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The radio ballad is an audio
documentary format created by
Ewan MacColl,
Peggy Seeger
Margaret "Peggy" Seeger (born June 17, 1935) is an American folk singer. She has lived in Britain for more than 60 years, and was married to the singer and songwriter Ewan MacColl until his death in 1989.
First American period
Seeger's father ...
, and
Charles Parker in 1958. It combines four elements of sound: songs, instrumental music, sound effects, and, most importantly, the recorded voices of those who are the subjects of the documentary. The latter element was revolutionary; previous radio documentaries had used either professional voice actors or prepared scripts.
Original radio ballads
The original radio ballads were recorded for the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
. MacColl wrote a variety of songs especially for them, many of which have become folk classics. The trio together made eight radio ballads between 1958 and 1964. They were:
# ''The Ballad of
John Axon
John Axon GC (4 December 1900 – 9 February 1957) was an English train driver from Stockport (Edgeley Depot) who died while trying to stop a runaway freight train on a 1 in 58 gradient at Chapel-en-le-Frith in Derbyshire after a brake fail ...
'' (1958), about an engine driver who died trying to stop a runaway freight train
# ''Song of a Road'' (1959), about the men who built the London-Yorkshire motorway, the
M1
# ''Singing the Fishing'' (1960), about the men and women of the
herring fishing fleets of
East Anglia and Northeast Scotland
# ''The Big Hewer'' (1961), about the
miners
A miner is a person who extracts ore, coal, chalk, clay, or other minerals from the earth through mining. There are two senses in which the term is used. In its narrowest sense, a miner is someone who works at the rock face; cutting, blasting, ...
of the
Northumberland
Northumberland () is a county in Northern England, one of two counties in England which border with Scotland. Notable landmarks in the county include Alnwick Castle, Bamburgh Castle, Hadrian's Wall and Hexham Abbey.
It is bordered by land ...
,
Durham Durham most commonly refers to:
*Durham, England, a cathedral city and the county town of County Durham
*County Durham, an English county
* Durham County, North Carolina, a county in North Carolina, United States
*Durham, North Carolina, a city in N ...
,
South Wales and
East Midlands coalfields
# ''The Body Blow'' (1962), about people suffering from
polio
Poliomyelitis, commonly shortened to polio, is an infectious disease caused by the poliovirus. Approximately 70% of cases are asymptomatic; mild symptoms which can occur include sore throat and fever; in a proportion of cases more severe s ...
# ''On the Edge'' (1963), about teenagers in Britain
# ''The Fight Game'' (1963), about
boxers
# ''The Travelling People'' (1964), about the
nomadic people
A nomad is a member of a community without fixed habitation who regularly moves to and from the same areas. Such groups include hunter-gatherers, pastoral nomads (owning livestock), tinkers and trader nomads. In the twentieth century, the po ...
s of Ireland and Britain.
''Singing the Fishing'' won the
Prix Italia
The Prix Italia is an international Television, Radio-broadcasting and Web award. It was established in 1948 by RAI – Radiotelevisione Italiana (in 1948, RAI had the denomination RAI – Radio Audizioni Italiane) in Capri and is honoured with the ...
for radio documentary in October 1960. All eight radio ballads were released on
LP, by
Argo Records
Argo Records was a record label in Chicago that was established in 1955 as a division of Chess Records.
Originally the label was called Marterry, but bandleader Ralph Marterie objected, and within a couple of months the imprint was renamed Arg ...
, and later on
CD. They are also available via Listen Again on
the BBC Radio 2 website.
A book about the making of the radio ballads was published on the fiftieth anniversary of the first broadcast of ''John Axon''. ''Set into Song: Ewan MacColl, Charles Parker and the Radio Ballads'' was written and researched by Peter Cox, published by Labatie Books and has an extensive website which carries the first two pages of each chapter, the complete transcripts and cast lists for each programme, bibliography, footnotes and reviews.
Transmission dates
* ''The Ballad of John Axon'' - 2 July 1958
* ''Song Of A Road'' - 5 November 1959
* ''Singing The Fishing'' - 16 August 1960
* ''The Big Hewer'' - 18 August 1961
* ''The Body Blow'' - 27 March 1962
* ''On The Edge'' - 13 February 1963
* ''The Fight Game'' - 3 July 1963
* ''The Travelling People'' - 17 April 1964
Missing ballads
In an unpublished letter to ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'',
in 1999,
Ian Campbell detailed a further two programmes made a year apart, by Parker, with music by Campbell (and John Chapman in the former case), without the involvement of MacColl or Seeger, and broadcast, according to Campbell, "to critical acclaim", then "consigned… to permanent oblivion".
* ''The Jewellery'' - about Birmingham's
Jewellery Quarter
The Jewellery Quarter is an area of central Birmingham, UK, in the north-western area of Birmingham City Centre, with a population of around 19,000 people in a area.
The Jewellery Quarter is Europe's largest concentration of businesses invol ...
. No programme with this title appears in the ''Radio Times'' but an episode of ''People Today'' broadcast on the Home Service on 12 April 1962 was produced by Charles Parker so may have been a source of material.
* ''Cry from the Cut'' - about the Midlands canal network, broadcast on BBC Home Service Midland, 13 February 1962.
