The Enigma of Nic Jones - Return of Britain's Lost Folk Hero


The Enigma of Nic Jones - Return of Britain's Lost Folk Hero

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Nic Jones is a legendary figure in British music.

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His 1980 album Penguin Eggs is regarded as one of the best

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acoustic records ever produced

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Unfortunately, it was to be his last.

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I was at a Virgin Megastore in Birmingham

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and this record came on - I had never heard anything like it.

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And I got home and absolutely loved it.

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But if I had known it was folk music, I probably wouldn't have bought it.

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It's a really great album to hear as your first folk album.

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In fact, the problem with Penguin Eggs,

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it sets the bar rather high for the rest of your life.

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The Observer, a few years ago,

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had a poll about the greatest records of all time

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Number 78 was Let It Bleed by The Rolling Stones.

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Number 80 was Station to Station by David Bowie.

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At number 79 was Penguin Eggs by Nic Jones.

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There is no doubt that Nic Jones was headed for international greatness,

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but his career was about to suffer a severe setback.

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CAR HORN BEEPS

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# Sally where are you going that you do look so gay...? #

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He came home and said, "Oh, it's a great car."

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A year old, I think it was, this Volkswagen - immaculate.

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Took me up to the showroom to sign off the papers

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and all this sort of thing,

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and I took one look at it and took an instant dislike to it.

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Nic was a busy artist, playing to sell out audiences

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with his unique guitar and fiddle playing.

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He had to drive all over Britain.

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But it all ended one night in a near fatal crash,

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which would change his life forever.

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Nic's new car collided with a brick lorry.

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Almost every bone in his body was broken.

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With serious neurological damage,

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it was thought he would never perform again.

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While Nic still had an unquenchable desire to communicate

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through his music,

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his long suffering family tried to rebuild their lives around him.

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The accident happened when...

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When I was five.

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So, the only things I really remember are just vague images,

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and it was nothing to do with playing or singing,

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and one of them was remembering him

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being able to kick a football really, really high.

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And the other one was he could throw a Frisbee,

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and it was a white Frisbee,

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and I remember it cos it had little red and blue in the centre,

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and he could throw it up in the air and make it come back to him.

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Ladies and gentlemen,

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please welcome a legend in his own lifetime, Nic Jones.

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APPLAUSE

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Last summer, Nic emerged from obscurity and returned to the stage.

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For many in this audience,

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Penguin Eggs is the only evidence they have of his legendary status.

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This is the story of Nic's determination to sing again.

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The first time I met him, I didn't even know he was Nic Jones.

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And I was telling him what to do, telling him what chords to play.

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I was sort of saying, "Look, you can do what you like,

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"but I'm going to go to this chord here."

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And this guy was going, "Yeah, we could do that."

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And it was only that evening that somebody said,

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"Oh, you were getting on well with Nic Jones this afternoon."

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I had no idea who he was.

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When I used to do DJing and I'd play pop records at the time,

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but I'd just put that on.

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It felt as if it was just part of the stuff to me.

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It wasn't like, "Oh, this is some weird bit.

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"Now you're going to have a bit of folk."

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This was really sort of cutting stuff to me.

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Nic Jones' "cutting stuff" crossed musical boundaries and has become

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an inspiration to young acoustic guitar players the world over.

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I grew up with a complete set of Nic Jones records.

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From the time I started playing guitar, when I was 11 or 12,

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my dad dug out the vinyl and said,

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"This is what you want to listen to. This is what you want to play."

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Recorded pretty much live over a couple of days

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in-between his busy touring schedule,

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Nic Jones' Penguin Eggs became an instant classic.

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It was essentially a folk record but it continues to resonate with

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a much wider audience than anyone could have imagined.

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# Your jacket shall be blue

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# And you'll see that seaport town called Canadee-i-o... #

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Hang on a second, Nic. That's going great.

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It's early summer, 2012.

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Nic Jones has assembled a trio to rehearse for his upcoming concerts.

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The new arrangements they are working on will have to

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satisfy the fans eager to hear Nic's iconic repertoire again.

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Together, the Nic Jones trio will try to uncover

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the essence of Nic's music.

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Part of Nic's musical DNA was formed in his childhood

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when he heard singers like Ray Charles on the radio.

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# ..jacket shall by blue... #

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And like many other teenagers in the '60s, he was inspired to pick up

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the guitar by one of the forefathers of British rock and roll.

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I wanted to be Hank Marvin of The Shadows.

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And there's a chap who I knew at school, Nigel Patterson he was,

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and he asked me if I'd join The Halliard

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so I bought an acoustic guitar.

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All the while, I still wanted to be Hank Marvin.

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When we were at school, he was the only friend I had

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when I was being really, really badly bullied.

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Nic said, "It's about time you left Nigel alone."

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A second afterwards, I can remember seeing Nic literally spitting

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broken teeth out onto the floor.

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Everybody else was absolutely terrified of this person -

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they wouldn't go near him -

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but Nic stood up for me.

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Dave Moran was the driving force and he had this little trio.

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Little trio? Had this trio

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and that was the first I knew of Nic.

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We rehearsed with him every other day

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cos I think he was a lifeguard

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at the swimming pool,

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so he had a lot of free time.

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We began to acquire a reputation within Essex

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and that started to spread,

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and it was becoming increasingly difficult to hold down a day job

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and do the gigs at night.

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We were doing barmy things like driving to Mansfield

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and back in one night,

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and getting back at five o'clock in the morning,

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expecting to get up and go to work.

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We had this glorious boom time in the 1960s

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where people were young and they were energetic,

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and the audience and the performers and the club organisers were all

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the same age - in their late teens and early 20s -

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and you get that kind of youthful energy.

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By the mid 1970s, it had split really very widely.

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There were clubs which considered themselves to be proper

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traditional folk clubs

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where you weren't even allowed to take guitars in, in some cases.

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They were very, very hard line.

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# And did those feet in ancient time

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# Walk up on England's mountains... #

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I wanted to play traditional English music on guitar

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and there are no role models.

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What there are, one or two fiddle players,

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but there's melodeon players and concertina players,

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so what I wanted to do was to try and...

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..steal from them where I could.

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# And did the Countenance Divine...? #

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The main players on the folk scene of that late '60s began to

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seek the true archaeology of Britain's early popular culture.

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In the library of Cecil Sharp House in north London,

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they found the broadsheets and songs of ordinary people,

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and hit on a rich seem of material.

