Nicole has just spent six glorious days at the newly revived Woodford Folk Festival, Queensland, between Christmas and New Year, where John was fondly remembered....
I hope that it is not a surprise to you that our beloved John Thompson died in February 2021, and I apologise if this news had not yet reached you.
John requested that we organise John’s First Going-Away Party, originally in 2020. It was repeatedly thwarted by lockdowns, but I think we have managed it properly now!
The version of his going-away party that I took to Woodford was an ambitious multi-act variety concert called John Thompson ~ A Tribute. We were commemorating and celebrating John’s music, life and wit, with hundreds of people who had been unable to participate in a live event for John through all the covid lockdowns and cancellations of the past few years.
The Luna venue was full, with probably more than 600 people, and the scene was electric, even at 9am.
We opened the show with a recording of John himself, singing Never Weather-beaten Sail, a hymn which he recorded on a four-track in the ancient stone chapel on the Scottish island of Iona, waiting for the silence of night, after the generator at the pub was turned off, to sing. You can listen to that recording here.
Maree Robertson and Ann Bermingham, who sang with John in the trio One Step Forward, graced us with two pure, unaccompanied voices in How Can I Keep From Singing?, which embodied John’s approach to life. I could hear the echo of John’s high tenor harmony in their performance.
Fred Smith first suggested to me that we should produce this commemorative show for John, and I asked him to learn John’s witty drug-bust song, Kevin. I sang John’s harmony in the chorus, and we both marvelled over our favourite line: “It was a dark Orwellian rampage, to bring fear to the hearts of men”. Fred’s drily humorous delivery was ideal for this.
Don Jarmey, who has played innumerable sessions with John in countless pubs and festivals, performed one of John’s favourite session songs with rising star Lachlan Baldwin. Alistair Hulett’s Yuppie Town was a regular high energy song for Don and John all the way back to its most apposite locale, the Story Bridge Hotel.
After years of ascending Mt Coot-tha in the dark to attend the annual Morris dancing ritual of Dance Up The Sun, John eventually dedicated his song of the same name to Belswagger Morris. In return, for this concert, Lee Knight wrote a dance for John, to his song The Brisbane River. I led the song on voice and fiddle, with the foreman of Belswagger Morris, Daniel Townley on melodeon, and Cloudstreet alumni Emma Nixon, Rebecca Wright, Donald McKay, Erin Sulman. The spectacular Belswagger Morris danced in front of the stage.
The Spooky Men’s Chorale honoured John with their deeply moving rendition of The Parting Glass. John toured in the UK with the Spookies in 2010, and I think Stephen Taberner said the Spookies were never the same afterwards!
Three accomplished songwriters composed songs for John when he died. Ian Dearden’s is simply titled Song for John and was recorded with John’s dear friends Vicki Swan and Jonny Dyer; we were able to play Eric Bogle’s Catching the Wave at John’s funeral; and Fred Smith performed The Sweet Ever After (to be released on 4 February, the anniversary of John's death), with an accompanying series of photographs, and a full band.
And all too quickly, we were at the last song. John’s iconic anthem, The Green Man has been in Cloudstreet’s repertoire almost from the very beginning, and is well-known in folk circles round the world. I wrote a choral arrangement of it for Bushtime at Woodford in 2021, and we had two workshops at the festival this year to prepare the audience to be the choir. There were many singers on stage and the angelic voices from the audience lifted this song into the realm of glory.
I would like to thank Ian Dearden, John’s friend in law and music, for his thoughtful and well-crafted narration throughout his MCing duties at this concert. Thanks also go to Bill Hauritz for his heartfelt closing words about John’s contribution to Woodford. The sound from Eddie and Lachlan was exemplary, Mel’s stage management was masterly, and I want to thank Ann Bermingham for act-wrangling, Helena Bond and Nonie Malone for stepping in at the last minute with harmonies, and all of the brilliant acts that made this concert so varied, so entertaining, and so utterly John.
Steve Williams filmed the concert and I’m hoping we will put it up on YouTube, so I’ll let you know when that is a thing. If you were there and took photos or footage, please let me know, I’d love to collect it all.
Thanks to Fiona Scott-Norman for having me on her Good Morning Woodfordia breakfast show to talk about John, the concert and the fascinating, bittersweet podcast he recorded with standup comic and palliative care nurse, Carolyn Mandersloot. The podcast is looking for funding to complete the editing (in case you have an idea...?). Fiona’s cohost that day was Costa Georgiadis, so I got to fan-girl him a little bit. The audience helped me sing The Green Man that morning and Costa actually described them as angelic.
Ian Dearden’s Song for John is available on Bandcamp, and Ian is donating all money towards the creation of a memorial for John’s grave at Toowong Cemetery.
Thanks to Chris Wright and Bob and Laurel Wilson for the photos.
What else did I do at Woodford?
After two years without the festival, it was so inspiring to be back in ‘the promised land’ (thanks Terry Jacob for that line). My festivals are usually more about participation than consumption, though I saw a few wonderful acts: learned to sing Sweetest Kick with the Spookies, proudly watched George Jackson play with mandolin virtuoso Jacob Jolliff, listened intently to Eric Bogle and marvelled at the array of bands rehearsing in the space beside my campsite, roared four or five songs from the back of the Abba singalong and had to escape if I wanted to keep my voice intact!
I got involved in Emma Nixon’s fast-paced Scottish sessions and David de Santi’s culturally encompassing Good Tunes session. I came across Belswagger Morris in a street performance, and looking like an ordinary passer-by (and not like someone who rehearses with them every week, which I do), leapt into an Upton Stick Dance, which I love because it involves a rather dramatic skirmish which looks like a sword fight. So. Much. Fun!
The rest of the time I was lifted on the shoulders of giants as I rehearsed with the extraordinary ensemble playing for the Fire Event, where I sang ‘Who Knows Where the Time Goes’, and ‘The Lake Isle of Innisfree’, and was thrilled to sing harmonies for Kacey Patrick on ‘The Lost Words Blessing’ and play whistle on ‘The 30-year Jig’.
The Fire Event, with an amphitheatre audience of more than 16000, closes the festival, and this year was a giant shadow-puppet theatre piece with lots of burning things, some giant 3D puppets, the Walkestra, the huge Fire Choir, and a beautiful environmentally and spiritually inspired story of Emir the marsupial boy, created by Alex Podger.
Go creatively into this new year!
lots of love
Nicole
