Hi everyone and I hope you are all keeping well. I have had Covid but not too badly and I’m ok now apart from being a bit more tired than usual and having a bit of a lingering cough – or maybe it’s just old age!
Anyway, I have been sorting out my vinyl record collection of which a substantial part is what might be called ‘folk’ though I am aware that I am straying into dangerous waters by categorising music in this way. For example, Sandy Denny and The Strawbs were undoubtedly (in my mind) a ‘folk’ act but at what point did The Strawbs become a Rock band? I would argue that happened when Rick Wakeman joined them, though I continued to love their music, so I have included only their album with Sandy and their next two albums in this listing. Early Al Stewart was also a classic ‘folkie’ who moved into rock and pop though his ‘transition’ point is less easily defined – so I have included all his vinyl records that I own in this ‘folk’ listing.
The main aim here is to raise money for the DEC Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal so I hope you will forgive me if my idea of ‘folk’ doesn’t coincide with yours and it is a pretty eclectic collection in some respects as you will see if you take a look on the main unicornfolk.uk website and click on the icon for the auction list and instructions.
There are just over 100 records in the list and I have put a starting bid of £300 on the collection which would be a bargain. Ideally I would like to donate at least £500 from this first auction to the DEC appeal which at a little under £5 each would still be something of a bargain I think – some will be worth less but others may be worth a lot more. I haven’t researched the actual value of any of the records as that would delay the auction though I very much doubt whether there are any first pressings or other items of special value beyond their general rarity.
If you are interested please bid generously and if not please, please, share this blog as widely as you can on social media and elsewhere so that as much money can be raised as possible. If the auction is a success I will hold another for my collection of rock & pop vinyl records.
Other people raising money for the Ukraine include Village Voices, Towersey (see unicornfolk.uk front page listing), Winscombe, North Somerset, Ludlow, Shropshire, (all 14th May) & Doncaster Folk Festival on 29th May. Do support them if you happen to be in the area.
More locally, in the Unicorn area tonight (13th May) sees Royston Live host Linda Moylan & Ian Montague as part of their Showcase and Unicorn Ceilidhs feature Frog On A Bike and the following Friday 20th, Watford Folk Club provide one of your last chances to see Belshazzar’s Feast on their FINAL tour! More details for all of these events can be found on the main unicornfolk.uk website.
Thank you everyone for any help you can give with the auction and by the way there are now 90 festivals listed in the ‘Festival Finder‘ for 2022 on the main unicornfolk.uk website.