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Continuing the profiling of classic artists who have contributed to the 'wyrder'
side of folk music we come to a very unacknowledged band of the late 1960s.
Forest
Check or Buy Mr Fox at Amazon UK
UK 1968 - 1971
The background of
UK folk music
During the mid-1960s there was an explosion of interest in traditional folk
music around the UK inspired by Bob Dylan but more importantly by
the folk revival initially created by Ewan MacColl and others such as Bert Lloyd
in the late 1950s. Young people joined folk clubs and some started
tracking down the original traditional songs preserved
at Cecil Sharpe House. For many musicians and singers they would become
purists, only singing and often recording the traditional songs. The idea
of actually writing songs in the folk style was often abhorrent to them and many
highly respected and pivotal artists like The Watersons and Ashley Hutchings
would not consider writing their own material until the 1970s. While these
traditional purists developed the original songs a number of young people saw
folk music as a framework which they could write within. This created a
new form as folk music became merged with other influences. Two UK bands,
Pentangle and Incredible String Band would prove hugely influential to a young
generation in crossing over folk music with other
forms and perhaps most important of all, they also achieved chart success with
it with their albums getting into the UK top ten. Forest saw this
evolution and were inspired to write their own songs
similarly with other bands of the time such as Dulcimer, Synanthesia, Bread Love
and Dreams and Tea and Symphony. These bands struggled to gain the same
success as the aforementioned two bands not having the contacts, management and
production. However many of these bands around at that time made strong
albums of their own and Forest in particular established a unique sound.
A Merry
Group of Minstrels and Pranksters
The band originally came from Walesby in Lincolnshire,
a nice community but not one likely to launch a nationwide folk band. The
band perhaps realising this moved to Birmingham which had a more thriving folk
scene in which they could perform. The band had been known as 'The
Foresters of Walesby' before becoming 'The Foresters' and then 'Forest'.
The band was not successful and lived a kind of hippy existence mixing
tranquility and squalor, often living in their van.
Over time the band picked up more gigs and played at a few festivals along the
way. This bought them to the attention of Harvest, then a new and highly
regarded progressive label looking to sign up it's share of alternative artists
from each genre. The band were drawn to the attention of DJ John
Peel who had been on pirate stations then in the Radio 1 line up (where
amazingly he remained until his death
playing alternative music). At that time John Peel was one of the
most foremost proponents of folk music championing early Fairport Convention,
Principal Edwards Magical Theatre Band, Marc Bolan (pre-T-Rex) and also Forest.
Forest comprised the following members:
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Martin Welham - 12 string guitar, harmonium piano, pipes, percussion
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Derek Allenby - mandolin, harmonica, pipes harmonium, percussion
-
Hadrian Welham - all instruments
Music from the forest
glade
Forest released two albums, the first in 1969 which is not reputed to have sold
well but certainly enabled the release of the second album in 1970.
Interestingly a single was released in 1969 which pared 'Searching for Shadows'
which was not on either album and 'Mirror of Life' which was on the first.
All of this would mark the band as an obscurity of only minor interest until you
listen to their music. Immediately it becomes apparent that this is not
traditional folk music as we know it, there are no old songs, the performances
are not simple renditions. Equally this is not folk-rock, the dynamics are
not straight forward, there is little rhythmic emphasis. Instead we have a
surreal evocation of the hidden parts of a lost pagan existence concerned with
the remote, strange dark aspects of earlier life. It is like listening to
ancient folklore given voice in the same way that Arthur Machen often in books
like 'The Novel of the Black Seal' gave a glimpse of the same hidden parts of
Britain in writing.
The songs are loosely normal in that they use conventional verse and chorus and
have normal instruments such as guitar and harmonica. This may evoke Bob
Dylan and while his surreal word play might be a reference point musically this
has little in common. Of more direct influence seems to be the impish
instability of Syd Barrett in the early Pink Floyd line-up and the nonsensical
lyrics of their first album.
Vocals are in harmony, weaving around each other, nasal, sometimes atonal but
carrying twisting and evolving melodies. This is not music with an ounce
of compromise, it has a vision and clear intent. In this respect like
their closest peers Incredible String Band they can initially be quite a
daunting listen. It's perhaps a given here that they won't be appreciated
by everyone (or perhaps even all folk fans) being such a unique proposition.
Although there are not a huge amount of layers it is quite individual, unique
and vividly intense. This intensity can be intimidating but as you sit and
listen the harmonies, melodies and arrangements are gradually revealed.
'One last chance to move round the
circle and begin again. But the dangers only remain if you want them to'.
('Do Not Walk In The Rain' off Full Circle sleeve note).
There is a church like element to some of the songs like early hymns and the use
of pipe and reed organs within the sound can reinforce this. The guitars
pick out chiming and mysterious patterns. A listener may feel they are
hearing a riddle that they cannot initially understand, there are no drums or
bass guitars and the lyrics while evocative often reveal little. Some
songs like 'Rain On My Balcony' or 'Do You Want Some Smoke?' have a playful
Puckish quality.
With the use of mandolin and pipes the sound often evokes nature as though
giving the mischievous mythical figure of Pan breath. Interestingly these
instruments often associated with Celtic music here are assumed into a purely
English folk sound that combines psychedelia with acoustic instruments (and no
doubt soft drugs). Song structures often twist and turn, sections appear
giving way to others before returning. There is a whimsical surreal edge
as though listening through a dream. Although it is highly unlikely that
folk music of previous centuries sounded like this, somehow these eras are
directly evoked on the first album in songs like 'A Fantasy You' and 'A Glade
Somewhere'.
