Paradiddle folk band

I love thrift shops, Antique shops & malls, anything where there is some link to the past, a bit of history,

 some memorabilia, something cheap. Anything cheap actually.

So it was a great surprise when I stumbled across an item recently at the Market Fair in FTG.

I’m not one to go looking through the old vinyl, I long ago was bitten by the CD bug and replaced all my old records decades ago and it’s still my format of choice, and if I can’t buy it, I burn it, is my motto these days. As for vinyl I don’t buy into that “It’s a warmer fuller sound” nonsense and getting up every 20-30 minutes to change sides got old in my teenage years, and let’s not mention the prices some people think these things are worth!

 But I digress.

This time I thought I’d flip through a pile of records in a stall that had some cool 1970s ephemera when I came across this particular album. It was the Warburton Hotel picture on the front that caught my eye, thinking that it may be a local act like The Cobbers or something. I saw it was a band that definitely didn’t want to be taken out of context named The Paradiddle Traditional Folk Band. On closer inspection on the back linear notes listed as vocals, guitar, banjo, harmonica lagerphone, and garden drum was our very own Strummer’s Tale author Rob Fairburn. To add to the prize, it had been signed by all members of the band.

I’m not going to say how much I paid for it, that way I don’t embarrass or give a big head to anyone mentioned. But it’s in my collection now.

I had to laugh to myself in 1978 Rob was making albums of Traditional Aussie music and at the same time, I was ears deep in punk/new wave music. I would go on to release a cassette in 1981 (none of this vinyl stuff, we were do-it-yourself back then, plus no self or disrespecting  record company would touch us) If anyone ever came up to me with one of those things, I’d have a heart attack, one because I’d been found out, and second they were meant to be so ephemeral that I doubt any of them even exist anymore.

But seriously, this album was a great find and puts credence to Mr. Fairburn’s stories. I was lucky to find this piece of history before he got to this part in his memoirs.