THE LIFE & TIMES OF CHUCK FLEMING

By Su & Brian Childs

“But I lost contact with Morris when I had to go into hospital (I had a bad reaction to a medication I was taking). When I regained my health I resumed my Scottish folk club adventures with Tom Ward, a singer, guitarist and concertina player from Fife. 

“I was playing in Sandy Bell’s pub one Saturday evening when I met two Durham PhD students who were actually from Orkney. One of them - a chap called Howie - asked if I’d like to come to a party and play my fiddle the following weekend. I played at the party, and it was there that I met another Durham student and friend of Howie’s called Dave Richardson. 

“Dave asked me if I fancied going to Durham for a few days and play some music with him and his friends … so I went! I was really smitten with Durham, and a ‘few days’ turned into a few months, playing music around the pubs with someone who turned out to be a great friend - Jim O’Boyle, the concertina player.”

 … where did you come into contact with the JSD Band?

“Yes, Glasgow’s JSD Band, already established as a trio, were touring the North East folk clubs, and I met up with them while I was in Durham. They asked me to join them and we went back to Scotland, where we won the National Folk Group Championship … which entitled us to a recording contract with EMI, on the Harvest label. 

“I stayed with the band for about a year, then went down to London. I went to Holland and Belgium with Dick Gaughan, Tom Hickland (Five Hand Reel) and Clive Woolf. I also did a fair bit of busking in this period - mainly outside Harrods!

“In February 1972 I went back on the road with the JSD Band, and also did the album Travelling Days with Cube Hi Fly. We were all over the UK, Europe and the USA until the band folded in 1975.”

 … so where did you go then?

“Back to Durham. Yes, into the ceilidh band world. What a transformation! Playing for dancing - another learning curve! I joined the Joint Stock Band in 1976 and played for them for a couple of years.

“Then Tom Gilfellon approached me about forming a trio (the Champion String Band) with himself and me, and Martin Matthews on the banjo. Tom was an amazing player/manager. 

“He got us a TV series BBC North East, bookings at major festivals like Cambridge, Rotterdam, Thurso etc. We only made one album (Midnight on the Water, with the Newcastle Black Crow label), but really, it only needed one! The band also featured on National Radio in Ireland on the prestigious traditional music programme The Long Note.

“Shortly after this I was invited to play in the Steel Skies Band by concertina player Alistair Anderson. Steel Skies is a work by Alistair based in the tradition and, on reflection, it still remains very close to my heart. It took a lot of playing, mind! But we had the amazing experience of playing it in the Purcell Rooms at the South Bank in London.”

 … and after Steel Skies?

“After the Champion String Band and Steel Skies (which were kind of intermingled) I embarked on something completely different. I got chatting to another lunchtime drinker in the Colpitts Hotel in Durham. The fella was called Gerry Kaley, a songwriter from Sunderland with unique talent. In 1985 we made an album Shake Loose the Border (on the Black Crow label again), and we toured extensively in the UK and in Europe.

 “Shake Loose the Border was voted ‘Album of the Year’ by Folk Roots magazine. We had intended to write a whole song cycle together on the Border Reivers, but circumstances took us down another avenue altogether. Gerry started working on an album with his brother in Manchester, and myself and many of the local pub session musicians in Durham played on it.

 “In 1987 Gerry, Kathryn Tickell and myself toured Italy as a trio. I think it was Kathryn’s first tour out of the UK (but I might be wrong). I think Gerry and his brother also play on one or two of Kathryn’s albums.

 … what about Syncopace?

“Yes - I played on and off for about 8 years with Syncopace. This was a great band, particularly the ‘rhythm’ section of Ian Carr (guitar) and Penny Callow (cello). We did the album Syncopace with Topic, and toured the UK a couple of times. 1992 was the year of the Garden Festival at Gateshead, and we played there too … and at Billy Connolly’s concerts in Glasgow.

 … then what?

“A varied lot. I did quite a lot of studio work at Northern Recording in Consett with producers Peter and Ged Boyle, working with young bands in the ‘rock’ idiom. I recorded an album of fiddle music called The Silver Coast for my friend Kenny Davison. I continued to play in the Joint Stock Band (still learning to play for dancing!). And in 1997 I recorded an album The Live Set with my old friend and Five Hand Reel colleague Bobby Eaglesham. 

“Since 1997 I’ve played alongside and recorded with Johnny Handle, Alistair Anderson, Gerry Kaley, Martin Matthews (solo album), Tim Ward, Marie Little, Bob Fox, Benny Graham, Gary and Glen Miller, Jez Lowe and Jim O’Boyle. Oh yes, and teaching fiddle on the Folk Degree course.

 “And I’m still going now, doing different things!!