Doc Rowe

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David "Doc" Rowe (born 8 December 1944) is a folklorist, author and film-maker who lives and works in the United Kingdom. A graduate of Hornsey College of Arts, he is a prominent lecturer on and advocate for folk traditions and folk music.[1]

Described by The Guardian as "Britain’s greatest folklorist",[2] over a 50-year career Rowe has built a substantial collection of photographs and audio-visual material, cited by the British Library as an "internationally significant archive of British folk life, lore and cultural tradition".[3]

Early life and education[edit]

David R. Rowe was born in Torquay, Devon in December 1944. He attended Torquay Boys Grammar School, followed by Newton Abbot College of Art, Leeds Regional College of Art and Hornsey College of Art where he gained a first degree in fine art, and finished a post-graduate year at the University of London in 1971.[4]

Career[edit]

Since the 1960s, Rowe has focused on collecting and celebrating folklore, oral history and the vernacular music and traditions of Britain and Ireland. In 2002, Rowe was awarded an honorary doctorate in music from the University of Sheffield,[5] and in 2005 received the English Folk Dance and Song Society's Gold Badge for his documentation of traditional song and dance.[6]

Rowe has been a committee member of the Oral History Society;[7] the Traditional Song Forum;[8] and the Folklore Society,[9] which in 2007 presented Rowe with its Coote Lake Medal for his research into folklore.[10]

Rowe developed an early interest in traditional song, stemming largely from 1950s BBC radio broadcasts. Performing on the folk club circuit as a singer from 1963, he met BBC producer Charles Parker, who – with Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger – was working on the BBC Radio Ballads (1957–64); Rowe has since cited Parker and the "Ballads" as amongst his strongest abiding influences.[11]

Rowe went on to work with Parker, MacColl and Seeger on a variety of folk-song and drama related projects including Philip Donnellan's TV versions of the Radio Ballads (1972) and Passage West (1975), as well as being a joint editorial advisor on The Other Music (BBC2, 1981).[12]

An equally formative experience for Rowe was a 1963 visit to the May Day 'Obby 'Oss festival in the Cornish town of Padstow; he has returned every year since to continuously document the tradition. It also triggered a wider focus on seasonal events and popular cultural traditions.[13] Over the subsequent decades, Rowe has attended and recorded a wide range of Britain's annual calendar customs.[14]

Rowe served as a consultant and writer on Channel 4's short 1984 documentary series, Future of Things Past.[15] The programmes explored the community purpose of 18 different British calendar customs.

Since the early 1990s, Rowe has focused on his own archive which is currently housed in Whitby, North Yorkshire. Alongside this, Rowe regularly lectures on folklore, customs and traditions nationally and internationally, and also continues to collaborate on new projects across broadcasting, photography and the arts.[16]

In 2006, Rowe was the focus of a BBC Radio 4 Archive Hour, Same Time, Same Place, Next Year, written and presented by the then-Library Director of the English Folk Dance and Song Society, Malcolm Taylor.[17]

The Doc Rowe archive[edit]

Since the 1960s, Rowe has amassed a substantial private collection of his own photographs, film and audio recordings of British folk customs and folk music, housed independently in Whitby since 2010. The collection is recognised as being of international significance, and at present stands at over 400,000 photos and transparencies, over 3,000 hours of moving image in various formats, over 12,000 hours of audio recordings, plus a large volume of papers, books, press cuttings and other ephemera.[11][3]

As of 2021, the work of housing and preserving the archive has been largely self-funded by Rowe, supported by sales of photographic work, lecturing and broadcasting.[15] The collection has additionally been financially supported by a Support Group established in the early 2000s by friends and colleagues.[18][19][20]

Rowe's own recordings have been substantially used for multiple releases, including the British Film Institute’s ‘Here’s a Health to the Barley Mow’ DVD compilation of British folk customs (2011);[21] and ‘You Lazy Lot of Bone-Shakers’ (2007), a CD anthology of song and dance tunes from seasonal events in England, released as part of Topic Records’ The Voice of the People series.[22]

Rowe's recordings also include two releases of Padstow Christmas carols – Rouse Rouse (Veteran Tapes, 1996);[23] and Harky Harky (ReZound, 2000).[24]

Rowe also provided the recordings for two releases by the Scottish singer and story-teller Sheila Stewart, daughter of Belle Stewart, of the noted family of singing travellers, the Stewarts of Blair – The Heart of the Tradition (Topic Records, 1999),[25] and also ...And Time Goes On: Sheila Stewart, Storyteller (Offspring, 2000).[26]

Exhibitions[edit]

Rowe is a frequent collaborator with artists and curators in the shaping of exhibitions that draw from his archive.