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# Among these dark Satanic Mills... #

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It was the only place to come.

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In Cecil Sharp House, we have the originals of these manuscripts

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and these field recordings,

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and you can actually hear and see

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what those authentic voices were.

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# ..she was in her tender care... #

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And I think that's what the people like Martin Carthy, Shirley Collins

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and Nic were looking for.

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# ..she loved him well... #

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I've often like the lyric side of songs rather than the tunes.

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And the lyrics...

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There's a lot of people that don't listen to the lyrics.

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# ..but she longed to see... #

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Actually, one of the reasons why a lot of these songs survive is

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because the life within them doesn't change.

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Love, sex, death, trickery, wars - all those things -

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they're all there.

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There was nowhere it didn't go -

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incest, jealousy, murder, betrayal, just plain happiness, sex -

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just everything.

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It went everywhere and, as Bob Copper used to say,

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"Folk music is the music that was there before music was invented."

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# Oh dear, rue the day I ever married... #

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With Joe Jones playing guitar, father and son are trying to

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reacquaint themselves with the songs that Nic played when he went solo.

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# Weeping and wailing and rocking the cradle

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# And rocking a baby...

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# That's none of my own... #

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BOTH LAUGH

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The Halliard would do songs about Napoleon and those sort of people,

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and he suddenly realised that he's an Essex boy

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and he had no relevance to Napoleon.

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He said, "Look, I never knew Napoleon -

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"I don't know what he was like."

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By 1968, the Halliard were splitting up

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and Nic's eclectic musical tastes would soon be given free reign.

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When you're living cheek by jowl with two other guys for that

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length of time...

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We'd just had enough of each other.

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It was a terrible, terrible shame.

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And when we broke up, I lost all contact with him.

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I actually didn't see him...

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during the whole of his solo career.

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The Halliard broke up and he was out on the road on his own,

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and was doing gigs around South Yorkshire, around Rotherham.

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And there was a lass who ran a club there and she said,

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"Have you heard Nic?" I said, "Well, I know him from the Halliard."

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And she played me some of his stuff.

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# There were seven gypsies and all in a row

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# And they sang neat and... #

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His playing was much more poised, it was much more relaxed.

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He had a particular swing about his playing

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that developed in a really interesting way.

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Of course, he was a beautiful singer.

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He had a big range.

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He could really push himself at the top and down the bottom.

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He was...

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He was good.

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# The servant's down on his knees and said... #

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He did the research, like everybody else, at Cecil Sharp House,

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pouring over the old books,

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getting the stories and the tunes and the songs,

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but he had no compunction about changing them around.

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I wanted to be a contemporary guitarist rather than

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a traditional guitarist.

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I like to sing songs about now, not about then.

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# But she longed to see that seaport town... #

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Nic took these ancient songs

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and breathed new life into their melodies,

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making them palatable to a much wider audience.

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He was finding the bones of songs and rewriting them,

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and turning them into something of his own.

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Filling in holes in the lyrics, or taking bits from here

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and there and putting them together.

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And, in an essence, turning them into...new songs.

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I actually got quite irritated with him one of the times

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cos he'd pick up a book, he'd just look at it and play the guitar,

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sing a few words, read the music.

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And I thought, "What a fantastic accompaniment that is."

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And he'd say, "No. I'll have to do more with that."

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And he was... You had to stop him.

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When you've got...particularly Penguin Eggs on,

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people go, "What's this?" And they are surprised they don't know it.

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But what is interesting over the years is running into other people

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that already know about his stuff,

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like John Hegley, for example, the poet and comedian.

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I was at John Hegley's flat once

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and some tracks from Penguin Eggs came on that he's just put on,

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and it was so great to meet someone that knew about it.

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You do feel a bit lonely.

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# Buchan, it's bonny, oh and there lives my love

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# My heart it lies on him

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# It will not remove, remove... #

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I can never work out where it's supposed to be going.

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# Buchan, it's bonny, oh and there lives my love

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# My heart it lies on him

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# It will not remove

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# It will not remove

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# Will not remove. #

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Yeah. I'll leave it to Nic Jones to do it.

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# It will not remove

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# It will not remove

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# For all that I have done

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# Never will I forget my love... #

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Well, it's about arranged marriage and...

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Jeanie, the woman in the song, is saying, "I don't want this."

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And there's no way out, really, for her.

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And...

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She just dies of a broken heart for the one she truly loves...

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and then he comes home to find her.

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# Never will I forget my love Annachie

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# Down came her father and he's standing on the floor

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# Saying, Jeannie... #

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When you go down to Cecil Sharp House and

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when you go through the library and you're confronted with these huge

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tons of unintelligible dialect stuff,

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whether it be Old English or Old Scots dialect,

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all that kind of stuff, it can seem like a bit of a task to...

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To bring that out of the page and actually bring it alive.

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Now, I think there are very few people who communicate that

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as well as somebody like Nic.

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And that has certainly been passed on to somebody like Jim Moray

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who is able to communicate a massive story like that.

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# Sally where are you going that you do look so gay?

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# I know that I've not asked you to take a walk today

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# You have not asked me well indeed

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# It's a tiny cheek of you

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# Do you think that there are no more young chaps?

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# I've got a dozen or two... #

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I've taken so much directly, technically, from Nic

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in terms of actual things that I play,

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but also in terms of the spirit of it.

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# So young women take a warning from me

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# Never love a soldier or sit all on his knee... #

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A guitar is a beautiful instrument and, in normal tuning,

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it's an orchestra.

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And a guitar can do almost anything.

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A lot of songs in the British isles

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don't sit well with chord progressions. There's...

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There's a flexibility that's not there...

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with normal tuning, and that's its bottom string.

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That's mine. These little guitars love being tuned down that low.

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Nic needed a guitar that could cope

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with his unconventional tunings and English style.

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Roger Bucknall, his friend and master guitar maker,

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came up with the instruments he needed.

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When I met Nic I was making this,

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it's a small guitar but with a wide fingerboard,

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and it suited all the English players, particularly Nic,

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who wanted a bit more room on the fingerboard to

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get his fingers in to play individual notes rather than chords.

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There's a short-ish scale, so to get stretches when he needed.

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And then Nic had some sort of epiphany or crossroads moment.

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I think he sold his soul at some point

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and changed his guitar style quite a lot,

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and it came out on the Penguin Eggs album,

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and on that album, he used the Orsino.

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A cedar top and a mahogany back and sides,

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which is about the lightest combination you can get,

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so it's very resonant and very responsive.

