The upper room of the Black Swan, on Peasholme Green, York, is a great venue — intimate, wood panelled, floor not quite level, chairs verging on the challenging, heating options of cold or hot — but made up for by the absolutley fabulous acts that the Black Swan Folk Club puts on there. And there’s an excellent range of beers in the equally pleasant but less eccentrically heated bar downstairs.
This Thursday the guest was Roy Bailey, who has been singing on the road for 50 years now. What a treat ! What a range of delightful anecdote, exceeded only by the range of moving, amusing, tuneful songs. He had the audience singing the chorus of almost every one, loudly, or softly as in the beautiful “Beeswing”. He did several of his songs for children, including “Skin”, and one in which he had us all signing (sic) the words — pointing out that kids find signing a lot easier than grown-ups, who tend to flap their hands about quite randomly. Best of all, though, his social/political songs — he’s that rare and lovely thing nowadays, a true socialist, and the hatred of war and concern for equality and justice just makes one grateful for people like him. Not all his own songs, Tom Paxton, Richard Thompson, Pete Seeger among the writers or collectors. Oh, and a healthy contempt for New Labour.
