Tom Napper and Martin clarke, September 28th 2007
Tom Napper sings, playing tenor banjo, mandolin, octave mandolin, and tenor guitar.
About Tom Napper (From His Website)
Tom Napper is one of the most highly respected traditional musicians in the North of England, ("the bee’s knees") and a lovely singer. He’s performed and recorded over the past 25 years with Tom McConville, Gordon Tyrrall, Jez Lowe, Alistair Russell, Tony Wilson, Rob van Sante, Gina le Faux and now Ciaran Boyle and Dave Kosky in The Idle Road
About Martin Clarke
Martin Clarke started singing traditional music at the Bluebell in Hull sometime in the mid-60s. There he heard a range of legendary British and American singers and musicians as well as the residents, the Watersons, Ian Manuel and Jim Eldon to name but a few. While away from Hull at University in Oxford he met Liz (now Peta) Webb, June Tabor, Allan Ward and later Tony Engle, Reg Hall, Bob Davenport and Bampton Morris! The melodeon playing started at the same time. All were strongly influenced by Reg Hall's work with English Country musicians.
In the early 70s, Liz, Allan and Tony joined with the Stradlings to form the band Oak which morphed over time in to Webb's Wonders, playing a mainly southern English repertoire. Martin meanwhile returned North, met a wonderful melodeon player called Don Mackay and started playing in Leeds pubs, including The Park Hotel (now demolished), the Rising Sun, the Cardigan Arms and, of course, the Adelphi. With the addition of Jim Wright on banjo and Jackie Wright on mandolin-banjo the duo became a band. It played a peculiar mixture of popular songs (mainly learned from Sing Something Simple on the radio during childhood), music hall classics, waltzes and polkas. The idea was Northern English Country Music in the City, or something.
Since nobody else was playing anything like this at the time, the band was named The Leeds Band. Under this title, the band became house band in the North for Bob Davenport, recording two whole tracks for Bob's Down the Long Road album. In London the band gained quite a reputation, somewhat aided by the fact that hardly anyone in London had ever heard the band play. During this sporadic period, Martin also worked with his good friend Jim Eldon and The Leeds Band even played some folk clubs.
Eventually Don Mackay left Leeds to return to his native Suffolk (he sadly died before reaching 50) and Jim Wright left to be a jazz musician. Various musicians filled in, including Jerry Oakes and later Paul Roberts on fiddle and Tom Napper on tenor banjo. Martin can't recall how exactly Tom came to be in the band but it ceased playing in pubs and became a local dance band, The Old Chestnuts, which lasted in to the early 90s. Tom was clearly slumming but he needed the money! Martin had stopped singing and was concentrating on his other main interest, amateur dramatics, with the excellent Dewsbury Arts Group.
When the dance band ground to a halt, Martin put the melodeon in its box.
And then, a couple of years ago, Bob Davenport was persuaded to come to the Grove. Being a bit out of practice and looking for support, he rang Martin who volunteered to play melodeon despite not having played it in anger for years. At the gig, Bob was terrific. This event kick-started Martin into practising, a thing he'd never tried before, and also got him singing again. This led to the idea of doing a complete evening. Feeling a bit nervous, Martin talked to Tom Napper about doing a gig together. Surprisingly, Tom was keen on the idea and that, dear reader, is why Tom Napper and Martin Clarke are on the bill. Tom's name comes first 'cos he's famous, you see.