1978
A trip to a folk club in 1963 inspired the skinny, young Teesside [?] lad to pick up a guitar and learn the songs he was hearing, many from his Irish mother. After completing his apprenticeship at ICI (one of the largest chemical producers in the world) in 1969, he hit the road and spent six months playing for free drinks and tips in bars along the Mediterranean. Vin decided early in his career that he was going to sing in his native Teesside accent. In fact, the first song he wrote was called 'In me dirty, purple working shirt', a study of the Teesside vernacular, 'Me derty, perple, werkin', shert'.
8 Comments:
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TOSSIN' A WOBBLER has to be about the best album title i've ever heard. now, onto actually listening to it.
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its a bit disappointing if your expecting him to toss one though
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no you saw right, i got it wrong and im from the north east, probably because teesside isn't a place i tend to think of too often.
i don't listen to his newer stuff but this ones got some decent ones on there. he had a good voice, from the heart. i saw him live last year and asked him about the old 70's recordings. he said he didnt have the masters or knew who had them, sounded like he was implying he'd been in a wrangle over them maybe, dunno? anyway found this on a folk music forum so it must be available again and a good thing cos people should hear of him.
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OK , will get around to giving it a listen , should really try to catch him live , he plays around here regularly enough ....I try not to think of it too often myself !
Cheers , Martin .
smoggies