Leon Rosselson - The Folk Years

The Folk Years

Leon Rosselson was born and brought up in North London, lived in Tufnell Park and attended school in Highgate Road, adjacent to Parliament Hill Fields. His Jewish parents came to England as refugees from Tsarist Russia.

He joined the London Youth Choir, formed by John Hasted and Eric Winter, which went to a number of World Youth Festivals in the 1950s. At the end of that decade, two Scotsmen, Robin Hall (1936–1998) and Jimmie MacGregor (b. 1930), came to London and performed in folk clubs and then on prime time television. They teamed up with Shirley Bland (Jimmie's wife) and Leon Rosselson to form a quartet called The Galliards. Rosselson played 5 string banjo and guitar and did most of the arrangements. Their repertoire consisted of folk songs from the British Isles and from around the world. They were regulars on BBC radio programmes and made an EP and two LPs for Decca ('Scottish Choice' and 'A-Roving') and one LP for the American label, Monitor. They also made a single for Topic of the Dave Arkin/Earl Robinson song 'The Ink Is Black'. The group broke up in 1963 though Robin Hall and Jimmie MacGregor continued to perform as a duo into the 1970s. In 1964 Rosselson joined Marian Mackenzie, Ralph Trainer and Martin Carthy (later replaced by Roy Bailey) in a group called The Three City Four. They concentrated on contemporary songs, including some of Rosselson's own, and made two LPs for Decca and for CBS.