Obituary
I’m sorry to say that Bill Leader (1929-2026) has passed on. A legendary, remarkably modest and remarkably prolific engineer and producer of folk and traditional music from Britain and Ireland from the mid-50s to the end of the 70s (and very occasionally thereafter). Recorded history in that sphere would be unrecognisable without his herculean contribution to documenting it.
He recorded dozens of now revered musicians, several of whom maybe no one else would have – the very first albums by Alexis Korner’s Blues Incorporated, Bert Jansch, The Watersons, Sweeney’s Men, Archie Fisher, Barbara Dickson, Gerry Rafferty (yes, really), Dick Gaughan, The Boys of the Lough, Robin & Barry Dransfield, Roy Bailey, Vin Garbutt, Dave Burland…
And classic albums by Irish trad icons like Willie Clancy, Martin Byrnes and Seamus Ennis, and Christy Moore’s proto-Planxty ‘Prosperous’…
Many of these were for his own labels Trailer and Leader (1969-78) – after 15-odd years recording for Topic, Decca, Argo and Transatlantic, he put his money where his mouth was and captured magic, locking it down forever. Albeit, circumstances mean that much of that music never made it into the digital era – at least not yet.
Mike Butler is four volumes into his brilliant eight-volume ‘Sounding the Century’ series on Bill Leader and his milieu. I understand that Volume 5 is nearly ready for the crowdfunding process to see it into print. The series is already a fabulous testimony to Bill’s output – and great fun too. It will continue to be so.
The photo here is Bill in the mid-60s in a montage with the first two of the Butler books.
Here’s one of Bill’s lesser knownm gems, Tom Gilfellon’s recording of Robin Williamson’s ‘October Song’ from his 1972 solo album on Bill’s Trailer label. All instruments by Tom.
I wanted to put Rise Up Jock on He Came from the Mountains by Bob and Carole Pegg recorded by Bill but couldn’t find it. I went to Bill’s house once in the 70s after seeing the Midgley Pace Eggers so this video is quite a good link to the two.
https://youtu.be/2F-u0S2Kszk?si=CqhVLyfW8uhjJc1J
Bob Pegg 1976 and the Pace Eggers from 2011.
Not sure why the video isn’t showing
The title track to ‘He Came From the Mountains’ (Trailer, 1971) can be found on YT. Bob and Carole regard it as a stepping stone on the way to Mr Fox (it was likely recorded prior to the Mr Fox albums – things on Trailer often waited a year or two to see release). A pirate CD version sneaked out in Japan a while back, with Bob and Carole interviewed for the booklet I believe. A rare example of something from the Trailer catalogue escaping into the digital world.
Ian A Anderson had asked on the Folkprint page on Facebook for people to put album covers that Bill had had worked on. I put on He Came from the Mountains.
Both Barry Lyons and Alan Eden who played on it gave it a like with Alan saying “Contains my favourite ‘Mr Fox’ track …… Rise up Jock! ❤️” which is why I wanted to put it on.
Hopefully, a time will come when these things are more widely available.