Celebrating Bob's 90th birthday

January 6th 2005 would have been Bob Copper's 90th birthday. Sadly, he passed away in March 2004. The family agreed, however, to maintain the tradition which began on Bob's 80th birthday of holding his 'folk' birthday at The Royal Oak Folk Club, Lewes, despite his absence.

None of us knew quite what to expect or what emotions might overtake us on the evening. We need not have feared, for the audience was tremendously supportive and warm. Organisers Vic and Tina Smith had produced a 'loop' slide show presentation which ran throughout the evening and had not exhausted its bank of Copper imagery by the time the night drew to a close. These two people have flown the folk music flag in and around the Lewes area for nigh on forty years and seem totally indefatigable - our thanks do not sufficiently convey the debt of gratitude we all owe them.

The evening consisted of people making contributions in the form of music, prose and poetry in memory of Bob. It would be unfair to single out individual performers, but everyone was significant in terms of what was said and done. True to form, us Coppers geared ourselves up in the bar and when our turn came for the first set we were suitably lubricated and 'refreshed'. Joining Jill, John and myself were Andy, Sean, Ben and Lucy, four of Bob's grandchildren who, in case you didn't know, have inherited the same love of the music. Our reception was quite staggering and there was tangible emotional support from the enormous audience (enormous here is a relative term but it accurately reflects the ratio of people to space in that upstairs room) which made our task so much easier. The younger generation made their indelible contribution with "Two Young Brethren", the song they 'gave' to Bob as a Christmas present back in 1996, much to his surprise and considerable delight.

The second half commenced after more liberal ingestions of 'singing beer' and an old friend from the USA, Cath Oss opened our set for us with a real belter. Jill read one of Bob's humorous poems and we just laid back into our songs with happy hearts knowing that Bob, Ron, Jim and Brasser were singing along with us. The encore was "Rose of Allendale", an eminently singable chorus song packed full of Victorian sentiment - the audience sang their very souls out. And that was it. The conclusion of an evening which Bob would have loved. He would have loved also to know that the tradition was in no danger whatsoever of dying out.

Thank you Vic, Tina and all you Royal Oakers!

Jon Dudley, 7th January 2005