Evergreen folk

Our first paid gig, a few months later, was at The Barge Folk Club, Skeldergate. We were paid £2 as a support act, in those days enough to buy a round of drinks. We were so successful we were offered another £2 to go back.

That night the main attraction failed to turn up and we were asked to top the bill. We got £10, a fan club and a double bass player, Simon Coll. He transported his instrument in a Volkswagen Beetle, an achievement in itself.

One of the artists appearing that night, an introverted folk singer, performed his own appalling composition about a lost love. By the 23rd verse the cigarette that he had carefully stuck on the end of his G string (an affectation embraced by a few folky types at the time) was nearly burnt through and the audience was getting mutinous.

He stopped playing and told them that if they didn't like it they could all p*** off. We vowed we would never again play with any artist we couldn't trust.

We decided to organise our own concerts and began a residency at The Four Alls on Malton Road, at that time a fairly quiet pub. It had just been taken over by a brilliant London-trained chef, Keith Potts. He maintains to this day that his cooking and our performance put us both 'on the map'.

The place was always packed and as we did not use any PA equipment in those days, we used to end each evening triumphant but hoarse and shattered.

One New Year's Eve the World Junior Bagpipe Champion was in the audience. At midnight he led all of us up and down the A64 to the skirl of the pipes, a memorable experience.

In 1976 Simon left. Steve and Dee Marshall and Fred Ring joined us. So now we were seven. When Keith moved from the Four Alls we began a residency at The Barge Club and stayed there for two years. We decided to make an LP and in 1977 we recorded Caught In The Act live at a packed Stockton-on-Forest Village Hall. What it lacked in expertise it more than made up for in enthusiasm and audience participation.

About 20 years ago John and Rhona got the acting bug and moved into the world of amateur dramatics: John played God in the Millennium Mystery Plays in the Minster. Martin Gaw joined us for a year and when he left in 1982 we were fortunate that Mike Brown was able to become a member of the group. The line-up of six has remained unchanged ever since.

In 1984 we appeared on television in hit children's TV show Saturday Superstore and a year later on Highway twice. These came on top of appearances on Radio Two, Radio York and Pennine Radio.

Over the years we must have played in nearly every village and school in North Yorkshire as well as many pubs and hotels. After The Barge closed we had residencies at, among others, the Highwayman, Sheriff Hutton, the Squirrel, Hull Road, the Hopgrove Inn, Malton Road, the Black Swan, Peasholme Green, and the Old Britannia Inn, Nunnery Lane.

Some concerts still live in our minds. The South Yorkshire Alsatian Dog Breeders Association Annual Dinner at Doncaster Rugby League Club for one (eat your heart out Shirley Bassey). The day a yacht sank behind us in Bridlington Bay as we performed with our backs to the window in the Tilly Morrison Bar for another. "What an enthusiastic audience!" we thought.

We had to abandon a performance at The Merchant Taylors' Hall because the River Foss flooded the premises and another time at the Viking Hotel when the fire alarm went off and we waited with scantily-dressed hotel guests in the freezing street. Wherever we have played our aim has been to involve our audience as much as possible. We have the words of all our chorus songs written on battered rolls of wallpaper.

The fact that we are still playing 30 years later and getting asked back to venues time and time again shows that we must have the right formula. The audiences are prepared to put up with draughty village halls, broken strings, buzzing PA gear and all the other imperfections that seem to make the evenings exciting. It is a bit of a shock though when young women come up and say, 'My granny used to take my mum to see you.'

We play all types of music; if we like it, we play it, whether it be folk, rock and roll, The Beatles or rap. Well, maybe not rap.

One song has had unfortunate repercussions. I sang They're Planning To Pull Down Our Local at The Fox Inn at Upper Poppleton and wondered why Ian, the landlord, looked so pained. Shortly afterwards I found out why - they did pull it down. I also sang it at Layerthorpe Working Men's Club for a fund raising charity a few months ago. That's coming down soon.

But you can't blame us for The Frog Hall, Layerthorpe, honest, unless there's such a thing as musical nuclear fall-out.

Dee keeps a list of all the songs we have played at every booking and also adds comments on audience reaction. They make interesting reading.

Usually we play for some kind of fund-raising organisation and, judging by letters received and comments made, we must have helped to raise a sum of money well into six figures during our 30 years, worth performing for that purpose alone. We hope to play for many more years even though Jim and I have qualified for our bus passes.

To celebrate our anniversary and thank everybody for their support over the years we put on a free concert on Saturday November 10, 2001, at The Cottage Inn, Haxby. We would be delighted to arrange other celebration evenings to accommodate the overflow from that night. If you are interested contact Dee and Steve on York 490440.

The Foresters next perform at Elvington Village Hall on Saturday, November 24. On sale will be the group's new CD, 30 Years On, a recording of their anniversary show at Haxby