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And it really suited Nic's style, which he was developing then,

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of sliding on the bass strings and playing the melody on the top.

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Nic always tuned a tone down anyway,

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so rather than being E, it was D to D,

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and he did that, he says, to avoid breaking strings.

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In actual fact, it was a rock and roll trick.

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It was used quite a lot, going down a semi tone.

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With this, it's going down even further than that to...

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To B flat, which is super low

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and it means that the guitar kind of...

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You can hear that it's...

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I'm getting buzzes. I'm getting this kind of...

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This kind of snappy sound quite readily.

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If you were doing that kind of thing in standard tuning,

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it would hurt and it wouldn't have the same kind of tone to it.

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But he developed a style to take account of the fact

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the strings were very slack, so playing it very gently,

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and with the flesh of his fingers rather than the nail,

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he learned a style of sliding up

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and down the strings without allowing the strings to buzz and rattle,

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which would have happened otherwise if he hadn't been quite so careful.

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It was...at the time, unique,

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and the only people that do it now are copying Nic's style,

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but it's still a fantastic style of playing.

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# I went unto my love's chamber door

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# Where I never had been before... #

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I was on YouTube and I was looking at a few traditional songs,

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and then this one with quite a few views came up.

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And, immediately, I just went, "That was so good."

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It was his guitar playing that got me,

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but he has a voice that I really appreciate because it's really true,

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and it's kind of...

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It just suits the traditional material so well

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and it made it sound cool, yet relevant.

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# Just to let her know unto Flandyke Shore... #

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One day, I stumbled on Flandyke Shore -

0:21:170:21:20

it was in the Folk Song Journal.

0:21:200:21:22

It was what you would call a fragment.

0:21:220:21:25

It was only three verses, but so poetic, so beautiful.

0:21:250:21:29

And sometimes, when you just have a few verses and lots missing,

0:21:290:21:34

you can fill in the gaps yourself.

0:21:340:21:36

But I just kind of put it away on the side - that was a big mistake

0:21:360:21:40

Because shortly after that I heard that Nic had recorded it,

0:21:400:21:45

so he had discovered that song as well,

0:21:450:21:48

and it was a discovery because it wasn't in an obvious book.

0:21:480:21:52

But, of course, it was wonderful, his version...did it all.

0:21:520:21:56

# There I saw a light springing from her clothes

0:21:570:22:04

# Springing from her clothes... #

0:22:040:22:08

I spoke to Dad quite a lot, mainly about inane things -

0:22:080:22:12

football, work that I wasn't actually doing. Sorry.

0:22:120:22:17

But, yeah, I think I rang him up and said,

0:22:170:22:19

"Have you heard of a guy called Nic Jones?"

0:22:190:22:22

And I think he just laughed and said,

0:22:220:22:24

"Yes, I've heard of Nic Jones - he's fantastic."

0:22:240:22:26

Well, you know, I laughed.

0:22:260:22:29

My first reaction was just to laugh because I'd not only met him,

0:22:290:22:32

I'd worked with him.

0:22:320:22:34

It was so nice that Blair discovered him by himself.

0:22:340:22:38

That it wasn't Dad saying, "You've got to go and listen to this guy

0:22:380:22:41

"because he was very important."

0:22:410:22:43

# On to fairing England's shore

0:22:450:22:48

# On to fairing England's shore

0:22:480:22:52

# Just where I thought that... #

0:22:520:22:55

But the accuracy in which he was playing,

0:22:560:22:59

and I think when I really appreciated that was when I could

0:22:590:23:03

go and have a little play on the guitar,

0:23:030:23:05

and I tried to work it out.

0:23:050:23:07

And it was literally like, woosh, straight over my head.

0:23:070:23:10

I'd been playing for quite a while and I still couldn't get it.

0:23:100:23:14

# The king sits in Dunfermline town... #

0:23:170:23:21

It was Nic's unique style of singing over his rhythmical

0:23:210:23:24

and percussive playing that made him so special.

0:23:240:23:27

He developed the almost ambidextrous ability to

0:23:280:23:31

sing across different bass and melody lines.

0:23:310:23:33

He would set up a really steady groove,

0:23:350:23:38

so it would be absolutely rocking along in a very English way indeed,

0:23:380:23:45

but then he'd move the voice all over the place.

0:23:450:23:48

# But the very next line that Patrick he read

0:23:480:23:51

# The salt tear blinded his eye

0:23:510:23:53

# Oh who is him that's done this deed?

0:23:530:23:55

# Told the king on me to send me out this time of year... #

0:23:550:23:58

It was actually better to try to separate

0:23:580:24:01

the singing from the guitar playing,

0:24:010:24:03

so that the guitar playing became automatic.

0:24:030:24:05

# I fear a... #

0:24:090:24:10

One way I learned to do this was to argue with my wife Julia.

0:24:100:24:14

I'd play the guitar and I'd talk to her,

0:24:140:24:17

and I'd talk at rhythm.

0:24:170:24:19

When you've got a song that's this long with eight million versus,

0:24:240:24:29

and a repeated melody,

0:24:290:24:31

anything you can do to hook the listener is a good thing to do.

0:24:310:24:36

And so, I think that moving...

0:24:360:24:38

Moving the vocal about on top of the accompaniment is very effective.

0:24:380:24:43

# Here I stand

0:24:480:24:50

# Lost in the wind... #

0:24:500:24:52

Nic has always had a broad pallet of interests that continue to

0:24:520:24:56

influence his music.

0:24:560:24:57

He listens to anything from The Eagles to Bob Marley.

0:24:590:25:02

At the moment, Radiohead are a favourite.

0:25:020:25:05

The main sort of music I like to listen was reggae.

0:25:070:25:12

I love reggae cos certain beats are different from the normal way.

0:25:120:25:16

We play one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four,

0:25:160:25:19

but the reggae was one, TWO, three, four, one, TWO, three, four,

0:25:190:25:22

one, TWO, three, four. Or one, two, THREE, four.

0:25:220:25:26

It was emphasised in a different place.

0:25:260:25:29

# So far away... #

0:25:290:25:32

The simple thing was that he got out more, musically and thinking wise,

0:25:320:25:37

than people who went to their local folk club every week

0:25:370:25:40

and didn't listen to anything else,

0:25:400:25:42

and didn't think very much about why they like the music.

0:25:420:25:44

He was a thinking man.

