The 2012 Bristol Folk Festival will conjure up 'ghosts' from the city’s Seventies cult music scene when it returns next May Bank Holiday.
Pioneering artists who recorded on Bristol’s collectable independent alt-folk label, Village Thing Records, will reunite for a rare concert at Colston Hall on Sunday, May 6 -along with younger artists who have drawn inspiration from the Village Thing era.
Described by The Guardian as “the mavericks from the first British folk movement” the collective comprises Wizz Jones, Tucker Zimmerman, Ben Mandelson and Ian A. Anderson - exponents of what would later be called “psych-folk”- along with Nancy Wallace, Jason Steel and Pamela Wyn-Shannon.
Singer-guitarist Ian Anderson (now editor of Bristol-based fRoots Magazine) says: “In the early Seventies the contemporary folk scene in Bristol was the liveliest and most creative outside London.”
The “scene” centred on the Bristol Troubadour Club in the student quarter of Clifton.
Anderson (billing himself as Ian A. Anderson to avoid confusion with the rock artist of the same name!) founded Village Thing Records with the Troubadour’s manager John Turner and Gef Lucena of local indy label Saydisc.
Working out of offices in Park Lane, Village Thing Records released more than 20 albums and several singles between 1970-74 including their biggest seller, Fred Wedlock’s “The Folker” which shifted 20,000 copies.
The label prospered with its unique mix of established names and newcomers, UK singer songwriters and visiting Americans. Difficulties with their distributor eventually saw the doors close on Village Thing Records in 1974.
In 2010 the label organised a 40th year celebration with a performance at London’s Cecil Sharp House and released the “Ghosts from the Basement” CD featuring what it called “lost songs, dreams and folkadelia from the vaults of the Village Thing” featuring many previously unheard recordings.
Published on 15 February 2012 by Ben Robinson
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