Folk star Seth Lakeman tells Tim Hughes about the amazing people and their eye-opening tales that inspired his latest album and his desire to do them justice

Seth Lakeman has built a reputation on playing passionate and heartfelt folk music, with lyrics documenting the untold tales of ordinary people who have lived extraordinary lives.

Whether twisted tales of shipwrecks, murder or dark deeds on Dartmoor, his songs immortalise stories gathered from his native West Country.

So in a year of stirring commemorations, it’s no surprise that his latest project has also been influenced by that time of tumult, the Second World War.

His song Tiger is an account of a tragic but little-known episode in the war. It is based on an interview with Devon man Reg Hannaford, the last living witness to Operation Tiger, a large-scale training exercise for D-Day on Devon’s Slapton Sands that went disastrously wrong.

A reported 946 American servicemen were killed after being bombarded with live ammunition from their own side, in what would now be referred to as ‘friendly fire’. The tragedy was compounded when an Allied convoy was attacked by German E-boats patrolling the Channel. Two landing craft were sunk and two others damaged, leading to terrible loss of life.

“There’s a lot that people don’t know about,” says Seth, while relaxing at home in Devon.

“Reg, who is now 85, was just a local butcher and saw it happen as a teenager. It was so powerful chatting to him. He’d watched it all unfold, it was very emotional. The general in charge of the exercise committed suicide – that’s not common knowledge. We know about it as a whole but the actual details are revealing.”

That eye-opening tale is only one story on an album which acts as a document of the people who give not just Devon and Cornwall, but the British Isles, their identity.

Called, appropriately enough, Word Of Mouth, it tells the stories of working lives, incredible journeys through wild landscapes and revolution.

There are tales from railway and dock workers, female cropper miners, travellers and those who still honour the Tolpuddle Martyrs’ struggle for workers’ rights.

Recorded over the summer in a studio set up in North Tamerton Church, East Cornwall, it is an extension of what Seth has done, going back to the Mercury-nominated Kitty Jay, released for £300 in his kitchen.

“It’s been a journey, really,” he says. “I spent a long time interviewing and recording people in the area. At one point I wondered where it was heading and whether it would unravel.

“But people told really intelligent stories.

“All I had to do was listen. I am just a mouthpiece for them, but there is a responsibility in that and it’s important to get it right, so I would go back and play the songs to them. There is quite a lot to digest and it has taken a while to get people to understand what it’s really about – rather than just seeing it as tracks for Radio 2.

He adds: “I think preservation is the basis of folk music and that is what I’m trying to do. It’s almost educational, as you can go quite far with it. I have enjoyed it, but it has been quite ambitious.”

That love of gathering stories inevitably comes from his journalist father Geoff, whose reporting of the 1981 Penlee Lifeboat disaster – in which 16 people died, including eight volunteer lifeboatmen on the RNLB Soloman Browne stationed at Mousehole – provided the inspiration for Seth’s heartbreaking The Story of Solomon Browne on the album Poor Man’s Heaven.

“I always enjoyed watching him at work – in the pub mostly,” he laughs. “But it’s really just a fascination with people; being socially aware of the community where you’re from. Each of these interviews I’d go away and unpick and unravel. Obviously there’s artistic license but the interview becomes the bedrock for the song.

“One phrase they said might have given the song. It’s interesting to hear where the inspiration came from.”

The project emerged from Seth’s search for songs for previous album Tales from the Barrel House, which paid homage to the vanishing tribe of traditional artisans and tradesmen and women, once relied upon but now lost to the modern world.

Emphasising the power of the lyrics, the new album also comes as a special edition double CD & DVD book-pack which includes a spoken word disc featuring the interviews which inspired the songs.

And on Sunday he brings those stories to Oxford Town Hall.

“I’ve been quite nervous about playing these tracks,” he admits. “Some very kind people have leant me their stories, and I have tried to do them justice. Everyone seems proud of it though, and it’s a great document of these people – and their achievements.”

Credited as the man who helped make folk cool, Seth is delighted with folk’s enduring popularity – and acoustic music’s reach beyond the traditional folk community: “Acoustic music has exploded, it’s just hit the roof,” he says.

“I’m not sure where we sit within that. We can play all over remote corners of the country and get a fantastic atmosphere wherever we go.

“Its honest music. I think it’s meant for those people and those pockets. That gives you longevity in a career. It’s what it’s about.”

CHECK IT OUT
Seth Lakeman plays Oxford Town Hall on Sunday. 
Tickets are £19.50-£24 plus fee from gigantic.com

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