Tenterden Folk Festival

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Tenterden Folk Festival

TENTERDEN FOLK FESTIVAL 2010

George Papavgeris

One of the least likely exponents of contemporary English folk music currently appearing at festivals and clubs across the country is singer songwriter George Papavgeris.

George was born in Salonika in Greece and came to English folk music after being interested in a wide variety of music. He started in school choirs where he discovered Carmina Burana by Carl Orff, but in the 1960’s he says he became a guitar-bashing singer of protest songs in Greek “boites” and briefly played lead guitar in a teen band; "Drosophila Melanogastris" or "aphids" to us.

He progressed to mediaeval French and Italian songs and as the music at teenage parties in Greece at that time was mainly English and American pop, he soon became interested in that as well as in some Italian and French pop music. He says he still drools over Mireille Matthieu's eyes & voice! However while in the UK in the 1970’s he final fell in love with English folk music and started playing it solo and also joined a trio called the Cosmopolitans.

He also heard the songs of the King's Singers and got some more madrigals under his belt. In the 1980’s he rediscovered Byzantine chant and sang in a choir that won the 1982 Eisteddfod and then in the 1990’s he found some gems in the Netherlands, but back in the UK in the 2000’s he picked up his folk threads again with the help of the Herga and St Albans folk clubs. In between times he was listening to the Beatles, Who, Canned Heat, Jethro Tull, Moody Blues and ELO as well as Jake Thackray, Clive James and Pete Atkin, Tom Lehrer, Stan Rogers, Graeme Miles, Robb Johnson, Dave Webber, Steve Hughes and the multitude of superb contemporary songwriters. From singing in a Greek school choir to workings as a singer song writer on the English folk scene is not a typical route but it certainly worked for George as since 2001 he has written 212 songs and recorded eight albums.

George will be at Tenterden Folk Festival on the Saturday and Sunday when he will perform in concerts and folk clubs and lead a workshop. Make a point of seeing him, and hearing him, over the weekend.

Vic Ellis – one man band

Another unusual exponent of English folk music is Vic Ellis – one man band. Vic will be taking to the streets of Tenterden with his drums, cymbals, bells, horns, melodeon, kazoos, whistles and dance steps and may even find the energy and dexterity to include a song or two. Vic is sure to draw a crowd with this traditional form of street entertainment which is said to originate with the pipe and tabor players of the 13th century and went through a period of particular popularity in the 1920s.

Booking:

To buy your tickets, book your craft fair, street stall or music fair pitch or if you would like to be otherwise involved in the Festival contact us now.

Festival information:

More details of Tenterden Folk Festival 2010, guests, accommodation and camping can be found on our website at www.tenterdenfolkfestival.org.uk.

To receive our regular email updates send an email to info@tenterdenfolkfestival.org.uk with "add to festival news list" in the subject box.

Thursday 30th September to Sunday 3rd October

Plans for Tenterden Folk Festival 2010 are now well advanced and it is set to be an exciting and entertaining weekend of traditional and contemporary English folk song and dance with several special shows over four days from Thursday 30th September to Sunday 3rd October

One of the many guests at the festival who is generating a great deal of interest is Roy Harris. Roy, who says that he is now “quite enjoying being one of the oldest guests on the circuit!” was born in 1933 to a working class family on the Nottingham/Derby border. He went to Elementary school until the age of 15 and then had various jobs until being called up for National Service in Royal Artillery and then joining the RAF. On ‘demob’ in 1959 he had various dead end jobs until he became a professional folksinger in 1964 and travel the world in this role until he retired from full time touring in 1999.

Roy’s early years and influences were extremely diverse and included the school choir, teenage talent shows, Al Jolson imitations, Nat King Cole ballads. jazz, blues, country and music hall. His interest in folk music stems from early favourites such as Frank Crumit, Jimmie Rodgers, Carson Robinson and Bessie Smith followed by the folk revival pioneers from USA such as Burl Ives, Josh White, The Weavers, Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie, Leadbelly, Cisco Houston, Big Bill Broonzy, etc. Later still he was, like most people at that time, an enthusiastic skiffler and he says he “played a mean washboard”. Roy heard his first traditional song (McCafferty) and some others, in the army and that started his life long interest in British songs. When the folk revival got underway Roy used to go to London folk clubs to as a floor sing and worked London laundry.

Roy’s involvement in folk music developed further when he moved to Cardiff 1960 and opened the first folk club in South. Wales and began singing on a semi professional basis mainly around Wales and the West Country. This resulted in him getting sacked from three jobs for taking too much time off to go singing. He finally decided to go full time after good reception at Sidmouth Folk Festival. In 1964 he moved back to Nottingham where he began seriously looking for work bookings. In 1967 he opened Nottingham Traditional Music Club which ran for 22 years and had it's own Morris team and Mummers, a research group and was the home of the Notts Alliance group. He was regularly booked at festivals from 1966, recorded five albums for Topic, plus one for Free Reed, three for Fellside and most recently one for Wildgoose. From 1976-80 Roy Directed Loughborough folk festival and coined the phrase 'a celebration of folk music', and christened it 'The National' He also compered 'The Folk Prom' at Royal Albert Hall for two years. His tours took him to Europe, Canada, USA (23 trips), Australia (where he sang at Sydney Opera House) and to Bermuda (he was first professional guest at the Bermuda folk club). He achieved many appearances on radio folk shows, occasional TV shows at home and abroad, several theatre productions, numerous concerts and festivals. He also managed to find time to write for folk magazines, his own column in Nottingham Evening Post and to present his own folk show on BBC Radio Nottingham for 10 years. For 15 years he also had a career as a television actor, mainly small parts and provided music for a number of radio documentaries. In 1991 he opened the “Traditions at the Tiger” club in Long Eaton, near Nottingham and ran it for three years until moving back to Cardiff. The club is still going strong, and has a lot of respect Roy worked with most of the top names in folk music, many of whom are sadly no longer with us, and gave encouragement to several up and coming performers who have gone on to become to days top names.

Since retiring to Wales, Roy has continued to write for several folk magazines and done occasional, mostly local bookings, but 2010 sees him appearing a several folk festivals including Tenterden.

Booking:

To buy your tickets, book your craft fair, street stall or music fair pitch or if you would like to be otherwise involved in the Festival contact us now.

Festival information:

More details of Tenterden Folk Festival 2010, guests, accommodation and camping can be found on our website at www.tenterdenfolkfestival.org.uk.

To receive our regular email updates send an email to info@tenterdenfolkfestival.org.uk with "add to festival news list" in the subject box.

www.tenterdenfolkfestival.org.uk.

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