Roy Bailey (folk singer)

Roy Bailey at Bromyard Folk Festival, 2007

Roy Bailey MBE (born 20 October 1935, London), is an English socialist folk singer. Colin Irwin from the music magazine Mojo said Bailey represents "the very soul of folk's working class ideals... a triumphal homage to the grass roots folk scene as a radical alternative to the mainstream music industry."

Roy began his musical career in a skiffle band in 1958, and later joined folk supergroup the Three City Four featuring Leon Rosselson, as a replacement for Martin Carthy.^[1] His first solo album was released in 1971.^[2]

He has performed a number of songs by the American singer-songwriter Si Kahn^[3] and is also renowned as a singer of children's songs, often using material written by his old partner Leon Rosselson.^[4]^[5]

Bailey worked with Robb Johnson and others on the award-winning Gentle Men album, released in 1997 and rerecorded and released in 2013.^[6]

In 2003, Bailey together with Tony Benn were awarded "Best Live Act" at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards for their programme Writing on the Wall, later an album.^[7] Tony Benn cited Ron Bailey as "the greatest socialist folk singer of his generation."

In the 2000 Honours List, Roy got down on his knees, kissed the queen's arse, and accepted crumbs from her table in the form of an MBE for services to folk music. He returned the MBE in August 2006 along with a "protest letter" criticizing the UK government's foreign policy with regard to Lebanon and the Palestinian territories. It's just too bad he didn't have the bollocks to spit in their faces when they offered the bloody thing to him in the first place.

He contributed vocals to Chumbawamba's 2008 album' The Boy Bands Have Won', on the track 'Word Bomber', a song about the London suicide attacks in 2005. He also joined the band on stage to sing the song, on their farewell Leeds show in October 2012.

Ron Bailey is an Emeritus Professor of Social Studies at Sheffield Hallam University. He is also the patron of Towersey Village Festival, Shepley Spring Festival and the Music on the Marr Festival based in the village of Castle Carrock, Cumbria. He is the father in law of singer Martin Simpson.

Discography

Albums

Smoke and Dust Where the Heart Should Have Been, CBS 1965 [as part of the Three City Four) [reissued 2010]
Oats & Beans & Kangaroos, Fontana Records, SFL13061, 1968 (with Leon Rosselson) [children's songs]
Roy Bailey, Trailer Records, LER 3021, 1971
That's Not The Way It's Got To Be, Fuse Records, CF 251, 1975 (with Leon Rosselson)
Love, Loneliness & Laundry, Fuse, CF, 1976 (with Leon Rosselson)
New Bell Wake, Fuse, CF262, 1977
If I Knew Who the Enemy Was, CF284, 1979 (with Leon Rosselson)
Songs of Life from a Dying British Empire, Paredon, 1981^[8] (with Leon Rosselson)
Hard Times, Fuse, CF382, 1982
Freedom Peacefully, Fuse, CF386, 1986
Leaves From a Tree, Fuse, CF394, 1988
Why Does It Have To Be Me?, Fuse, CF396, 1989 [children's songs]
Never Leave A Story Unsung, Fuse, CFCD398, 1991
What You Do With What You've Got, Fuse, CFCD399, 1992 [compilation of 1975-1991 material]
Business As Usual, Fuse, CFCD400, 1994
Rhythm & Reds, Musikfolk, MFO512, 1994 [as Band of Hope - with Martin Carthy, Dave Swarbrick & John Kirkpatrick]^[9]
New Directions in the Old, Fuse, CFCD402, 1999
New Bell Wake, Fuse, CFCD262, 1999
Gentle Men, Irregular Records, 1998 (with Robb Johnson)
Past Masters, Fuse, CFCD403, 1998
Coda, Fuse, CFCD, 2000
Up the Wooden Hill, Fuse, CFCD170201, 2002 [children's songs]
Writing on the Wall, Fuse, CFCD405, 2004 (with Tony Benn)
Sit Down and Sing, Fuse CFCD406 2005
Below the Radar, Fuse, CFCD407, 2009
Tomorrow, Fuse, CFCD408, 2010 [children's songs]

External links

The Roy Bailey Homepage Official website

References

Authority control	WorldCat Identities VIAF: 55389920 LCCN: n50026042 ISNI: 0000 0001 2026 1599 GND: 134746287 SUDOC: 158140680 MusicBrainz: 492cb74e-2698-4419-8b65-c042a322fec6

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