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Hello all
I was just wondering if people can remember the first song they ever heard by Jake and what their first memories of him were.
Good question,Michael. Mine was probably "Lah Di Dah". I’d only be a young chap at the time but,thanks to my dear old Dad,I had an appreciation of an eclectic array of musical genres.Consequently I could see that this guy was something a bit different.As the years went by I realised that he was something a bit special.It’s great that,with this site,I realise that it wasn’t just me who thought so.
"Jolly Captain" on "That’s Life", which our family always watched. 1977, I think. Several weeks later, having watched Jake sing "The Cactus" and "Bantam Cock" too, I borrowed the "The Very Best of Jake Thackray" lp off a mate at school and that was it. :o)
I have to to confess that I’m only a recent convert (Thanks to the recent BBC programme). I was channel hopping well past midnight when I caught the start of Jake singing "The Black Swan". At the risk of sounding like a big girl’s blouse, I was immediately captured by how sad and beautiful a song it was. After a bit more flicking I turned back to BBC4 (3?) just in time to catch most of "The Statues". My first thoughts were: WHO WAS THIS SINGER??? WHY HAVE I NEVER HEARD OF HIM BEFORE?? After listening to "The Castleford Ladies Magical Circle", I was hooked! I went straight on to Amazon Online shopping. The rest is history.:woohoo:
For me, it was all my mum’s fault. I guess I was thirteen or fourteen years old, had just started to learn to play the guitar, and she suggested I might like to have a go at songs by this clever, funny singer. So I bought the songbook without ever having heard any of his songs. Then I saw him on The Innes Book of Records, doing On Again, On Again, and I was hooked (and realised that I had no hope of playing his songs properly!). Soon after that I saw the TV series ‘And Songs’, which became required viewing. Round about the same time I managed to see him live for the first time, in Hereford. The occasion (in the rather formal setting of a proper theatre) was memorable because there was lots of interference through the P.A. system from taxi radios, something Jake made great fun of.
It was That’s Life! for me too. Like Malcy above, I couldn’t attempt to remember when except to say I was in my early teens (if anyone could pin down his appearances on the show, they could fill some holes on his imDb.com page)*. My dad remembered him from The Braden Beat, as I recall.
The usual selection of compendium albums followed, but I didn’t see him play live until 1985 — in a very lah-di-dah room in the Queens Hotel, Leeds, where someone was trying against hope to establish a new folk club. The room looked like a wedding reception venue, smelt of fresh paint and was host to an early incarnation of the dreaded public venue smoking ban. Recognising the adverse effect this was having on the folky atmosphere (if not the gaseous one), Jake insisted that everyone who was so inclined light up immediately.
(* Edit: I’ve just seen the listings in the TV section. Nice one. I’ll pass them on to imDb. com myself)
Probably Sister Josephine on That’s Life but it might have been something else on either Braden or Up Sunday. Certainly it is Sister Jo which is in the memory.
Then at some point I found Bantam Cock on vinyl and shortly afterwards caught him twice at the 17th Cambridge Folk Festival (with Alan Williams)and then again at the George Square Theatre in Edinburgh.
I remember vividly one of the Cambridge sets – The Kiss, Hair of the Widow of Brid, Blacksmith and the Toffee Maker, The Brigadier, The Remembrance, Sister Jo, and The Bull. Possibly a couple of others like Bantam Cock and Lah-di-dah but would have been 45 minutes so with chat that is about right.
Ian
Post edited by: aliasmacalias, at: 2007/05/14 19:53
Sun_King wrote:
I have to to confess that I’m only a recent convert (Thanks to the recent BBC programme). I was channel hopping well past midnight when I caught the start of Jake singing "The Black Swan". At the risk of sounding like a big girl’s blouse, I was immediately captured by how sad and beautiful a song it was. After a bit more flicking I turned back to BBC4 (3?) just in time to catch most of "The Statues". My first thoughts were: WHO WAS THIS SINGER??? WHY HAVE I NEVER HEARD OF HIM BEFORE?? After listening to "The Castleford Ladies Magical Circle", I was hooked! I went straight on to Amazon Online shopping. The rest is history.:woohoo:
Wow, that describes my experience almost exactly! I’ve since grabbed as much of his back catalogue on CD as possible, and I’d say I’ve listened to more Jake than any of my other music in my collection ever since.
I think the song that ‘converted’ me was "The Kiss", which I remember being enticed by as I watched him playing.
