It Was Mighty : CD #1

As far as I’m concerned, Christmas has come early. I got an email from “Topic” records in London midweek, informing me that they are releasing 2 triple CDs of archive recordings of Irish music played in London. They arrived this morning and I’m enjoying listening to them right now, although it’s going to take a while to get through them all. This is only the first CD of 3 in the series - so far I’ve heard music from Michael Gorman, Paddy Taylor, Jimmy Power, Bobby Casey and Martin Byrnes. It’s great also to discover new musicians whom I’d never heard of before - eg, flute players Gerry Wimsey and Danny Niff, melodeon player Nan Landers.
I’ll post a list of “who plays what” later. The CDs are also accompanied by a booklet with photos and biographies of the players - over 90 pages !

- “TSCD679T ”It was mighty!“ In the early 1950s, some of the most talented young traditional musicians from rural Ireland found themselves in London, working on building sites and in heavy construction, away from home, but among hundreds of people like them. Music was played in pubs and dance halls and, for a decade or two, almost every night of the week, Camden Town, Fulham and neighbouring boroughs were buzzing. Many of the early pioneers of this music, great artists by any reckoning, are represented here, captured at the peak of their powers”. -

I suggest you get over to “Topic’s” website and, as they say in London, “ ’ave a butchers” 🙂

Hi Kenny - Got my copies (of “It Was Mighty” and “It Was Great Altogether”) a few days ago, but today (Sat. 5th March ’16) is the first chance I’ve had to listen to them. Working my way through Mighty just now, and there’s a hell of a lot of great stuff. The notes by Reg Hall are superb as well: informative and well researched. Hope to comment more later once I’ve digested this feast.

I’d love to get my own copies of both “It Was Mighty” and “It Was Great Altogether,” but I’ll be deeper in debt and sleepless! Well, I was actually almost sleepless a couple of days ago, looking through all the names of musicians on Topic Records website.

Also available from Amazon: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01AOT6KE6/

http://www.topicrecords.co.uk/tscd679t-it-was-mighty-the-early-days-of-irish-music-in-london/

"A new 3CD set featuring a total of more than 100 vital performances by, among others: Michael Gorman, Bobby Casey, Martin Byrnes, Julia Clifford, Jimmy Power, Nan Landers, Vincent Griffin, Edmond Murphy and Tommy McCarthy. Compiled and researched by Dr. Reg Hall, the acknowledged expert in this field, “It was mighty!” is a superb addition to the widely acclaimed Voice of the People series.

Some of the most talented young traditional musicians from rural Ireland found themselves in London in the 1950s, working on the buildings and in heavy construction, away from home, but among hundreds of people like themselves. Music was played in pubs and dance halls and, for a decade or two almost every night of the week, Camden Town, Fulham and neighbouring boroughs were buzzing. Even as far as the outer suburbs, in some back-street pub or other, there was great music to be found, that is, if you knew where to look for it. Beyond the gaze of mainstream society and unknown to the media, promotion was solely by word of mouth among the Irish themselves. This three-CD collection of rare recordings gives us a very privileged view of a unique community who lived this music. Here are some great musicians, some great tunes, and great warmth and humanity. At the time, it was often said, that there was much better Irish music to be heard in London than in Ireland. An overstatement, of course, but there was certainly more of it to be heard in London than anywhere else in the world. A companion three-CD album, “It was great altogether!” The Continuing Tradition of Irish Music in London, Topic TSCD680T, brings the story up to the present time."

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Thanks for saving me the work Kenny. 😉 I’d have left these till later as my connection to and understanding of the Irish music scene in London is minimal. More great compilations from the much appreciated hard work of Reg Hall.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Voice_of_the_People

@slainte -- we can’t be having you “deeper in debt and sleepless”, however I’m fairly certain you would love these recordings. Now if I bought you them both, it would be me who’d be “deeper in debt and sleepless”, however, you very kindly sent me a CD of flute music about a year ago, so I’m owing you one. You’ve had a look at the musicians playing on these CDs on Topic’s website. [ I will be posting them here soon, but there are 6 CDs in total, each with over 30 tracks ]. Let me know which of the 2 CDs sets you’d prefer, and it will be my pleasure to send you one of them. You’d need to send me your address via a private message through this website.
With St. Patrick’s Day coming up, Colin and I will be doing a programme dedicated to Irish music on our community radio show on the 16th. We’ll certainly be including music from these CDs on the programme if you want to hear a few tracks in advance, in fact, if you let me know a couple you’d really like to hear, we’ll do our best to accomodate.
All the best, Kenny

Track #

1 / 2 - Michael Gorman [ fiddle ]
3 / 4 - Gerry Wimsey [ flute, Clarke’s “C” whistle ]
5 / 6 / 7 / 8 - Paddy Taylor [ flute ]
9 / 10 - Nan Landers [ melodeon ]
11 - Jimmy Power [ fiddle ] , Patsy Goulding [ piano ]
12 / 13 / 14 - Danny McNiff [ flute ]
15 / 16 / 17 - Bobby Casey [ fiddle ]
18 - Mick Gorman [ flute ]
19 - Jimmy Hogan [ accordion ], Bobby Hall [ piano ], Brian Green [ drums ]
20 - Martin Byrnes [ fiddle ]
21 - Paddy Malynn [ accordion ]
22 / 23 - Julia Clifford [ fiddle ]
24 / 25 / 26 - Paddy Breen [ flageolet ]
27 / 28 - Bobby Casey [ fiddle ], Willie Clancy [ uilleann pipes ]
29 / 30 - Martin Byrnes [ fiddle ], Tony Howley [ flute ]
31 - Martin Wynne [ fiddle ]
32 - Martin Wynne [ fiddle ], Michael Gorman [ fiddle ], Bill Rollison [ piano ]
33 - Jimmy Power [ fiddle ], “Clancy” [ flute ], Tommy Maguire [ accordion ], Paddy Furey
[ piano ]
34 / 35 - Bobby Casey [ fiddle ], Willie Clancy [ uilleann pipes ]

