Declan Affley

Last updated • 2 min readFrom Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia

Declan Affley
Birth nameDeclan James Affley
Born(1939-09-08)8 September 1939
Cardiff, Wales
Died27 June 1985(1985-06-27) (aged 45)
Sydney, Australia
Genres Folk music
Occupation(s)Folk singer, actor
Instrument(s)Guitar, banjo, tin whistle, fiddle, uilleann pipes
Years active1960–1985

Declan James Affley (8 September 1939 27 June 1985) was an Australian folk singer and musician.

Contents

Biography

Affley was born in Cardiff, Wales, to working-class Catholic parents of Irish descent. As a child, he learned to play the clarinet and picked up some Irish songs from his father. [1]

At age 16, he joined the British Merchant Navy and travelled to Japan and Australia, where he jumped ship in 1959 to find work on coastal ships based in Sydney. At a harbourside pub, the Royal George, he discovered the Sydney Push and joined its folksinging scene, which had links with other establishments in Melbourne.

Affley became a regular performer at the Troubadour Coffee Lounge in Sydney and later at Frank Traynor's Folk Club, Melbourne, leading to appearances at many other venues and folk festivals. He played small parts in several films including Peter Weir's The Last Wave , and Richard Lowenstein's Strikebound , of which he was musical director. His group the Wild Colonial Boys appeared in the Tony Richardson film Ned Kelly in 1970. [1]

He married Colleen Zeita Burke in Melbourne on 11 December 1967. A son and a daughter were born from the marriage. [2]

Affley was well known as a singer of traditional songs such as "Carrickfergus" as well as performing the work of contemporary songwriters including John Dengate, Don Henderson, Dorothy Hewett and Harry Robertson. He died suddenly at the age of 45 from a dissecting aneurysm of the aorta. [2]

Memorial award

Affley is remembered by the Declan Affley memorial award for excellence in a young performer, awarded annually at the National Folk Festival in Canberra. [2]

Discography

Sound recording

Related Research Articles

Rambling Syd Rumpo was a folk singer character, played by the English comedian and actor Kenneth Williams, originally in the 1960s BBC Radio comedy series Round the Horne.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Music of Australia</span> Overview of music traditions in Australia

The music of Australia has an extensive history made of music societies. Indigenous Australian music forms a significant part of the unique heritage of a 40,000- to 60,000-year history which produced the iconic didgeridoo. Contemporary fusions of indigenous and Western styles are exemplified in the works of Yothu Yindi, No Fixed Address, Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu and Christine Anu, and mark distinctly Australian contributions to world music.

Rock music in Australia, also known as Oz rock, Australian rock and Aussie rock, has a rich history, rooted in an appreciation of various rock genres originating in the United States and Britain, and to a lesser extent, in continental Europe and Africa. Australian rock has also contributed to the development of some of these genres, as well as having its own unique Australiana sound with pub rock and its indigenous music.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Raffaele Marcellino</span> Australian composer (born 1964)

Raffaele Marcellino is an Australian composer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Australian country music</span> Genre of popular music from Australia

Australian country music is a part of the music of Australia. There is a broad range of styles, from bluegrass, to yodeling to folk to the more popular. The genre has been influenced by Celtic and English folk music, the Australian bush ballad tradition, as well as by popular American country music. Themes include: outback life, the lives of stockmen, truckers and outlaws, songs of romance and of political protest; and songs about the "beauty and the terror" of the Australian bush.

Alex Glasgow was an English singer-songwriter from Low Fell, Gateshead, England. He wrote the songs and music for the musical plays Close the Coal House Door and On Your Way, Riley! by Alan Plater, and scripts for the TV drama When the Boat Comes In, the theme song of which he sang.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gary Shearston</span> Musical artist

Gary Rhett Shearston was an Australian singer and songwriter and Anglican priest. He was a leading figure of the folk music revival of the 1960s and was notable as a performer of Australian traditional folk songs in an authentic style. He scored a Top 10 hit in the United Kingdom in 1974 with his cover version of the Cole Porter song "I Get a Kick out of You".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arts in Australia</span> Overview of arts in Australia

The Arts in Australia refers to the visual arts, literature, performing arts and music in the area of, on the subject of, or by the people of the Commonwealth of Australia and its preceding Indigenous and colonial societies. Indigenous Australian art, music and story telling attaches to a 40–60,000-year heritage and continues to affect the broader arts and culture of Australia. During its early western history, Australia was a collection of British colonies, therefore, its literary, visual and theatrical traditions began with strong links to the broader traditions of English and Irish literature, British art and English and Celtic music. However, the works of Australian artists – including Indigenous as well as Anglo-Celtic and multicultural migrant Australians – has, since 1788, introduced the character of a new continent to the global arts scene – exploring such themes as Aboriginality, Australian landscape, migrant and national identity, distance from other Western nations and proximity to Asia, the complexities of urban living and the "beauty and the terror" of life in the Australian bush.

