50p No. 88 Winter 2008/2009 - Devon Folk

Barking Mad
The Serious, Silly and Surreal verses of Les
Barker performed by Jeanette Nicholls and
Friends at the Theatre Royal, Plymouth on
Saturday, 6th September 2008
This was an unusual event, in that none of the
participants, apart from the producer and compiler
Jeanette Nicholls, knew anything of Les Barker or
his work before she proposed the show, and nor, I
suspect did any of the audience. I wondered, with
some trepidation, what it would be like to hear the
inimitable words spoken by anyone but the man
himself, and by non-folkies at that. Well, my fears
were unfounded.
Jeanette was a stalwart of our early Plymouth Folk
Song Clubs, and of the West of England Folk
Centre in the 1960s, but her rst taste of Les was
last year at “Celebrating Cyril” in London. She
immediately became an admirer, and has since
caught most of his West Country appearances. As
Chairman of the theatre support group (TRAC)
she produces an annual fundraising show
comprising parodies of Shakespeare’s works, but
this year she decided to give the Barker œuvre
an airing. She introduced each item and read
a couple of poems herself, but her friends Bill
Stone - a former professional actor who is now
drama critic at the Plymouth Evening Herald,
Edward Murch - a published poet and playwright,
Dorothy Pailthorpe and Tony Morrell - long
time actors with local drama groups, were the
main participants, reading some of the items to
specially composed backing tracks by John Fiske.
Fortunately, they didn’t attempt to replicate
Les’s accent, but spoke in straightforward nondeclamatory
RP, with just some necessary touches
of vowel changes to accommodate rhymes. It
was obvious that all of them had acquired an
appreciation of the writer’s skill with words, and
of his unique sense of humour, with its touches of
pathos and underlying seriousness.
The show got off to a good start with the audience,
which consisted mainly of TRAC members, joining
in the chorus of Earwigo like a seasoned football
crowd. Many old favourites followed including
Please Don’t kill the Krill, Have You Got Any
news Of The Iceberg, Spot Of The Antarctic and
Cosmo The Fairly Accurate Knife Thrower. There
were sections on ‘Unrequited Love’ (Reg The
Lonely Glow-worm was particularly poignant),
‘Food’ and ‘Senior Moments’. It didn’t take the
audience long to realise that there were lots of
bits they could join in with, and the atmosphere
soon became as relaxed as we are used to at folk
concerts.
The only item which was actually sung was the
closing one - Will The Turtle Be Unbroken-
for which the cast donned black Stetsons and
American accents. Nothing could follow that,
except (I hope) another Barker selection next
year
LATE EXTRA
Rosemary Tawney
Otterfest have booked Strawhead for a concert
at the Bridge inn, Topsham on Thursday,
16th April, 2009. Tickets are available from
Martin & Jan on 01404 41182. Numbers are
limited, so book early !
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