Folk Club Singer
In the 1960s, Rosselson travelled widely in Britain, appearing in folk clubs and concert venues, singing his own songs, some satirical, others showing the influence of French realist song. It was a period of prolific song-writing, and some of the best songs from this period appeared on the album 'Songs for Sceptical Circles' and on 'A Laugh, a Song and a Hand Grenade', which was a live recording of Rosselson's songs interspersed with the poems of Adrian Mitchell.
His song 'Tim McGuire' (who loved to play with fire), written during this period, became very popular and was the subject of a complaint from the Chairman of Staffordshire Fire Brigades when it was played a number of times on BBC radio. The BBC, however, refused to ban the song, despite the protests, because (they said) the pyromaniac does get caught in the end. An earlier recording, though, the Topic EP 'Songs for City Squares', was banned (or rather labelled 'for restricted listening only') by the BBC.
His experience of the folk club circuit is captured light-heartedly in the 1966 song 'A View from the One-Night Stands', about which Rosselson said: 'I enjoy singing in folk clubs (most of them). The audiences are alive (most of them) which is more than can be said of the towns. But somebody really ought to launch a campaign to improve pub lavatories.'
Read more about this topic: Leon Rosselson
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