Topic

In 2007 Topic Records celebrated its 70th anniversary as "one of the few truly independent labels". Among the tributes on the Topic website was the following:

"I’ve been buying and scrounging Topic Records since 1954. It feels like Topic has always been there, quietly doing good work. Like a backbone" John Peel 1999

From the Topic releases of 1954 - industrial folk song by Ewan MacColl, Irish ballads, Chinese opera, Communist Party anthems - it is hard to guess what record Peel may have bought, but the discography shows that by 1957 the label was releasing material more suited to his tastes - American folk, skiffle and blues, notably an LP by Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee, which (given the paucity of blues records available then) may well be the one mentioned on p.132 of "Margrave of the Marshes".

After Peel's return to the U.K., Topic records did not feature in his programmes of the late 1960s. At the time, the traditional folk song revival was overshadowed by new folk-based musical styles - "psychedelic" folk, innovative guitar stylists, blues revival perfomers, contemporary singer-songwriters. Of the many acoustic artists featured on Top Gear and (especially) Night Ride, only Davy Graham and Shirley Collins had recorded for Topic, and both had subsequently moved on to major labels. Topic was now associated not only with pure, uncommercial traditional music, but also with an old-fashioned leftist political stance which had little appeal for the generation growing up with pop and rock music.

This changed after Fairport Convention's "Liege and Lief" album (previewed on a 1969 Top Gear session), which fused traditional song and electric rock instrumentation and set in motion a renewed interest in folk music. (Fairport acknowledged help and advice for the project from the renowned folklorist and Topic stalwart A.L. Lloyd.) Other British folk-rock bands - among them Steeleye Span, Trees, the JSD Band - followed, with LPs and sessions for Peel, and folk music became an integral part of his playlists throughout the 1970s.

In the second half of the '70s a new wave of traditional folksong interpreters emerged from the club scene, and, with major record labels now showing little interest, many of them were signed by Topic. Peel favourites Martin Carthy and Shirley Collins also revorded for the label and Topic's "star attraction" of the 60s, The Watersons, resumed their performing career after several years of silence. By now the label had become more liberal in its musical policy, so the likes of Dick Gaughan, Nic Jones and June Tabor, whose music showed contemporary influences, appeared in the catalogue alongside traditional performers with strong local or regional roots, such as The High Level Ranters, The Boys of the Lough, The Oldham Tinkers and The Cheviot Ranters. Most of these artists were featured on Peel's programmes either through newly-issued LPs or session appearances. Another Peel favourite from this period of Topic's history was a reissue album of old 78 recordings by the pre-war Liverpool music hall performer Billy Bennett.

After the 1970s the amount of folk music in Peel's programmes decreased - a reflection of a decline in interest, especially in England where mamy folk clubs closed. Folk became associated with negative stereotypes of beards, woolly jumpers and the beer-swilling unacompanied singer with a finger in his ear. Peel was never shy of championing the unfashionable, though, so he continued to include Topic artists (June Tabor, Eliza Carthy, Waterson Carthy) and other folk and folk-based performers on his programmes, and in 1999 hosted a series on Radio 2 on the history of the British folk revival - by which time Topic was celebrating its 60th anniversary, folk was becoming fashionable again and a new generation of folk musicians was emerging.