0:25:440:25:45

I mean, I guess that went with his chess playing

0:25:450:25:48

and stuff like that as well.

0:25:480:25:49

By the mid-'70s, Nic's albums were moving away from records that

0:25:570:26:01

simply represented his solo club performances.

0:26:010:26:04

When he made Noah's Ark Trap,

0:26:060:26:09

that's a moment...

0:26:090:26:11

I would say it's a moment in recording history, actually.

0:26:110:26:13

It's an important record, and Devil to a Stranger likewise.

0:26:150:26:19

He's absorbed everything he needed to absorb,

0:26:210:26:24

and he'd gone off and became his own guy.

0:26:240:26:28

And it was a massive jump, really quite impressive.

0:26:280:26:31

But that should be the goal for every musician, is to be yourself,

0:26:310:26:36

otherwise what's the point?

0:26:360:26:38

Nic's music had spread beyond Britain.

0:26:440:26:46

Singer-songwriters like American Anais Mitchell cite him

0:26:460:26:50

a major influence.

0:26:500:26:51

Even Bob Dylan covered Canadee-I-O

0:26:540:26:56

from Nic's iconic record Penguin Eggs.

0:26:560:26:59

Penguin Eggs is nine perfectly sequenced tracks.

0:27:030:27:07

Running at less than 45 minutes,

0:27:070:27:09

the record is a mixture of contemporary and traditional folk.

0:27:090:27:13

It remains one of Topic Records' bestsellers to this day.

0:27:130:27:16

It's a very good sleeve, actually for it

0:27:180:27:20

because it's not got a drawing on of anything.

0:27:200:27:22

It's not in a place.

0:27:220:27:24

It just sort of presents itself

0:27:240:27:26

and asks you to make of it what you will.

0:27:260:27:29

The combination of songs was magic.

0:27:290:27:32

It was just a great...great set of songs,

0:27:320:27:34

well played, well recorded.

0:27:340:27:36

The Humpback Whale song, I mean, it's just...

0:27:360:27:39

It's one of the most exciting recordings you ever hear, I think.

0:27:390:27:44

In Australia, they were kind of almost bitter about Nic,

0:27:500:27:53

Nic's performances, because Harry Robertson wrote them

0:27:530:27:56

and sang them as very gritty, bitter songs about the lifestyle

0:27:560:28:02

of the whalers, about the hardships they had.

0:28:020:28:06

And Nic's version of Humpback Whale was almost

0:28:060:28:09

seen as a glorification of it.

0:28:090:28:10

He sort of sang in this uplifting way.

0:28:100:28:12

# Oh you trawler men come on

0:28:120:28:17

# Get your snapper and your prawn

0:28:170:28:20

# For it's out of Ballina we'll sail... #

0:28:200:28:22

Until I had fallen deeply in love with the song and learned it,

0:28:220:28:26

and then I thought,

0:28:260:28:27

"What does it mean to be singing this whaling song?"

0:28:270:28:30

But, for me, it's a story

0:28:300:28:33

and it's a real human story about what these guys' lives were like.

0:28:330:28:37

# A harpoon whaling gun

0:28:390:28:41

# Oh you trawler men, come on

0:28:410:28:44

# Forget your snapper and your prawn... #

0:28:440:28:50

It's such an unusual subject matter

0:28:500:28:53

but it's dealt with in this very specific way.

0:28:530:28:56

You know, "A tractor for a whale winch."

0:28:560:28:59

# A tractor for a whale winch

0:28:590:29:01

# And the ships in old... #

0:29:010:29:04

"And the ships in old fair my." I love those old details.

0:29:040:29:08

# She'll whale in a fine old style

0:29:080:29:11

# Oh, you trawler men.... #

0:29:110:29:14

I think it's just the feeling of that recording that he made of that song,

0:29:140:29:18

it just kind of soars.

0:29:180:29:20

# For it's out of Ballina we'll sail

0:29:200:29:24

# Fishing for the humpback whale... #

0:29:240:29:27

I'm working on a collection of songs right now

0:29:290:29:32

and one of the songs that we're doing is Clyde Waters

0:29:320:29:36

or The Drowned Lovers and,

0:29:360:29:38

literally, the reason we're doing it is

0:29:380:29:40

because of the Nic Jones version on Unearthed.

0:29:400:29:43

I remember I had it on my iPod and I was jogging.

0:29:430:29:47

And I don't usually jog to folk music - it usually doesn't work.

0:29:470:29:51

But with Nic Jones, for some reason...

0:29:510:29:54

And that song came on and I thought,

0:29:540:29:55

"We've got to do this. We've got to record this one."

0:29:550:29:58

# Willie sits in his stable door

0:29:580:30:01

# And he's combing his coal black steed

0:30:010:30:04

# He's doubting on fair Margaret's love

0:30:040:30:07

# And his hear began to bleed... #

0:30:070:30:09

To hear a solo performer, if it's good, I think it really...

0:30:100:30:15

It reaches out and grabs you in an emotional way.

0:30:150:30:20

That kind of vulnerability really makes for a sort

0:30:200:30:25

of conversation between the audience and the performer.

0:30:250:30:29

If you want to earn a living being a performer,

0:30:320:30:34

you've got to fill a hole. And how do you fill a hole?

0:30:340:30:36

You make a big sound. How do you make a big sound?

0:30:360:30:39

You get a drummer...

0:30:390:30:41

and Stone Henge-size amps...

0:30:410:30:44

which then knocks on with the need to relook at your music.

0:30:440:30:50

He was relooking at his music but not with that intention.

0:30:500:30:54

He was in the communication business at a personal level

0:30:540:30:57

and I think that always shows. The way that he...

0:30:570:31:01

He sings and the sort of songs he chooses,

0:31:010:31:04

it shows that he's talking to you...

0:31:040:31:07

rather than you, out there, you folks.

0:31:070:31:10

My public.

0:31:100:31:12

One day in February, 1982, Nic drove the two-and-a-half hour journey

0:31:140:31:18

from his how near Cambridge to play a gig in Gloucester, Derbyshire.

0:31:180:31:22

His fee was £50, in those days, a worthwhile payday.

0:31:230:31:27

When I first started out, the life of a folk club performer was

0:31:470:31:50

still very much the same as it had been in the '60s and '70s.

0:31:500:31:54

That is, you get in your car with your instrument

0:31:540:31:56

and you drive to where you're going,

0:31:560:31:58

and you do your gig, and then go to the your B&B,

0:31:580:32:01

and then you get up the next day.

