A sunny lunchtime in the Ham Marquee, centre of operations for Sidmouth Folk Week. A crowd was assembling, perhaps brought by the famous names that had been associated with the event, and perhaps by an interest in what this new group is all about. MC’d by Paul Sartin (Bellowhead, Belshazzar’s Feast), the artists on stage to support the movement were a veritable who’s who of the younger (and not-so-young!) generation of folk artists – from stage L to R were Dogan Mehmet, Jon Boden, John Spiers, Eliza Carthy, Steve Knightley, Maclaine Colston, Saul Rose, Jim Moray, Paul Sartin and Pete Coe .
A large number of people had turned out to support the launch, many sporting the new Folk Against Fascism t-shirts (coming soon to a festival near you). Steve Knightley kicked things off with a rendition of Show of Hands favourite ’Roots’, which he explained he had been quite shocked to find on the BNP website. A number of the other artists on the stage and indeed others have faced the same problem.
This is what Folk Against Fascism has been designed to help the artists make a stand against - to stop the BNP politicising folk music. Steve Knightley was followed by others ably demonstrating their craft – Maclaine Colston and Saul Rose with a tune, Eliza Carthy singing ’The Slave’s Lament’, Spiers and Boden with the singalong Bold Sir Rylas, Dogan Mehmet performing the traditional English song ’Raggle Taggle Gypsies’ and Pete Coe with another familiar song, ’The Yellow on the Broom’. The first half was finished off by Jim Moray with ’Rufford Park Poachers’.
At this point, Paul invited Joan Crump, Artistic Director of Sidmouth Folk Week and founder of Folk Against Fascism to say a few words about why it was being set up and what the aims are. This she did, with a very basic message:
"They want to turn Englishness into something that belongs to them [the BNP], that has a very narrow focus...but what we want to do with Folk Against Fascism is to open that out and say that I’m American, and I’m sorry, but none of you can tell me that it doesn’t belong to me as much as it belongs to any of you...this is my country and I love it"
The concert continued with Steve Knightley singing a rather appropriate song - Billy Bragg’s take on John Barleycorn, Half English. This was followed by Eliza, Jon and John with an old Ratcatchers favourite, ’The Gallant Hussar’. Contining on, Pete Coe finished off with a parody of Rule Britannia written by Vic Gannon. And as a finale Eliza Carthy led everyone in the familiar song Country Life – ironically a song of an english country idyll that doesn’t truly exist, and perhaps never has. Appropriately enough, the song united all in the Ham that lunchime – folk music as it should be: inclusive, friendly and open to all who want to enjoy it.
Photos by Alan Cole.
To hear an audio recording of the concert, go to: http://www.archive.org/details/FolkAgainstFascismLaunchAtSidmouthFolkFestAugust2009
Website: http://www.folkagainstfascism.com