- Peel's History of Traditional English Folk Music (PARTS 1 to 3)

I confess, I’ve never been the biggest fan of folk music. Having said that, I’ve often lamented the fact that there isn’t a stronger base of traditional English music in contemporary culture. As many of the regular readers of my irregularly posted blog will know, I live and work in Turkey. One thing that constantly amazes me is the ease in which a group of Turks will break out into song and that everyone will know all of the words. This is something I only ever really experienced around the time that Oasis released ‘Don’t look back in anger’ and ‘Wonderwall’, hardly the same.

This series of Peel-narrated documentaries, originally aired in August & September 1999, are bloody good. Chris, who sent me the end of year ’77 show, was also responsible for making these documentaries public, as well as permanently changing my perspective of this musical genre, for which I'm very greatful:

Part 1: The late Victorian era and the First World War



Part 2: To the fifties and the American influence



Part 3: The boom years of the late sixties and early seventies




There are another 3 parts, which I’ll post on the blog after I’ve given them a listen.

Thanks again to Chris for these.