0:32:010:32:03

I think the service stations have got better.

0:32:030:32:05

I think...

0:32:060:32:08

Yeah. Without wanting to advertise one particular place over another,

0:32:080:32:12

you know, Marks & Spencer's Simply Food really did change my life.

0:32:120:32:16

He had some extremely long drives and pretty lonely.

0:32:200:32:26

I can see why he would phone me, and possibly other people,

0:32:260:32:30

and say, "I'm travelling around. Do you want to come?"

0:32:300:32:33

And it was great for me because he'd say,

0:32:330:32:36

"I've got a friend here who would like a floor spot."

0:32:360:32:39

No matter how bad I was, the organisers always said, "Yes."

0:32:390:32:43

Well, I was a huge fan of Nic and I was doing floor spots at the time.

0:32:460:32:50

And if you went to see Nic,

0:32:500:32:52

you could be sure there would be a good audience,

0:32:520:32:54

and I was trying to get established as well.

0:32:540:32:56

And there was three of us

0:32:560:32:58

who had these badges made by a leather makers at the time,

0:32:580:33:01

George Butterworth, and, basically, we did it to annoy Nic

0:33:010:33:04

because we knew it would.

0:33:040:33:06

# You maidens and widows I pray give attention... #

0:33:070:33:15

He was tall and dark and quite good looking,

0:33:150:33:20

and he was just good.

0:33:200:33:22

He just sort of had this aura about him.

0:33:220:33:25

# Well here's a maid in distraction who she's now going to wander... #

0:33:250:33:33

If we was on, folk clubs were full.

0:33:340:33:37

People were ticketing them.

0:33:370:33:40

He had a huge following. He was sort of almost a cult figure.

0:33:400:33:45

# Broken-hearted I'll wander

0:33:450:33:50

# For the loss of my lover

0:33:510:33:56

# He's the bonny light horseman in the wars he was slain... #

0:33:570:34:02

There was a lot of people here and it got very hot,

0:34:020:34:06

and I do remember we were getting Nic pints of water

0:34:060:34:09

to take on stage with him.

0:34:090:34:11

# And when he's mounted on the horseback

0:34:110:34:16

# Oh so gallant and brave... #

0:34:160:34:22

And Nic would do his two sets, and then he would sell some LPs,

0:34:220:34:26

pack up, load his car up and then go off.

0:34:260:34:31

And we helped him down the stairs with his stuff,

0:34:310:34:34

and then just waved him off and said, "Drive safely. See you next time."

0:34:340:34:38

# He's the bonny light horseman in the wars he was slain... #

0:34:380:34:48

I did the sort of classic folk club scene with Nancy Kerr.

0:34:480:34:52

Me and Nancy Kerry, just driving around, just the two of us.

0:34:520:34:55

We set off at midnight, got as far as Junction 34

0:34:570:35:02

and woke up still doing 90 miles an hour in the back of a Toyota.

0:35:020:35:09

I guess I was 19 when that happened and it certainly does pull you up.

0:35:090:35:14

My dad has always done it on the trains.

0:35:150:35:17

I have these visions of him

0:35:170:35:19

through the ages with different rucksacks on his back.

0:35:190:35:23

But, yeah, just him and his two guitars.

0:35:230:35:24

And he's never learned to drive, and I understand why.

0:35:240:35:28

I understand why he's never done that

0:35:280:35:30

cos it takes it out of you.

0:35:300:35:32

At least on the train you can do the crossword, watch the world go by.

0:35:320:35:36

# Shotover river

0:35:520:35:55

# Your gold it's waning... #

0:35:550:35:57

I think he decided that he needed to get home more often and...

0:35:580:36:05

So, it was trying to get home as often as possible,

0:36:050:36:09

I think that was why he did it.

0:36:090:36:11

CAR HORN BEEPS

0:36:160:36:17

At about two o'clock, the dog and I were up, restless.

0:36:200:36:25

Erm... And it was freezing cold

0:36:290:36:31

and I remember I had my dressing gown and Nic's,

0:36:310:36:35

and then the knock at the door came, which didn't surprise me at all.

0:36:350:36:39

I just knew then.

0:36:390:36:41

The car was a complete write off.

0:36:430:36:45

There was bits of the radio, apparently, in the boot and stuff.

0:36:450:36:49

So...

0:36:490:36:52

And, obviously, Nic was a complete and utter mess.

0:36:520:36:56

When Nic was unconscious, right from the outset,

0:36:560:37:01

even the very first visit, they said, "Just talk to him."

0:37:010:37:05

I made some tapes.

0:37:050:37:06

I made tapes of the children talking and singing to him,

0:37:060:37:09

even of the dog barking,

0:37:090:37:12

and then I asked people if they'd got any tapes

0:37:120:37:14

because we were terrible for having tapes and stuff in the house.

0:37:140:37:19

I mean, you know, he didn't even have his own record sort of thing.

0:37:190:37:23

So, people then started sending tapes to jog his memory,

0:37:230:37:26

music tapes, any tapes.

0:37:260:37:27

The first thing I remember was swear words.

0:37:340:37:37

With the nurses, they realised the F-ing and blinding,

0:37:370:37:40

they knew that I was coming back to life again.

0:37:400:37:43

You know like adolescents kind of like to swear?

0:37:430:37:46

And like to play and swear and see the reaction that they'll get.

0:37:460:37:51

Well, Nic seemed to be going through an awful lot of that at the time,

0:37:510:37:54

which was kind of embarrassing

0:37:540:37:56

when you were in the restaurant at the BBC and stuff,

0:37:560:38:00

and he's coming out with all these phrases and stuff.

0:38:000:38:04

But, yeah, that was the...

0:38:040:38:05

That was the first time that I realised he wouldn't be...

0:38:050:38:09

Wouldn't be quite the same Nic.

0:38:090:38:12

Shit.

0:38:120:38:14

I did care...

0:38:150:38:17

because...

0:38:170:38:19

..it's another voice that's gone.

0:38:210:38:23

It sort of heaps more responsibility on you.

0:38:300:38:33

You know, you've now got to pay attention, and try and get it right,

0:38:330:38:38

cos this is important stuff.

0:38:380:38:41

Erm...

0:38:410:38:43

I mean, it's only music -

0:38:430:38:45

ho-ho-ho -

0:38:450:38:46

but music's important.

0:38:460:38:49

At the age of 35, Nic began the long road to some kind of recovery.

