2MCE FM COME ALL YE – 26 February 2023
Bruce Cameron February 26, 2023
The eighth and final radio ballad, The Travelling People, was broadcast on 17 April 1964 and took as its subject the gypsy and tinker population of Britain. The bulk of the recording fell to Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger, who were already familiar with traveller families from earlier collecting sessions. They spent almost a month in tents, kitchens and caravans, at horse fairs and around campfires in Glasgow, Blairgowrie, Montrose and Aberdeen, Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire, London, Birmingham, Hampshire and Dorset. The travellers were natural subjects with their rich folk life, songs, legends and inborn gift for storytelling; they were also a fascinating social study, maintaining fierce pride and independence in the face of constant hostility and persecution.
