Albert Lancaster Lloyd

(29 February 1908 – 29 September 1982), usually known as A. L. Lloyd or Bert Lloyd, was an English folk singer and collector of folk songs, and as such was a key figure in the folk music revival of the 1950s and 1960s.

From Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A._L._Lloyd

Early life

Lloyd was born in Wandsworth in London, his father was an AA Patrolman and failed smallholder. His mother sang songs around the house and according to Lloyd mimicked the Gipsy singers that she'd heard. By the age of fifteen his mother had died and his father, an ex-soldier, was a semi-invalid, and Lloyd was sent as an assisted migrant to Australia in a scheme organised by the British Legion.[1] There, from 1924–1930, he worked on various sheep stations in New South Wales and it was during this time that he began to write down folksongs he learned.[2] In the outback of New South Wales he discovered that he could access the State Library and order books—his special interests being art and music he could get a grasp of those topics without seeing a painting or hearing any music. He also bought a wind-up gramophone and began to investigate some of the classical music he had previously read about.

Career as folklorist

When he returned to the UK in the Great Depression of the early 1930s, in the absence of a permanent job, he pursued his interests in studying folk music and social and economic history, doing much of his research at the British Museum: he is quoted as saying that there is "nothing like unemployment for educating oneself".[3] In 1937 he signed on board the factory whaling ship the Southern Empress bound for the southern whaling grounds of the Antarctic.[4]

During this decade, he joined the Communist Party of Great Britain[5] and was strongly influenced by the writings of the Marxist historian, A. L. Morton, particularly his 1938 book A People's History Of England.[6] In 1937, Lloyd's article "The People's own Poetry" was published in the Daily Worker (since 1966 renamed The Morning Star) newspaper.[5]

In 1938 the BBC hired him to write a radio documentary about seafaring life, and from then on he worked as a journalist and singer. A proponent of communism, Lloyd was staunchly opposed to Adolf Hitler, and, in 1939, he was commissioned by the BBC to produce a series of programmes on the rise of Nazism. Between 1945 and 1950 he was employed as a journalist by Picture Post magazine but he left the job in an act of solidarity with one of his colleagues.[6]

By the 1950s he had established himself as a professional folklorist—as Colin Harper puts it "in a field of one".[7] Harper goes on to note that, at a time when the English folk revival was dominated by young people who wore jeans and pullovers, Lloyd was rarely seen in anything other than a suit (and a wide grin). Ewan MacColl is quoted as describing Lloyd (with affection) as "a walking toby jug".[8] In 1959 his collaboration with Ralph Vaughan Williams, The Penguin Book of English Folk Songs, was published.

In the early 1960s, Lloyd became associated with an enterprise known as "Centre 42" which arose from Resolution 42 of the 1960 Trades Union Congress, concerning the importance of arts in the community. Centre 42 was a touring festival aimed at devolving art and culture from London to the other main working class towns of Britain. It was led by Arnold Wesker, with MacColl and Lloyd providing the musical content and Charles Parker on production. Centre 42 was important in bringing a range of folk performers to the public attention: Anne Briggs, the Ian Campbell Folk Group, The Spinners and The Watersons.[9]

Lloyd recorded many albums of English folk music, most notably several albums of the Child Ballads with Ewan MacColl. He also published many books on folk music and related topics, including The Singing Englishman, Come All Ye Bold Miners, and Folk Song in England. He was a founder-member of Topic Records and remained as their artistic director until his death. He died at his home in Greenwich in 1982.[10]

While Lloyd is most widely known for his work with British folk music, he had a keen interest in the music of Spain, Latin America, Southeastern Europe and Australia (He recorded at least 6 discs of Australian Bush Ballads and folk music).

Lloyd also helped establish the folk music subgenre of industrial folk music through his books, recordings, collecting and theoretical writings.

Discography

The Shooting of His Dear / Lord Bateman, HMV B.10593, 78rpm, 1953 Down in Yon Forest / The Bitter Withy, HMV B.10594, 78rpm, 1953 Bold Jack Donahue / Banks of the Condamine, Topic TRC84, 78rpm, 1954 Australian Bush Songs, Riverside RLP 12-606, 1956 The Foggy Dew and Other Traditional English Love Songs, Tradition Records TLP 1016, LP, USA, 1956 Banks of the Condamine and Other Bush Songs, Wattle Records (Australia) 10" LP, 1957 Across the Western Plains, Wattle Records (Australia) LP, 1958 Outback Ballads. Folk songs of Australia. Topic Records 12T51, 1958 English Drinking Songs, Riverside Records (USA) LP, 1961. CD Reissue: Topic records England and Her Folk Songs (A Selection From The Penguin Book), with Alf Edwards, Collector Records (UK) 7" EP First Person (Some Of His Favourite Folk Songs), Topic Records LP, 1966 The Best Of A.L. Lloyd, Xtra (UK) LP, 1966. Leviathan, Topic Records (UK) LP, 1967. CD Reissue: Topic records Ten Thousand Miles Away: English and Australian Folk Songs, Fellside Records (UK) 2CD, 2008