0:38:520:38:57

Almost every bone in his body was broken.

0:38:580:39:01

Some of his teeth were found in his lungs

0:39:010:39:04

and he nearly lost the sight in his right eye.

0:39:040:39:07

His guitar, too, was almost beyond repair.

0:39:070:39:10

We sent it off to Roger Bucknall.

0:39:110:39:14

I don't know exactly what he did, but he replaced the bridge and the neck.

0:39:140:39:18

The neck was really badly broken

0:39:190:39:21

so I fitted a new neck onto the remains of the old one.

0:39:210:39:23

The sides were very badly smashed around here in particular.

0:39:230:39:26

But all that was crushed and collapsed.

0:39:260:39:28

The guitar had basically been crushed.

0:39:280:39:30

The neck had given in and the sides had collapsed in there.

0:39:300:39:34

But because he was a friend,

0:39:340:39:36

I wanted to get this guitar back to him so to start playing again.

0:39:360:39:40

And he phone me up after he got better, a year or 18 months later,

0:39:400:39:44

and he didn't remember me.

0:39:440:39:47

We didn't really give him any quarter.

0:39:470:39:48

I mean, people probably thought we were a bit hard with him

0:39:480:39:51

but we didn't allow him to wallow.

0:39:510:39:55

Well, everything was smashed...

0:39:550:39:57

apart from the spine. The spine was OK.

0:39:570:40:00

Shoulders were bust, elbows bust, wrists were bust

0:40:000:40:02

and my fingers were bust. Everything was bust,

0:40:020:40:04

so I had to relearn how to play a rhythm with that hand.

0:40:040:40:08

The left hand could do it but the right hand couldn't get it right.

0:40:080:40:12

I mean, he's going to play it no matter what.

0:40:200:40:23

Whether it sounds like the dog's dinner, he's going to play it

0:40:230:40:26

because he loves doing it. He gets frustrated with it,

0:40:260:40:28

you hear a few swear words coming down the corridor,

0:40:280:40:31

but he's going to play it anyway.

0:40:310:40:33

I came home one day and then, all of a sudden, I heard this...

0:40:400:40:45

sound and I thought, "Nic's suddenly got it back."

0:40:450:40:49

I went upstairs and it was Joe.

0:40:490:40:51

"When did you learn to play the guitar?"

0:40:510:40:53

Joe Jones learned to play the guitar at university.

0:40:550:40:58

At home in Skipton,

0:40:580:41:00

he works in IT and is a bass player in a spoof heavy metal band.

0:41:000:41:04

Cos I'm left-handed and Dad being right-handed,

0:41:040:41:06

I couldn't ever really play it properly.

0:41:060:41:08

But then when I was like, "I need another guitar.

0:41:080:41:10

"Tell you what we could do, we could get Dad's."

0:41:100:41:12

Swapped to a left-hander that was it.

0:41:120:41:14

It was like, "That's what we're doing."

0:41:140:41:16

Whether I need to or not, that's what's going to happen.

0:41:160:41:19

So, I was quite vehement in the fact that

0:41:190:41:21

I was going to get to play Dad's guitar.

0:41:210:41:24

Warwick Festival would be the first time that Nic's old guitar has been

0:41:270:41:30

played in front of an audience since the night of the accident.

0:41:300:41:34

I'll have it down a little bit more, Graham, please.

0:41:380:41:41

I'd like to be slightly back in relation to...

0:41:410:41:43

He was slightly forward because...

0:41:430:41:45

So I can see him easily without turning my head too much.

0:41:450:41:48

Belinda O'Hooley of critically acclaimed duo O'Hooley and Tidow

0:41:480:41:51

will accompany Nic and his son Joe.

0:41:510:41:54

Bearing in mind Joe has never played in front of an audience,

0:41:580:42:03

other than his friends' weddings,

0:42:030:42:05

and Nic hadn't sung solo, we were more nervous.

0:42:050:42:07

Well, all credit to Joe,

0:42:070:42:10

even though he was a bundle of nerves beforehand.

0:42:100:42:13

And Nic, he just takes it in his stride.

0:42:130:42:15

Because on the night, Nic just seems to go to a different level.

0:42:150:42:19

You hear him here and you think, "It's going to be awful",

0:42:190:42:22

and then he just rises to the occasion.

0:42:220:42:24

APPLAUSE

0:42:240:42:28

This is my son, Joe.

0:42:440:42:46

# There was seven yellow gypsies all in a row

0:43:060:43:09

# And they sang neat and bonny-O

0:43:090:43:12

# Sang so neat and they're so complete

0:43:120:43:17

# They stole the heart of a lady... #

0:43:170:43:21

Well, he really looks like Nic used to look...

0:43:310:43:35

and he's full of energy as well.

0:43:350:43:37

# He's ridden o'er the high, high hills

0:43:370:43:40

# Till he come to the morning

0:43:400:43:43

# And there he's found his own dear wife... #

0:43:430:43:46

Big nose, dark hair, bushy eyebrows, yeah, that about sums me

0:43:460:43:51

and my dad up from a physical point of view.

0:43:510:43:53

He's so good on the guitar and he plays so sensitively, I think,

0:43:590:44:05

but he's very modest.

0:44:050:44:07

He doesn't really rate himself

0:44:070:44:09

and he's much better than he thinks he is.

0:44:090:44:11

Obviously, listening to some of the stuff he played and thinking,

0:44:140:44:18

"What's he doing there?"

0:44:180:44:19

And then you suddenly realise, yeah, it's a lot more difficult than...

0:44:190:44:23

Than he makes it look and sound.

0:44:260:44:29

APPLAUSE

0:44:350:44:38

So, after his accident, he spent a lot of time in hospital.

0:44:440:44:48

Lovely place. Lovely place.

0:44:500:44:52

Some of that was obviously getting better and recuperating,

0:44:530:44:57

but the general feeling was that most of it was

0:44:570:44:59

because he quite liked the nurses.

0:44:590:45:02

They're angels. They're angels.

0:45:020:45:04

Are there any female nurses here tonight?

0:45:040:45:06

-AUDIENCE:

-Yeah.

-Yeah?

0:45:060:45:08

I'd stay away from back stage if I was you.

0:45:100:45:12

LAUGHTER

0:45:120:45:16

I don't remember an old Nic and a present day Nic,

0:45:200:45:24

do you know what I mean? That's not how it is.

0:45:240:45:27

He's just Dad. How he is is how he is.

