The Corries: Commitment and fragility

1965 saw the Corrie Folk Trio and Paddie Bell expand their activities into promotions that took us to Ireland on tour and to the heart of England where we were already household names due to the frequent exposure we enjoyed on television and radio. We had already successfully appeared in major venues across England on a summer tour that included such venues as the St. Georges Hall in Liverpool, Birmingham Town Hall and the Free Trades Hall in Manchester.  Happily, we sold out on every occasion.

We regularly managed to combine these visits with local television interview appearances to promote the events all of which led to a very full calendar of engagements, hotel bookings and travel arrangements. At this point in time we were operating without a manager, preferring to share the workload between the four of us. Ronnie Browne acted as accountant while I handled publicity. It worked well.

As a group, we were daily committed to each other giving freely of our time in order to fulfil recording contracts, attend rehearsals and deliver stage and broadcast performances while attending as far as was possible to domestic lives that were sometimes sadly neglected. The three of us had young families as well as bills to pay and the notion that we might allow ourselves some weeks of respite had not occurred to us.  Other groups we knew tended to work for six months, then break for the remainder of the year. This was a luxury that we simply could not afford.

The solidarity and unspoken commitment to “being there” for each other was taken for granted. Any member of the group dropping out at any stage would have had serious repercussions that could wreck the musical arrangements we had put in place as well as throwing into question the validity of the contracts that were current with the BBC and others. I did however have the foresight at the outset to identify Paddie Bell as a soloist within the group which gave her the freedom to decide her own repertoire and sometimes her availability for tours and concerts.  The possibility that she might at some point wish to start a family was also an unspoken consideration.

In solo concerts we would open with the four of us doing a short session of three songs with Paddie playing banjo and contributing to the group sound. She would reappear for two group songs midway through both halves ending with a solo spot that inevitably brought the house down. She was a solid performer and much loved by our audiences.

I recall during a very rowdy midnight show in The Grafton cinema in Dublin (now gone) we stood in the wings while the noise from the audience continued unabated. There was little chance of making a positive entrance. That is, until I suggested to Paddie that she walk to the microphones, stand quietly in the spotlight, and start to sing only when there was complete silence in the hall.  It worked, although I have no recollection of just how long it took for her to capture their attention. That said, we had a marvellous reception with our friends from the Dubliners in the audience banging heads together whenever the noise threatened to return. We had become accustomed to being well received, having the ability to control audience reaction to the quieter harmony numbers which so often featured Paddie. That was all about to change.

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Early in 1965 Paddie announced her departure from the group. At this remove, the reasons are unimportant. The fragility of the close relationships we had built up within the group had been exposed and had to be addressed. Somewhere along the way, we had all come to depend heavily on each other resulting in us sacrificing a little of our own individual personality for the unity of the group as a whole.

Paddie claimed that she was looking for new directions and a change of repertoire and we wished her well. At the time we were well into rehearsals for a continuation of the television series and The BBC were duly informed of our loss. In fairness, Paddie continued to appear and went on to work in future shows, a testament to the goodwill we had built up over our time in the business. In 1966 Paddie gave birth to a daughter.

We now had to reorganise and attend to our futures in show business as a trio. We had bookings that ran through into 1966 including the New Year televised celebration of Hogmanay from Glasgow. We set about rebalancing the act until we were confident that the running order worked, included new material that had been neglected and postponed due to pressure of work while at the same time preparing a revised selection of songs for the recording of the upcoming “Wild Corries” album for Fontana.

On Saturday 27th November 1965 we appeared as a trio in concert at the Liverpool Philharmonic. Early indications that ticket sales were good did little to quieten the nerves as we set about reorganising the stage lighting, setting up the sound system and negotiating with the local ticketing agency to man the doors and control the crowds. The concert was an incredible experience and we were well received. As the applause for the second encore rang out, it was clear that the audience were not about to give up on their demands for one more. A quick discussion in the wings, a change of instruments and we agreed to try out some new material. The audience settled and we sang “The Leaving of Liverpool” with every voice in the hall joining in the choruses.

This sharing of the music we loved remains a fond memory that I have carried with me over the years. In truth we loved the songs and above all we loved performing for the audiences who never failed to rise to the many occasions when we shared the simple enjoyment of just making music.

Bill Smith

Bill was a founding member of the Scottish folk group, the Corries.

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A Singer’s Life Pt18