Matthew Stapledon

I was born into a world of folk dance, song, and Morris and never knew any different.
Although taken along to folk dances and concerts as a child it was the Morris that completely drew me in. I was fascinated by all aspects of it from as early as I can remember. The kit, the dancing, the tunes…just the general joy of it. I even used to hum the tunes in bed to get me to sleep!
From about the age of 4 I would go out with the side (Mersey Morris) in kit as a mascot, then from about 8 I was starting to do some of the dances properly.
I have danced ever since, although teenage years had difficulties and I had to treat it like a dirty secret!
I was Squire from 2008-2011 and I am the current Foreman, having taken over from Dad in 2021.
The side is thriving currently and I absolutely love passing on my knowledge to newer members and seeing them become competent Morris dancers in their own right.
Aside from Morris I have been playing the drums since I was about 14. I have dabbled with a bit of fiddle, but drums is my thing! It has allowed me to move between genres but still be very much involved in folk. I have been in rock bands over the years (Sneaky Pete!!) but could also apply drums to folk when I joined John Bull in their later years to add live drums to their ‘rock’ style barn dances.
Dave Mattacks of Fairport is my inspiration!
I currently play percussion in Shave the Donkey to add some extra layers to the rhythm section. Occasionally I bust out the full kit but I normally get told to be quiet when I do!

Richard Stapledon

Brought up with it from a young age – parents were keen folk dancers all their adult lives, as was my gran, so I was surrounded by folk dance type people from the beginning.

My dad (and later, joined by my sister) was the main force behind the West Kirby folk dance band. National reputation and played around the country for folk dance clubs, Regency ball and the like. They also made many albums of folk dance music which have sold all over the world.

He also joined Wirral Morris Men in the early 50’s as a musician mainly (concertina), and then with Mersey Morris Men when Wirral & Liverpool sides amalgamated in about 1959.

Folk music was always being played in my house as a child – my dad always playing and composing tunes; W K Band regular practices etc. Whereas my big bro avoided it like the plague, I was ‘interested’  – was bought a mini piano accordion when about 10 – my dad started to gently help me out with it.

I always enjoyed going along to watch the morris men as a child. Then at about 12 years old, my dad started to take me to practice nights. Picked it up quickly (prob because I’d seen it all my life).

As hormones kicked in, my mum enticed me to come along to the folk dance club weekly sessions at Calday Grammar School because ‘there are some nice girls there to dance with’! …. Long story short – she was right, and I made lifelong friendships with the younger dancers – many still around – more importantly, I married one of them!!

EFDSS had a full time member of staff based in Lpool (Ethyl Anderson) who used to encourage and promote all things Folk in the area. She used to put on Folk Shows all over the NW in theatres etc. She would hand pick people from all the dance clubs to be in her performance team, especially younger people. Jean and I were nabbed, together with our friends. We were trained up to be ‘multi-purpose’ dancers, so we could perform folk & country dances, morris, sword dances, manx dances etc. She would also include folk singers in her shows ( Jacqui & Bridie once. Rhona. County Folk etc) so the shows had the complete package.

In Mersey Morris, I continued to be full on, only breaking while away at college for 3 years. I became the side’s 3^rd Squire (leader) aged 26, from 1977 to 1980. Then, having helped with the teaching to a certain extent, I became the official teacher (the foreman) in 1983 until 2021 when I passed the reins to Matt.

My 1^st barn dance / ceilidh band was John Bull Band, formed by 3 of us who used to attend the Heswall folk dance club. We used to reject the interval tea & biscuits in favour of a sprint down the road for a pint in the Dee View. It was there that we came up with the idea. So it was Robin on fiddle, Martin on piano accordion, me on drum! We did a few gigs, then took on an electric guitarist so it got a bit ‘heavier’. Then I got a full drum kit and we also took on a bass guitarist. This folk rock approach was not to Martin’s liking so he left. I started mixing drumming with some piano accordion, then I discovered melodeons which I found so much more to my liking. John Bull had a 40 year career until we called it a day. We made several albums.

In the meantime, Sarah who had ‘been allowed!’ to join Mersey Morris as a musician, instigated the beginnings of another ceilidh band, all musicians with the morris. Hence, our current band Shave The Donkey was born.

The ceilidh band continues to thrive, as does the morris side, now called just Mersey Morris since we became a mixed side a hand full of years ago.

Sarah Roberts

I always loved music and learned classical violin from the age of 7, but we also did country dancing and maypole dancing at primary school and I always loved those tunes. I also remember going to watch Whitchurch Morris when they danced in our village. 

Music took a back seat in my late 20’s but my niece started dancing Morris at university and we would play tunes together. Eventually I realised that if I was going to progress I needed to start playing for a side and joined Mersey Morris in 2013. I started out on violin but then taught myself melodeon which is my main Morris instrument now, mainly because of the volume and ability to add harmony with the chords. 

It was quite a steep learning curve playing for dancing and having no music in front of me, realising that the dots on the page are only a framework around which you build the tune to fit and encourage the dance(r’s). I absolutely love doing this and encouraging our many musicians to do the same. Sometimes this is quite daunting as many of them have been playing for dancing much longer than I have! 

