Where does all the time go ! Having been the beneficiary of a number of boxes of back issues of fROOTS I thought I'd start a recent history slot for the GondwanaSound broadcasts. The cover stars, the chart artists and the movers and groovers.
July 1988 and WOMAD was taking place at the much smaller location of Bracknell's South Hill Park, the venues of some extremely good festivals of their own.
The three day festival took place over the weekend of 15/16/17 July and artists included, Youssou N'Dour, Michelle Shocked, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan & Party, Flaco Jiminez, S.E. Rogie, Rythm Sisters, Orchestra Super Matamila, Battlefield Band, Dembo Knote& Kausu Kuyateh, Shobana Jeyasingh, Edward II and the Red Hot Polka's with Mad Professor, Udichee, Amampondo, Svinurai Traditional Musicians & Dancers, Joji Hirota, Malombo, Loggerheads, Ama Yenge, K Shridar & K Shivkumar, YM Stammen, Dinner Ladies, Yemaya, McDermotts Two Hours, Po Jabarteh, Los Van Van.
Where are they now..... some are still producing music, some have sadly passed on, but what of the others ? A new line of research beckons....
The top ten Folk Roots Charts as published in July 1988 compiled from a national survey of specialist and general record dealers, these were the top ten best sellers.
1. Nanci Griffiths - Little Love Affairs - MCA
2. Various Artists - Great Moments in Vinyl History - Special Delivery
3. Joni Mitchell - Chalk Mark in a Rain Storm.
4. Ofra Haza - Yemenite Songs
5. Various Artists - Hot Cookies - Cooking Vinyl
6. Woody Guthrie - The Columbia River Collection - Topic
7. Davy Spillane - Atlantic Bridge - Cooking Vinyl
8. Ry Cooder - Get Rythm - Warner Bros
9. Tracy Chapman - Tracy Chapman - Elektra
10. Ali Farke Toure Ali Farke Toure - World Circuit.
In the July 1988 issue of fROOTS contained the following letter from a Pete Seeger who gave his address as somewhere in America;
I think Faith Patric is right. The whole idea of the top hits of the 'folk field' is stupid. However, if you are going to continue it, you might be able to improve the situation by also listing 'The Worst Folksongs of The Year'.
I know that I and probably many other people who have made recording have from time to time allowed records to come out that we are ashamed of. My guess is that it would do no harm to have them publicised.
Now on the back page of fROOTS there six different charts....
One of the big bug bears at the moment is the sudden increase in petrol, so I thought I'd take a look at prices in 1988
1988
Petrol 34.7p a litre
WOMAD weekend £22
A Years subscription to fRoots £18.
2008
Petrol 119p a litre
WOMAD Weekend ticket £125
A Years Subscription to fRoots £46
If prices increased at the same rate as petrol then a WOMAD weekend ticket would cost £75.24 and a subscription to fRoots £61.56.
So instead of moaning about petrol prices subscribe to fRoots whilst prices are low and vex that WOMAD tickets have gone up way more than petrol prices........ well that's the show sorted for this week !
