Ralph McTell - Web Site Index

"Travelling Man" provides a timely reminder of Ralph McTell's earlier work, and - even more importantly - the fact that the quality of his writing is still improving"
Robin Denselow
London
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On this site you will find articles, reviews and interviews on Ralph McTell and other bits of info. I try to keep up to date on Tour info where possible.

I try to add to the site as often as possible, so if you have any articles, interviews or reviews perhaps you could let me know. I am particularly looking for articles from 70s publications, like Melody Maker, Sounds, New Musical Express and Folk Roots, along with any articles from the national and local press.

If you would like to add a Concert review from the most recent tour or other Ralph McTell concerts you have attended, then visit the appropriate Concert Reviews page.

I plan to send short email updates out from time to time, with any current news – Radio appearances, Tour amendments etc. If you would like an update, please let me know. You don’t have to be in the UK for this – it will just keep you up to date with what Ralph is up to.

Stan and Ollie dance on this page, because I know Ralph is a big fan!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Fri 5 Jun
Durham Gala Theatre
tix £18.50adv
www.galadurham.co.uk
0191 332 4041

Sat 6 Jun
Stamford, Lincs - 10th Stamford Guitar Festival
Tix £20 adv
www.stamfordartscentre.com
01780 763 203

Sun 7 Jun
London, Chelsea Cadogon Hall
Tix £22.50 adv
www.cadoganhall.com
0207 730 4500

Thu 11 Jun
Aylesbury Aylesbury Civic Centre in The Maxwell Hall
Tix £18.50 adv
www.aylesburycivic.org
01296 486009

Benny Gallagher - Live Album

I recently purchased a live album by Ralph's mate Benny Gallagher, One Stage. The album is terrific and includes, amongst other things, some well known songs from Benny's collaborations with Graham Lyle ....

1 We
2 I'll Be There
3 15 Summers
4 Brushin Up on my Blues
5 Keep The Candle Burnin
6 Mrs Canatellis
7 The Rooster
8 The First Leaves of Autumn
9 How Come
10 The Salt Of Her Tears
11 I Wanna Stay with you
12 Malt And Barley Blues
13 Heart On My Sleeve
14 Stay Young

The album is available from Benny's My Space web site and also via ITunes, which is how I got it ....

While on the subject, can I also mention the solo album by Benny's other 'alf, Graham Lyle, Something Beautiful Remains ....

Of the the Ralph Christmas Shows I attended, the best surprise was the appearance one year of Gallagher and Lyle, who reunited for the show. It was great ... Ralph
wasn't bad either that night if I remember right .... ONLY JOKING!!

Ralph McTell
26th of October 2008,
Memorial Hall Sheffield
a review by Karen Wood
If I had to choose one quality that sums up all Ralph McTell’s work, it would be compassion. The subjects are wide ranging from drug addicts, the homeless, mentally ill, unemployed, victims of war, society's rejects, all kinds of sad individuals, through to fulfilled and happy ones whose happiness is universal - parents and children, lovers, friends. But always our heart is touched, moved, enlarged, always we are more loving people by the end of a Ralph McTell song. The playwright Willy Russell is indeed right when he calls him "big, big hearted" - and it is fitting too as he notes, that Ralph is physically a "big, big man".
A concert is a more light-hearted affair in many ways than listening to his albums, or a dip into his - naturally - "big" book of song lyrics (he's written about four hundred, he told us at this gig), which are so finely written that most stand up as poems in their own right. And because Ralph is, as we'd expect, a friendly warm-hearted man, he often talks to his audience as friends (indeed many are - those attending concerts for over thirty years include a couple who book holidays to follow his tour itinerary, taking their children before their schooldays and another who turned down a Mediterranean holiday when it clashed with his tour dates). His talk is not "patter" but warm anecdotes - over the years I've learnt about his parents, brother, wife, children, uncles, teachers, animals, as well as direct details about his songs and guitars - famously his beloved "Miss Gibson" (reminding me of The Commitments' Joey The Lips Fagan's advice on how to blow a saxophone). And as you'd expect there's self-deprecating humour, "You can now get my old numbers on those cheap CDs you see in petrol stations - I know because I saw them" and how an interviewer once criticised him for mauling "that great Roger Whitaker song Streets of London" - which we regulars have always known, but BBC’s known recently, was really about the streets of Paris.
A delight too is his superlative guitar playing, a gift as surprisingly well developed as his songwriting. But even the predominantly instrumentals in all their fast technical dexterity are shot through with compassion, they are sad stories of the downtrodden and dispossessed. His heroes were Woody Guthrie with his tales of the exploited dustbowlers, and to whom he dedicates his lyrics book "Time’s Poems", or black guitar pickers whose ragtime and blues pieces he played a couple of including Blind Willy McTell - "a relative of a while back", he joked.
So get to a McTell concert for your emotional health's sake! On my night - and he plans this tour to dip into "more than his usual hundred" songs he tends to play - there were narrative songs dense as short stories and chock-a-block with atmosphere, about a mentally disabled child whose reality was partly more sane and beautiful than ours, a more than normally melancholic circus clown, lovers whose relationship had been truly deep even when they were young, a lad about to go to the first world war, an "eco warriror" long before the term had been coined, a perceptive insight about the young Dylan Thomas, and a song inspired by a remark by Kenneth Williams - oh, as well as of course the unhappy characters who still roam the streets of London. If you are feeling sorry for yourself before a gig you won't be afterwards, and if you were cheerful you'll be even more so. But also grateful. Mellow. Thankyou Ralph. "Life's rich tapestry" as the saying goes, is made even more rich by you. If a song like "Jesus Wept" with Christ doubting his divinity, or "Mrs Adlam's Angels" with a now disbelieving adult, didn't show me your agnosticism, I'd say God bless you. And to quote from one of your tender songs "I'll say it anyway" yes, God bless you Ralph. Hugely.

