The year 2000 was always going to be an extraordinary one. There was a sense
of change in the air. The end of an old era and the beginnings of a new one.
For instance, after a lifetime of denoting the current year in Roman form with
a profusion of incoherent letters posing as numbers - from MCMI (1901), through
the cumbersome MCMLXXXVIII (1988), to MCMLCIX (1999) - we were going to wake
up to the fact that we could manage with just two: MM. What other novelties
and excitements awaited us was a matter of conjecture.
For us, the Copper family, it was to prove a truly momentous year. On our visit to the U.S.A. in February we, the four senior members, were joined for the first time abroad by four of my delightful grandchildren, all in the twenties and thirties age group and all of whom have inherited the love of the old family songs. (The other two would have been with us but for prior engagements). We had Andrew and Sean, and Ben and Tom (*in good Dame Durden fashion) to back us up in Chicago; Lansing, Michigan, and, later, Cleveland, Ohio at the annual festival of the Folk Alliance.
At the University of Michigan, Lansing [actually Michigan State University in East Lansing], where our appearances were met with great enthusiasm, I noticed that in packed halls the front three rows of seats invariably were occupied by fresh-faced, nubile girl-students who applauded madly at the end of every song. I was just beginning to think that my luck had changed when reality descended upon me and I remembered that as we sat on stage there were four tall, fresh-faced English boys standing ranged behind us whose joint vocal contribution added richness and vitality to the sound.
It was a wonderful moment; the highlight of the year. The family tradition had taken a firm and significant step forward: this time into its fourth century and seventh consecutive generation, (My great, great grandfather, George Copper, born in Rottingdean in 1784, was a celebrated village singer) and I was made aware that the songs we had been so anxious to keep alive were in safe hands and hearts for at least, let us say, another fifty years. And this all happened in the remarkable year of MM.
The year proceeded in a thoroughly satisfactory way with two further visits to America, San Diego and Los Gatos in California and, later, to New England, with a number of festivals and club appearances in this country in between. And we laid plans for a re-issue in CD form of the tracks on the Bob and Ron Copper, English shepherd and farming songs, L.P. A great year but for me nothing came up to those appearances in the U.S.A. with my "brisk and bonny lads".
B.C.
*Aside to folkies.
The photo of Bob Copper was taken on the occasion of his 86th birthday party on Thursday 4 January 2001 at the The Royal Oak. He is flanked by son John and daughter Jill.
The Copper Family
New: 2 February 2001 | Now: 16 March 2001 | Garry Gillard