On
'Nothing Else Will Matter' on the first album the band crystalise in a beautiful
moment of blissed out lucidity and structure.
The second album saw more structure and directness to the songs and these may
make them more easily digested. 'Hawk The Hawked' combines gypsy sounding
fiddle, steel guitar from Gordon Huntley and harmonica and reminds of Dr
Strangely Strange. 'Bluebell Dance' is a chilling psychedelic pagan folk
track with treated vocals, arpeggio guitars, a wildness and urgency running
through it that suggests a sinister visitation from the lost people deep in the
woods. "Gypsy Girl and Rambleaway' precedes the kind of traveling gypsy
folk that Ronnie Laine of the Faces would later take an interest in but in a
more ancient and primal form. Some songs like 'Do Not Walk In The Rain'
combine piano played in a percussive style that combines with the bands unique
instrumentation. 'Much Ado About Nothing' starts dream like but moves into
an ancient sounding vocals only section that strips away two hundred years in
seconds. "Graveyard' starts plaintively with guitar that has a slight
sitar type twang to it and introduces rhythmic whistles into the atmospheric
graveyard journey and in the chorus sections has beautiful pipe based melodies.
"Famine Song' carries on the gorgeous whistles over organ before a stark vocal
section.
'Autumn Childhood' ends the journey through the forest returning back to simple
innocence accompanied by chiming mandolin and guitars. It's quite
beautiful and then speeds through a number of sections, strange, unsettling,
often beautiful, always unique.
'Inspired by a dream, this song is one
of fantasy and mystique, but there could be an element of truth to it' (from the
sleeve notes to 'Bluebell Dance' on Full Circle)
In
an discussion with The Unbroken Circle in November 2004 Martin Welham of Forest
remarked of their music:
"reading your comments is
like going back to the Forest commune-like discussion sessions which accompanied
our rehearsals when we were putting the music into shape.
Although there are no (known)
recordings of our interpretation of folk songs (Famine Song excepted) our
approach in this area which preceded our Forest output, was similarly deemed
strange. Our great friends Roy, Heather and Pete of the Young Tradtion (an
amazingly under-rated vocal harmony group) were a huge influence. Their unique
ability to peel away the years to conjure up a magical, beautiful, sometimes
sinister world awoke a recognition in us that somehow we had already
experienced, as if in another life. The beauty of their music and their stunning
live performances have never been properly acknowledged.
This is going to sound pretentious
but...with Forest we aimed to take the listener on a kind of journey into a
world where our shared sub-consciousness already dwelt - not always a
comfortable ride! We also just enjoyed playing music together and never worried
if we were popular or not - which was just as well as it turned out. I
understand that the intensity of our music can be daunting and that there is no
compromise - for better or worse that was Forest's approach. We have found that
people either 'get it' or don't - there doesn't seem to be any middle ground and
i suspect that that will always be the case.
Some of the most evocative brilliant
Wyrd music we ever came across was played and sung by a duo called 'Holy Willy's
Prayer'. Roy Wood of the Young Tradition introduced us to them and they played
their music to us in their flat in North London, at a time when we were in
transition from folk song interpreters to songwriters. They never 'made it' so
to speak but the ghost of their beautiful creations still drifts around my mind
and in some way epitomises the nature of this magical area of music - timeless
moods, ambiences and atmospheres which resonate and linger while those who
express them remain an unseen presence"
Forest Live At The BBC
26.3.69 John Peel's
Night Ride (Recorded 18.3.69): A Glade Somewhere Pools Of Memory Reflecting In
The Sea Mirror Of Life Smoke Fading Light Martin Welham (Guitar, Harmonica,
Vocals) Adrian Welham (Guitar, Mandolin, Vocals) Derek Allenby (Mandolin,
Harmonica, Whistle, Vocals) Failed by panel: 'cacophony', 'appalling sound,
raggy and amateur', 'messy, uninspiring, distateful'
19.11.69 John Peel's
Top Gear (Recorded 16.9.69): Gipsy Girl And Ramble Away Autumn Childhood Love's
Memory Gone Mirror Of Life 2nd trial broadcast passed by panel. Did Peel Sunday
concert
1.3.70 10.10.70 John
Peel's Top Gear (Recorded 28.9.70): Hares On The Mountain Graveyard Hermit /
Guardian Angel Hawk The Hawker (& 'Do Not Walk In The Rain' on repeat broadcast
on 2.1.71)
15.3.71 Bob Harris'
Sounds Of The Seventies (Recorded 2.3.71): Hawk The Hawker You Don't Know
Graveyard 2nd Peel Sunday Concert 1.8.71
24.4.72 Bob Harris'
Sounds Of The Seventies (Recorded 12.4.72): March Hare You Could Have Been A
Gypsy I Wrote (& 'Pheobe' on repeat broadcast on 22.5.72)
23.10.72 Bob Harris'
Sounds Of The Seventies (Recorded 27.9.72): Leave My Woman Alone Love's Memory
Gone Regarding The Turning Of The Day New members Dave Panton and Dave Statts
replaced Derek Allenby.
Obtaining Forest music
 Both
the Forest albums were compiled on a double CD set released by BGO records that
is generally still available. To explore obtaining this album now from
Amazon or other sources click here.
Dez Allenby of Forest is still working and has his own web site. To obtain
the link click here.
'Nothing Else Will Matter' and 'Bluebell Dance' were both compiled on the
'Lammas Night Laments' sampler compilation CDrs available through this web site.
To read more about these CDs please
click here.
Windows Audio
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