This is a huge, impressive study of music in a region that Banfield calls ‘the West Country’ which is similar to, but not quite congruent with, the government's South West; the largest geographically of the nine regions of England and about mid-way in terms of population. It is a large and varied region and Banfield travels it from 1280 to the present day, drawing upon a mass of data, organising the book thematically and through pertinent questions, in pursuing his aim of a ‘social and cultural history’.
He begins with medieval and sacred music, and across more than 700 years ranges through various styles, contexts and tales about musicians. It is impressively informative, covering the region west of the river Avon, down to the Cornish Atlantic coast and northwards to the complex city of Bristol – a gateway for his region. Along the way, we encounter the genteel seaside town of Bournemouth in Dorset, with its Symphony Orchestra, Wiltshire's Salisbury, with its fine cathedral and recent ‘cold-war’ alarms, and Devon, Exeter and the naval port of Plymouth. However, these occasional urban centres are often punctuation points in a mainly rural region of hills, fields, trees, often narrow, slow roads and a largely agricultural economy. Banfield examines the cities of course, but equally he seeks out ‘every known reference to music and musicians’ around, for example, Somerset's Chard, Crewkerne and Ilminster (p. xv).
He tells us that his work is ‘provisional’, but in suggesting that the ‘real work’ is ‘to come’ (p. xiii), understates the extent of his considerable contribution in mapping out this territory, geographically, historically and aesthetically. Banfield suggests that its work will have been done if, through cross-referencing and comparison, it enables the emergence of histories of particular places and types of activity; without question it contributes significantly to such projects. In that respect, he cites a fascinating European approach of ‘associating different musical sounds in the city with different spaces’ – an ‘urban musical geography’ (p. 3), while adding that he is not aware of any such project yet in Britain.
The work is chronological where this supports his overall project, but is not tied to it, enabling Banfield to consider significant themes and issues; ‘how musicians function, economically and socially’, how people in his region feel marginalised, or how imaginative ‘soundscapes’ might offer an ‘unsurpassable historical touchstone’ (p. xv). Much of what he describes shifts between the sacred and secular, while acknowledging the essential link between the two, so that, for example, he offers the famous tale of Cecil Sharp collecting ‘The Seeds of Love’ from John England (for a pipeful of tobacco), who was a gardener, but also the parish clerk and sexton, and perhaps the same man who led the Hambridge and Westport Band. Banfield tells us that, despite the ‘purism’ of ‘folk’ collectors like Sharp, many of these singers in the remote agricultural areas were as fond of music-hall songs (pp. 265/7) although of music hall and variety there is relatively little here.
While reconstructing ‘detailed musical practices … representative of their time and place’, Banfield acknowledges that they might have occurred elsewhere in the country and he becomes ‘more interested’ in the possibility of their occurence ‘in other countries too’ (p. 9). It is at least one further project to build on this very firm foundation and, given the probable audience for this review I wish to consider another, for Banfield has written here, ‘let the imaginative treatments of west country musical history begin’ (p. xvi).
To a degree, he has a somewhat gloomy view of music in his region. He suggests that, apart from ‘a particularly strong association of Somerset with folk music’ and the ‘world famous’ Glastonbury festival, it is centuries since the region ‘merited particular notice’ (p. 2); and he argues that it has never generated ‘a truly distinctive musical story’ because it has ‘never produced a stable nationally recognised conservatoire’ as ‘small-scale enterprises came and went’ (p. 336). That is a very specific view of significance, which seems to reveal Banfield's particular view of ‘music’, and while I am full of admiration for his intellectual project it does hint at what is of less interest to him, which I assume contrasts with the readers of this review, most of whom know that we have worked, not at all unproblematically, to define our field as popular music – not least the music of the past half-century or so.
Banfield does touch on these topics here and there, with some interesting work around radio, and the Glastonbury Festival, yet even there his focus is on the ‘first’, rather different version of a century ago (pp. 293–7). There is too, just a brief mention of the very significant Sidmouth Folk Festival (p. 286). Elsewhere, he describes how Longleat was one of those country houses that in the 16th and 17th centuries gave work to ‘local or regional musicians’ and was the site of much ‘lute teaching’ (pp. 161–2), but he does not tell us that in the embryonic days of the outdoor pop festival, Lord Bath staged a series of outdoor events there, most notably in August 1964 with the Rolling Stones. Neither are we told that just a few years later Fred Bannister staged two ‘Bath’ rock & blues festivals with some of the world's major acts, the second with a large audience, that was the prototype for the Glastonbury Festivals that followed.
