A ROSY GARLAND. Shirley Collins & Peter Bellamy in Australia

In 1980 the acclaimed British folk singers, Shirley Collins and Peter Bellamy, came to Australia to perform in the Sydney Folklife Festival, an annual event for almost a decade, produced by Warren Fahey for Larrikin Entertainment and the Sydney Festival. The concert, one of a series of ten over ten nights, was in the Concert Hall of the Sydney Opera House. The concert was recorded by ABC FM at a time when folk music was part of the broadcaster’s programming.

My thanks to the ABC for permission and Michael Cunningham for providing the missing recordings and for Brian Grayson in supplying the track run-down.

‘A ROSY GARLAND’

SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE

17 JANUARY, 1980

PRODUCED BY WARREN FAHEY AND BROADCAST BY ABC-FM.

Interviews by David Mulhallen.

PART 1

Shirley Collins (Accompanied by Winsome Evans):

1. Just as the Tide was Flowing
2. Rockley Firs, or Sweet Jenny Jones
3. Bacca Pipes Jig
4. God Dog (Robin Williamson)
5. Hopping Down In Kent

The Sydney Morris Men:

6. Jockey To the Fair

Peter Bellamy:

7. On Board a 98
8. The Molecatcher
9. The Trees They Grow High
10. Anchor Song (Rudyard Kipling/Peter Bellamy)
11. Riding on Top of the Car

Chat and songs with Shirley Collins

PART 2

Chat and songs with Shirley Collins (Continued)

PART 3

Shirley Collins (Accompanied by Winsome Evans):

12. Come All You Little Streamers
13. Come My Love
14. Plum Puddings
15. All Flowers of the Broom
16. The Captain With the Whiskers
17. Dancing at Whitsun (Austin John Marshall)

The Sydney Morris Men:

18. The Willow Tree

Peter Bellamy:

19. The Maid of Australia
20. The Lord Will Provide
21. The Black and the Bitter Night (Peter Bellamy)
22. Roll Down (Peter Bellamy)

Peter Bellamy and Shirley Collins:

23. The Wedding Song (Come Write Me Down)
24. The Green Fields of England (Peter Bellamy)

Shirley Collins’s life and extraordinary contribution to English folk song has been recently documented in a one-half hour documentary ‘The Ballad of Shirley Collins’

see: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/oct/12/the-ballad-of-shirley-collins-review-brilliant-folk-singer

Full information on DVD  http://www.shirleycollinsmovie.com/

The late Peter Bellamy was a brilliant interpreter of songs, including setting Rudyard Kipling songs to music. He was passionate about songs from his native Norfolk. Peter’s greatest legacy is his folk opera ‘The Transports’. Larrikin Records released the double album locally. Stage productions continue to be mounted as singers and audiences discover this unique musical production that tells of two transported convicts to Australia. The latest production was in 2017.

Here is Peter’s interpretation of Kipling’s Oak, Ash & Thorn

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oF9bMLqC1iw

Here is the 2017 production of The Transports from the Shewsbury Folk Festival.