The legacy and influence of legendary Soho Folk Club, Les Cousins, is celebrated in this latest boxset offering from Cherry Red Records
Release Date: 19th January 2024
Label: Cherry Red Records
Formats: 3xCD
If you have any kind of fondness for the late sixties/ early seventies brand of innovative acoustic music that provided the thinking-person’s alternative to the bland chart fare or progressive electric experimentation of the day, then the artists that you like to listen to almost certainly cut their teeth at Les Cousins. Tucked away in the basement of the Dionysus Restaurant at 49, Greek Street, Soho, Les Cousins was the folk and blues club of choice for a whole generation of new musical pioneers.
Les Cousins opened for business on Friday 16th April 1965. The premises had previously been used to house a skiffle club during the 1950s and, before proprietor Andy Matheou (son of the restaurant’s owners Loukas and Margaret Matheou) decided that a folk club was his favoured venture, Les Cousins had briefly been a discotheque. The folk club was active until 1972. Incidentally, although the club allegedly took its name from the 1959 Claude Chabrol film, Les Cousins, punters always used the English pronunciation of the name when referring to the club – Lez Cuzzins – or the abbreviated, anglicised “Cousins.”
What is indisputable is that, during the 7-or-so years of its existence, Les Cousins played host to – and had a formative influence on the careers of – an almost unimaginatively impressive string of ground-breaking performers; Al Stewart, Jackson C Frank, Roy Harper, John Martyn, Bert Jansch, John Renbourn, Davy Graham and Sandy Denny are just a few of the future legends that would frequent the club. With its 18”-high stage and a décor that included fishing nets, sofas (although these were later replaced with church pews) and a large wagon wheel, Les Cousins was a comfortable, intimate venue for the all-night sessions that soon became its stock-in-trade.
The popularity of Les Cousins was quick to grow and, within months of its opening, it was attracting visitors from all over the country, encouraged by the fact that, as the sessions were all-nighters, there was no need to pay additionally for accommodation and also by a door policy that allowed free entry to established performers. Also, unlike the ‘purist’ folk clubs that tended to pursue policies of acappella performance, Les Cousins wasn’t averse to a touch of amplification, and performers had use of the house PA. The stage wasn’t the exclusive territory of the folkies, either; blues was a regular feature of the club’s repertoire and it’s even rumoured that such high-profile non-folk performers as Van Morrison and Jimi Hendrix popped along to jam, when they were in town and the mood took them.
And, although Les Cousins is best remembered as an incubator for the wave of mid-to-late-sixties rising talent, it also attracted its share of folk royalty, with Paul Simon, Joni Mitchell and even Bob Dylan named on the list of performers that graced that low stage. The traditional players were welcome, too, with the likes of Martin Carthy and Dave Swarbrick, Anne Briggs, The Watersons, Sweeney’s Men and The Young Tradition all getting a look in from time-to-time.
And now, nearly 60 years after Les Cousins first opened its doors to the up-and-coming folk cognoscenti, those good folk at Cherry Red Records have decided that it’s time to celebrate this most venerable of British institutions, with a lush 3-CD boxset that brings together just about every performer of any note who passed through that Soho basement. The boxset is the usual deluxe product that we’ve come to expect from Cherry Red; the discs are housed in a glossy clamshell box and the package comes complete with an informative booklet, crammed with photographs of the venue and the performers, comprehensive notes that describe each song and every artist and a detailed essay from fRoots editor and Les Cousins veteran, Ian A Anderson.
And those three discs contain the most rich and varied selection of music imaginable; all aspects of the Les Cousins repertoire are present and accounted for. To give some form of order to the sheer volume of material within this collection, I’ve broken the contributors into six arbitrary categories, viz: The Scene Setters, The Stars-to-be, The Bluesers, American Visitors, The Traditionalists and The Acid Folkers. I’ll take these categories one-by-one, to try and give a flavour of the goods on offer.
Taking the ‘Scene Setters’ first, my own impression of Les Cousins (and I never attended the club, unfortunately – I was only just getting into my musical swing by the time ‘last orders’ were called…) is dominated by those performers who used the folk idiom as a springboard to concoct a new style of music that mixed American singer-songwriter influences with strains of jazz and baroque. Bert Jansch comes immediately to mind, and he’s represented here By Running From Home, a song from his eponymous 1965 debut solo album that serves notice of the vastness of Jansch’s talent by showcasing his fluid finger-picking guitar style. The historical influence in Al Stewart’s songwriting is already in evidence on Manuscript, a track from his 1970 album, Zero She Flies, whilst Roy Harper’s early years are recalled by Sophisticated Beggar, the title track of his 1967 debut album.
