Roy Harris

Roy Harris (15 June 1933 – 9 February 2016) was a British folk singer known for his role in the starting the folk club movement in southern Wales in the 1960s. He was often referred to as the “gentleman of folk song” due to his warm personality and congeniality as a folk club host. Harris primarily sang unaccompanied sea and military songs. Over the years Harris recorded over a dozen albums, mostly on the Topic Records and Fellside Recordings labels, along with notable British singers including Ewan MacColl, Frankie Armstrong, Martin Carthy and Martyn Wyndham-Read. Biography Harris was born into a working-class family in Derby, England, on 15 June 1933 but would always associate with nearby Nottingham and referred to it as his home city. Harris started out singing in school choirs and was known to perform Al Jolson and Nat King Cole songs in local talent shows. He also loved amateur boxing and football. He trialled for Nottingham Forest, the football team he supported all his life. Harris served his National Service in the army and then re-enlisted in the RAF becoming a physical training instructor (PTI) in the Royal Air Force until 1959. It was during his military service that he first heard the song "McCafferty", which sparked his interest in folk music, especially in military songs. He later recorded that song and other powerful military songs on the album The Rambling Soldier (Fellside Recordings, FE 017). Harris started out in folk music by playing washboard in a skiffle group (a blues/jazz-inspired type of folk music with a blues or jazz flavour that was popular in the 1950s and 1960s) at small folk clubs in England. He was stationed at RAF St Athan and met his future wife Elaine at a local dance in 1955. After military service in Germany, England, Cyprus and Wales he opened Wales' first folk club, the Cardiff Folk Club, which became popular and attracted such guests as the Ian Campbell Folk Group, Shirley Collins and Luke Kelly, later of The Dubliners. The club was held upstairs at the Estonian Club in Cardiff and met on Thursday evenings. In the early days there was just a handful of attendees, but over time the club grew so popular they had to turn people away. Eventually they outgrew the Estonian Club so they moved to the British Legion club in Womanby Street. On their opening night at the new location, there were 500 folk singers and other guests in attendance.