{"id":21,"date":"2015-01-16T17:36:00","date_gmt":"2015-01-16T17:36:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2023-11-13T04:00:36","modified_gmt":"2023-11-13T04:00:36","slug":"the-hermit-the-mountain-ash-band","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsrainbow.com\/coventryfolkclubs\/2015\/01\/16\/the-hermit-the-mountain-ash-band\/","title":{"rendered":"The Hermit – The Mountain Ash Band"},"content":{"rendered":"
\nTHE HERMIT – MOUNTAIN ASH BAND<\/span> <\/span><\/b><\/div>\n
\nLYRICS & AUDIO<\/span><\/b><\/div>\n\n\n\n\n
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Mountain Ash Band 1975 Ilkley Moor<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n


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\nThe Mountain Ash Band <\/b>were an electric folk band, in the style of perhaps of Steeleye Span<\/b>, based in The Hermit <\/i>– became a collectors piece in Progressive Music circles. and, for the purposes of this particular site, they do have a strong Coventry connection.
\nIlkley in 1975 and their one and only limited edition album  – <\/p>\n

Coventry Connection<\/b>
\n<\/span><\/span><\/a>In June 1973, while we were printing the very first issue of  Hobo – Coventry Music and Arts Magazine,<\/i> Colin Cripps<\/b> and Lynda Hardcastle<\/b> (later of the Mountain Ash Band<\/b>, were preparing The Willenhall Free Press<\/i> for print also at the Left Centre bookshop in, Lower Ford Street, Coventry. The centre had a community Offset Litho which had been donated to the centre by Edward Thompson<\/b>, author of  Making of the Working Class,<\/i> who at the time was a Professor of historyWarwick University<\/i>. Colin and Lyn were musicians, magazine editors and, I discovered live quite near to me in Willenhall, so naturally we became good friends and Colin and Lyn participated in the Hobo Workshop<\/i> gigs at Holyhead Youth Centre<\/i> (where the Specials and Selecter later began). They lived in a flat in Ivy Walk<\/i> with their son and held regular soirees with poets, musicians and like minded people. Colin Cripps<\/b>, who later authored the book Popular Music in the 20thC <\/i>– Cambridge University Press 1988. Colin was an undergraduate at Warwick University<\/i>, studying Literature at the time and they were both involved with a Community campaigning magazine The Willenhall Free Press<\/i> and other forms of community activism.  One of the poets, from Ivy Walk was Ray King<\/b> (Not<\/i> to be confused with Ray King<\/b> of the Ray King Soul band<\/b> – also from Coventry). Ray went on to write the lyrics for the Mountain Ash Band<\/b>‘s album – The Hermit<\/i>. Colin and Lyn left Coventry in 1975 after Colin graduated and moved to Ilkley where they formed the Mountain Ash Band. Ultimately Colin was originally from Cambridge and Lynda from, I think, Filey in North Yorkshire. Lynda Hardcastle<\/b> went on to sing with Grace Notes<\/b>, featuring Maggie Boyle<\/b> and Helen Hockenhull.<\/b>
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\nThe MP3’s for the Videos were supplied by Colin Cripps and were first featured on the Hobo Vox \/ Typepad site in 2007 and Colins background notes are still on that site – here http:\/\/coventrymusichistory.typepad.com\/blog\/2007\/05\/introduction-to-the-hermit-mountain-ash-band.html<\/a><\/b>
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\nLine up of the Mountain Ash Band<\/span><\/b><\/div>\n

Colin Cripps<\/b> (Guitar \/ Research and original concept, music for songs) \u2013
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\nRay King<\/b> (Lyrics) <\/span><\/div>\n
\nSean Mansley<\/b> (Narration) <\/span><\/div>\n
\nLynda Hardcastle <\/b>(Vocals and Recorder)  <\/span><\/div>\n
\nAlan Rose<\/b> (Vocals and Whistle) <\/span><\/div>\n
\nMartin Carter<\/b> (Vocals and Guitar) <\/span><\/div>\n
\nGeoff Bowen<\/b> (Fiddle and Recorder)  <\/span><\/div>\n
\nGraham Jones<\/b> ( Bass, Vocals and Recorder) <\/span><\/div>\n
\nKevin Slingsby<\/b> (Drums). <\/p>\n

Production and arrangements including traditional tunes by Mountain Ash Band<\/b>.<\/p>\n

