Roy Bailey
Sociologist, folk singer and staunch socialist celebrated for his touring show with Tony Benn
ROY BAILEY, who has died aged 83, was a leading figure on the British folk music scene for more than 50 years, greatly heralded for the warmth and clarity of his voice and a wide repertoire of songs that most often reflected his staunchly socialist ideals. He worked with many other leading folk music figures, notably Martin Carthy, Leon Rosselson, Billy Bragg, Dave Swarbrick, and his son-in-law Martin Simpson, although his most celebrated collaborations were with the late Labour MP, Tony Benn.
They met in 1974 and, discovering plenty of common ground in their political outlook, formulated a show together called The Writing on the Wall. This involved Benn telling entertaining anecdotes about historical examples of political dissent and resistance, interspersed with Bailey singing songs to illustrate the points he was making. Benn called him “the greatest socialist folk singer of his generation”.
He was born on October 20 1935 in the East End of London, and was brought up there, initially by his single mother until she married a bookmaker when he was seven. When their home was destroyed by a bomb during the Second World War, the family moved to Southend. Bailey went on to do his National Service in the RAF, where he first developed an interest in American folk and blues.
Musically, he was a product of the early British folk revival, which emerged from the shortlived skiffle boom of the late 1950s and, drawing inspiration from the Left-wing attitudes espoused by Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger in America and Ewan Maccoll and AL Lloyd in Britain, played guitar and sang American songs in student union bars.
Initially studying Economics and then Sociology at the University of Leicester, Bailey helped form Leicester Folk Song Club, which broadened his interest in the English tradition. Invitations to perform at other clubs followed, some of which he played as a duo with his wife Val, whom he married in 1963.
Back in London he replaced Martin Carthy in Three City Four, a group formed by the singersongwriter Leon Rosselson, and although Bailey quit the band to take up a position as a sociology lecturer at Bradford University, he and Rosselson continued to perform together as an occasional but highly popular duo.
Bailey’s expressive voice, engaging personality and rich sense of humour provided perfect expression for Rosselson’s witty and often acidic social commentaries and, during a time when the folk scene was still politicised, they were in much demand, releasing five increasingly radical albums together and occasionally outraging audience members with controversial songs like Stand Up For Judas (from the 1977 album Love, Loneliness & Laundry), which hailed Judas as a hero of the oppressed.
Never a songwriter himself, he had a knack of finding strong material with a powerful point to make, juggling international tours with a successful academic career, having become head of the sociology department at Sheffield Polytechnic (which later became Sheffield Hallam University), a position he retained until 1989. As a professor, he lectured all over Britain, as well as Belgium, the US, Canada and Australia, and on retirement he was appointed emeritus professor at Hallam. In 1989 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.
One of his most extraordinary performances was a concert in his honour at the Royal Albert Hall in 1998 when, among other things, he taught the audience to sign the words of a song he was performing, gradually removing the words entirely until the song finished in complete silence with the whole audience using sign language.
In 2000 he was appointed MBE for services to folk music, agonising whether it compromised his socialist principles to accept, and incurring the wrath of several of his old musical collaborators by doing so. Later, the Iraq War incensed him so much he resolved to return the MBE in protest but, in his own words, “I couldn’t find the bloody thing.” When he eventually did locate it he soon found a new reason to display his displeasure, returning the award in 2006 in protest at British foreign policy in Palestine and Lebanon.
After giving up academia he indulged his love of performing with renewed vigour, forming a new group, the Band Of Hope, with Martin Carthy, John Kirkpatrick, Dave Swarbrick and Steáfán Hannigan, releasing one album, Rhythm & Reds, in 1994. Other notable solo releases included Gentle Men (a thematic collection of Great War material with the singer-songwriter Robb Johnson), New Bell Wake (1999) and Coda (2000), which he insisted was his last.
However, the opportunity to record with the great guitarist Martin Simpson – who had married Bailey’s daughter Kit – proved irresistible, and he went on to release two of the best albums of his career, Sit Down & Sing (2005) and Below The Radar (2009), in addition to collections of children’s songs. His flamboyant character, quirky sense of humour and shrewd choice of material ensured that he remained a big festival attraction, and he was an annual fixture at Towersey Folk Festival in Oxfordshire, where he was patron.
Despite recurring heart problems, he continued to perform with great gusto, making his last appearance at his 83rd birthday celebrations in Sheffield in October.
He is survived by his wife Val, his daughter, Kit, and son, David.
Roy Bailey, born October 20 1935, died November 20 2018