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Biography |
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Roger has been involved in English traditional music since 1963, as a singer, songwriter, musician for social and ceremonial dance, dance caller and dance writer, Artistic Director, project organiser leader, teacher and the author of instrument tutor methods.
He has done
professional performances as singer/instrumentalist/band leader at
clubs, theatres
In 1971 he formed Muckram Wakes together with John Tams and Helen Wainwright and toured extensively in Britain and Europe until 1980, carrying out research into music and song collections and traditions in Derbyshire and surrounding area. John Tams left the band, to be replaced by John and Susie Adams, and the quartet, as well as continuing Muckram Wakes work, became half of the New Victory Band, one of the seminal and best-loved English ceilidh bands of the late ‘70s. Roger was the resident caller in the band and responsible for creating a number of dances which have also ‘passed into the tradition’ of the contemporary ceilidh scene. NVB also toured extensively in Europe, making use of Roger’s language skills (he was for many years a teacher of German and French) to introduce English social dance to France, Belgium, Holland and Germany. Living in Yorkshire in the late ‘70s, he took an interest in Longsword and danced for a time with Castleford Longswords.
In 1979, Hohner, though Music Sales, commissioned and published his ‘Handbook’ series of tutor methods for Melodeon and for Anglo and English concertinas. Intended for a reasonably short shelf life, they are still available, with an embarrassingly outdated photograph of Roger Watson on the cover! Roger still teaches melodeon and English concertina. From 1998 to 2002, he was the English tutor at the melodeon workshop festival ‘Trek-er-es-Uut’ in Holland, and in more recent years has held master classes for students in universities in Finland and Estonia.
Moving south in 1980, Roger continued concert and ceilidh band work with Watson, Draper & Locke, which later grew into Chequered Roots and he also undertook duo projects with American banjo player and singer, Debbie McClatchy, including two tours of the Eastern USA. From 1982 – 1988 he was MC at the Arena of Sidmouth International Festival, and presented innumerable dance teams from England and the rest of the World. Resident in East Sussex, he was a musician for Chanctonbury Ring’s North West side, an then in 1893, for South Downs Morris, a vigorous young side who won the Sidmouth competition in 1985 and danced at Whitby and Towersey in 1986.
Leaving the chalkface in 1989, Roger became founder and Artistic Director of Traditional Arts Projects (TAPS), a development agency based in Southern England but with work in other parts of the country also. It delivered a programme of creative music and dance projects, based on English traditions and collaborations with them, and worked with professional artists, community volunteers and formal education institutions from pre-school to university.
A number of TAPS-created bands toured widely, including Alianza (featuring Steve Knightly and Phil Beer with an English/Chilean collaboration), and bands led by Roger included ‘Millan’ an English/Indian ensemble which worked throughout England and also toured the length of Norway in 1998, and Boka Halat, founded in 1999 by Roger and Gambian drummer Musa Mboob, which has worked and still works in education, concert and ceilidh situations from major international festivals to primary schools and village halls. Roger, through TAPS, was the founder of (now independent) community folk choirs in various locations in Hampshire and his arrangements of traditional songs are still in use by these and other choirs.
Alongside his own work, Roger is involved in ‘The Irregulars’, the backing band of singer/songwriter Robb Johnson, and calls and plays with Pigeon English. He is also part of the regular calling team of MoonDance.
Always interested in the role of traditional music in theatre, Roger was songwriter and musical director for the Remould Theatre production ‘Steeltown’ about the Scunthorpe steel industry in 1988. In the early 1980s he conceived an idea for a musical drama based on the Hampshire ballad ‘Young Edwin in the Lowlands Low’ with a script of dialogue and traditional songs. In 2005/6 the script was brought into reality by Roger and dramatist Clive Holland and under the direction of Mark Helyar, was performed by Eastleigh Borough Youth Theatre. Roger is at present involved in Mick Ryan’s latest work, ‘The Navvy’s Wife’
Radio appearances have been on BBC Radios 2, 3 and 4 and many local stations. In 1991 Roger devised and co-ordinated a BBC2 television programme ‘Beyond the Maypole’ which examined contemporary manifestations of English traditions … and, (whisper it) … he was, briefly, a scriptwriter for ‘the Archers Significant recordings: ’
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