With Ewan MacColl

The English and Scottish Popular Ballads 9 Volumes, Washington albums, 1952 Thar She Blows! (Whaling Ballads and Songs), Riverside RLP 12-635 (USA) LP, 1957 Convicts and Currency Lads. Wattle Recordings B2, EP, 1958 Whaling Ballads, Washington WLP 724 (USA) LP, 196x. This was a reissue of the Riverside album above. English and Scottish Folk Ballads, Topic Records (UK) LP, 1964 Bold Sportsmen All, Topic Records (UK) 10", 1958. CD reissue: Topic Records Gamblers and Sporting Blades (Songs Of The Ring and the Racecourse), Topic records (UK) 7" EP, 1962 A Sailor's Garland, Xtra Records (UK) LP, 1966 Blow Boys Blow (Songs of The Sea), Tradition Records (USA) LP, 1967. CD Reissue: Tradition, 1996

Compilations and contributions

Blow The Man Down, Topic Records (UK) 7" EP, 1956 The Iron Muse (A Panorama of Industrial Folk Music), Topic Records (UK) LP, 1963 Farewell Nancy (Sea Songs and Shanties), Topic Records (UK) LP, 1964 The Bird In The Bush (Traditional Erotic Songs), Topic Records (UK) LP, 1966 Singing The Fishing – A Radio Ballad, Argo Records (UK) LP, 1967 Babbacombe Lee by Fairport Convention (1971), Island Records: Narration and arrangement The Valiant Sailor (Songs & Ballads of Nelson's Navy), Topic Records (UK) LP, 1973 Sea Shanties, Topic Records (UK) LP, 1974 The Transports (A Ballad Opera by Peter Bellamy), Free Reed (UK) 2LP, 1977 Topic Sampler No. 1 – Folk Songs, Topic Records (UK) LP Topic Sampler No. 2 – Folk Songs, Topic Records (UK) LP Topic Sampler No. 3 – Men At Work, Topic Records (UK) LP Topic Sampler No. 6 – A Collection Of Ballads & Broadsides, Topic Records (UK) LP Topic Sampler No. 7 – Sea Songs & Shanties, Topic Records (UK) LP

Recorded and edited by Lloyd

Folk Music of Bulgaria, Topic Records (UK) LP, 1964 The Music of Albania, Topic Records (UK) LP, 1966

Bibliography

García Lorca, Federico (1937) Lament for the Death of a Bullfighter and other poems; translated by A. L. Lloyd. London: Heinemann Kafka, Franz (1937) The Metamorphosis; translated by A. L. Lloyd. London: Parton Press Fallada, Hans (1952) The Drinker; translated by C. Lloyd and A. L. Lloyd: Melville House, Hoboken, N.J. Lloyd, A. L. & Vinogradoff, Igor (1940) Shadow of the Swastika, London: John Lane The Bodley Head Lloyd, A. L. (1944) The Singing Englishman: an introduction to folksong. London: Workers’ Music Association Lloyd, A. L. (compiler) (1945) Corn on the Cob (Popular and Traditional Poetry of the USA) London: Fore Publications Lloyd, A. L. (1951) Singing Englishmen: a collection of folk-songs specially prepared for a Festival of Britain concert given in association with the Arts Council of Great Britain Lloyd, A. L. (compiler) (1952) Coaldust Ballads (Part-songs by various composers). London: Workers’ Music Association Lloyd, A. L. (compiler) (1952) Come All Ye Bold Miners (Ballads & Songs of the Coalfield) London: Lawrence & Wishart Vaughan Williams, Ralph & Lloyd, A. L. (editors) (1959) The Penguin Book of English Folk Songs Harmondsworth: Penguin Books Lloyd, A. L. (1960) The Golden City London: Methuen Lloyd, A. L. (1967) Folk Song in England London: Lawrence & Wishart (Paperback edition: Paladin, 1975)

Films

Ken Taylor, Ten Thousand Miles: A.L.Lloyd in Australia, 1970 Gavin Barry, Bert a personal memoir, 1985 [edit] References^ Particularly in the period after World War I, Australia had a policy of recruiting child migrants from the United Kingdom, financially assisted by the British Government’s Empire Settlement legislation. See, for example, the Department of Health website ^ Britta Sweers, Electric Folk: The Changing Face of English Traditional Music, Oxford University Press, 2005, ISBN 0-19-515878-4 ^ Sleeve notes to LP First Person (Topic 12T118). ^ Michael Brocken, The British Folk Revival 1944–2002, Ashgate Publishing, Ltd, 2003. ISBN 0-7546-3282-2 p.26 ^ a b Brocken p.25 ^ a b Brocken p.26 ^ Harper, Colin (2006). Dazzling Stranger: Bert Jansch and the British Folk and Blues Revival (2006 edition). Bloomsbury. pp. 26. ISBN 0-7475-8725-6. ^ Harper p.26 ^ Harper p.103 ^ Lucy Duran, "A. L. Lloyd. A Tribute", published in Yearbook for Traditional Music, Vol. 14, 1982 (1982), pp. xiii–xv The 1956 film Moby Dick, directed by John Huston featured Lloyd's unmistakable voice singing a sea shanty as the Pequod first sets sail. There is a brief visual clip of him too.

External links

Biography of A. L. Lloyd in Canadian Journal for Traditional Music (1999/2000): "Starting Over: A. L. Lloyd and the Search for a New Folk Music, 1945–49" by E. David Gregory The A. L. Lloyd Collection – Lloyd's library and papers at the Library of Goldsmiths College, University of London Reinhard Zierke's British Folk website Most complete Discography Bert Lloyd Centenary links – Australian Folk Songs website A Tribute to Bert – EFDSS Concert 15 November 2008 BBC Radio 3 highlights of Tribute to Bert – Lucy Duran World Routes EFDSS Book Launch – Bert: The Life and Times of A.L.Lloyd