BBC - Folk Britannia

FOLK BRITANNIA

This three-part series was the centrepiece of our 2006 season exploring British folk music. Folk Britannia traces the evolution of folk music from the end of World War II up to the scene's latter-day revival.

The story is told by those who lived and shaped it - a stellar cast from every era that includes Bert Jansch, Peggy Seeger, Martin Carthy, Donovan, Davy Graham, Richard Thompson, Maddy Prior, Billy Bragg, Shane MacGowan, Beth Orton and Seth Lakeman.

On the picture from left to right :
Martin Carthy, Peggy Seegers, King Creosoot, Kate Rusby,
Beth Orton, Dick Gaughan, June Tabor, Bert Jansch.


FOLK BRITANNIA 1. BALLADS & BLUES


The first programme explores politics, ownership and the birth of the British folk revival.

In the early 20th century, a new breed of folk-song collectors, led by Cecil Sharp, worked to preserve and promote the traditional folk music that would bolster national pride during turbulent times.

In post-war Britain, this tradition was assimilated into a revolutionary soundtrack by the left-wing artists Ewan MacColl and Bert Lloyd. MacColl founded Britain's first modern folk club - The Ballad and Blues Club - and his groundbreaking Radio Ballads, which championed the working-class hero, were broadcast to unanimous acclaim.

But by the mid-1950s skiffle had captured the imagination of the nation's youth. Songs by American artists like Leadbelly and Woody Guthrie filled the airwaves while a growing bohemian movement in Greenwich Village, New York, began to wrest folk music from the communists

Info:

Type....................: Movie
Platform.............. : Windows
Video Format.......: AVI
Source.................: 16x9 from Cable TV
Original Format....: PAL
Genre...................: Documentary
Time........…………….: 60 min.






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Folk Britannia Part 2.


FOLK BRITANNIA 2. FOLK ROOTS, NEW ROUTES


Programme two looks at the 1960s folk boom, when the hippie generation repackaged folk music to appeal to a wider audience.


A new breed of virtuoso guitarist - such as Davy Graham and Bert Jansch - became the heroes of the movement as folk clubs, run by young people for young people, sprang up all over the country.

In 1965, Britain produced its first folk pop star in the form of Donovan - who embraced bohemia and turned his back on society, "challenging hypocrisy and greed." Later the same year, Bob Dylan polarised folk fans by going electric.

But there was still a mood for experimentation. In Scotland, the Incredible String Band fused folk with psychedelia while Pentangle explored the possibilities of jazz-folk.

Folk-rock entered the mainstream - Lindisfarne's Fog on the Tyne spent 54 weeks in the charts - but by the mid-1970s the genre had become a parody of itself.

Info:

Type.....................: Movie
Platform...............: Windows
Video Format.......: AVI
Source..................: 16x9 from Cable TV
Original Format...: PAL
Genre...................: Documentary
Time…………….: 60 min.






Download:

Code: 

Download Link

Folk Britannia Part 3.

FOLK BRITANNIA 3. BETWEEN THE WARS

The final episode explores how, since folk music's popularity hit a low point in the late 1970s, it has continually reinvented itself to appeal to new audiences.

Politicised folk enjoyed a renaissance during the miners' strike with punks like Billy Bragg singing about the power of unions. Artists from the 'crusty' traveller scene which followed were also re-engaged in social and political protest.

In the 1990s, second-generation folkies, like Eliza Carthy, emerged to take on the mantle of the folk traditionalists, and the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards were launched to celebrate industry achievements.

The story is brought right up to date with the two, very different, folk scenes flourishing today:

The first is at home in the traditional folk clubs, while artists like Devendra Banhart and King Creosote belong to a neo-folk scene that harks back to some of the most exciting neo-psychedelic and pastoral folk albums of the 1960s.

Info:

Type.....................: Movie
Platform...............: Windows
Video Format.......: AVI
Source..................: 16x9 from Cable TV
Original Format...: PAL
Genre...................: Documentary
Time…………….: 59 min.






Download:

Code: 

Download Link