2006 radio ballads
In 2006,
BBC Radio 2 broadcast six new radio ballads using the same format, with musical direction by
John Tams
John Tams (born 16 February 1949) is an English actor, singer, songwriter, composer and musician born in Holbrook, Derbyshire, the son of a publican. He first worked as a reporter for the ''Ripley & Heanor News'' later working for BBC Radio ...
, and contributions from
Karine Polwart
Karine Polwart ( ) (born 23 December 1970) is a Scottish singer-songwriter. She writes and performs music with a strong folk and roots feel, her songs dealing with a variety of issues from alcoholism to genocide. She has been most recognised f ...
,
Jez Lowe
John Gerard "Jez" Lowe (born 14 July 1955) is an English folk singer-songwriter. Lowe was born and raised in County Durham, in a family with Irish roots. He is known primarily for his compositions dealing with daily life in North-East England, ...
and
Cara Dillon among others.
The following ballads were broadcast between February and April 2006: ''The Song of Steel'' on the decline of the
Sheffield
Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire a ...
and
Rotherham
Rotherham () is a large minster and market town in South Yorkshire, England. The town takes its name from the River Rother which then merges with the River Don. The River Don then flows through the town centre. It is the main settlement of ...
Steel Industry (27 February); ''The Enemy That Lives Within'', on
HIV
The human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV) are two species of ''Lentivirus'' (a subgroup of retrovirus) that infect humans. Over time, they cause acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), a condition in which progressive failure of the immune ...
/
AIDS (6 March); ''The Horn of the Hunter'', on
Foxhunting
Fox hunting is an activity involving the tracking, chase and, if caught, the killing of a fox, traditionally a red fox, by trained foxhounds or other scent hounds. A group of unarmed followers, led by a "master of foxhounds" (or "master of ho ...
(13 March); ''Swings and Roundabouts'', on Travellers who run
fairgrounds
Fairground most typically refers to a permanent space that hosts fairs.
Fairground, Fairgrounds, Fair Ground or Fair Grounds may also refer to:
Places
Canada
* Fairground, Ontario, a community
United States
* Fairground, St. Louis, a neighbo ...
(20 March) ''Thirty Years of Conflict''; on
The Troubles
The Troubles ( ga, Na Trioblóidí) were an ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland that lasted about 30 years from the late 1960s to 1998. Also known internationally as the Northern Ireland conflict, it is sometimes described as an " ...
in
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...
(27 March); and ''The Ballad of the Big Ships'', on the
shipyards
A shipyard, also called a dockyard or boatyard, is a place where ships are built and repaired. These can be yachts, military vessels, cruise liners or other cargo or passenger ships. Dockyards are sometimes more associated with maintenance a ...
of the
Tyne and the
Clyde Clyde may refer to:
People
* Clyde (given name)
* Clyde (surname)
Places
For townships see also Clyde Township
Australia
* Clyde, New South Wales
* Clyde, Victoria
* Clyde River, New South Wales
Canada
* Clyde, Alberta
* Clyde, Ontario, a tow ...
, (3 April).
All were later released on CD, and a separate CD was also released containing a selection of the songs drawn from across the series.
2010 Ballad of the Miners' Strike
In 2010, to mark the 25th Anniversary of the
1984-85 Miners' Strike, the BBC broadcast a new Radio Ballad, the ''Ballad of the Miners' Strike''.
2012 Olympic Games radio ballads
In 2012
BBC Radio 2 broadcast a series of six new radio ballads on the subject of the
Olympic Games
The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a vari ...
with original songs from
Nancy Kerr
Nancy Kerr (born 1975) is an English folk musician and songwriter, specialising in the fiddle and singing. She is a Principal Lecturer in Folk Music at Leeds Conservatoire and Newcastle University. She was the 2015 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards "Folk ...
, Jez Lowe,
Julie Matthews,
Martin Simpson
Martin Stewart Simpson (born 5 May 1953) is an English folk singer, guitarist and songwriter. His music reflects a wide variety of influences and styles, rooted in Britain, Ireland, America and beyond. He builds a purposeful, often upbeat voi ...
and
Boo Hewerdine
Mark "Boo" Hewerdine (born 14 February 1961) is an English singer-songwriter and record producer. His work includes lead singer and creative force behind The Bible, formed in the 1980s, and reformed in 1994, as well as solo recordings and work f ...
amongst others.
The following ballads were broadcast in July and August 2012: ''Olympia'' on the origins of the Olympic Games; ''Berlin'' which focused on the
1936 Summer Olympics; ''Munich'' on the
1972 Summer Olympics
The 1972 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XX Olympiad () and commonly known as Munich 1972 (german: München 1972), was an international multi-sport event held in Munich, West Germany, from 26 August to 11 September 1972. ...
; ''Controversies''; ''Going for Gold''; and ''The Marathon''.
Raidió Teilifís Éireann
On 13 September 2020
RTE broadcast ''The Ballad of the Stolwijk Rescue'', possibly the first Irish radio ballad, based around an interview with the last eyewitness to a dramatic rescue from a
Dutch shipwreck and the music of Brían Mac Gloinn.
References
{{Reflist
External links
The original radio ballads on the BBC Radio 2 websiteThe 2006 radio ballads on the BBC Radio 2 websiteSet into Song: Ewan MacColl, Charles Parker and the Radio Ballads
British music
Folk music
Radio documentaries