Derek Brimstone (1932-2017) was a folk guitarist, banjoist, comedian and singer active from the 1960s until 2007.
Having taken up classical guitar during the 50s Brimstone drifted into the folk scene, and was almost 30 years old before he sang professionally for the first time. There followed a three-year period of ‘floor spots’ in folk clubs all over London, culminating in a residency in a Luton club. Appearing at the first Cambridge Folk Festival in 1965, Brimstone was subsequently featured in Melody Maker. His style of blues and ragtime, played on guitar, and occasionally banjo and piano, interspersed with touches of humour, has continued to prove popular with audiences....
(Read more at Allmusic)
Links to Peel[]
Peel, or his producer, had the singer do a session for his Night Ride show in 1969. Derek Brimstone was a popular club singer who made regular appearances on BBC radio's folk shows, but was regarded as one of the folk scene's entertainers rather than the kind of contemporary artist whose records Peel played on his programmes. Nevertheless, his repertoire included songs by the likes of Donovan, Jackson C. Frank, Mike Heron and John Martyn.
The session was broadcast on Peel's Night Ride show as well as on Jon Curle's section of Night Ride. It included a version of Ralph McTell's "Streets Of London" before the song had become famous, and one by Brimstone himself, "Back In Tobago", an authentic-sonding calypso describing the experiences of first-generation Caribbean immigrants to the UK - from the album Fire and Brimstone, which Peel plugs - although he's not known to have played any tracks from it on his shows. Derek Brimstone's later recordings included collaborations with Mary Hopkin and Michael Chapman, but again, Peel seems to have ignored them.
Sessions[]
Derek Brimstone - Peel session - Night Ride 3-3-69
1. Recorded: 1969-03-04. First Broadcast: 12 March 1969
- Back In Tobago / Little Tin Men / Mrs Fisher And poem/spoken word intro / Sing To Me / Streets Of London
Other Shows Played[]
- None