Ken Patterson - Caedmon
In 1978, a small christian folk rock band in Edinburgh released a farewell album to celebrate six years of making music together. The album was made on a shoestring budget and only 500 copies were pressed. The musicians went their separate ways until the band got back together in 2008 for the 30th anniversary of the band’s legendary debut LP to record and produce the critically acclaimed, “A Chicken to Hug” album.
When and where were you born? What was growing up in Edinburgh like for you? When did you first begin playing music and what was it initially that fascinated you about it? Was music something that was relevant around your household growing up?
I was born in 1955 in Newcastle upon Tyne, in the north east of England. The city was famous since Roman times for trading, ship building, coal and railway engineering. I was baby boomer, born in the shadow of WW2 with parents who aspired to give me the chances they had been denied by the conflict. After university in Edinburgh I returned to my home town now I and live half a mile from where Hadrian’s Roman Wall crossed the city where the Cumberland Arms is now sited, famous for its folk music sessions and Rapper dance. All the Caedmon members arrived in Edinburgh as student freshers in 1973. Jim Bisset (lead Guitar), the only Scot in the band, from Crieff; Simon Jaquet (mandolin, percussion) from Sellinge in Kent; Angela Naylor (lead vocals) from Brighouse Yorkshire and Sam Wilson (bass) from Radcliffe Manchester. I was the youngest by a few months and played ‘cello, keyboard and guitar. I was taught piano and ‘cello from 8 years old. The lessons were very formal. My own music making came to life when at the age of thirteen I bought a Smiley Joe banjolele (all metal construction, with a skin vellum, that I repaired) and soon after that an Ibanez classical guitar. I envied my Dad’s ability to play stride piano by ear, pick up any instrument and get music out of it. Guitar was my way into his world of working things out and invention, without sheet music in front of me. Simon was also classically trained at school. Jim and Sam both started with guitar. Angela played descant recorder.
Patterson with his first car at age 20.
Who were some of your influences early on? Where would you go to see local shows in your community and what groups/performances stood out to you the most during that time? What would you and your friends do for fun back in the day?
At the age of 15, I went to see Pentangle and was seduced by their music. I caught them a couple more times in concert before leaving for Edinburgh at seventeen. My first albums were American: James Taylor, Crosby, Stills and Nash, and Simon and Garfunkel. I enjoyed art lessons because the art teacher put LPs on the turntable as we drew: eg. Let if Be, Groundhogs, the first McCartney solo album. My brother was more academic than me and analysed jazz harmonies and studio craft, even straying into the world of the Carpenters and Latin Jazz (One Note Samba). The four Caedmon males shared a flat in their 3rd and 4th year of University. Jim would play Sly and The Family Stone, Rufus, Parliament and the like, as loud as his stereo would go. Simon was a Fairport Convention / Sandy Denny devotee, Sam played Yes and other prog rock but also into a Fairport and similar folk rock. Simon’s school had occasional concerts put on for students with early versions of Genesis and Simon’s school had occasional concerts put on for students with early versions of Comus, Barclay James Harvest, Genesis, Pink Fairies and Man on the programme. His school band was support!
How did you initially meet your fellow bandmates Anglea Naylor, Jim Bisset, Sam Wilson and Simon Jacquet? What were your first impressions of everyone? Can you tell me about those early days of jamming and rehearsing together? What was the chemistry like between everyone during that time?
On arriving at Edinburgh I met Angela on the first day of matriculation at veterinary school, we were both to be animal doctors. But it was a shared faith that brought us together to make music. Andy Love, a year above us played guitar and we played at a Christmas concert together as a trio. It was a few months later that Simon and Sam joined us and then Jim. Shared repertoire was Larry Norman, Parchment, and Randy Stonehill. Right on evangelical music. We’re still close friends to this day. Sam and Simon have played together in a number of bands since the 70s. I’m a community musician back in my home town. Jim still records in his own right as well as with Caedmon. It’s been a great joy to get back together and write and record over the last fifteen years. Simon had his own ‘Sea Song’ under his belt which the band soon adopted, and this established the notion that we could write our own material. All four men started to write songs and then the arranging process was organic. A creative drive existed which could have been competitive but we harnessed the excitement well enough to produce interesting material. The Beatles had paved the way for eclectic mixing of styles. Our instrumentation was determined by what was at hand, largely ending up with a folk / rock fusion. There was no intent to invent acid folk, indeed the term was only invented twenty years on by musicologists / record collectors. Fairport, Pentangle and the Beatles were probably our biggest influences.
