Ewan MacColl: Music
Ewan had been making up songs since he was a lad, and from the very beginning of his theatrical life he was a singer as well as an actor. He wrote Manchester Rambler when he was 17 in the aftermath of the 1932 Mass Trespass on Kinder Scout. Another of his most famous songs "Dirty Old Town" was written to cover an awkward episode change in the Theatre Workshop production "Landscape with Chimneys" (1949).
He was not at all happy with the decision, made by Theatre Workshop in 1953, to settle in London, and pulled back from full involvement, concentrating on his other love, folksong.
Alan Lomax introduced him to A. L. Lloyd and in that new friendship was created a source of inspiration and direction for the growing folk movement. They worked together on several projects in the next few years, the most famous of which are probably their collections of sea shanties, "Row Bullies, Row" and the " Blackball Line ".
The Ballad and Blues concerts were originally conceived as fund raisers for Theatre Workshop but soon spawned a club which established itself at The Princess Louise, a pub in Holborn. In 1961 it was renamed the Singers Club. It closed its doors for the last time in 1991
Ewan and Peggy Seeger first met in 1956 and by the end of the decade were established as a musical and romantic partnership, which lasted until Ewan's death in 1989.
In 1954 Ewan produced Shuttle and Cage , a songbook, and an album, of industrial songs. Some years later Ewan and Peggy produced Second Shift , a further collection.
As politically committed as ever Ewan and Peggy wrote songs for the progressive causes they supported, and contributed to songbooks published by groups like the Workers' Music Association, the Young Communist League and the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.
Ewan was a regular contributor to 'Sing' ("published for the London Youth Choir"). The May Day supplement for 1955 contains seven songs, four by Ewan. (Hard Case, Fare Thee Well Westminster, Against the Atom Bomb, and For Peace and Lasting Friendship)
In 1963 Ewan produced a songbook acknowledging his debt to his parents for his wealth of song,A Personal Choice of Scottish Folksongs and Ballads .
In 1965 they formed the Critics Group, a circle of songwriters and musicians who aimed to improve their skills through creative and critical workshops. Between 1965 and 1971 the group ran an annual event, the Festival of Fools.
In 1967 Peggy and Ewan decided to produce a periodical, illustrated song collections mixing the old with the new. Between 1968 and 1985 21 issues of the New City Songster were produced. In practice Peggy was the editor/publisher, Ewan's role being limited to contributing new, mostly political songs, to several issues.
In 1985 a Seventieth Birthday Concert was organised in celebration of Ewan's life. The programme contained an appreciation by Karl Dallas.