Wednesday 19th March 2:30 - 7pm - come along to the Manchester Library to experience this exhibition with live music performances from our generation of folk musicians including Nastee Chapel and members of the Manchester based folk club Scribbling Town.
At the end of 2024 we had the great fortune to meet a chap, a friend of a friend, called Mike Butler in a pub. We got talking to him about folk music, activism and Bill Leader, turns out Mike is somewhat of an expert and has published four books delving into Bill's life and the roots of English folk music.
In February 2025 we headed to the Manchester Library to explore Mike's exhibition on Bill Leader showcasing artifacts that create a patchwork of song sheets, articles and posters about our folk culture intertwined with a fierce resistance to fascism and inequality.
'Sounding the Century' is the story of Bill Leader, the sound engineer and producer who documented music through the age of traditional song and into the folk revival.
The first World War (1914 - 1918) tore apart much of the folk culture that was still managing to resonate throughout Britain. Many people stopped gathering in pubs to share their lineage of song, a great deal was forgotten. Some however, did continue, and thanks to them we hold onto threads of our heritage.
Bill Leader's recordings of Jeannie Robertson, Margaret Barry, Walter Pardon, Belle Stewart, Fred Jordan and more, were the foundations upon which the Watersons, Anne Briggs and Nic Jones were able to stand upon and sing out.
As folk music grew in popularity, the 'folk festival' was born. In the exhibition you will see posters from the very first Cambridge Folk Festival and explore who was playing where and when at folk clubs and festivals.
You can look up Maddy Hart and Tim Prior in their magazine ad, and look through the rates for musicians at the beginning of the Musicians Union.
You'll see the thoughts of those who stood for civil rights and equality for all in the UK and USA through the jester's privilege of cheeky poems and songs.
A songbook from America in 1951 shared a song sheet for 'Deportados', a Mexican folk song about "The deported ones... They have long been relegated to second class citizenship. Their songs are a record of struggle for a decent life."
('Sing Out' A People's Artists Publication, Vol. 2, No. 2, August 1951)
This exhibition left us feeling inspired and motivated to continue sharing our folk culture and carrying the torch of equal rights for all and resistance in the face of fear mongering fascism. We highly recommend you take the opportunity to experience it for yourself.
Wednesday 19th March 2:30 - 7pm - come along to the Manchester Library to experience this exhibition with live music performances from our generation of folk musicians including Nastee Chapel and members of the Manchester based folk club Scribbling Town.
Commentaires