News From Leola
Dear Friends,
As some of you may have been aware, we have had some problems with the website over the last month or so. We are pleased to confirm that the site is now back up and running. We have now changed some of the technical procedures to improve reliability but hopefully you will not notice any difference to the functioning of the site.

Ralph’s autobiography is now available in paperback containing both Angel Laughter and Summer Lightning (volumes 1&2) in a combined volume entitled As Far As I Can Tell.
Click Here

There is reduced price for anybody buying the 3CD audiobook version at the same time as the new autobiography.
Click Here

More dates are being added to the Autumn tour. At the moment the following venues have been confirmed, but more dates will be added over the next few months.

24-Oct The Brindley, Runcorn 0151 907 8360
29-Oct The Ashcroft Theatre, Croydon 0208 603 3981
30-Oct The Elgiva, Chesham 01494 582900
31-Oct The Gulbenkian, Canterbury 01227 769075
6&7-Nov The Acorn, Penzance 01736 365520
8-Nov The Landmark Theatre, Ilfracombe 01271 324242
9-Nov St Georges Hall, Bristol 0845 402 4001
13-Nov Tivoli Theatre, Wimborne Minster 01202 885566
15-Nov The Stables, Milton Keynes* 01908 280800
21-22 Nov The Guildhall, Derby 01332 255800
25-Nov The Opera House, Buxton 0845 127 2190
26-Nov The Guildhall, Preston 01772 258858
28-Nov The Playhouse, Alnwick 01665 510785

Remember to check the tour page at the website.

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As part of the promotion of Ralph's forthcoming DVD and book, an article was pubished in Properganda (sic), the free music magazine published by Proper Music Distribution and circulated through record shops and at gigs

Ralph McTell has been busy of late and this autumn sees the fruits of his recent burst of creativity.

Not many artists are able to issue three items simultaneously in three different media but that is exactly what Ralph has done with a concert DVD, a book and a triple CD.

'McTell on The Mall' is a full-length DVD featuring highlights from three concerts performed on consecutive evenings at London's prestigious Institute of Contemporary Arts. The videotapes were believed lost but have recently resurfaced and both footage and soundtrack have been painstakingly prepared for release. The result is a high-quality permanent record of Ralph at his best. 'McTell on The Mall' is in widescreen format and includes a choice of stereo and surround sound.

'As Far As I Can Tell' is the title of both a book and a triple CD, the culminations of a major project. Originally published in two hardback volumes, Ralph's autobiography is now available in paperback. This new edition features additional chapters illustrated by photos from the McTell family album.

The book is much more than a run-of-the-mill rock star biog – anyone expecting an exposé of 1970s excess will be disappointed. Rather, Ralph's sharp recall of his early life and his keen observation provide a fascinating glimpse of working class life between VE Day and The Beatles, as well as intriguing insights into the stories behind many of his songs.

Described by dramatist Willy Russell as "a council house Cider With Rosie", 'As Far As I Can Tell' has been acclaimed by Louis de Bernieres, Francis Wheen, Roger McGough, and Billy Connolly among others. At 600-odd pages, it is a richly rewarding read not only for McTell fans but for any reader interested in Britain's recent social history.

'As Far As I Can Tell' is also the title of the complementary three-CD set of spoken word and song. Five years in the making, the set features Ralph reading extracts from his autobiography interspersed with songs new and old.

The readings and songs have been carefully chosen to illustrate how much of Ralph's life is reflected in his songwriting. In a wideranging journey through his extensive repertoire, over a dozen songs have been specially re-recorded for this triple CD together with three brand new compositions.

"Recording the songs anew was a discovery for me," says Ralph. "Several are nearly forty years old and I seldom sing them these days. It was like meeting an old friend you haven't seen for years – still young, the future still uncertain."

