In 1960 I met Robin (Bob) Sherwen and his wife Chris at an Amateur Dramatics Society in Huyton Liverpool and Bob also was into Donegan and skiffle, Bob already had a guitar and could play quite well, so I bought an old second hand Hofner guitar. We played learning the obligatory three chords and all the skiffle songs Bob told me he heard of a club in Liverpool called the Spinners in Sampson and Barlows London Road, so off we went to find a room packed with people all singing these songs, along with the resident group the Spinners. After a few weeks the Spinners announced that a very special guest was dropping in that night and it was no other than the magnificent Pete Seager, who came up from London to meet up with the Spinners, we were so impressed with Pete that soon after Bob bought a Banjo and we started to look into American folk songs. We also went to the Wash House singers club in the basement of Barlows and met with lots of performers, kept on regularly at the Spinners and Washhouse and mainly tried to source some of the Spinners repertoire.

In 1963 Margaret and I married and moved to Chester where we lived in a flat. Bob & Chris started to come over from Birkenhead to visit and we started playing together in our lounge which being a flat was next door to the main bedroom of the house next door. We were bashing away and probably making a terrible din when the chap next door banged continually on the adjoining bedroom wall, things came to a head when this chap threatened to call the Police. I then found a Pub the George in Black Diamond Street Chester where we could use the upstairs old billiard room and we would go there on a Friday night have a few beers and try to do our own thing. We were merrily doing this until some friends joined us and then as the weeks went by more and more people joined us on the Friday night until one night we arrived to find the room half full, it was then we decided if people would like it to become a regular event and thus May 24th 1964 the club was born.

Stan Ambrose and Pete Douglas were our first guests on that memorable first night. As we were just Bob John Meg and Chris and pub was in Black Diamond Street so he called us the Black Diamonds and that name stuck. A few months on we noticed a chap at the back of the club who I recognised as the Bass player with the local Wall City Jazzmen we had a chat at the end of the night and he said he was really into our music and said “you need a Bass player and I am the Bass player you need” so we were over the moon to have such a brilliant musician join our rough little group, Ron years later went on to join the Strawbs and turned professional. The club became very successful and we had full houses every week. We used to charge Two Shillings and Sixpence and the landlady would provide free cheese and onion sandwiches in the interval we got on so well with our landlord that he did not charge for the room and was delighted to have so many people in his pub, so different to the tales I hear of pubs today. We always wanted to give our thanks to the Spinners for being so friendly and giving us the advice and the incentive to get together and to open a club.

At the earliest opportunity we wanted them for the Tuning Fork although the Spinners were big celebrity Tv and recording stars they agreed to perform at our little club for a next to nothing fee. We did get them back over the years to share two big concerts with us in Chester and they trusted us to run their own Spinners club on two occasions at the Gregsons Well pub while they were away doing Tv. So who would have believed that we would be singing in the club that gave us the incentive to be apart of the folk movement During those years we had many guests at the Tuning Fork , far too many to mention here but just to say two people do stand out they were the unknowns at that time Paul Simon and Ralph McTell and the particular story of Paul Simon borrowing and breaking my Levin Guitar but that will have to wait for another blog. As the Black Diamonds we guested at practically all the North West clubs did many concerts with many different Artistes played the Jug ‘o Punch the Ian Campbell Group club Birmingham, played at the famous Troubadour Coffee House London and with the Strawbs at Chalk Farm London where we were able to link up with Ron Chesterman again. Did some radio programmes made two Lp’s one at the Liverpool Folk Festivals 1965/66 recorded at Bluecoat Chambers Liverpool and ‘Black Diamond Folk Group Live’ recorded live at the Cross Foxes Chester.

Eventually we moved from the George to larger premises at The George and Dragon and then to finally close the club in 1972 at the Cross Foxes Chester.Over the years we had had a fantastic time with some wonderfull experiences. My best buddy Bob died and I stopped playing and singing for some years until I was persuaded to perform at Frodsham folk club. So I roped in Frank Welcomme, I knew Frank from the old folk club days and within the group Kin Folk, also a friend of mine Ken Chesterman a fiddle mandolin and guitar player to help me out I also persuaded Margaret and Chris to come along and reprise a couple of the old BD’s numbers. In 1974 I was asked by the English Folk Dance and Song Society, of which I was a member, to organise a Folk Festival in Chester. So I set about asking a members of the local Country Dance club, Chester City Morris Men, and the local Folk Club. If they would be involved in a festival and they all agreed so 1975 the Chester Folk Festival was born.The Festival ran in Chester until 1978 and then we moved out to KelsalI at the Morris Dancer. I continued until my business had grown and was taking me all around the country so I retired in 1991 and handed it on to the present organisers of which I am so pleased that the festival has survived and will have it’s Fifty Years celebration next year.

Moving on to 2008 I met up with Frank Welcomme again who used to play within the group Kin Folk which I had known from the late 60’s so we did a few gigs together and Frank had met up with Andy Chrimes I knew Andy as a young underaged pub goer when he frequented the Tuning Fork in probably 1967 ( later on he became a member of the Wirral Group Fiddlestone) I was asked to do a Charity Concert in Thornton Hough on the Wirral it was for Alder Hey Children’s Hospital. apart from the Frodsham gig the thought of performing solo after all these years frightened the life out of me. I knew that Frank and Andy were each wonderful musicians with a variety of instruments between them, I asked if they fancied joining me for the gig and they were up for it. We had a few practices and found it remarkably easy to sing and play with each other and the concert was thankfully a success. From that concert we started playing together and being asked to do gigs so we became Welcomme Finnan & Chrimes by default, in fact we went on to do five concerts at Thornton Hough.Then In 2014 we again with some difficulty persuaded Margaret and Chris to join Frank Andy and I to revive a Black Diamonds set and celebrate 50 years of Folk in Cheshire with two sold out concerts, one at the Little Theatre Chester and the other at Thornton Hough village hall. Frank Andy and I are still at it in fact our next gig is the 21st November at the Wrexham Folk club.