In 2000, his photographs were included by prominent British contemporary artists Jeremy Deller and Alan Kane in Intelligence – New British Art 2000 (Tate Britain, London).[27] Building upon this, in 2005 he worked again with Deller and Kane, on their British Council-supported Folk Archive project [28][29] – which as of 2020 continues to tour the UK, and internationally.[30]

In 2012, the Museum of British Folklore, in partnership with the Museum of East Anglian Life in Stowmarket, Suffolk, staged an exhibition, The Doc Rowe Archive: 50 years of Focusing on Folk, drawing upon Rowe's extensive collection.[14][31]

Rowe's photographs were also included in the 2014 Tate Britain exhibition British Folk Art.[32][33]

In 2019, Rowe collaborated with photographer Bryony Bainbridge, printmaker and poet Natalie Reid, and multimedia artist Anna F. C. Smith on Lore and the Living Archive, an Arts Council England-funded exhibition that toured the UK, with residencies at Cecil Sharp House, the London headquarters of the English Folk Dance and Song Society; Touchstones museum in Rochdale, Greater Manchester; and the Pannett Art Gallery, Whitby, North Yorkshire.[34]

Publications[edit]

  • We'll Call Once More Unto Your House [Padstow Eko 1982]
  • Comes the Morris Dancer In [Morris Ring 1984] ISBN 0-9503402-2-7
  • Room, Room, Ladies and Gentlemen: An Introduction to the English Mummers' Play (ed. Malcolm Taylor & Doc Rowe) [EFDSS in association with the Folklore Society, 2002] ISBN 0-85418-185-7
  • A series of educational resource packs [EFDSS 1993–1995]
  • May: an education resource pack for the Summer term on British traditions [EFDSS 1993] ISBN 0-85418-160-1
  • Midwinter (Education Resource Pack No 2) [EFDSS 1994] ISBN 0-85418-161-X
  • Plough Monday to Hocktide: Education Resource Pack No 3 for the Spring Term on British Traditions [EFDSS 1995] ISBN 0-85418-170-9
  • May Day: The Coming of Spring [English Heritage 2006] ISBN 1-85074-983-3
  • Have You Ever Seen a Penguin Come to Tea? [EFDSS, 2008]
  • Down by the Riverside [EFDSS, 2008]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Martin, Andrew (28 October 2009). "Why has Hallowe'en eclipsed Bonfire Night?". Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 31 July 2021.
  2. ^ Ross, Peter (30 April 2018). "Unleash the Burryman! Britain's weirdest folk rituals". The Guardian. Retrieved 31 July 2021.
  3. ^ a b "British Library captures the largest ever snapshot of the nation's recorded audio heritage". British Library Sound & Vision Blog. 19 October 2015. Archived from the original on 17 September 2016. Retrieved 31 July 2021.
  4. ^ "Contributor: Doc Rowe". SHOWstudio: The home of fashion film. Retrieved 31 July 2021.
  5. ^ "About the Museum: Our Friends". Museum of British Folklore. Archived from the original on 20 May 2012.
  6. ^ "Gold Badge Awards". English Folk Dance and Song Society. 19 August 2019. Archived from the original on 4 April 2020. Retrieved 31 July 2021.
  7. ^ "Trustees". Oral History Society. Archived from the original on 10 March 2016. Retrieved 31 July 2021.
  8. ^ Graebe, Martin (1 June 2018). "Traditional Song Forum". English Dance and Song. English Folk Dance and Song Society. Retrieved 31 July 2021.
  9. ^ "Council and Management Board". Folklore Society. Archived from the original on 31 July 2014. Retrieved 31 July 2021.
  10. ^ "The Coote Lake Medal". Folklore Society. Archived from the original on 3 February 2014. Retrieved 31 July 2021.
