have heard a recording of Loveless playing Morris tunes.

The first one (Jockey to the Fair) he clearly learned from Kimber...and he has kept perhaps 90% or more faithful to Kimber's arrangement...quite remarkable since it was all done by ear. A bit smoother than Kimber perhaps (and as Stephen noted, fairly light too).

The second one I never heard Kimber play...I don't think he recorded it. WHich is not to say that Ken didn't get it from Kimber...do you happen to know one way or another?

I'd be curious to know the date of these recordings, and the venue.

 

Cheers,

Dan

[Alan Day]

And here, hopefully, is the Morris tune medley

 

MC

Malcolm,

 

Many thanks for posting that. That's the first time I have heard a recording of Loveless playing Morris tunes.

The first one (Jockey to the Fair) he clearly learned from Kimber...and he has kept perhaps 90% or more faithful to Kimber's arrangement...quite remarkable since it was all done by ear. A bit smoother than Kimber perhaps (and as Stephen noted, fairly light too).

The second one I never heard Kimber play...I don't think he recorded it. WHich is not to say that Ken didn't get it from Kimber...do you happen to know one way or another?

I'd be curious to know the date of these recordings, and the venue.

 

Cheers,

Dan

I agree with Dan,two great recordings.

Many thanks Malcolm

Al

[malcolm clapp]

I'd be curious to know the date of these recordings, and the venue.

 

Cheers,

Dan

 

 

The LP "Where the Pavement Ends" was released in 1979.

 

No indication as to when and where the tracks were recorded. Fairly sparse sleeve notes read as follows:

 

"A collection of songs and tunes recorded by members and friends of the Moulton Morris Men, including singers Vic Forrester, Barry Stephenson and Dave Jolly, the ceilidh band Pandamonium, pipe and tabor player Andrew Richards and a guest appearance by Father Ken Loveless playing some Headington Quarry tunes on William Kimber's concertina as well as singing "A Fair Maid Walking..." And, of course, the massed musicians and dancers of the Moulton Morris Men."

 

Anybody have any contacts in the Moulton side? Some one there will have some memories, I'm sure....

 

MC

[chris]

Hi

did he use disposable microphones- or just create them

chris

[Dave Rogers]

Anybody have any contacts in the Moulton side? Some one there will have some memories, I'm sure....

 

Hi - this is my first post (joined today), so I'm pleased to be able to shed a little bit of light on this. I was a member of Moulton MM from 1980-2. The album was recorded at Woodworm Studios in Barford St. Michael, Oxfordshire, in July 1979, by Dave Pegg and Simon Nicol (of Fairport Convention), together with sound engineer Lawrence Burrage.

 

I've played a Hohner G/D melodeon for nearly 30 years, and have just taken the plunge and ordered a Rochelle!

[Dave Rogers]

I've remembered that I sent the original vinyl copy to a charity shop when the cd version (with additional tracks) appeared a few years ago. The cd does say "All rights reserved. No unauthorised copying (including electronic)...without the express written permission of the Moulton Morris Men."

 

Might be as well to clear it with Barry Care - contact details at the foot of the side's MySpace page:

 

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fusea...iendid=95456090

[malcolm clapp]

I've remembered that I sent the original vinyl copy to a charity shop when the cd version (with additional tracks) appeared a few years ago. The cd does say "All rights reserved. No unauthorised copying (including electronic)...without the express written permission of the Moulton Morris Men."

 

Might be as well to clear it with Barry Care - contact details at the foot of the side's MySpace page:

 

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fusea...iendid=95456090

 

 

Upon receipt of a legal opinion, I have edited my post and removed the attachment in question until such time as permission might be sought and granted.

 

At the time of posting I was unable to find a current contact for the Moulton Morris, and I wasn't aware that the LP had been re-released as a CD and was currently available.

 

Whilst I am sure that no financial loss would have been incurred by the Moulton Morris from my posting of this track, I apologise for posting it here without permission, and I would encourage any one interested in this album to seek out and buy a copy of the CD.

 

MC

[Dave Rogers]

I would encourage any one interested in this album to seek out and buy a copy of the CD.

 

Only a tenner from the Morris Ring online shop!:

 

http://www.themorrisring.org/Shop.htm

 

Also features Dave Jolly, who now runs Jollybox, the Northampton-based free reed instrument shop:

 

http://www.jollybox.co.uk/

[Dave Rogers]

and I didnt like his opposition to women dancing the Morris.

 

Not unusual for his generation, though. I knew of certain Morris Ring sides who would refuse to dance in the same arena as another side, purely because they had a female musician. Perhaps Father Ken subscribed to the now discredited but once widely held belief that Morris was "a survival of pagan male fertility ritual" and as such, shouldn't be danced by women?