Here for perusal are a couple of LPs of the singing tradition in Suffolk, both released in the 1970s, the Ling Family disc in 1977 and Flash Company in 1974. Both feature largely well-known singers who had significant contact with the wider world of enthusiasts once they had been ‘discovered’ and acted as source performers in that milieu – the ‘real thing’! (1)
Irish folk song expert John Moulden reviewed the first of these, scathingly, in 1978 (2). In a discussion of the Ling Family disc and also Johnny Doughty’s Round Rye Bay for More album (3) – about which he was equally unenthusiastic – he commented, “In the context of an impoverished tradition, singers like the ones on disc 2 have their place as song carriers. But being an Irishman and living in an area where good singing is to be found quite easily, I doubt whether I will be able to force myself to listen to this record again. Is it really a service to folk music to publish such style-less and boring stuff?”
Stiff dismissal indeed. To be fair, Mr Moulden later contended that “since the value of a singer and his performance does not count in tradition but only the singing, I have to confess that my strictures had no point whatsoever”, whilst still maintaining that he hadn’t changed his mind about the LPs. (4) Fair enough, if that was his opinion, but “an impoverished tradition”? Surely that area of Suffolk had anything but an impoverished singing tradition, given the status of venues like Blaxhall Ship, Snape Crown and Eastbridge Eel’s Foot, as well as the recordings of Peter Kennedy, Neil Lanham and others in the heady days of the 1950s and early 1960s. (5) Granted, the tradition was in something of a decline, perhaps, as it was not being taken up by a younger generation, but the material collected by Ginette Dunn and Keith Summers in that decade would suggest that it was still in a healthy state at that point at least, whatever the future may bring. (6)
It is from Keith Summers’ recordings that the first LP, The Ling Family, is taken, one of several discs of his field recordings released by Topic around that time. (7) What we have is a selection of songs from two brothers, George (b 1904) and Geoff (b 1916), and their cousin Percy (b 1906), from the large Ling family of singers (8) from Blaxhall, Suffolk. The Ship in the village needs no introduction as the premier singing pub of the area and the Lings were foremost as singers there for countless years, passing on the songs down through the generations, where “transmission of songs from them (the older ones – a group of brothers) to younger members of the family was common,” as Ginette Dunn comments in the sleeve notes.
George Ling gives us six songs, all at a fair pace. It is interesting that he moved to Croydon as a young man, in 1926, and lived there for the rest of his life, having already absorbed a fair repertoire before leaving the area. He sings in an assured, brisk way, giving us here a good selection of solid traditional fare: On Board the Leicester Castle, The Lakes of Coolfin, The Deserter and Jolly Jack the Sailor, as well as the Napoleonic epic The Bonny Bunch of Roses and that sturdy East Anglian favourite Nancy of Yarmouth. His younger brother Geoff, who stayed in the area, has a slower, declamatory style. Of the five songs here, once again there is solid traditional fare, with Green Bushes (actually regarded by the family as George’s song) (9), Died for Love, Little Ball of Yarn and On the Banks of the Clyde, as well as A Group of Young Squaddies, which perhaps seems cloyingly sentimental to modern ears (whereas the more traditional material does seem somewhat timeless by comparison), but which is quite representative of that type of song which occurred frequently in rural singers’ repertoires.
Percy Ling, from whom we have five songs, gives us the equally sentimental Little Sweetheart. His pace is very similar to Geoff’s: unhurried and deliberate. There is a vein of comedy in his material, with the bawdy The Lobster and The Man All Tattered and Torn. Also present are two perennial Suffolk favourites: Fagin the Cobbler and Underneath Her Apron; the former, in which the protagonist sometimes bears a different name, deals with the situation of an alcoholic wife, who is eventually reformed, and the second the predicament of an unexpectedly-pregnant young girl, rather light-hearted treatment of both of these circumstances, it has to be said, but popular nonetheless. (10) Of his performing, Percy comments in the sleeve notes, that, “I first started singing in pubs when I was 18 – you had to be the right age that time of day. I had some good nights in Tunstall Green Man, Snape Plough, The Eel’s Foot, Butley Oyster and Blaxhall Ship. I picked up songs from all over.”
And so it seems: Geoff and Percy as regular singers in the pubs of the area, and George too when back on visits. A selection of songs from three men whose repertoire was grounded in the family and area. The previously mentioned John Moulden commented, in another review – that of Irish singer Mary Ann Carolan’s Topic record (11) – “Is it necessary to say that records of traditional singing are always a disappointment?…Even the best recording is a poor substitute for the raw bar. Further they compress experience in a well nigh intolerable way, putting a night of songs, or a fortnight’s, into three quarters of an hour and without any of the ambience.” He does have a point, it has to be conceded. There is no substitute for experiencing a performance live, in its actuality, but what if that is no longer possible? Surely even as a document of something no longer extant it is worth preserving. I would venture to say that it does. As to “style-less and boring stuff”, I would certainly have to disagree. I will admit that the first time I heard the LP I wasn’t overly impressed; it was all somehow too austere. Time, much further listening and a much greater appreciation of what the singing tradition entails, has led me to revise that view considerably. Although all three men have their own distinct style, there is also something very typical of east Suffolk performances with all of them. All three are vibrant bearers of this tradition.
Which brings us on to the second disc which, on the face of it, seems rather similar to the first: both have the rather austere-looking sleeves which Topic favoured at the time (and which I have to say I do rather like) and both feature three local male singers. Two of them, Bob Hart and Percy Webb, are from the same area of Suffolk as the Lings, above, and the third, Ernest Austin, from Great Bentley in Essex. The album was released in 1974 and comprised recordings of Bob Hart and Ernest Austin by Tony Engle in 1973, together with live recordings of Percy Webb at The King’s Head, Islington, in 1968 (it doesn’t say by whom). In the sleeve notes Mike Yates talks of Vaughan Williams collecting songs in Essex and then goes on to state, “Although collectors were active in other parts of England, time has shown that it is only in East Anglia that such traditions now remain to anything like a similar extent,” with the inference that these three men were fine examples of this then-continuing tradition, which indeed they were.
