Live Review: Bernard Wrigley at the Regent, Doncaster

There was always an injustice brought upon folk entertainers in the Eighties when Southern Rag became Folk Roots and those who sought to change what we expect to see in folk clubs throughout the land poured scorn on the likes of Derek Brimstone, Stanley Accrington, Tony Capstick and the like. Like those who welcomed Punk and who chose to rubbish Progressive Rock in the process, the chroniclers of the ever changing folk scene temporarily suffered chronic memory loss and failed to acknowledge that it was precisely these artists who kept the clubs open for so many years and bridged a gap between the old vanguard and the new wave.

Bernard Wrigley is one of those entertainers whose audience couldn't care one jot about what is and what isn't folk music. They know that they have come along for a giggle and they know without a shadow of a doubt that they'll get one, or two, or a belly full.

Straddling the unlikely boundaries of Northern seaside postcard humour and American country blues, Bernard invites us into his world of Uncle Joe's Balls, Fisherman's Friends, a nice works outing to Blackpool and what exactly you would do if the binman's been and been and missed your bin!

Anyone with an aversion to poetry readings in folk clubs would have to eat their own words in the company of Bernard Wrigley. His one-verse poems are as funny as it gets; little wonder that his book Shorts For All Occasions seemed to be selling better than the cds tonight.

Topping off a night of good humour and gentle songs including Fats Waller's Feets Too Big, Jake Thackray's hilarious On Again, On Again, with still the best opening line of any song, and Dominic Behan's Liverpool Lou, Bernard treated us to a few blues impressions from the likes of Patrick Moore, Gabby Hayes and the right honourable Baron Hattersley of Sparkbrook.. stand well back! Excellent night.