John Martyn’s connection with Les Cousins is, perhaps a more solid one than most – he wrote May You Never – possibly his best-known song – with club proprietor Andy Matheou in mind. Martyn’s classic period was characterized by his use of echoplex and his slurred vocals, but it’s a folky, fresh John Martyn that’s featured here, with the endearing Fairy Tale Lullaby, taken from his London Conversations album. Soho scenester and guitar legend Wizz Jones gets a look-in with See How the Time is Flying, a dazzling example of his fretboard skill and Fully Qualified Survivor Michael Chapman is here, too, with the mellow No Song to Sing, taken from his debut Rainmaker album (complete with some delicious basslines from Danny Thompson…)
Before recording for John Peel on his celebrated Dandelion label, and before disappearing off for a lengthy sabbatical in the USA, Bridget St. John was a Les Cousins regular – she first performed at the club in 1968 – and her John Peel days are celebrated here with If You’d Been There, whilst the early years of ‘Bristol Troubadour,’ Keith Christmas are recalled with Fable of Wings, the title track of his 1970 B&C album.
Les Cousins was the launch pad for innumerable future chart-busters. Steven Demetre Georgiou grew up just down the road from the club, and he made his early appearances there under the stage name of Steve Adams. He was to find success in 1967 under a different name – Cat Stevens – and the boxset includes two cuts – The Tramp and Portobello Road – from his debut album, Matthew and Son. And, before he broke sales records around the world – and turned Richard Branson into a multi-millioinaire in the process – with his magnum opus, Tubular Bells, Mike Old field partnered his sister, Sally, in their folk duo, The Sallyangie. They played Les Cousins, and they’re here, with Love in Ice Crystals, a song from their 1968 Children Of The Sun album.
Californian Julie Felix became a prime-time TV fixture during the mid 1970s, but she was a folk club fixture before that, and she chips in here with her version of The Young Ones Move, a song by Devon songwriter Dave Mudge; Ralph McTell needs no introduction – he’s still treading the folky boards to this day – and his Les Cousins appearances are commemorated with Mrs Adlam’s Angels, a favourite track from his 1969 Spiral Staircase album, whilst Donovan’s pre-fame Soho wanderings are represented by – what else? – Sunny Goodge Street, his paean to the street just a few blocks north of Greek Street and Les Cousins.
Moving on to blues, and the majestic work of the late Jo Ann Kelly is remembered with her 1969 song, Moon Going Down, whilst Long John Baldry’s pre-schmaltz club years are acknowledged by the cool-as-cucumber Gee Baby Ain’t I Good to You, a track from his 1964 Long John’s Blues album.
American visitors included in this collection include Jackson C Frank, author of the enduring folk club standard, Blues Run the Game. It’s his 1966 song, Milk And Honey that gets the nod, ahead of the one that we all know, but Tim Hardin’s contribution is a little more predictable – yes, it’s If I Were a Carpenter… And Paul Simon’s input will be equally familiar to just about every listener, it’s I Am A Rock – and a stunning, urgent, early version it is, too.
The inspiration and encouragement that AL (Bert) Lloyd, an elder statesman of the British folk scene even before Les Cousins became established, gave to the upcoming generation that frequented the club cannot be understated. His appreciation of the work of contemporary, as well as traditional, artists conferred a level of credibility that was denied by other senior members of the folk establishment, and helped pave the way for pioneering acts like Fairport Convention; indeed, he was the source of several of the traditional songs that Fairport adapted into folk/rock. Tam Lin was one such song and Jack Orion – the song included in this collection – was another. And Lloyd is even accompanied by the young Dave Swarbrick!
With a lineup that included future luminaries such as Andy Irvine, Johnny Moynihan and Terry Woods, it’s clear, with hindsight, that Sweeney’s Men were destined for iconic status. On Reynard The Fox, taken from the band’s 1968 self-titled debut album, guitar, bouzouki and whistle all combine to make a glorious sound that is as clean-sounding today as it must have felt on the day it was recorded. The Watersons are here, too, with their signature drum-tight harmonies for a run through The Holmfirth Anthem, whilst the glory days of the Martin Carthy/ Dave Swarbrick partnership are celebrated with Byker Hill.
And, to complete the picture, the acid-folk movement (if that’s an appropriate term for it) is represented by, amongst others, The Incredible String Band (No Sleep Blues, from their remarkable 1967 debut album, The 5000 Spirits or The Layers Of The Onion), Dr. Strangely Strange (Roy Rogers, from Kip of the Serenes, the album that also featured the enduring Strangely Strange But Oddly Normal) and Third Ear Band, with Stone Circle.
And, the really good news is that everything I’ve mentioned so far is merely scratching the surface of this excellent collection. Shirley Collins & Davy Graham, Sandy Denny, Dando Shaft, Hamish Imlach, Anne Briggs, Nick Drake, Alexis Korner, Dave Van Ronk, Steve Tilston and Strawbs are just a few more names from that thoroughly tempting list of artists featured on Les Cousins. One-man chart-topper Don Partridge is even here, with Rosie! And you can’t whack that!!
This boxset is a worthy testimonial to the institution that Les Cousins became and the plaudits don’t end here, either. At the behest of Diana Matheou, the singer who married the club’s owner, Andy, and who took over the proprietorship during the club’s later days, a tribute evening, featuring Martin Carthy, Bridget St. John, Wizz Jones, Ian A Anderson, as well as Diana herself will take place on Sunday 10th March at the MOTH Club, in Hackney. Now: that sounds like a cracking evening!
Hear the Les Cousins story straight from the horse’s mouth – former performer and proprietor Diana Matheou tells the tale in her own words, here:
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