It’s Monday night. It’s getting on for nine. It’s time to make for the Oddfellows’ Arms. That’s the small, white-painted pub on the Oldham road out of Middleton. As you go in, you will see, gathered round a long table, the nub of the musicians who will be playing tonight; a dozen or so. The music is about to start. The pub is pretty full, but not as full as it will be as the evening progresses. The musicians round the table are old friends. They should be, most of them have been meeting like this for twenty years or more in one or other of Middleton’s hostelries -The Carter’s; The Joiner’s; The Ring o’ Bells- and, for the last two years, right here at the Oddfellows’. They come to play and sing. Play Irish tunes in the main, and sing the older-style songs: local songs, country songs, folk songs, music hall songs, indeed any song that takes their fancy. The programme pattern is a set of tunes, then two songs.
Come and meet some of the regulars: Martin Lynott shapes the evening; he and Steve Keene lead the tunes on violins. Martin Hall’s banjo kicks the tunes along; his accordion and guitar can be heard on some of the songs. Mike Canavan contributes the first song of the evening, usually one of the many he has written. Guitar is his favourite accompanying instrument, but, in the course of evening he will pick up his mandolin or tin whistle or mouth organ. Ian Sidebotham contributes songs and guitar; he plays them and he makes them, guitars that is. John Howarth’s speciality is songs from around Oldham, which he usually accompanies on banjo or concertina, he can also be heard on whistle, bodhran and bones. Another concertina-playing singer with a winning way is Andy Kenna. Outside of the Monday sessions, he is best known for singing shanties, but here he poses as a landlubber. Pete Macmillan plays no instrument; he just sings, but he sings to the power of two. Ian Reynolds’ fluid guitar-picking is there to be admired, as is Jack Lee’s more direct style. Both are into Country and North-western. That is, whilst having a deep love for American country music, they also write and sing songs that are about the Manchester area.
BILL LEADER
Influences
Sounds Like
FULL CD with 6 PAGE BOOKLET liner notes by Bill Leader available HERE click below
TRACK LIST as follows:
1. Cunla; The Battering Ram (Trad) 4:32
2. Harpurhey Baths (Canavan) 3:23
4. Christmas Eve; Nine Points Of Roguery (Trad) 3:40
5. The Body (Trad/Anon) 2:40
6. Gladiator (Fucik/Houlden) 3:38
7. Lemonville Jig (John C Hayes) The Burnt Potato (Trad)
8. The Bold Gendarmes (Offenbach/Barnett) 2:46
9. Raglan Road (Trad/PatrickKavanagh) 5:16
10. Cheif O’neils Favourite/ The Greencastle Hornpipe (Trad) 3:04
11. Ee, When I Were A Lad (Hackock) 4:13
12. Monday night at Nine (Kenna) 4:39
13. Paddy Fahy’s No.1: Cronin’s Favourite: Colley’s Reel 3:47
14. Union miner (Tilman/Anon-Bucks Music) 5:55
15. The Old Bazaar In Cairo (Chester/Morris/Ford-Harrison Music) 3:48
16. Cealti; The Wise Maid; Come West along The Road; the Knotted Cord. (Trad) 5:36
17. Parting Glass (Trad) 2:53
MONDAY NIGHT AT NINE was recorded live at the Oddfellow’s Arms, Middleton.
Middleton being a curious patchwork of a town "not far from Manchester", or Rochdale, or Oldham. It captures the characteristic warm and friendly music making of a Monday night there. The kind of sounds that have given the session a profile beyond the boundaries of Middleton.
It’s a music night of the old sort. No microphones. No karaoke. Just people making the music they love best. Exceptional instrumental playing and songs.
Middleton has always proved a fruitful home for folk gatherings, in the 60s and 70s The Ring O Bells provided the stage for Mike Harding, "The Rochdale Cowboy" (actually from Crumpsall) to develop his craft as a performer.
THE ODDFELLOWS are a coalescence of individuals and groups who have been performing in pubs and clubs around Manchester since the heyday of the folk clubs in the 1960s
The individuals within the THE ODDFELLOWS have been building their styles for close on forty years. The present ensemble of friends developing a common repertoire for more than twenty. They are the folk revival transmuted into tradition.
The project was conceived by JOHN ELLIS, a Middleton musician whose work has included, The Cinematic Orchestra, DJ Vadim, Lily Allen and Corinne Bailey Rae.
It was co-produced by veteran record producer BILL LEADER whose first recording credits go back 50 years and whose work with Topic Records in the 1960s and 70s still stands as a significant contribution in documenting the British Isles traditional music scene at that time and his location recordings form part of the sound archive at the British Library. He has worked with people like Mike Harding, Bert Jansch, Barbara Dickson, The Carter Family and Jerry Rafferty.
While reading legendary record producer Joe Boyd’s autobiographical "White Bicycles" John realised that not only was Bill Leader into the sort of music that was preoccupying him and had a prestigious track record for live location recording, but he lived less than a mile away, also a Rhodes/Middleton resident. Contact was made and the result is realized here.
FOR ANY CONTACT 07962321655
MONDAY NIGHT AT NINE is the first release on the new LIMEFIELD label I edited my profile with Thomas Myspace Editor V4.4 (www.strikefile.com/myspace)
Oddfellows - Monday Night at Nine's Friend Space (Top 8)
Sounds like an interesting night - we might have to pay you a visit.
Drop in on the Big Block 454 page sometime - you may find it strangely stimulating. And it’s about to change dramatically, as we debut our latest album… watch this space.
I am Colin We are Big Block 454 This is Manchester, England
