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| FEATURES | BY RICHARD HODKINSON |
 Bob Davenport and inset, his father Tommy who died in 1933 aged 23 |
Bob Davenport suffered an explosive start in life.As a baby he was fortunate to survive a catastrophic gas explosion that killed his father and destroyed the family home. Now he is remembering his father seven decades on his latest album, one that marks nearly 50 years in the north London folk scene. Given his musical credentials, conversation with Bob Davenport throws up a couple of unexpected turns. “I was never that keen on folk music,” is one. “I always thought of myself as a traditional singer. I still do.” That Britain has a body of ‘traditional’ music in the sense that Spain, for example, or Hungary has one, will come as a surprise to anybody who frequents high street record shops. Davenport’s new album, however, identifies a sound that is quintessentially British or, rather, English. It is as far from the polite modulations of Ralph Vaughan Williams’s and Percy Granger’s English folk arrangements as can be imagined – it is the unvarnished, melodious power of the unaccompanied male voice. Davenport was born in 1932 in Tyneside, part of the eastern seaboard that has produced much rough-hewn traditional music. The north-eastern air might have had an effect in shaping the earthy quality of his voice, but influences on his album The Common Stone are much more wide-ranging. Prokofiev and Kurt Weill provide the raw musical material for a couple of tracks, William Blake provides the lyric for another, and among original Davenport compositions are a selection of traditional songs diverse enough to serve as a compendium of British, European and North American folk. “When I was a boy on Tyneside in 1947, I bought a record – Nobody Knows You When You’re Down And Out by Bessie Smith,” says Davenport, in seeking to explain the eclectic nature of his output. “Years later, in 1967, I was performing at the first Smithsonian Institute Festival in Washington DC and, by chance, met the woman who was accompanying Bessie Smith the day she made that recording. That’s why I sing, and why I still sing that song. Traditional music from all over the world – whether it’s a negro protest song from New Orleans of something from the north of England – has a kind of connection. It’s solid, I suppose you could say.” Davenport recounts such stories in a soft Geordie accent that gives no clue to the fact that he has lived in and around Camden for all his adult life, currently in Calthorpe Street, Holborn. Despite sojourns abroad, most notably to the Newport Jazz Festival where he shared a stage in 1963 with Bob Dylan, Joan Baez and Tom Paxton, a history of his performing career could equally serve as a good pub guide to Islington. “We started in 1964 playing every Thursday at the Fox – now the Slug and Lettuce on Upper Street,” he says. “From there we went to the Hope and Anchor, the King’s Head and the Three Wheatsheaves, which is now the Australian place, Walkabout all also on Upper Street. “After that we went back up the road a bit to the Florence and then to the Empress of Russia in St John Street (currently a fish restaurant). “I used to play with a band called The Rakes, and we always played on Thursdays, because people got paid on Fridays. They were skint on Thursdays, though, but could still afford to come and see us play.” The same club is still functioning, now at The Horseshoe off Clerkenwell Green, a venue that will provide fans with an early opportunity to hear Davenport’s new album live, on December 9. Despite – or perhaps because of – Davenport’s senior status, his standing in the folk community has never been higher. The Common Stone features guest appearances from Chumbawumba, and folk musicians Richard and Linda Thompson. n The Common Stone is available from Topic Records 50 Stroud Green Road N4, from October 22. Visit www.topicrecords.co.uk. |
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