September 28, 1963 (1963-09-28)– January 4, 1964 (1964-01-04)
Hullabaloo was an English music series that ran weekly on ABC Weekend TV in the UK Midlands region from September 1963 to January 1964. Compered by Rory McEwen, it showcased a selection of prominent (and some less prominent) UK Folk and Blues musicians in front of a live audience, and also included a number of visiting international artists. Almost forgotten for over 40 years since its original broadcast, all 13 original shows were re-released on DVD in 2020 and provide a rare documentation on film of a significant proportion of the British folk (and some blues) scene of that era.
According to "TV Pop Diaries", the show was preceded by a live music concert given by many of the performers at the (presumably 1963) Edinburgh Festival entitled "Straight From The Wood", and also had a post-series concert at the Royal Festival Hall in May 1964, despite the series never being originally shown in London, necessary arrangements being unable to be reached between the regional and national TV networks.[3] The show was, however, syndicated to be shown in both Australia and America, from which small performance clips emerged intermittently over the years.
In addition to the more widely known performers as listed above, the series also included performances by (today) less remembered artists including The Manhattan Brothers, Lisa Turner, Shirley Bland, Jill Freedman (later to find fame as a documentary photographer), Linda Drew, Judith Silver, Maureen Scott, The Malcolm Price Trio, The Cumberland Three (featuring a young Alex Beaton), The Haverim, Pete McGurk and Jean Hart;[2] space was even found for a couple of fingerstyle guitar instrumentals by the little known, but talented Caribbean jazz guitarist Fitzroy Coleman who was a sometime frequenter of the London folk scene of the day and had recorded with Ewan MacColl among others.
Significance
In the event, the UK was not able to emulate the commercial success of folk and folk-related music in the way that the U.S. was able, the latter featuring performers such as The Weavers, The Kingston Trio, Joan Baez and others including Bob Dylan and early Simon and Garfunkel, preferring instead (by the mid 1960s) the sounds of both bland "pop" music and the more beat- and (initially) "R&B" based music exemplified by The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. Recordings such as those created for Hullabaloo thus stand as a rare documentation of a formative stage in the UK's "folk revival" of the early 1960s, which persisted much more as a niche music / grass roots culture than a commercially lucrative venture for record and/or television or film companies for the succeeding decades.
Re-release
After an over 40 year gap during which the original shows had effectively disappeared from public availability, all thirteen episodes were transferred from their original film format and received an official release as a 2-DVD set by Network/Studiocanal Ltd. in 2020.[4]
Cyril Davies & His Rhythm & Blues Allstars: Hullabaloo (CD and Vinyl, Rhythm and Blues (label), 2023) - Includes audio only of 21 cuts by the band from their 1963-1964 "Hullabaloo" appearances, plus others
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