As I write I’m listening to the Ballad of Billy Kershaw, which is one of the first songs I played having purchased Lah-di-dah…
As a side-note, I’m amazed I had not heard any Jake up until now. Whilst the vast majority of his music precedes my years, I’m surprised that none of the programmes in which he appeared ever graced my television set beforehand.
The BBC programme is still on my Sky Plus planner as I haven’t the heart to delete it as yet :blush:
Family Tree was my first.
I saw Jake perform this on the TV one Saturday night in the UK many, many years ago on the Bernard Braden Show (I think), absolutely superb and a big fan ever since.
I sing a few of Jake’s songs still today with my guitar at folk clubs here in Newcastle NSW Australia and what a reception they get from people who have never heard his material before.
The songs include, The Cactus, Sister Josephine, Personal Column, Girl in the Window, Isobel Makes Love Upon National Monuments and of course Bantam Cock!
Long may his music live on!!In the early 70’s Woman’s Hour chose "Lah-di-Dah" as the accompanying tune for one of it’s daily serials. Can’t remember what the story was, but I fell in love with the song!
Hello everyone,I’m so pleased to have found this site.
My first memory of Jake was seeing him on That’s Life,I’m sure it was Lah-Di-Dah,the mind is not what it once was though so I can’t be sure.I think I must have been about ten at the time.
Not long after that our Mum bought the Live Performance album and that as they say was that.
Jake was one of those beautiful human beings who was able to touch everyone and make you smile even when you weren’t feeling like it.Even through the chaos of punk rock my brothers and I would always reach for the Live album in between listening to other luminaries of the day such as the Sex Pistols and The Clash.Jake was never out of place.
I saw him perform just the once in Pontardawe and the memory of seeing him perform will always live with me.
Today is my 42nd birthday and my wife has bought me the CD of the Live Performance album.
The years have not diminished his wonderful songs and listening to them today is as exciting and funny as listening to them all those years ago.
He has been an inspiration to many and will always be in our hearts.
Thank you for the wonderful memories Jake,you’ve made this world a somewhat better place.Belated birthday greetings Jim! Is your CD worn out yet?
If you get a chance to go to one of the Jakefests when they’re organised, then do. We have a marvellous band of singers who do their own interpretations, and they’re brill! This weekend in Stroud – it’s not too late (see the news page on this website). Sadly I can’t go myself, but will be thinking about everyone.
Pam
Thank you for the greetings Pam,much appreciated.The CD has been played at every oppurtunity since my birthday,Jake’s humour makes me and my wife smile every time.
I’d love to be able to get to one of the shows though I do struggle a bit these days after an accident left me with serious damage to my spine.
I’ll keep in touch with the site to see what is going on.
The site is brilliant by the way.
It is important to make people aware of the great man’s work.
He is a National treasure.Hello folks. Just joined and this is my first post. Glad to be amongst kindred spirits by the way.
Being (slightly) too young to remember the Bernard Braden thing, my fist memory of hearing Jake was as a 14/15year old listening to James Stannage’s show on the recently launched Manchester independent station, Radio Piccadilly. I’m fairly sure "Sister Josephine" was the catalyst on my ‘road to Damascus.’ I’m also reasonably sure that I’d heard (a few shows earlier) Stannage play Jasper Carrott’s version of "Bantam Cock" though.
Stannage’s show (obviously this probably means little to anyone more than around twenty miles outside Manchester) was quite ground-breaking in that he was probably one of the first radio hosts (in the UK at least) to have ‘phone-ins’ where he’d ‘hang-up’ on the caller if he deemed them to be talking rubbish (though a sceptic might say he’d hang up if he thought the caller was getting the upper hand)and could be quite insulting with it.
Stannage (originally from the North East) also had a playlist that included tracks by not just Jake but also the likes of Mike Harding, the aforementioned Carrott, Bernard "the Bolton Bullfrog" Wrigley, fellow Boltonian Bob Williamson, Shep Woolley (British ‘folkie’ – not to be confused with his American near-namesake Sheb, of "Purple People Eater" fame/notoriety) and Billy Connolly amongst others. I’m probably not alone in thinking that, unlike Jake, many of these artists (as good as they were and with a few notable exceptions) were very much ‘of their time’ and today seem to have dated somewhat.Post edited by: Stuart W, at: 2008/02/21 19:41
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