MM now have a huge repertoire of dances for us musicians to keep in our heads and love to dig up some obscure dance they’ve not done for donkey’s years for us to dredge up on a Monday pub night!! 

Listening to music – I was drawn into traditional music by artists such as Spiers & Boden , Faustus & Bellowhead but have gradually listened to and loved a variety of what we loosely call ‘folk’. I also still love classical & choral music (I used to sing in Church choirs and the Liverpool Phil Choir) and also love some world music – I am just getting into a bit of Old Time Fiddle music
Shave the Donkey – our ceilidh band – formed in 2013 from MM Musicians and still going strong! I had a lot to learn about playing for ceilidhs when I blithely suggested playing for a social for our choir. The rest of the band educated me on how it all worked and I’ve annoyed them ever since by being finnicky about harmonies and suggesting novelty tunes to add to our sets!!

In this episode of Keep Folk Talking, Brian Jones explores the story of Mersey Morris — a tradition shaped by generations of dancers and musicians, and sustained by friendship, family and a shared love of folk culture.

Brian is joined by Richard Stapledon, his son Matthew, and musician Sarah Roberts, who share their different journeys into Morris dancing and music, from Richard’s childhood surrounded by folk to Matthew growing up within the side and Sarah rediscovering her fiddle.

Along the way, they talk about the music behind the dancing, the growth of Mersey Morris into a thriving mixed side, and the story behind ceilidh band Shave the Donkey.

Warm, funny and full of memories, it’s a celebration of a living tradition — kept alive by the people who continue to play it, dance it and pass it on.

For more than 80 years, Morris dancing has been a vibrant part of Merseyside’s folk tradition, carried forward by generations of dancers from the Liverpool Morris Men to their successors, the Mersey Morris Men. At the heart of that story is Jim Jones, whose remarkable lifetime in the Morris offers a unique window into the people, traditions and enduring spirit that have shaped Morris dancing in and around Liverpool.

Back in around 1960, my father, John Stapledon, instigated the creation of the West Kirby Band, gathering around him various musical friends from the local folk dance world, of which he and my mother Serena, had been active members for some time. As a nine year old, I remember those days well, as the infant band would usually gather at our house for their practices in the dining room while the rest of the family kept out of the way in the lounge.

With John on concertina, the original band members were Vic Brown on harmonicas, Graham Jones on fiddle, Bert Eccles on guitar, Jack Herrity on percussion and Val Phillips (later to become Val Ashton) on piano.

I would manage to venture briefly into those sessions, by helping my mother to carry through the cups of tea and homemade goodies at half time. I would be intrigued to observe as they approached the end of a tune set. The sound was definitely preferable to the crying of my baby sister Sue!

From those early days, the rest as they say, is history. Although changing its line up over many years, to include the likes of Pat Fahy (piano), Kevin Mitchelson, Kevin Downham and Tom Brown (all on accordion at various stages), Mick Roberts (drum) and various ‘occasional’ contributors including myself, it was the inclusion of my sister Sue into the band, as soon as she was old enough, that was the major factor in shaping the future, as she was able to contribute both keyboard and fiddle. John, Sue and one of the aforementioned accordionists formed the heart of the band for the rest of its life and they built up a wonderful reputation over the years as one of the country’s leading folk dance bands, not only in the local area, but also nationally and internationally where they would play for general dances, Playford balls, weekends and full weeks of folk dance, working alongside many eminent callers.

Some 27 years after the band’s beginnings, their first venture into the realms of recording took place in 1987 with the production of ‘Not Quite Playford’. Together with its accompanying booklet of dances, this proved to be a great success. This was the catalyst for many further productions of recordings and books of dances over the forthcoming years, most of which have followed the same theme in their titles and presentations and have therefore come to be known affectionately as the ‘Not Quite’ series. There are ten in all. Other recordings, not in the series, include ‘Cook’s Tour’ and ‘From Two Barns’. The final CD to feature John’s playing was for the first time, not instigated and produced by him, but by Sue who realised that time was running out. The CD, ‘Again Not Quite Playford’, featured the playing of just John and Sue, and the accompanying book again contained dances created by several eminent dance composers. John passed away on 2nd March 2013.

However, the latest (final?) in the ‘Not Quite’ series, ‘Not Quite The 2 Of Us’, is a solo production by Sue, she being the only instrumentalist, but still managing to recreate that familiar West Kirby Band sound. All of the 27 tunes on this 20 track CD are entirely or partly composed by John who had folders full of tunes in various stages of completion, gathered together over many years. These were often created while he would be at work on his market garden, scribbling down a few bars of music as they came into his head. Sue then had the onerous task of sifting through this wealth of material, most of which had never been seen by anyone. Her choices included several complete tunes, but those that weren’t, she completed herself.

Each tune set was then presented to various dance composers who were invited to create dances to accompany the tunes. As a contributor of one dance myself, I am full of admiration of fellow contributors, some of whom had to contend with my father’s tendency to create tunes of unusual or unfamiliar lengths and styles! Sue has rightly dedicated this project to our father by calling it ‘Not Quite The 2 Of Us – A Tribute To John’. I know she is also indebted to Neil Stuart who has given his time and skills freely to produce the accompanying book of dances. We hope that dancers throughout the land will enjoy trying these new dances and listening to the Stapledon tunes.

Richard Stapledon