I would like to share with you an interesting debate recently thrashed around on the uk.music.folk newsgroup. The thread began when EFDSS committee member Johnny Adams posted a message in an attempt to test demand for publication by the society of a collection of song manuscripts. He wrote: “The Hammond and Gardiner collection of song manuscripts was once available in the form of four books, the best known being Marrowbones. Along with its companion volumes, The Wanton Seed, The Constant Lovers and The Foggy Dew, it provided much traditional material for singers. The efdss is considering republishing Marrowbones and The Wanton Seed together in one volume. I’d appreciate some reaction on or off the group so that we can get some rough gauge of demand. If the demand is there, then the efdss will get on and republish it. Should it be successful, then the other two could follow on.”
Innocuous enough, you might think. Wrong. Paul Burke asked: “Now, let’s get this straight: if you can break even on publication, you will do it. Otherwise you won’t, and they’ll stay locked in a cupboard for another 20 years. You aren’t really looking to make money out of this. Why not just stick the lot on line?” Johnny Adams’ reply attacked Paul Burke’s “very aggressive sounding reaction”. The EFDSS, he insisted, was not funded in a way that enabled it to do things at a loss. Being “locked in a cupboard” was an “emotive phrase” for being “merely out of print”, he chided. As far as using the Internet, he added: “Just ‘sticking it online’ is not a job that can be achieved without a large wadge of cash, as anyone involved with digitisation projects will tell you.” This is where Wendy Grossman entered the fray. Wendy is a prolific writer on hi-tech subjects, as well as an ex-folk singer of no small ability – check out the MP3s on her web site, which I mentioned in issue 86. About the costs involved, she wrote: “This is demonstrably not true. I think I have copies of all four of those books, and given the will it would not take a massively long time to scan them in (they’re short), and Web space is very, very cheap these days. Do you think the Gutenberg Project is generously funded? I had no idea the books were out of print; they shouldn’t be. But I would urge the EFDSS to reconsider its views on placing the material online. For today’s kids, that’s their backyard.”
A variety of tangents were then explored: the intellectual property rights of original author/editor Frank Purslow, and whether or not he is still alive (he is, according to Derek Schofield); paper versus online publication (the latter being freely available, yet to an admittedly small yet growing percentage – books being freely available in libraries and much easier to read in bed); Project Gutenberg, including how to offer it material for free online publication and how to volunteer to help get the stuff online; a plea from Neil McRitchie at Hobgoblin Crawley for another book to be taken out of that infamous cupboard – the Sussex Tunebook. This was Johnny Adams’ reply to that last point: “The efdss have some plans for tunebooks, but we hadn’t considered that one. It is indeed a wonderful collection, researched and selected by Vic Gammon and Annie Loughran. At present I’m in possession of all the source material from which the tunes were selected – perhaps an enhanced and extended re-publication would be possible. I’ll suggest it to relevant people.” So hopefully not only will selected songs from the Hammond and Gardiner collection again see the light of day, but there might also be some new tunebooks on the way.
One aspect of this discussion which I find particularly interesting is the concept of cost. Several messages pointed out that in a way Project Gutenberg is well-funded, in terms of the number of volunteers and therefore person-hours involved; others that you still have to pay for Web space, though Wendy Grossman rightly responded that nowadays it isn’t that expensive – certainly not compared with the outlay for a book’s print-run. I know I’m an old cynic, but I can’t help being suspicious that the hi-tech sharks have moved in on Johnny – especially if they sensed that government and lottery cash might be involved – and quoted vast sums of money for putting information on disc or online. Creatives and custodians such as Johnny Adams will then either pay through the nose or shelve their plans. Actually I get the feeling Johnny has been possessed, a bit like the townsfolk in Invasion of the Body Snatchers. It’s the way he drops “digitisation” into every other post that gives him away! The debate has presumably continued since I sent this column off to Sam at FoT, and if you would like an update, you can find the thread on Google’s newsgroups archive. If you want to find this particular newsgroup, type “uk.music.folk” into the search box. If you want to find the thread, you could then type in something like “Hammond and Gardiner”.
The latest in Free Reed’s Revival Masters series turned up in time for me to have it on in the background while I was writing this article, and as usual it is quite a stunning selection. It is easy to forget just how good Fairport Convention are and how long they have been around. So it is with some disappointment that I noted such minimal use of the Free Reed Web site this time round, though I understand source documents for the project will be made available there. At the time of writing the Web pages for Fairport (Un)Convention(al) did little more than attempt to sell the boxed set. The lavishly illustrated booklet that comes with it pointed me in the right direction however. The official Fairport Web site is not bad, giving access to the Fairport Convention newsletter and news and virtual postcards from members of the band. But the real gem is Expletive Delighted!, which is the official unofficial Web site. This fan-based site, produced it says “at the request of Fairport Convention”, is packed with information and trivia about the band and its history, both members and recordings, right down to graphics of the different designs of Island record label that appear on the band’s records.
Finally, while in a Fairport frame of mind, a quick word about Bob Fox’s site. Bob is one of a group of musicians that occasionally performs under the title The Fairport Supporters – for hopefully obvious reasons. He played for us recently at the Ram Club in Claygate – an excellent evening – and his site offers a useful overview of his remarkable career in folk music.
newsgroup – an area of the internet intended for people
interested in a particular subject to meet and swap ideas, ask questions, call
for help, announce things etc.
Project Gutenberg – an online library where a vast amount of
out-of-copyright literature has been made available to download for free.
thread – a group of messages on a particular topic which falls
within the subject matter of the particular newsgroup.