Danny Spooner + Tom Bridges @ The Loaded Dog,
8PM, Saturday 28th November, 2015. doors open 7.40pm, Back Hall, Annandale Neighbourhood Centre, 79 Johnston St, Annandale

By Sandra Nixon
Posted Wednesday, October 7, 2015

Danny Spooner & friends (Margaret & Bob Fagan)

Danny's passion is the expression of British and Australian culture through folk music.

Born into a working-class family in the East End of London prior to World War 2, Danny Spooner grew up with the traditions, music and folklore of a typical Cockney family (singing round the piano, music hall, traditional English & Irish songs).

At 13 he left school and worked on a sailing barge which plied the Thames and the south coast of England. Under the instructive eye of Bob Roberts, Danny learned British songs and was enrolled in libraries along the coast to read their stories. He was apprenticed to the Thames as a Waterman and Lighterman, and after 6 years had earned his Freeman of the Thames.

When Danny arrived in Australia in 1962, he realised that there was an audience ready, interested, and willing to appreciate these sorts of songs. He heard Declan Affley singing in the early folk scene in Sydney, and at the fabled Frank Traynors in Melbourne Martyn Wyndham-Read, Brian Mooney, David Lumsden, Trevor Lucas and Margret RoadKnight. This was the engine room of the folk revival in Australia, and made Danny want to learn those songs.

Support - Tom Bridges & friends

Tom was born into the folk world (his mother wrote the tune for The Ballad of 1891) and has sung with choirs, led choirs and arranged for choirs, as well as singing solo or with smaller vocal ensembles. He's also a member of the Spooky Men's Chorale. Tom will be accompanied by Bob Fagan.

Loaded Dog, Back Hall, Annandale Neighbourhood Centre, 79 Johnston St, 8pm (doors open 7.40pm)
$18/20, BYO, supper available.
enquiries Sandra (02) 9358 4886, www.theloadeddog.org.au