The album was recorded on 13th and 14th December 1975 by Look Records<\/b> at September Sound Studios<\/i>, Golcar, Huddersfield, West Yorks. Mastering and sound on songs David Whitely<\/b>. Sound on Narration George Parks<\/b>, edited by Robert Whitely<\/b>. Sleeve design and artwork Kevin Slingsby<\/b>. Witches Bane Music<\/b>.<\/p>\n

Tracks
\n<\/span><\/span><\/a>Side One (The is also a  narrative before each track)
\nBirth
\nJourneys
\nStone on Stone.<\/p>\n

Side Two
\nA Long Winter
\nWho Knows
\nI’ll Sing For My Supper
\nThe Outcast \/ Rebirth.<\/p>\n

Bonus Tracks.
\nColin Cripps supplied a few bonus tracks that were played live after the Hermit project as part of another project or from their next project ‘wind over the borderland<\/i>‘. English Birds is an instrumental that never made it to the final album. You can hear these tracks directly here by clicking on them.
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\nEnglish Birds<\/a>
\nLeading Lady<\/a> \/ November<\/a>
\nThe Patient’s Song<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n

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\nThe Hermit – Mountain Ash Band – Side One<\/a> from Coventry Music Scene<\/a> on Vimeo<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Hermit – Mountain Ash Band – side two<\/a> from Coventry Music Scene<\/a> on Vimeo<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Two of the bonus tracks have already found their way to youtube – Leading lady and November – so here they are are on youtube –<\/p>\n

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The Lyrics – by Ray King. <\/b>
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Ray King – Lyricist<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n


\nColin Cripps says “When Ray King<\/b>, a friend from Willenhall, visited I told him the folk tale and he tuned in immediately and came up with a great set of lyrics. They had no verse and chorus structure because Ray was a poet not a songwriter, but there was enough to work with.”
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\n“Job Senior was a hermit. There are many ways of being a hermit. It was only for a short time towards his later years that Job lived on Ilkley Moor away from other people. For most of his life Job was a hermit in a crowd. The facts of his life, as far as they are known, are narrated on this album. The songs are not an attempt at story telling; more a series of glimpses of his world as we imagine it would have been seen by Job at the crisis points of his life.” From the album cover.
<\/span>The Lyrics sheet that came with the album –
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\nNote; You may need to save the lyric sheet graphics and enlarge them via the scroll button on your computer in order to read them.
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\nSome links to background on The Hermit tale and Job Senior<\/span><\/div>\n

\n“The old sign over the entrance to the Hermit Inn at Woodhead carries a picture of the eccentric Job Senior. Both Bogg and Speight in their books about Wharfedale written a century ago mention him. In his early days he had been a labourer, willing to do any job in Wharfedale.” https:\/\/en.wikisource.org\/wiki\/Yorkshire_Oddities,_Incidents_and_Strange_Events\/Job_Senior,_the_Hermit_of_Rumbold%27s_Moor#:~:text=%E2%80%8B-,JOB%20SENIOR%2C,little%20money%20when%20he%20died.<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n
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\nThe Hermit Inn, Moor road, Burley Woodhead, Ilkley, West Yorks, LS29 7AS<\/span><\/div>\n
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\nColin Cripps 1975<\/span><\/div>\n
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\nLynda Hardcastle<\/span><\/div>\n
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\nLynda Hardcastle (Right) with Gracenotes<\/span><\/div>\n
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\nhttps:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pages\/Grace-Notes\/232677855786<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n
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\nColin Cripps book – available from Amazon<\/span><\/div>\n
\nhttp:\/\/www.amazon.co.uk\/exec\/obidos\/ASIN\/052131884X\/multonty-21<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

THE HERMIT – MOUNTAIN ASH BAND  LYRICS & AUDIO Mountain Ash Band 1975 Ilkley Moor The Mountain Ash Band were an electric folk band, in the style of perhaps of Steeleye Span, based in The Hermit – became a collectors piece … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":209,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsrainbow.com\/coventryfolkclubs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsrainbow.com\/coventryfolkclubs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsrainbow.com\/coventryfolkclubs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsrainbow.com\/coventryfolkclubs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsrainbow.com\/coventryfolkclubs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsrainbow.com\/coventryfolkclubs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":228,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsrainbow.com\/coventryfolkclubs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21\/revisions\/228"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsrainbow.com\/coventryfolkclubs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsrainbow.com\/coventryfolkclubs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsrainbow.com\/coventryfolkclubs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsrainbow.com\/coventryfolkclubs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}