Lindisfarne, from Newcastle, were mixing electric and acoustic instrumentation, and getting a hold of a small PA allowed us to achieve this sort of auditory palette. And we had no drum kit, which in some way shaped our sound. Simon started to play kit in the ‘80s and it was in 2009 when we wrote ‘A Chicken to Hug’ together that the sound he had always envisaged came into fruition. Sometimes, like with ‘Storm’, on the first album, jamming led to a set composition with no one taking the lead as such. We were clear that we were musicians writing songs to express ourselves and that the Christian content emerged in some of that writing because of who we were, but that we weren’t trying to compose overtly Christian songs of worship, as such. We largely played to youth club community across Scotland, and to other English university societies where we had contacts.We had a residency in a pub on a weekday night for a year or so on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh. And in each of 1976, and 1977 we play a week of late night concerts at the Edinburgh Fringe based in The Netherbow Arts Centre where we wrote and rehearsed then recorded in a mono studio designed for radio broadcasts.
For fun. We would play music. Occasional beach parties and country rambles. No sporting activity...... despite myself having been a competitive swimmer and runner until getting to Edinburgh. When we shared a flat we had a very communal lifestyle taking turns in creating an evening meal and used as shared kitty for food purchases. At that stage none of us drank alcohol. There was a fashion for smoking Mc Barren’s Scottish mixture in pipes led by Lance Stone, a friend who wrote ‘Death Knot’ now to be heard on the RARE album. So we didn’t exist within a self indulgent rock industry world. We were set apart from it. Partially because we were in Scotland, not London, and because we were largely serving a church youth club community. Quite insular really. And we all took our studies seriously and exams and homework took up time.
We were never scouted to be signed up by the industry. It was the time of Punk when bands were creating their own destinies. Musically there was a gulf between our folk rock and the grunge of punk. But our approach was to do everything ourselves. Financing of instruments, promotion, hiring a The Barclay Towers Studio (where a majority of bands were punk, eg the Rezillos), arranging the pressing of 500 vinyl LPs, designing and printing the covers. The engineer was a stand in for the owner Perhaps it was our isolation from ‘the industry’ that gave us the quirky approach which became popular, within its small niche, as Acid Folk or Psych Folk around the millennium. It’s clear to me that 99% of band musicians I know put more money into their music-making than they ever earn. The industry is designed to make money for share holders not artists. A handful of musicians earn enough to sustain a rock and roll stereotypical lifestyle, most play their music for the love of it.
What was the band's particular process and approach to writing music? When and where did you guys make your live debut playing music in front of an audience and what was that experience like for you? Is it true this was a “farewell” album? Can you tell me about that?
The process for writing was for one of the four writers to introduce some words, chords and half melodies at one of a few weekend rehearsals within any one year. Then we’d jam the idea, pitch in further ideas and work it up. Normally quite quickly. The longer the track, the more the other band members had their part in it. (Storm, Death of a Fox, Dream of the Rood)? It was always exciting to perform. We didn’t have a launch or debut as such. We gradually worked up a set and eventually started to be booked through a friends network to create an evening of music. The Mitre Pub, and the Netherbow were where we were known best, perhaps. We played at a coffee bar called Charisma in the West End but the audiences were sparse, it was more of a social outreach affair than an arts venue. The Fringe Festival runs were the closest we had to modern day gigging with marketing, and box office sales of tickets. We played at the Greenbelt Festival in 1977 in a side tent where, after driving all night post a Edinburgh Fringe Festival gig, most of our spot was poached by another better known band who were to be on the main stage later that day.
What initially led to the band forming? Tell me about writing as well as recording the band’s Self Titled debut LP. When and where did recording begin in ‘78 and what was that process like writing and recording those songs? I understand you guys self released this album? How long did it take to write and record this from start to finish?
In 1978 we all had final exams to prepare for and both Angela and I knew we were leaving Edinburgh. The band would be put on the shelf for at least the time being. We had a dozen, or so songs which were self written and a faithful following. So we decided to record an album to sell at a farewell gig. We booked two Sundays at Barclay Towers Studio, essentially a fourth floor Edinburgh flat where the kitchen was the recording room and the control room was accessed by a loft hatch into a corner tower. Tony Pilley was the owner but he was away. There were two different engineers one the first session and a different one the second session. One had been training in homeopathic medicine in Iceland, but none of us can remember their names. A 4 track recording. We recorded live on two tracks then dubbed extra vocals using the spare two tracks, on to some of the songs. In the third session a couple of us went to hear the mix. It was a fast process. We were recording material that we had worked up on stage over four years. This link takes you to reminiscences of the recording Caedmon the 1978 recording. On our website caedmonsreturn.com you can find a number of documentary videos. I designed the cover, supplied as three black and white sheets to be printed in black, red and gold on a parchment base colour. I did a deal of design work then and still do.
What were those sessions and studio experiences like for you during that time? Who were the engineer(s) on the album and can you tell me about the wonderful album art layout? What eventually happened to the band after ‘78? Where did you find yourself both artistically as well as personally after Caedmon?
