Shape of Snape
Introducing our readers to the music of Peter and Barbara Snape
The Living Tradition — Issue 81
Clive Pownceby
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There can’t be many more idyllic interview situations than a canal-side pub on a warm July day - in this case it’s the Top Lock on the Leeds-Liverpool waterway, not far from the rural Lancashire hamlet of Whittle-le-Woods near Chorley (it’s as idyllic as it sounds) - the home of this couple who’ve been branching out in 2008 from their homeplace into Clubs and Festivals, the latter having included, amongst others, Alcester, Broadstairs, Whitby, Fylde and Bromyard. Over a glass or two of Southport Brewery’s Golden Sands bitter, I wondered what had prompted this, and erm, with their ages hardly qualifying them to be young thrusters, why they’d chosen now to chance their arm in the competitive arena we lovingly call "the folk scene." Melodeon player Peter was born and bred here and in fact they live in his granddad’s old house, with his Mum just across the road. His uncle and grandfather played fiddle and banjo on a regular basis in this local community, both for their personal enjoyment and for whatever social functions were happening in pubs and local halls. "My uncle Bob would walk miles on Saturday nights, there and back, to play at the Cavendish Arms in Brindle." His father was a classically trained church organist and a young Peter tried the piano - but not for long. "I’m no singer either - Barbara is looking for a nice easy song for me, with a limited key range!" he jokes. |
A Prog-rock fan (and there aren’t many of us that would admit to that!) in those heady 1971 days, the melting pot he came into contact with, included East Of Eden as equally as Pink Floyd - "I saw Lindisfarne at Preston Public Hall with Genesis as support and Fairport Convention at Liverpool University, with Audience doing the warm-up - it was that kind of era. Hearing Fairport’s ‘Toss The Feathers’ medley made me realise that not all the material was written by them - it led me into the world of traditional English music."
Active involvement for Peter came later that decade when he’d call with a friend into a local pub, the Red Cat - now a restaurant, for a few pints on a Saturday night, and hear Morris personnel from the revered and seminal Garstang side engaged in an informal music session. He liked what he heard and thought after a while, "I’d like to do something with this lot instead of just listening, so I bought myself an instrument, practised and slowly got involved in the team. I was welcomed and I’m so glad I became part of it."
It’s hard to underestimate the influence and sense of community of that mighty Garstang side; its professionalism ("It was a lifestyle, quite a disciplined lifestyle too; we had a code of conduct which shaped the way we presented ourselves") and impact did so much to inspire and rekindle interest in North-west Clog Morris. "Doc Rowe has our archive — it could all be on a CD Rom one day. " Entirely self-taught, "I just picked it up," he now plays Dino Baffetti boxes, one modified "to make it sweeter. They’re not the most fashionable, as say, Saltarelles are, but I like the weight, the feel and the action." He’s been influenced by Martin Ellison and Simon Care "but I don’t try to replicate anyone - I couldn’t. I get the box out most days too, and in fact after tea and The Archers, we’ll both invariably sing and play together for our own pleasure. We just love it."
Barbara is a Merseysider, her father a pianist and accordion player, again popular for local hops and her Grandmother could accompany anything you’d care to name on mandolin as well as hitting piano keys too, if need be. Barb’s initial contact with Folk came via the Spinners - an often unfairly disparaged or at best, ignored, way into the music for so many of us. At a mere age of 14, she would visit their Club at the Gregsons Well pub (we didn’t worry overmuch about the licensing laws in Liverpool) and catch not only the hosts but also their guests - The Copper Family, Aly Bain and Tom Anderson, MaColl and Seeger as well as such floor singing characters as Tony Wilson and Bernie Davis. "I’d always leant towards Cat Stevens, Donovan and Joan Baez and that sort of stuff rather than the Kinks and Manfred Mann in the 60s. I liked things acoustic. I first saw the Spinners in Wallasey and was impressed by how knowledgeable they were - it was an education and the variety they presented at their club was absolutely wonderful. My cousin, a sailor, gave me a guitar and I was off."
I first came across Barbara, (Bennion) as part of the then-thriving Liverpool folk scene of the early ’70s based around The Customs House - a folk pub near Liverpool’s Canning Place sailortown, and a focal point for enthusiasts in much the same way as Sandy Bells in Edinburgh or The Scotia in Glasgow, where most nights of the week something would be happening, even if it was only a heated argument about the merits of electric folk or DADGAD tuning. She comments, "At the Customs House, you’d hear everything from straight traditional material to Frank McCall singing ‘Scarlet Ribbons.’ Frank was always encouraging and would gladly pass on song lyrics but it was John Howson (now of course a noted collector and Veteran Records CEO) who got me singing properly" and for years they performed as a duo until his move to Suffolk. "My prime reason for liking what we call folk music is that the songs have substance, something you can really get hold of. The stories draw you in" she adds. Shay Black and the Liverpool Traditional club at the Cross Keys, where Shay’s sisters Mary and Frances might just turn up on occasion was another fertile source of inspiration.
Barb’s guitar accompaniment is just that - "I don’t want it to be very clever, and I don’t see myself as a guitarist - I think I plateaued in 1977!" she states wryly, and for some years she was a member of acappella 4-piece Bright Phoebus - another outfit that was well-regarded hereabouts. Then for personal reasons, a change of job, location, and new hobbies "I fell out with Folk. I played a little to the kids at school, but then in 2004, met some old friends who invited me down to a session in Burnley." An interest was rekindled, and meeting Peter at a subsequent bash, and discovering a shared interest in Sandy Denny, a musical empathy was born; - Peter just joined in with her singing which eventually led to her name change from Bennion to Snape 18 months ago.
The prime material is traditional, followed by a touch of Dougie MacLean and Blackburn-based Nick Caffrey’s locally-centric writing. Also, and rather splendidly, Gracie Fields! "Her early 1930s records, before she got too showbiz" says Barbara "I’ve got a boxful of 78s which I collected with John Howson mainly from a shop in Stockport in the ’70s, and which I’d take with a friend to Festivals years ago, playing them on a wind-up gramophone in the back of her car! I think ‘The Little Puddin’ Basin’ and ‘The Co-op shop’ are folksongs, don’t you?" Well yes, to be honest I think there’s a fair case to be made there, and certainly audiences love those songs.
Barbara has a vast library of source material - she’s always reading and researching and has notes on every song she’s ever sung.
Locally, you’ll find them in sessions that are so much a part of the West Lancashire scene, but both she and Peter are enjoying getting out to Clubs and Festivals, and raising their profile, not in a bid to win awards but simply as Peter says "because we enjoy doing it so much and hope others like it. You meet such great people. There’s something accessible about Folk Music. You can either listen or be more active but it’s an easy bridge to cross. All you need is a gateway." "We’re just very lucky people to have found this music" concludes Barbara.
All that glitters is not the stuff of BBC Radio 2 Awards. There are performers such as these two, just as worthy of our attention, with plenty to offer. No pretension, no hype - the very essence of what made us interested in Folk in the first instance. When I’ve seen them, the engagement with their audience is total and I’ve come away thinking not just how much I’ve enjoyed their music and song, but how much fun it was just being with them.
Coming soon to a Club near you? I’d like to think so. Tell them I sent you - I find their openness, the lift and bounce in their music totally absorbing and more to the point, totally refreshing. Lock gates are opening, a barge is passing the pub window, ducks are scurrying, dogs barking; time for another Golden Sands eh? Is that the time? Oh well, the licensing laws don’t seem to count for much around here either!