With 76 individual tracks, the mix of re-recordings, readings and rarities make 'As Far As I Can Tell' an album to treasure and return to again and again.

this is Croydon Today.co.uk
Review: Ralph Mctell, Fairfield, Croydon
Friday, November 07, 2008, 07:00
5 stars
Ralph McTell strolled on stage at Fairfield, shirtsleeves rolled up and ready for business entertaining his home crowd.
This man is so relaxed: despite the chasm of the concert hall he conjured an intimately friendly atmosphere just like the folk clubs must have been when he started his musical career more than 40 years ago.
This was, he told us, the official launch of his autobiography As Far As I Can Tell, which relates stories of his childhood in Croydon and is linked to a CD with songs inspired by them.
Although his dad left Ralph's mum to bring up him and his brother in a damp flat in The Waldrons, he remembers it fondly as "a wonderful childhood" and his songs certainly make those days seem idyllic. The gentle, warm, rosy glow of nostalgia made me feel as if I was being snuggled up in a favourite cosy cardigan.
We heard tales and songs about the Sunday School teacher who taught her classes in a tin hut in Mint Walk; about Ralph's granddad who drove a steam train and was promoted to The Pretty Brighton Belle; about the long-departed Whitgift Arms pub where he first dared to play his guitar in public and about the coalman Old Puggy Mearns.
This poem, which Ralph recited to a skipping rhyme beat, was one of the funniest things I've heard in ages and reduced me to tears of laughter. Google it and you'll see why.
The Craig and Bentley tragedy was retold: two Croydon teenagers who, in 1952, set out to commit a robbery in Tamworth Road. It went wrong and a policeman was shot dead. Because he was old enough Bentley went to the gallows. Craig, who fired the fatal shot, was under age so escaped the death penalty.
Derek Bentley's sister Iris campaigned tirelessly to win him a pardon – and succeeded, although it was not granted until after her own death. The song was dedicated "to the inspirational Iris".
And of course the icing on the cake was the classic Streets of London, Croydon's own Surrey Street Market having planted the idea for a song about the dispossessed which is still so very relevant today.
Long may Ralph McTell write brilliant songs and come back home to sing them to us. A simply wonderful evening.
Diana Eccleston

As I listen to Jerry Donahue’s silky smooth Knopfler-like guitar riffs in “Throw Out a Line and Dream” my mind wanders to where I was and what I was doing 21 years ago in 1986. I was living in Brighton with my then girlfriend, later to be my wife, and working as a GP Trainee. We looked after an elderly population and there were many home visits. It wasn’t too bad as I listened endlessly to my cassette recording of the vinyl copy of Bridge of Sighs as I went about them. I think it was interspersed with a recording of Ralph on the then excellent Jim Lloyd’s Folk on 2. I wonder where that cassette is now and remind myself to check whether it is in the loft. I shall have to dig it out again.

So it was with much delight that last night I bought a copy of the last of Ralph’s vinyl backlog, now finally CD, at his concert in Bristol. Incidentally, Ralph played a belter of a gig to a full and appreciative house at the beautiful St George’s at Brandon Hill.

This phase in my life heralded a return to some sort of stability as in the preceding years I had spent relatively short periods working in various hospitals. I had lost touch for a while with Ralph’s music and his live work. It also coincided with a period in Ralph’s professional life when he was emerging from his career on children’s television and returning to writing and performing for a more mature audience. Well, we were sort of adults I guess!

I love this album. It contains some of his strongest work. Songs such as Mr. Connaughton, The Girl From The Hiring Fair, and The Setting have stood the test of time and still regularly appear as part of Ralph’s live set. I remember the early evenings as I ran through the Old Steine in Brighton just as you approach the Palace Pier. Hundreds of starlings used to roost in the trees….just like apples.

Musically Ralph is accompanied by his old best mates from Fairport Convention as well as long time associates such as Graham Preskett, Alun Davies, Jerry Donahue, Maartin Allcock, Richard Thompson and Danny Thompson. Backing vocals are performed by Benny Gallagher and, as with all of Ralph’s albums, there are some lovely strong harmonies. Ralph is responsible for the overall production.

There is an insightful critique of the songs written by Paul.O.Jenkins who is somewhat of an authority regarding Ralph’s work. He explains that “the songs serve to highlight McTell’s keen understanding of the human condition and his ability to translate it into song”. Peter Thaine again is responsible for the lovely cover illustration and overall design which is as tasteful as ever.

A few years ago I remember Ralph in is his usual self deprecating way tell a story about this album when it was out of production and the fact that some of his older albums were appearing at car boot sales for only a few quid. He quipped about someone asking if the album was still available and it being requested as “Bridget’s Thighs”!

Last night at the concert’s conclusion I gazed at the merchandise desk and pondered at the man’s artistic output laid out in front of me. I was speechless and quite moved. The sheer quality of his work is astonishing. And though the years have flown, the years have gone we are indeed blessed to still have him around writing and performing as strongly as ever.

So why not buy yourself a copy of this timeless album and turn back the clock?
Mike Cohen
Bristol Thursday, April 19, 2007

My thanks to Iconic Music for sharing this image with me.
From left to right the shot features Ralph, Jacqui McShee (Pentangle), James Taylor, Dave Pegg (Fairport) and Gerry Conway (Fairport and Pentangle).

Please note this picture is © Rob Beattie
please do not reproduce this image anywhere else without permission from Rob
Check out Rob's Web Site