Various – The Travelling People

A radio-ballad about Britain’s nomadic peoples by Ewan MacColl, Charles Parker & Peggy Seeger
The last of the radio-ballads deals with gypsies, tinkers and the rest of Britain’s travellers – ‘people talking about what it means to be a tenth-rate citizen in a civilised land.’ MacColl’s song The Travelling People was so true to their lives that it was taken up by travellers and absorbed into their repertoire.

Track Listing:
1. My Mother Said I Never Should - 1:33   2. I Am Tired of Always Having to Shift - 1:25   3. Born in the Middle of the Afternoon - 7:20   4. If You Took a Traveller - 4:01   5. Don't I Wish the Old Times Would Come Back Again - 10:13   6. I Like to Settle in the Wintertime - 5:02   7. We Never Did Travel Much in the Wintertime - 2:24   8. The Auld Ways Are Changing - 3:16   9. These Days Have Gone - 1:11   10. I Mean, We're Fed Up With Gypsies Living in Our Area - 3:17   11. People Get the Impression, O These Gypsies, They're Rogues - 3:17   12. They Can't Read or Write - 4:02   13. Bloody Isn't It - 7:39   14. Can't See No Way Out - 3:31

Personnel:
John Faulkner, Joe Heaney, Ewan MacColl, Peggy Seeger, Belle Stewart, Jane Stewart(singers) , Jim Bray (double bass) , Brian Daly (guitar) , Dinah Demuth (oboe) , Alf Edwards (English concertina) , Alfie Kahn (harmonica, clarinet, piccolo, flute) , Peggy Seeger (guitar, 5-string banjo) , Dave Swarbrick (fiddle) , Bruce Turner (clarinet, alto sax)

Script, song lyrics and music: Ewan MacColl with Peggy Seeger
Orchestration and musical direction: Peggy Seeger 
Actuality recording: Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger 
Production: Charles Parker

Reviews:

1. The Daily Telegraph - Gillian Reynolds
‘The Radio-Ballads are, in the literal sense of the word, wonderful ….. they changed the course of broadcasting history. What makes them so important now is that, at their best, they tell you things you don’t forget. The Travelling People is even more powerful than it was in 1964?

2. Q - Dave Henderson
‘The final episode, The Travelling People, had MacColl at the peak of his lyrical intonation.’