1, 2, 6 - 8, 12 - 14 (w/Sean O’Boyle), 15 & 16, 19, 24 - 28, 34 & 35 ~ recorded by Peter Kennedy, 1952 - 1958

3 & 4 ~ recorded by Janet Kerr, 1972

5, 17, 20, 21, 29 & 30 ~ recorded by Michael Daly, 1957 - 1962

9 & 10 ~ recorded by Dick Landers, mid-1960s

11 ~ recorded by Jimmy Power, 1959

18 ~ recorded by Bill Leader, Reg Hall & Michael Plunkett, 1970

22, 23, 33 ~ recorded by Reg Hall, 1964

31 & 32 ~ HMV recording studio, 1948

Kenny, thank you very very much for your kind words.

I’m very sorry, I was just joking and have found a way to buy all these CDs cheaper in this country. Hopefully, I’ll get them in a few weeks.

But I might contact you for the tracks I’d like to hear on your programme. Well, hard to choose!

Make sure you remind us of your show nearer the time Kenny, with a link if poss.

We owe a great deal to Peter Kennedy, Bill Leader & Reg Hall for having the foresight to preserve this great music. There’s also a load of recordings of sessions & interviews by these three in the British Library sound archives. You could spend the rest of your life listening to the stuff there.

Flute player Danny McNiff was from Co Leitrim who emigrated to London in the early 50s. Here’s a link to an extensive interview with him, over 90 mins, made by Reg Hall in 1989. He talks about the old musicians from back home & also in London. He finishes up with a few tunes on flute & whistle.

http://sounds.bl.uk/World-and-traditional-music/Reg-Hall-Archive/025M-C0903X0463XX-0100V0

Go raibh ma’agat Alan, much appreciated…

In reply to “Lazy” above - I played 5 tracks from the 2 CD sets on our local radio programme yesterday for our “St.Patrick’s Day” programme . You can hear Michael Daly & Liam Farrell, Eddie Corcoran & Seamus Tansey and Paddy Breen on flageolet, one after the other from about 10mins in. From about 30 mins you can hear Michael Gorman playing what must be the original version of “Cooley’s Reel”, followed by what I termed “the original ”Duelling Banjos“ - a bit of fun from Margaret Barry and Jimmy Cleary. The programme is available to listen to until next Thursday. Link to the web-page below, use the ”Listen again" facility, and you can use the slide to go to 10 or 30 mins if you don’t want to hear the rest, which is songs apart from the opening and closing tracks :

http://www.shmu.org.uk/fm/shows/wednesday-session

Hope you all get some good music on St. Patrick’s Day - I intend to.

Album Launch with Reg Hall, Sunday 20th March, 2016 7pm
McNamara Hall, London Irish Centre, 50-52 Camden Square, London NW1 9XB Entry is free.

http://www.londonirishcentre.org/events/event/?event=362
http://www.topicrecords.co.uk/the-voice-of-the-people-irish-music-in-london/
https://www.facebook.com/events/785073738293162/

A few corrections to title links above:
5. Paddy Taylor’s hornpipe https://thesession.org/tunes/15457
7. With Kitty I’ll go (Raghad-sa ’s mo Cheaití) see https://www.irishtune.info/tune/4775
9. Nan Landers’ hornpipe (McCarthy’s hornpipe; Roxburgh Castle) https://thesession.org/tunes/4628 See also https://www.irishtune.info/tune/1245
12. Doherty’s jig (Drops of brandy) https://thesession.org/tunes/388 See also https://www.irishtune.info/tune/544
13.2. Farewell to whiskey (Sounds more like “Because he was a bonny lad”) https://thesession.org/tunes/3748
20.2. Paddy Kelly’s favourite https://thesession.org/tunes/2125 See also https://www.irishtune.info/tune/3897
21.2. The tongs by the fire (The basket of turf) https://thesession.org/tunes/537 See also https://www.irishtune.info/tune/409
22. The red-haired boy. This is a slow air, unrelated to the hornpipe, and possibly not included in The Session.
24. The cuckoo’s nest https://thesession.org/tunes/2395 See also https://www.irishtune.info/tune/429
26. The pipe on the hob https://thesession.org/tunes/1049 See also https://www.irishtune.info/tune/1586
27. Munster buttermilk (Bímid ag ól is ag pógadh na mBan) https://thesession.org/tunes/3456 See also https://www.irishtune.info/tune/155
31.2. The gold ring https://thesession.org/tunes/1351 See also https://www.irishtune.info/tune/742

Track #8 : Paddy Taylor recorded both of these tunes on his LP record “The Boy In The Gap” as
1 - “Taylor’s Fancy” : https://thesession.org/tunes/6141
and
2 - “The Limerick” : https://thesession.org/tunes/6169

It appears this album has suddenly and randomly disappeared from iTunes. It just vanished from my iTunes library and I don’t see it on the store anymore. The companion CD “It Was Great Altogether” is still there. Does anyone have any info? Thanks.

Hi Daniel - if it did indeed disappear, it’s back now, as of 09.55, Sat.9th Dec.2017.
On a related note, if anyone sees this, do you ever get tracks randomly disappearing from your iTunes library ?

Kenny, I got it back a few days ago. Very grateful to have this wonderful collection back, but definitely irritated that it disappeared. And yes, I’m familiar with that. I don’t understand it.

…And it’s gone again! Been that way for a few months. How annoying…