In 1962 Brian Bull began a three year degree course at
Imperial College in South Kensington and soon set about organising a
folk club there with some help from like-minded friends. One of those
friends was Derek Hall. Brian recalls those days:-
I remember well Derek’s first appearance at the
club. This was in 1963. Some students who were regulars at the club
had persuaded their flatmate Derek to come along. They promised me it
would be well worth getting Derek to sing; and so it was. Derek
fished out his Martin D28 guitar and launched into ‘San Francisco
Bay Blues’, a Jesse Fuller classic which wasn’t all that well
known at that time, not in Britain anyway. The impact was
electrifying and the applause simply exploded. It was obvious that
Derek was performing at a different level to the rest of the amateurs
at the club (including me) and that’s really saying something
because the standard was actually quite high.
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| Derek in full flight at Imperial College Folk Club (about 1964) playing his Martin D28. |
From then on Derek was a regular and a firm favourite at the club. He was undoubtedly a factor in the club’s rapid increase in popularity. Soon there were over 200 people coming to every meeting (probably it was the biggest folk club in London) and they certainly loved Derek’s performances of such classics as ‘Muleskinner Blues’, ‘Pretty Polly’, ‘Do-Re-Me’, ‘Candy Man’, ‘Sadie Brown’ and ‘Dink’s Song’. Although his guitar playing was what really stunned the audiences, it should be remembered that he was also a great singer with a strong and expressive voice which came over loud and clear, despite the power and volume of his guitar sound.
In 1964 and 1965, Imperial College Folk Club embarked
on an ambitious project to record its regular singers, an almost
unheard of initiative in those days. The result was two LP’s (Long
Playing Records) which, of course, featured several tracks by Derek.
By now Derek’s repertoire had expanded to include ‘Geordie’,
‘Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out’, ‘Don’t Think
Twice’, ‘Roll in My Sweet Baby’s Arms’ and ‘Rambling Boy’.
You can hear some of those songs on this website.
We had regular guest artists at the club, most of
whom are legends nowadays. A professional American singer who
appeared at I.C. Folk Club several times was bluegrass star Bill
Clifton. Bill remarked to me on one of his visits how impressed he
was by Derek’s guitar style. Praise indeed from a man who was no
slouch on the guitar himself.
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American bluegrass star Bill Clifton (third from left),
singing at Imperial College Folk Club (about 1964) with The
Wayfarers, the club’s resident group. The group are Roger Frost
(banjo), Dave Lambert (fiddle), Ann Hay (singer), Brian Bull (guitar)
and Chris Wright (banjo/mandolin).
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In 1965 Derek was invited to participate in a concert
at Kensington Town Hall which was to be headlined by Derek’s idol,
Rambling Jack Elliot. Fortunately, by this time, Derek had plenty of
songs drawn from a wider field and could easily do his spot without
encroaching on Jack’s musical territory. I remember the concert
well because my folk group (The Wayfarers) were also invited to take
part. Rambling Jack had broken his leg and it was encased in plaster.
He leaned back on a table on stage throughout his set. Wearing his
trade mark ten gallon Stetson hat, he worked his way through all of
those iconic Rambling Jack songs.
As great as Jack’s performance was, I felt
that Derek had the edge.
(Brian Bull)