Well, there are several famed folk fae Peebles, and I briefly mentioned the Chambers dictionary guys before, but I have to tell you about another, and today I got permission from the man himself to use some photos of himself in my blog, so here goes!
Have you heard the song about Willie MacBride, the 19 year-old, who was killed in France, during the first World War? A tombstone in a French war cemetery inspired the very emotive song called The Green Fields of France? Or what about the one about the Anzac soldier who lost both legs at Gallipoli? It's called "The band played Waltzing Matilda". 
These are probably the bestknown - worldwide - songs from the Peebles-born singer songwriter, Eric Bogle, who emigrated to Australia in 1967. One of his old friends back here in Peebles says that they were all very surprised one night in the 60s, at a party, where guitars were probably as obligatory as they were at the Edinburgh parties I used to go to, when Eric actually sang a song! Apparently he had never shown any particular aptitude for singing, so they were all quite amazed! However, the young Eric went on to sing in a band called Eric and the Informers for a while, which episode inspired another song many years later.
The first of Eric's songs I ever heard was the one about him going off in a train, leaving behind on the platform Nancy, someone very dear to him. It hit the spot with me as the same story was played out in my late teens when a boyfriend left what turned out to be the same station heading for work in London. However it was many years before I learned that Nancy wasn't a girlfriend, but his mum, and he was on his way to Australia. That song can still bring a mistiness to the eye!!!
I didn't even know who had written it till I had moved down to the north of England and started frequenting the folkclubs there. At one, I heard a very talented singer, Jim Sharp, sing this very same song, having mentioned it was written by one Eric Bogle. Sit up and take note! After that Jim used to sing other songs by the same guy - I especially remember the emotion of "Leaving the Land" - and that was me hooked!
When I came back to Scotland and settled in Peebles, I was listening to Radio Scotland one day, and heard that the next song was to be one written by "Peebles-born Eric Bogle". Wow, here was I having chosen to live in Peebles and this was Eric's hometown! After a few years I was working in our local stationer's shop when a "new girl" joined us. She and I got on well together, and it was she, Maureen, who told me of the forthcoming concert at the High School of her husband's old school friend - of course, none other than Eric.
So, a ticket was bought to go and see the great man himself, and it was then I discovered that Nancy was his mum, and the "Belle of Broughton" was his gran. It was a great concert, full of good music and humour, and at his old school too! He thought that was quite amusing!Since then he has sung at several hometown gigs and I have been at them all! Later ones featured friends of Eric's alongside him in a band, which added to the enjoyment of the songs, giving an additional range of musical instruments and voices.
This year will be Eric's last tour of the UK, and I see on the list of venues The Davy Lamp, one of the folk clubs in the north east of England that I used to go to sometimes. Its website shows that some of the members of a couple of decades ago are still to the fore. I'm willing to bet that Jim Sharp will be there - he who sang Leaving Nancy all those years ago. I may try to get down there myself, but I will most definitely be at Peebles High School for the last ever gig Eric does in this country!
Here's what he had to say in his email.... "I too am looking forward to the Peebles concert, should be an emotional night I think, not a dry seat left in the house.......yes, it will be my last concert in the UK, time to stop hauling this rapidly disintegrating body all over the world, spend a bit more time with the wife and doggies........I'll probably get back to Peebles again sometime in the future I hope, but strictly as a tourist." We hope you do, Eric!
Hi Evee
ReplyDeleteLoved your post about Eric! Saw him this Easter at the Canberra National Folk Festival, he was playing with John Munro and he still sounds good after all these years. Like a good red wine gets better with age. His songs are social commentaries and he sure hits the nail on the head with them, sang one about the death of an elderly women who lay in her home for a year unnoticed. He also sang The Band Played Waltzing Matilda, which I think is the best anti-war song ever written.
Leaving Nancy was the first song Eric wrote for himself about the pain he felt as he left his mother Nancy at the train station when he emigrated to Australia. I can't listen to this without a tear in my eye as I too was in his position living my dear old mum to travel to a distant land, not knowing if I'd ever see her again. The words of the song are so poignant.