  11. ^ a b Breeze, Jo (May 2017). "Doc-umentary". fRoots. No. 407. Retrieved 31 July 2021 – via Jo Breeze.
  12. ^ Vacca, Giovanni (2014). Legacies of Ewan MacColl: The Last Interview. United Kingdom: Routledge. pp. xii. ISBN 978-1-4094-2430-7.
  13. ^ Wilks, Jon (24 May 2017). "The Doc Rowe interview". The Grizzly Folk. Archived from the original on 14 August 2020.
  14. ^ a b "The Doc Rowe Archive: 50 years focusing on folk". Museum of British Folklore. 27 February 2012. Archived from the original on 18 May 2012.
  15. ^ a b Adams, John; Herron, Dave (January 2000). "Doc Rowe – A National Treasure!". The Living Tradition. No. 36. Retrieved 31 July 2021.
  16. ^ "New Exhibition Celebrating Traditional British Folk Culture". Folk Radio UK. 28 February 2017. Archived from the original on 25 April 2017. Retrieved 31 July 2021.
  17. ^ "Same Time, Same Place, Next Year". BBC Radio 4 Extra. 19 January 2008. Retrieved 31 July 2021.
  18. ^ "The Doc Rowe Collection Support Group". john-adams.info. Archived from the original on 4 April 2017.
  19. ^ "Contact Details". Doc Rowe Archive & Collection. Archived from the original on 8 July 2006.
  20. ^ "Crowdfunding to support Doc Rowe's Archive and Collection". Just Giving. Archived from the original on 5 March 2022.
  21. ^ "Various – Here's A Health To The Barley Mow; BFI 2 x DVD; BFIVD920". Discogs. 2011. Archived from the original on 27 February 2021.
  22. ^ "The Voice of the People Volume 16: You Lazy Lot of Bone-Shakers; Songs and Dance Tunes of Seasonal Events. Various Artists. Topic Records TSCD666 (CD, UK, October 1998)". Mainly Norfolk. Archived from the original on 27 March 2013.
  23. ^ "Folk Music Journal, Vol. 6, No. 1 (1990), pp. 113–115; Reviewed Works: Arise, Rejoice and Sing! Village Carols from the Blue Ball Inn, Worrall; While Shepherds Watched: Village Carols from the Fountain, Ingbirchworth; 'Rouse Rouse': Traditional Christmas Carols from Padstow in Cornwall". Folk Music Journal, republished at Jstor. JSTOR 4522361.
  24. ^ "Harky, Harky – Carols from Padstow in Cornwall". Musical Traditions. 30 May 2001. Archived from the original on 16 April 2002.
  25. ^ "Sheila Stewart – From The Heart Of The Tradition". Topic Records. Archived from the original on 5 August 2020.
  26. ^ "Sheila Stewart – And Time Goes On". Music Scotland. Archived from the original on 7 July 2011.
  27. ^ Withers, Rachel (October 2000). "Intelligence: New British Art 2000, The British Art Show 5". Artforum.
  28. ^ "Folk Archive". British Council Visual Arts. Archived from the original on 31 January 2015.
  29. ^ Deller, Jeremy and, Kane, Alan (2005). Folk Archive: Contemporary Popular Art from the UK. United Kingdom: Book Works. ISBN 978-1-870699-81-5.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  30. ^ "Exhibition: The Folk Archive – Jeremy Deller & Alan Kane, 6 Oct 2020 – 31 Jan 2021, Burton Art Gallery and Museum, Bideford, Devon, United Kingdom". Art Rabbit. 28 September 2020.
  31. ^ "The Doc Rowe Archive". Caught by the River. 7 April 2012. Archived from the original on 17 April 2012.
  32. ^ "British Folk Art, 10 June – 31 August 2014". Tate Britain. Archived from the original on 9 July 2013.
  33. ^ Kenny, Ruth (2014). British Folk Art. United Kingdom: Tate. pp. 142–143. ISBN 978-1-84976-264-9.
  34. ^ "Lore and the Living Archive". Caught by the River. 25 January 2019. Archived from the original on 5 December 2020.
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