0:45:270:45:30

That probably made it a lot easier for me to deal with.

0:45:300:45:33

# Here I stand lost in the wind

0:45:350:45:41

# Round in circles sailing... #

0:45:410:45:45

I was nervous the whole way through, knowing what the songs were

0:45:450:45:49

and how they should be.

0:45:490:45:51

Dad tends to sing behind the beat,

0:45:510:45:53

so every time he was coming in a bit late you'd think,

0:45:530:45:55

"Oh, no, he's forgotten."

0:45:550:45:56

You know, it was that sort of anxiety all the way through,

0:45:560:45:59

listening to it.

0:45:590:46:00

# Good man

0:46:020:46:04

# Sing a sad song for me... #

0:46:040:46:07

Helen was a daddy's girl and loved him dearly,

0:46:070:46:11

but when she got to her teenage years, in her mind,

0:46:110:46:16

she'd lost the father she'd had.

0:46:160:46:19

In some ways, possibly, in relationships,

0:46:190:46:23

she's always been looking for...

0:46:230:46:25

..in her relationships, Nic.

0:46:260:46:30

# Here I stand alone on the plain... #

0:46:300:46:35

It's that fear of, I think...

0:46:350:46:40

I don't think I've ever been able to love someone as much as I loved Dad.

0:46:400:46:46

And maybe because that's a fear of losing them.

0:46:510:46:54

I was there with a friend who'd never seen Nic before,

0:47:120:47:17

who never knew his old records,

0:47:170:47:18

but took his performance entirely at face value,

0:47:180:47:22

with no nostalgia involved,

0:47:220:47:24

and she was completely bowled over. That, to me, was the test.

0:47:240:47:30

It wasn't just a load of us being nostalgic because Nic was up there,

0:47:300:47:34

it was actually musically very good.

0:47:340:47:36

# How I wish I was single again

0:47:360:47:41

# All this weeping and wailing and rocking the cradle... #

0:47:410:47:47

It was fascinating that,

0:47:470:47:48

when he actually stood up and sang with his son,

0:47:480:47:51

it was electrifying.

0:47:510:47:53

It really was an extraordinary moment.

0:47:540:47:58

Hearing blood relatives sing together is a thrilling thing,

0:47:580:48:02

I think, because they achieve a blend

0:48:020:48:04

that normal human beings can't.

0:48:040:48:07

# Rocking a cradle

0:48:080:48:10

# Rocking a baby that's none of my own... #

0:48:100:48:15

APPLAUSE

0:48:190:48:21

He's stubborn and the annoying thing is, he's usually right.

0:48:270:48:31

When we've been practising, "How about ending it this way?

0:48:310:48:35

"I'm not too sure about that."

0:48:350:48:38

And then you end up - he has this little suggestion.

0:48:380:48:40

It's like, "Why are you changing it?"

0:48:400:48:42

So then you'll do it anyway because he's persistent,

0:48:420:48:44

and you end up changing it and you're like, "Yeah, he's right."

0:48:440:48:48

Which is annoying from a father-son point of view,

0:48:480:48:51

especially when you get a kick out of having a good old argument -

0:48:510:48:56

in a nice way.

0:48:560:48:58

But, yeah, he's invariably right.

0:48:580:49:00

# Some time between ice ages was that they first appeared

0:49:000:49:10

# Fell hungry on the beasts and the fish they speared

0:49:100:49:18

# But all their bones... #

0:49:180:49:21

I'm very taken by the whole theme of the song,

0:49:210:49:23

which is about the fact that we all think we're really special

0:49:230:49:27

and unique, but we're all going to die and one day we'll be ruins

0:49:270:49:31

by the shore. And I've heard, both from Joe and Nic,

0:49:310:49:35

that it was also inspired by Planet of the Apes.

0:49:350:49:38

And the way Nic does it on recordings,

0:49:420:49:45

he does a very intricate guitar part which was actually really

0:49:450:49:49

difficult to work out how to plan on the piano.

0:49:490:49:52

And both me and Joe are like, "How are we going to do this?"

0:49:550:49:59

Because he is a law unto himself, is Nic,

0:49:590:50:02

and he changes things to suit the melody

0:50:020:50:05

and the way he's interpreting each verse,

0:50:050:50:08

so each verse is different.

0:50:080:50:10

# Some time between ice ages... #

0:50:150:50:19

Belinda O'Hooley and Heidi Tidow

0:50:190:50:22

have rearranged Nic's Ruins by the Shore.

0:50:220:50:25

They're keen to add the song to their own repertoire.

0:50:250:50:28

We thought we'd take it completely apart

0:50:300:50:33

and keep one of the key guitar signature notes or motifs,

0:50:330:50:38

but turn the song from a major song in a major key into

0:50:380:50:42

a minor key, and sort of make it a little bit more dramatic.

0:50:420:50:47

And use two voices,

0:50:470:50:49

so have a counter point going on and then lots of harmonies.

0:50:490:50:54

And... I hope we've done a good job of it.

0:50:540:50:57

Nic hasn't actually heard it yet, so we'll see.

0:50:570:51:00

# But now the spiders nest the tombs wherein they lie... #

0:51:000:51:11

# But all their bones are blackened and their faces are no more

0:51:110:51:20

# As we walk among... #

0:51:200:51:23

Although not one for nostalgia about his past,

0:51:230:51:26

after 40 years, Nic and his old Halliard

0:51:260:51:29

band mates got together for a reunion.

0:51:290:51:31

I have most of his albums and have listened to them,

0:51:330:51:37

and just sat back in awe.

0:51:370:51:42

I don't like the expression about owning a song but, by golly,

0:51:420:51:47

he owned the songs that he sang.

0:51:470:51:50

# And their faces are no more... #

0:51:510:51:54

Finally, we did meet in 2005 at Nic's house.

0:51:540:52:00

And Nic came over to me, and he sat opposite me at the table.

0:52:000:52:06

He...took my hands...

0:52:090:52:12

..and he sang to me.

0:52:130:52:16

VOICE BREAKS: I can't remember the song that he sang.

0:52:160:52:20

It was... It was a song about the now,

0:52:200:52:27

was what was important...

0:52:270:52:30

not tomorrow, not yesterday, but right now.

0:52:300:52:34

# Be still somewhere... #

0:52:500:52:54

Most of all, I've learned that there's beauty in imperfection.

0:52:540:52:59

Over and over again in the rehearsals, I felt moved and felt

0:52:590:53:04

quite emotional, and I know Heidi has as well.