Pat Drummond is an Australian singer/songwriter based in the Blue Mountains, New South Wales.

Franciscus Henricus Antheunis, professionally known as Franciscus Henri, is a musician and children's entertainer. He has dual Dutch and Australian nationality. In 1970 he gained national prominence when he competed in the TV talent quest New Faces, which led to a recording contract with the Melbourne-based independent label Fable Records. From 1997, he also performs as Mister Whiskers, a travelling singer who loves children and performs for them with his dog companion, Smiggy.

The Port Fairy Folk Festival is an annual four-day music festival based in the historic fishing village of Port Fairy in Victoria, Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harry Robertson (folk singer)</span> Musical artist

Henry Robertson was a Scottish-born Australian seaman, engineer, folk-singer/songwriter, poet and activist, who became a key figure in the development of the Australian folk music tradition. During the 1950s he served in commercial whaling fleets in both sub-antarctic and sub-tropical regions, and wrote a number of songs about his experiences which formed the basis of his 1971 LP release Whale Chasing Men: Songs of Whaling in Ice and Sun, a unique record of life in the whaling industry in the 20th century. He also composed and performed songs on a range of other subjects, including compositions for historical documentaries commissioned by Australian television, a number of which have since been recorded posthumously by musicians interested in perpetuating his musical legacy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Warren Fahey</span>

Warren John Fahey AM is an Australian folklore collector, cultural historian, author, actor, broadcaster, record and concert producer, visual artist, songwriter, and performer of Australian traditional and related historical music. He is the founder of Folkways Music (1973), Larrikin Records (1974) and a folk music ensemble, the Larrikins (1975).

Judith Margaret Small is a retired judge of the Federal Circuit Court of Australia and former folk singer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Dengate</span> Australian folk singer and songwriter

John Dengate was an Australian folk singer and songwriter. His songs, mostly but not exclusively humorous and satirical have been recorded by performers including Declan Affley, John Warner, Margaret Walters and Doug Jenner. In addition, he appeared on a number of recorded collections and has produced a two-volume CD, 'Australian Son' on the Shoestring label. He made numerous appearances at folk concerts and festivals including the National Folk Festival.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Martyn Wyndham-Read</span> Musical artist

Arnold Martyn Wyndham-Read is an English folk singer, who was a collector and singer of Australian folk music. He lived and worked in Australia from 1958 to 1967 and was subsequently a regular visitor to the country.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alex Hood</span> Musical artist

Alexander Stewart Ferguson "Alex" Hood is an Australian folk singer, writer, actor, children's entertainer/educator and folklorist.

Mike Jackson OAM is an Australian children's entertainer, recording artist, songwriter, radio show host, and author. He is perhaps best known for his version of Bananas in Pyjamas and appearances on ABC Television.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marian Henderson</span> Musical artist

Marian Henderson was an Australian folk and jazz singer later referred to as "the queen of the (Australian) 1960s folk revival". She worked extensively in Australian folk and jazz clubs during the 1960s and 1970s and appeared on television and a number of Australian folk music recordings, though recorded only one album under her own name.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bush Music Club</span>

Sydney's Bush Music Club is the oldest and longest running folk music performance and education organisation in Australia, and is believed to be the second oldest such club still in existence in the English speaking world. Founded in 1954, and still extant as at 2022, it exists to further "the collection and research of folklore traditions and folk music and to encourage the performance of traditional bush music, song and dance, spoken word, bush poetry and yarns". It hosts regular events and has published a range of folklore related materials, including the magazine "Singabout" from 1956 to 1967, which continues as a section within a subsequent publication "Mulga Wire" (1977-current).

References

  1. 1 2 Burke, Colleen Z. Declan Affley – A rake & rambling man at JAM, Folk Federation of NSW. (Sourced to an unspecified edition of Trad and Now Archived 28 March 2012 at the Wayback Machine .
  2. 1 2 3 Dengate J. Affley, Declan James (1939–1985) at Australian Dictionary of Biography, 2007