by Paul Castle

Contents

UK News - Martin Carthy comments on his surprise appearance with Paul Simon in London last month.
London Gigs
The Best of the Rest of the UK
UK Festivals

October has been another outstanding month for folk-related music in the UK, and there's plenty more to look forward to in the coming weeks, with Tim O'Brien & The Crossing, Emmylou Harris, Taj Mahal, and Chris Smither, to name just a few, all touring over here in November.

October's biggest surprise, though, was undoubtedly Martin Carthy's appearance on stage at the end of Paul Simon's concert at the Hammersmith Apollo to play 'Scarborough Fair' together to rapturous applause. Readers of last month's 'Across the Pond' may have noticed several mentions about Martin's friendship and early influence on Bob Dylan and Paul Simon during their time in
London in the sixties. His knowledge and enthusiasm for traditional music had fired both of them - Dylan into writing his own words to traditional melodies and Paul Simon into learning Martin's arrangement of 'Scarborough Fair', which, on his return to America, became such a big worldwide hit for Simon and Garfunkel.

As various comments in interviews and TV documentaries over the years suggested, Martin had always felt more than a little aggreived that he was not given any share in or credit for this success. In the light of this, Paul Simon's warm introduction and their performance together was completely unexpected. It seemed such a surprising and yet positive outcome to an unfortunate situation that I thought I'd ask Martin how this came about, and his feelings after the event.

Here's his reply:

"It was a great moment and the whole thing is about as satisfying as it could be. And all because of a phone call from Paul a week or so beforehand with, among other things, an invitation to his London gig, an invitation which turned out to be an invitation to sing. So I accepted.

"The feeling has been growing more and more in me that, at the very very least, it was time to let go. Putting it quite bluntly: even if I had cause to be aggrieved - which I was becoming less and less sure was ever really the case - I cannot be a victim all my life. In fact, in an interview ten years ago or so, Paul thanked publicly all the musicians and others he had known in England in the sixties, and this gave a shove to that train of thought in me.

"In interviews more recently I have found myself, when faced with the inevitable question, less and less willing to go through this "trudge through the grudge". What I had felt was, I think, more to do with injured pride than actually being cheated by the man. It has become apparent over the years that any such cheating was done by others in the course of, or, in the aftermath of lawsuits. For a fair time now the music he makes has been telling me one important thing, and finally I have taken notice. That this is a good man. Gracious too. His musicians love him and feel valued. They respond by being just about the best band they could possibly be. Simply hearing them play that night was to be given a masterclass. I was quite nervy at the thought of going out there and singing but Paul himself made it very easy.

"What else is there to say? Except that I left the Hammersmith Apollo a very happy man, with a weight off my mind and a real feeling of release. And all it took was to sing and talk with him at the end of the London leg of his tour. This is someone who values the life he has led - all of it - and detests the idea of bad blood. I'm thankful to him for having the imagination and the grace to pick up the phone and set up what has made an end of this nonsense. It's over."

- Martin Carthy

Paul Castle with Richie Havens at the Jazz Cafe, London.

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