0:53:040:53:09

We've just felt the hairs go up on our arms as he's sung a song.

0:53:090:53:15

And I've learned that you can't predict anything,

0:53:150:53:17

cos I never predicted that I would be doing this.

0:53:170:53:21

# We're here in the now... #

0:53:210:53:23

It's about music.

0:53:230:53:25

It's not, "I'll sing a song and you play an accompaniment" -

0:53:250:53:28

it's not like that.

0:53:280:53:29

It's like that.

0:53:290:53:31

Nic Jones came out as a brilliant musician

0:53:330:53:37

and I think he'll always be brilliant musician.

0:53:370:53:41

A real musical head.

0:53:410:53:43

# In the little dark engine room... #

0:53:430:53:49

It sort of doesn't matter that he plays folk music -

0:53:490:53:52

it transcends that.

0:53:520:53:53

You can play it to people that don't

0:53:560:53:57

have any history of listening to folk music

0:53:570:54:00

and they're spellbound by it.

0:54:000:54:02

It's sort of like when people say poetry -

0:54:040:54:06

people won't like poetry -

0:54:060:54:08

but poetry is something people ordinarily would love.

0:54:080:54:10

It's a wonderful thing, as is folk music.

0:54:100:54:13

If it's good...

0:54:160:54:17

..and he's very good.

0:54:190:54:21

Altogether!

0:54:240:54:26

# In the little dark engine room... #

0:54:260:54:30

There was a guy that came out,

0:54:300:54:31

and he went up to Dad and he couldn't speak.

0:54:310:54:34

He was just in tears.

0:54:340:54:36

And... And that was lovely,

0:54:360:54:38

and I was a little surprised that people were that emotional about it.

0:54:380:54:41

I could understand me being emotional about it

0:54:410:54:44

or family or anything, or people that knew him, but these people...

0:54:440:54:48

You know, even young people who'd never seen him perform before.

0:54:490:54:53

# That burned oily rags and coal. #

0:54:550:54:59

Thanks a lot. Cheers.

0:54:590:55:02

APPLAUSE

0:55:020:55:06

Nic Jones!

0:55:080:55:10

You could argue that maybe, if he hadn't had his accident,

0:55:130:55:15

he wouldn't be as popular now.

0:55:150:55:17

He might have just disappeared and nobody would have been interested,

0:55:170:55:20

or he might have done something everyone hated. You know, so...

0:55:200:55:24

Might have been a good career move.

0:55:240:55:27

..for Belinda O'Hooley and Joe Jones.

0:55:270:55:30

APPLAUSE

0:55:300:55:33

# Buchan, it's bonny, oh and there lives my love

0:55:330:55:38

# My heart it lies on him, it will not remove... #

0:55:380:55:45

"An introduction to folk.

0:55:450:55:47

"There are those who would have you keep folk songs for the sheep.

0:55:470:55:51

"I shared such an aspersion until I heard a ballad

0:55:510:55:55

"by the name of Annachie Gordon done by one Nic Jones.

0:55:550:55:59

"John Peel it was who brought me to ken the lingering longing

0:55:590:56:03

"and the wavering tones over intricate patters

0:56:030:56:06

"of the fingering bones.

0:56:060:56:08

"Since when, many folk songs have moistened my eye

0:56:080:56:12

"and I can see why a Morris Dancer sports a spare hanky."

0:56:120:56:17

# Won't you take me by the hand?

0:56:170:56:20

# And won't you lead me to the chamber? #

0:56:200:56:23

I like singing. I like singing - it's nice.

0:56:230:56:27

It's a means of self expression.

0:56:270:56:29

And I've always been a very egocentric person.

0:56:300:56:33

I've always liked my own voice.

0:56:330:56:35

# And he's dying in the chamber

0:56:350:56:38

# Where his true love... #

0:56:380:56:41

I was invited to go to a primary school by one of the teachers who

0:56:410:56:44

had said, "Come and play for the kids

0:56:440:56:46

"and we'll do a little workshop,

0:56:460:56:48

"and you can tell them how to achieve their dreams",

0:56:480:56:51

and things like that. And I thought, "I'll give it a go."

0:56:510:56:54

I only just got out of school myself, but OK.

0:56:540:56:56

Maybe they'll relate to me more cos I'm a bit younger.

0:56:560:56:59

At the end, I said, "I'm going to do a ballad now",

0:56:590:57:02

thinking the kids wouldn't really get it.

0:57:020:57:04

It's about tradition and it's not what they hear on the radio.

0:57:040:57:07

I said, "I'm going to do a ballad by a man called Nic Jones",

0:57:070:57:10

and a few of them started looking at each other.

0:57:100:57:12

I was like, "They can't know what this is."

0:57:120:57:14

And I kid you not, they all started cheering.

0:57:140:57:16

I started playing and they were singing along to it.

0:57:160:57:19

And it's the clearest I've seen crossing the generations,

0:57:190:57:24

and folk progressing and being handed down in the truest form.

0:57:240:57:28

It's the clearest I've seen that ever,

0:57:280:57:30

and it was like a beautiful moment.

0:57:300:57:32

But, yeah, I'll not forget that and I wish Nic was there to see it.

0:57:330:57:37

He would have really, really loved it. It was a good day.

0:57:370:57:40

# Be still somewhere

0:57:420:57:45

# Each moment aware

0:57:450:57:47

# That the now is here, so simple and so clear... #

0:57:470:57:54

It's very difficult to put your finger on what Nic's music is

0:57:540:57:59

and why it appeals to so many people.

0:57:590:58:02

I think it still has, apart from the obvious quality,

0:58:020:58:06

it has a bit of a cool feel to it,

0:58:060:58:08

a bit of a rock-y feel, certainly on the up-tempo numbers.

0:58:080:58:13

And it seems to just come through the ages and still be available

0:58:130:58:18

and relevant to people.

0:58:180:58:20

# Sally where are you going that you do look so gay?

0:58:270:58:31

# I know that I've not asked you to take a walk today

0:58:310:58:36

# You have not asked me well indeed

0:58:360:58:38

# It's a tiny cheek of you

0:58:380:58:40

# For you think that there are no more young chaps

0:58:400:58:43

# I've got a dozen or two

0:58:430:58:45

# Billy don't you weep for me

0:58:450:58:47

# I'm going to St James' Park my cousin Joe to see... #

0:58:470:58:51

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0:58:510:58:54

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