Gordon Potts of the Oyster Ceilidh Band Interview
Posted by xxrosannaxx on Fri, 03 Jul 2009.
I grab a quick chat with Gordon Potts (dance-caller for the Oyster Ceilidh band) at this year's Big Session festival...
Rosanna: So the Oyster Ceilidh Band... what exactly does it do?
Gordon: Well the Oyster Ceilidh Band, before the Oysterband were the Oysterband, they played for dances in Kent. John Jones used to call the dances and they moved from being a dance band into the political folk rock band that they are today, and they’re all old friends of mine so when they asked me to come and call for them I was delighted.
Rosanna: So have you played at Big Session before?
Gordon: I’ve played at all the Big Sessions.
Rosanna: Do you think that this year is better than previous years?
Gordon: It’s looking very good, so yes, I think this might be better than last year.
Rosanna: Ah, good. So do you think that folk music is on the up?
Gordon: It’s been on the up for the last four or five years. An awful lot of my good friends from seventeen to thirty are playing much better than my age group. They sing better and they’re just as completely barmy about it as we always were, the difference is that they’re technically adept, whereas we weren’t that good.
Rosanna: So what do you think the future for this kind of music- folk and acoustic- is?
Gordon: I’ve no idea, but that’s the whole point isn’t it? I want to know what’s going to happen next! I’m always very interested in what Jim Moray does, ‘cause he’s terribly, terribly interesting and a lovely bloke and understands traditional stuff very well, but well enough to mess about with it, so it’s always interesting what he does. And there are just SO many good seventeen to twenty-five year olds who are just so good, that I don’t know what they’re going to do next and that’s great.
Rosanna: That’s cool. Are there any acts here that you’ve seen today that you’ve really liked?
Gordon: E2... I love them to bits.
Rosanna: Ah. And will you be back next year?
Gordon: I’ve been told I’m already booked.
Rosanna: Excellent. Thank you very much for your time.
To watch the interview...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zE--8nIAslU
By Rosanna Pound-Woods
