Last updated: 2 hours ago
He was the funniest man on the folk scene for more than 40 years, but for Vin Garbutt and his legion of fans, the music always came first.
Vin was famed for his “patter” – the meandering, pun-filled and riotously funny introductions. They would go on for so long that in the end he had to ask the audience to remind him which song he was about to sing. But when the singing started, the laughter stopped. Silence then descended upon packed-out venues from Middlesbrough to Melbourne.
Vin’s superbly crafted songs are packed with cutting social comment about the issues that moved him – from one of the first “green” folk songs in Valley of Tees, to the issue of unemployment in the North-East in Not For The First Time and the many songs penned about oppression and injustice wherever he saw it in the world. These were complemented in his repertoire by unique renditions of the songs of others, including those he dubbed “the secret songwriters,” who he often heard doing floor spots when travelling around the world’s folk clubs.
Vin was famed for his “patter” – the meandering, pun-filled and riotously funny introductions. They would go on for so long that in the end he had to ask the audience to remind him which song he was about to sing. But when the singing started, the laughter stopped. Silence then descended upon packed-out venues from Middlesbrough to Melbourne.
Vin’s superbly crafted songs are packed with cutting social comment about the issues that moved him – from one of the first “green” folk songs in Valley of Tees, to the issue of unemployment in the North-East in Not For The First Time and the many songs penned about oppression and injustice wherever he saw it in the world. These were complemented in his repertoire by unique renditions of the songs of others, including those he dubbed “the secret songwriters,” who he often heard doing floor spots when travelling around the world’s folk clubs.
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