The Fettlers
Noting the Changes
Teesside has no folk music; it's as simple as that. It's just not old enough!
That, in 1972 when I first came to work in Middlesbrough, was the cynical, dismissive reply I received when I asked about the folk heritage of the area.
Staithes has its bonnets and Egton its gooseberries, but Teesside has no folk tradition. Northumberland has bagpipes and things, North Yorkshire has a bit, but Teesside? No, nothing.
I was actually being painted a totally inaccurate picture. Teesside did have folk music and a strong folk tradition but, essentially, nobody had bothered, or dared, to record it. There can be few who have not heard the tale of the Hartlepool Monkey and even fewer who would have been brave enough and brash enough to walk into a Hartlepool public house to ask about it! However, included among those very few would be the Fettlers.
These characters, for that is surely what they are, have built a name for themselves as the modern minstrals of Teesside, chronicling and performing in song the history, the traditions, the foklore, the very culture of the area. If it were true that Teesside had no folk music and if there had been, indeed, a shortage of such a thing, the Fettlers put the record straight and redressed the balance.
Enjoy these songs from the Fettlers, the Heart of Teesside.
Keith Proud
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Here is a list of the contents of The Fettlers, Noting the Changes. To hear sound clip samples click on the red track titles.