The LP kicks off appropriately with that perennial local favourite, The Bold Princess Royal, sung by Bob Hart – who at this point had already had a full LP of his singing issued. (12) He has a rather gentle, soft style compared with many of his singing companions. There are countless performances of this song, and certainly Bob Hart’s is as good as any. Much the same can be said for the breezy Seventeen Come Sunday, which follows it. Good, solid traditional fare, with life breathed into them by his assured delivery. The remainder of the LP side is given over to Percy Webb, with four live tracks. Here we have crowd-pleasing favourites, well-paced and with the opportunity for the audience to join in at times, which they can be heard doing on occasion. The Faithful Sailor Boy, Flash Company, Wheel Your P’rambulator and Go and Leave Me: all lively and well-suited to Percy Webb’s declamatory style. He was regarded as being the life and soul of any singing session, and here he doesn’t disappoint. With reference to the previous contention about the sterility of non-live circumstances, whether or not the fact that these are live performances gives them more immediacy is a moot point: I would venture that it’s not really the case here.
Side two includes four more tracks by Bob Hart. If his other two performances were of staunchly traditional material, here there is more variety. There are traditional songs in the form of the sly Rap-a-Tap-Tap, which must have been the delight of farm workers, with its tale of one of their number having greater sexual prowess than their employer, much to the satisfaction of that employer’s wife, and the very common Barbara Allen. The first was common enough in East Anglia, the latter all over the English-speaking world. Once again, Bob Hart gives us enjoyable versions in which the stories unfold effortlessly. We also get more recent material in the form of The Gypsy’s Warning, a song of American origin from the 1860s, and The Song of the Thrush, a music hall number set in Australia. The remainder of the side is given over to two tracks by Ernest Austin: the old warhorse John Barleycorn (13) and a composite of Hares on the Mountain / The Knife in the Window, which I suppose deal together with different aspects of relationships between women and men! Although with a very different delivery, Ernest Austin also has a somewhat ‘quiet’ style, in a similar vein to Bob Hart. (14) In all, a dozen tracks of a fair selection of songs, mostly fairly typical of the kind of material that was sung locally by pub singers, by three veteran practitioners.
All three performers were predominantly land workers, although Bob Hart did spend quite a lot of time at sea as a trawlerman, which undoubtedly had some bearing on his repertoire. All were born in the 1890s. Their repertoires collectively stretch back into the Nineteenth Century, showing a considerable continuity with the past. Not that this is surprising, given the nature of the tradition they were part of. On that basis this album is a valuable addition to the many that Topic Records released in the 1970s, dealing with East Anglian traditions, as well as elsewhere. So, what we have here is a pair of LPs of local traditional singing, from an area which still had a vibrant tradition within living memory and of which these men were prime practitioners. They probably would not be a good starting point for someone curious but inexperienced with reference to this tradition, being rather austere as they are, but to enthusiasts they contain riches a-plenty. Certainly they are vital to anyone interested in the singing tradition in east Suffolk, or indeed in East Anglia more generally.
Chris Holderness June 2026
Notes:
1. Four of the singers – Geoff Ling, Percy Ling, Bob Hart and Percy Webb – all appear on The Larks They Sang Melodious Transatlantic XTRA XTRS 1141 which is a record of a meeting of the ‘tradition’ and the ‘revival’ – reviewed in a previous newsletter
2. johnmouldenonirishsongs.wordpress.com/album-reviews/
3. Johnny Doughty: Round Rye Bay for More – Traditional Songs From the Sussex Coast 12TS324, released in 1977
4. As No 2, above
5. A great many recordings were released by Peter Kennedy on Folktrax and Neil Lanham on the Helions Bumpstead Gramophone Company label, but none are in print. Of interest and available are: Good Order! Ladies and Gentlemen Please Veteran VT140CD (Recordings from Eastbridge Eel’s Foot) and The Barley Mow Topic TSCD676D (Peter Kennedy recordings and Blaxhall Ship film)
6. See: Ginette Dunn: The Fellowship of Song Croom Helm, 1980. CD collections of Keith Summers’ local recordings are Good Hearted Fellows Veteran VT154CD, 2006, and A Story to Tell Musical Traditions MTCD339-0 (2 CD set), 2007. Reviews of both can be found at mustrad.mainlynorfolk.info See also note 7
7. Two LPs: The Earl Soham Slog: Step Dance and Country Music From Suffolk Topic 12TS374, 1978, and Sing, Say and Play: Traditional Songs and Music From Suffolk 12TS375, 1978
8. The LP sleeve notes by Ginette Dunn give much information about the family, as does her book – No 6, above
9. Information about song ‘ownership’ is also discussed in the sleeve notes and book, as No 6, above
10. A good comparison version of Fagin the Cobbler is Charlie Stringer’s Kibosh the Cobbler on Who Owns the Game? Home-Made Music HMM LP 302, 1984, and Veteran VT130CD, 2001 – reviewed in a previous newsletter. Bob Hart’s version of Underneath Her Apron can be heard on Bob Hart: Songs from Suffolk Topic 12TS225, 1973
11. As No 2, above. The album is Mary Ann Carolan: Songs From the Irish Tradition Topic 12TS362, 1982
12. As No 10, above
13. A good comparison is Roy Last’s version on HMM LP 302 / VT130CD, as No 10, above
14. The two Ernest Austin tracks were reissued on Harry Green and Other Essex Singers Veteran VT135CD, released in 2010