I was into Celtic art and there is monument to Caedmon in Whitby with a Celtic knot stonework. Sam and Angela hand wrote liner and insert notes. The sleeves went to a Blackwells printing house in Edinburgh. The pressing plant informed us, after the sleeves were printed, that they couldn’t fit all the tracks on one album so we had the 6th and 12th track put on to a single as an extra insert. It was just about ready in time for the final concert in George Square Theatre. 500 attended in a sell out of the hall. 500 albums were sold. The singles were late so people got a token which they exchanged for the extra record at The Netherbow at a later date. The concert was plagued by sound problems. I had lost my voice with a common cold. But it was a joyous celebration of five years together. In the late 1990’s, Kissing Spell asked us to supply the master tape for a CD version of the album and paid us a small lump sum for the use of the masterWe never knew how many copies were made or sold. It then appeared on English Garden and other labels without permission. Guerssen, a Spanish label, recently negotiated permissions for a well made replica vinyl version with singles. They are very friendly and helped us with distribution of RARE and A Chicken to Hug. Royalties have been non existent. The story of the value of old copies of the original LPs is a bizarre one. Why are they worth so much? The allegorical story is told in our song RARE on the recent album, comparing a one off piece of pottery to factory made copies.
The band released material under the group’s own label, Caedmon’s Return. Can you tell me about those projects and the details as to what led to you guys putting the band back together? What are you most proud of when reflecting on the band’s and its history?
30 years on from the farewell concert we were at a point in life when children were becoming independent and we had the time and inclination to get together and write a new album. This was worked up in my house in Weardale, near to Newcastle over three or four weekends. Writing was more organic than before with tracks like ‘Time Flies’ and ‘Elephant in the Chatroom’ as whole band compositions. Also with 30 years of life experience we had plenty to write about. e.g. Simon had played with Duncan Senyato in Botswana (Bonny Boy), I had toured with an international band of ten musicians to Ouagadougou, which led to that eponymous track. After creating a demo version, Simon pushed for a professional studio recording so we spent a week with Steve Butler as producer engineer in his Ayrshire studio. The album is little known or played. Perhaps the professional production and drum kit changed the original sound too much, but I don’t think so. Audiences don’t feel inspired by comeback albums from artists who are returning to the scene. We created the label Caedmon’s Return and did all the design and ordering of CDs ourselves. Angela was coaxed into action as lead singer on some tracks, but she found less enjoyment at being on stage for the Album launch (again in the Netherbow Arts Centre). A Chicken to Hug is strong, as is RARE.
This project was started before Covid lock- down but was finished with us all at a distance sending audio files for the final mix. 40 years on. RARE also includes 1970s recordings: material that hasn’t been released before. And seven brand new songs including ‘Dream of the Rood’, which is intentionally prog rock in style. We released it on vinyl with LP and single insert with a parallel story to the original. A scratchy live recording of ‘When the Green Blade Rises’ from a 1977 concert is the most popular track. In the years between Chicken and RARE I gained skill in using Logic Pro X enough to do all the engineering myself for this album. We’re planning a focus on each of fifty tracks in 2023 to mark the 50th anniversary of the formation of the band. A weekly blog will give the story behind each track. With one or two new songs entering the collection. Simon’s daughter Sally is laying down lead vocals for us. She has recently been touring with Rory Butler, Steve Butler’s son and her brother William Jaquet whose band ‘Big Society’ is currently very active.
What happened with me in the thirty intervening years? I went to work in a department store back home in 1978, marrying my long term girlfriend. In 1980 I opened a café in a Northumberland country town, Rothbury. It was a happy time. I met many famous names on the folk scene as a member of the team running the monthly concerts at Linden Folk with Rod Clements of Lindisfarne and Geoff Heslop of Black Crow records. Bert Jansch, John Renbourne, Ralph McTell, and many more came an played in the intimate surroundings of the country pub. Our café business was so successful that we wore ourselves out and decided to sell up in order to start a family. We never managed to have kids despite early versions of IVF. ‘Childless’ on A Chicken to Hug tells rather story. I became a teacher of 5 - 12 year olds and discovered my music was a fast way into promotion. Soon I became advisory music teacher for all Newcastle’s schools. In 2000 I became a freelance musician and have been ever since leading projects forming steel bands, streetbands, and acting, writing and performing in theatre with Theatre sans Frontières. I worked briefly with Rick Kemp of Steeleye Span at Cumbria College of Art. My main focus has been open access to music for all and celebrating the people and history of my local community.
Is there anything else you would like to further share with the readers?
Currently, Caedmon is recording again and I play with Stu and Fi Finden of Whapweasel ceilidh band. We’re creating a Mummers Winter Ceilidh with theatre to a global warming theme, for this Christmas. I’ll keep on composing for film and theatre as well as improvising music with a storyteller in many shows and tours. Our continuing friendship as a band is our proudest achievement, and the fact that we’re still making new music together, despite our fans continuing focus upon the 1978 album. We’re noticing that the majority of our fans are USA based and we’re interested to know what our appeal is to younger stateside fans.