In Bristol, he gives some attention to Massive Attack, and ‘sad’ trip-hop (p. 149) but also explores an unconvincing connection (or not) between that genre and previous chart acts from the area, in particular 1950s pianist Russ Conway, ‘Trad’ jazz clarinettist Acker Bilk and two comic ‘folk’ acts, the Wurzels and Fred Wedlock. He argues that what connects them is fame from recordings, and the fact that they ‘owed nothing or very little to the institutional paths of music’ (pp. 144/5). In truth those earlier chart acts are pretty minor in the greater scheme of things – Wedlock's one chart hit reached number six in 1981 – while the attempt to make any musical link is rather like suggesting two major UK chart acts from the 1960s the Beatles and Ken Dodd are linked through their Liverpool homes. There is too a surprising suggestion in a section titled ‘Rock and its Others’ that our music is ‘age-limited’ and while he notes that ‘many rock or folk groups … started in a church youth club’, he doubts whether school music teachers ‘ever’ help young pupils to make popular music. I have much evidence to contradict that view from my own days as a school teacher 30 years ago, right up to this year, sharing platforms with a local school rock group (pp. 138–40).
There is, meanwhile, much from his region that does not make it into this survey, and surprisingly, given this apparent interest in local performers with pop hit record status, he makes no mention of Salisbury's Dave Dee and his band who, in the mid-1960s, enjoyed eight top 10 UK hits, including a number one, after which Dee became an influential A&R man in the industry. Banfield pays considerable informative attention to the ‘Invention of Folk Music’ alongside an ‘invented west country’ (p. 264), as well as the revivals, but not so much on the Cornwall's 1960s’ beatnik folk scene, which attracted the attention of BBC TV cameras, helped to nurture Donovan's early career and provided a home and performing context for Ralph McTell, perhaps the most notable of a number of acoustic folk-blues guitar players who flourished in the region. There are other significant names and events from the region too, including influential rock musicians such as Greg Lake and Robert Fripp, the origins of Queen in Truro, the popular contemporary ‘folkie’ Seth Lakeman, Dorset's PJ Harvey and Peter Gabriel's song ‘Solsbury Hill’ – although there is a brief mention of Gabriel's Real World Studios.
In terms of consumption, some of the popular music events in the region's venues might warrant more consideration, not least Bristol's Colston Hall, where in 1963, the Beatles, in their year of UK hits and tours, appeared twice, along with Taunton, Bath, Salisbury, Weston-Super-Mare, Cheltenham, Plymouth, Exeter and Bournemouth. It seems that they did not get as far as Cornwall until 1967, when the coach trip sequences of their film Magical Mystery Tour went to Taunton, Teignmouth, Torquay, Plymouth and Newquay. The Beatles were not from the west country of course, but surely, they contributed to the ‘social and cultural history’ of the entire country including this region? They also used Salisbury Plain as a location in their second film Help!, as did director John Boorman in his film Catch Us If You Can with the Dave Clark Five.
There might be also more tales of the transformation of the live music scene from the days of acts like the Beatles performing in large venues on package tours to the creation of a rock scene that initially depended on clubs and festivals where, particularly in the former, acts would often have the whole evening. One major English venue of the early 1970s was Plymouth's Van Dike (sic) Club which featured among others, Pink Floyd, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Free, David Bowie and Procul Harum. Many of these bands soon priced themselves out of that market, but then along came the punk acts of the mid/late 1970s, while this was also the heyday of live student gigs.
In many respects, that is another history, and had Banfield not embarked on his brief examination of Bristol's pop acts, I think it might not warrant a comment. However, since he has, I have chosen to offer a handful of acts and events which might invite further exploration in whatever projects explore a social and cultural history of the west country. I offer it however, in the spirit of development, and remain impressed by this very fine piece of work.
