The Northumbrian Pipers Society has been given a large number of tapes and cassettes by the estates of the late Forster Charlton and others. Forster Charlton was a prominent member of the traditional and folk music scene in the North East, teaching, performing, composing and tirelessly organising concerts and community events. Over a period of thirty or more years he taped many folk sessions, concerts, and interviews, recording the North East’s vernacular culture and traditional music.
A first sample of tapes has now been digitised, some of them covering the Northumbrian Gathering in different years, including Northumbrian pipers such as Billy Pigg, Joe Hutton and Tommy Breckons, local singers and other musicians and also famous names from the Uillean and Scottish piping worlds such as Leo Rowsome and Seumas MacNeill. We are delighted that we can now make them available to the community. We have had an initial listen through to identify much of the content but there is still more to be done, including uploading more tapes, confirming the dates of some of the events, identifying tune titles and in some cases performers. Eventually we’d like to construct a website that gives as much information as possible about the tapes and the people recorded on them so any information you have, particularly about the less well-known names will be gratefully received. We are looking to make a case for funding to digitise the remainder of the collection so information about other individuals and organisations who might be interest in the contents will also be welcome. If you’re interested, please see below for details of how to get involved.
More about the tapes
There are hundreds of hours of material, but only about 10% has been digitised so far because the tapes are fragile and need professional treatment but we have not yet been able to obtain a grant for this. A first batch has been uploaded and partly catalogued. This is comprised of about a quarter of the tapes that have been digitised. The rest of the initial sample will be uploaded in April and May 2024 and made available for listening and cataloguing.
We are making the digitised archive available to interested persons to share the benefit of what has been done so far. Hopefully this will demonstrate the value of the material and make it easier to obtain funds to explore the rest. This project will also serve as a pilot for making the collection available as and when we can obtain funding.
Because the material has not been thoroughly explored the copyright and performing rights situation is unclear. That is why we before giving access we are asking you to sign up to confirm that the tapes will be used only for research (which we hope will be enjoyable!). We hope that the collective knowledge of the community of pipers and folk enthusiasts will enable us to find out and catalogue what has been gifted to us.
Via this website you can share what you find so we can produce thorough and accurate documentation. We really need your input because while the tapes are labelled many of them have been recorded over and content do not always correspond to the label. There are sometimes several different recordings on each tape, they may be at different speeds, and in some cases they could even be backwards (we should be able to do something about this if we know about it!). Some may be gems but there will be stretches of no interest at all. We do not know the copyright status of the material: some may be dubs of commercial recordings and some off air recordings could be under a BBC copyright – we can approach the BBC if we can identify this.
This website will also act as a pilot project so that once funding is obtained we will have experience in cataloguing the tapes and cassettes. Please help us to explore and document the recordings. Happy Hunting!
NB For practical reasons the website uses mp3 files. They are at a higher than average bit rate, and are derived from higher quality Wav files which are stored elsewhere.
To avoid copyright problems the recordings are only available for research. Therefore we need you to sign up as a researcher before accessing them. Once you have signed up you can listen and comment. We hope you will enjoy examining the material.
We do not limit the type of research you can use the recordings for, and you are not obliged to publish or inform us. Of course it would be of great interest to us if you do let us know! It would also help a great deal if you can contribute to the cataloguing by naming any of the tunes, the players, the likely occasion or date of the recording, and commenting on other matters such as tape quality and speed (with times). We have provided a form so that researchers can contribute their observations and a forum for discussion. The form and discussion content will be progressively incorporated into a catalogue by a moderator and this website updated accordingly.
You can sign up here. There is no charge.
Terms and Conditions
This site (The Northumbrian Pipers Society Forster Charlton Archive at gregmccormick.co.uk) is administered in the UK and will be subject to the laws of England and Wales, irrespective of the location of contributors.
The purpose of the site is research. Administrators are obliged to judge whether subscribers or proposed subscribers are genuinely researchers.
There is currently no subscription fee. Researchers are not obliged to be members of the Northumbrian Pipers Society. However the site may be configured or presented in a manner which is more convenient for members of the Northumbrian Pipers Society.
The site is a pilot study, and a work in progress. It may be altered without notice at the discretion of the Northumbrian Pipers Society.
The audio files on the site may be audited by subscribing researchers but they must not be downloaded, retained locally in electronic form, published or used commercially. Subscribers are free to describe the tapes and publish their own views, but must make it clear that they are not representing the Northumbrian Pipers Society. Subscribers are free to publish their own research, with acknowledgements to the NPS Forster Charlton Archive when appropriate.
Comments and feedback may be used or not at the discretion of the administrators in order to build a catalogue for the tapes, support research and cultural activities, and inform further decisions about them. The resulting catalogue will be copyrighted to the Northumbrian Pipers Society. If subscribers later wish to withdraw comments then administrators may choose to retain chosen comments or their contributions to the catalogue.
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Administrators may refuse or cancel any subscription at any time, without being obliged to give reason and without recourse.
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