The Big Eight-O

by Pam Bishop

This was written in June 1998 to celebrate the eightieth birthday of Joan Smith, a member of the English Folk Song and Dance Society who opened the first folk club in Birmingham in the 1960s. She was also a caller of folk dances, and was always generous towards the young people in the Birmingham folk scene.

Pam Bishop plays duet concertina and guitar, and leads the Mad Moll folk dance band. She has been influential in getting many people to participate in folk activities by organising music and song workshops and sessions, by setting up and leading the Moseley Village Band for twelve years, by organising folk dances and ceilidhs and by tutoring at concertina weekends in Witney, Swaledale and Kilve.