A. L. Lloyd

Albert Lancaster Lloyd (29 February 1908 – 29 September 1982),Eder, Bruce. (29 September 1982
A. L. Lloyd - Music Biography, Credits and Discography
AllMusic. Retrieved on 2013-02-24. usually known as A. L. Lloyd or Bert Lloyd, was an English folk singer and collector of folk songs, and as such was a key figure in the British folk revival of the 1950s and 1960s. While Lloyd is most widely known for his work with British folk music, he had a keen interest in the music of Spain, Latin America, Southeastern Europe and Australia. He recorded at least six discs of Australian Bush ballads and folk music.

Lloyd also helped establish the folk music subgenre of industrial folk music through his books, recordings, collecting and theoretical writings.

Early life

Lloyd was born in Wandsworth, London, England. His father was an AA Patrolman and failed smallholder. His mother sang songs around the house and according to Lloyd mimicked the gypsy singers that she had heard. By the age of fifteen his mother had died and his father, an ex-soldier, was a semi-invalid, and Lloyd was sent as an assisted migrant to Australia in a scheme organised by the British Legion. There, from 1924 to 1930, he worked on various sheep stations in New South Wales and it was during this time that he began to write down folksongs he learned. In the outback of New South Wales he discovered that he could access the State Library and order books. His special interests being art and music he could get a grasp of those topics without seeing a painting or hearing any music. He also bought a wind-up gramophone and began to investigate some of the classical music he had previously read about.

Career as folklorist

When Lloyd returned to the UK in 1935, during the Great Depression, in the absence of a permanent job he pursued his interests in studying folk music and social and economic history, doing much of his research at the British Museum; he is quoted as saying that there is "nothing like unemployment for educating oneself". In 1937, he signed on board a factory whaling ship, the ''Southern Empress'', bound for the southern whaling grounds of the Antarctic.

During this decade, Lloyd joined the Communist Party of Great BritainBrocken p. 25 and was strongly influenced by the writings of the Marxist historian, A. L. Morton, particularly his 1938 book ''A People's History of England''.Brocken p. 26 In 1937, Lloyd's article "The People's own Poetry" was published in the ''Daily Worker'' (since 1966 renamed ''Morning Star'') newspaper.

In 1938, the BBC
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