Neil Wayne's Notes on the making of 'Up to Now'

Neil Wayne writes..... My early memories of the folk revival date from the Birmingham of the late '60s, when I ran a subterranean 'folk 'n jazz' club - "The Grotto" - in a damp cellar beneath Brum's fruit market, and also did embarrassing floor- spots at The Campbells' famous Digbeth Folk Club.. Even then, The Dransfields were one of the bright stars of that thriving scene, and soon became, as they still remain, a yardstick for uncompromising, quality performance of British traditional and traditionally-crafted music. By 1974, I was running Free Reed (the concertina fanzine) and Free Reed Mail Order Records, trying to bring the great riches of recorded folk music, then hidden away in the Topic, Leader and other labels' back catalogues, to a wider audience. Within a year or so, I had started the Free Reed label, to give the avalanche of both new and neglected talent on the scene a voice on vinyl. As well as Free Reed LPs from John Kirkpatrick, Peter Bellamy, Tony Hall and a decent roster of traditional singers and concertina players, I was lucky enough, in 1976, to record and release Robin and Barry's first - and finest - acoustic album together since their Leader/Trailer classics of 1970/71 - which was 'Popular to Contrary Belief'. Since these early days, the Dransfields' work and influence has run like a golden thread through the continuing folk revival: Barry's work on 'Morris On' - the first serious link between folk and rock, and itself prompted by the Dransfield's exploration of Morris music in their repertoire; session work for the stars of the day; choice recordings (not too often) and the occasional live performance or brief tour. These days the brothers are busy, but reclusive, instrument restorers and repairers, but do re-appear when the right gig comes along - and Barry's tours with Steeleye Span and his recent acclaimed CDs on Rhiannon keep that magic coming. So why this CD set?? - Well - as Tolkien said of the writing of 'The Lord of the Rings', "The tale grew in the telling...." In 1995, after re-releasing of Free Reed's classics 'The Tale of Ale' and 'The Old Swan Band/Old Swan Brand' on CD, I was getting a rising clamour of demand for a CD re-release of 'Popular to Contrary Belief'. I then began looking for extra Dransfield material so as to create a re-issue of decent length (who wants to buy 38 minutes of music on a CD with space for 78 minutes?) But initially, I drew a blank; Their folk-rock classic 'The Fiddler's Dream' was tied up with a US company who 'might release it one day'; their Leader recordings appeared 'lost' in some dusty archives; their solo LPs were all long-deleted, and BBC tapes all reportedly destroyed.. However, a year of 'folk-archaeology' began to unearth a wealth of real treasures: Barry provided surviving tapes of some 1970s 'John Peel' and 'In Concert' BBC recordings - (saved from a BBC skip!); Polydor located masters from Barry's 'lost' solo LP; and the Geoff Wall Folk Tape Archive located BBC sessions of the Dransfields' various folk-rock bands and some rare solo sessions. Then, the Bulmer/Sharpley Leader Archive offered some vitale Leader tracks, Island chipped in Barry's track from 'Morris On', Topic provided master tracks from the boys' solo LPs - and we even found their very first recordings for 'Folk on Friday'! All in all, we found eleven new and unreleased performances (including a superb unlogged 'Peel Session' from BBC Worldwide), and finally, we were permitted to use a couple of tracks from Castle's 1997 re-release of 'Fiddler's Dream' and from Barry's recent Rhiannon CDs - right 'up to now' as the title says!! With all these jewels, the project swelled to two CDs and merited this definitive and exhaustive booklet, and now offers over two and a half hours of the finest - and rarest - of Dransfield music ever assembled. One more thing - The other 'golden thread' that runs through this project, and through the British folk revival in general, is the priceless contribution of the late Nic Kinsey - record producer, master engineer, drinker, studio-builder - and friend and mentor to thousands of folk and folk-rock musicians and singers over the past 35 years. Just read the 'small print' production creditsof this CD, or of any classic British folk recording, be it Leader, Topic, Free Reed or even many of the 'big names' - and Nic's name is more than likely to be there. As a producer, engineer, saviour, shaper and creator of the finest of recorded folk music, he simply had no equal - thanks Nic.

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