Folk band’s album out on CD... 50 years later

George Moore (left) and David Franklin with an original copy of their album and the new CD release

by Noel McAdam

A forgotten folk group is finally releasing a CD — 50 years after the album was made.

It is six decades since the Bangor Folk Four, which at one stage was the resident act in six Belfast clubs, formed.

The members recently spotted copies of The Folk of Ireland, a limited-edition album they put out in the 1970s, for sale on the internet.

At the time, the group was poised to sign a deal for a six-month tour of Irish clubs on Broadway.

But their dream of visiting America and following the footsteps of the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem fell apart, like the group itself.

Despite that, the members of the band have no regrets about calling it quits.

“We were bad enough with the fame and fortune we had here. If we had gone to America, we would never have returned — we would have wiped ourselves out,” explained lead man George Moore.

The album, which includes a version of the Percy French classic Slattery’s Mounted Fut, was only available on demand because of a failure to reach a deal with a distributor.

The members said they had not thought about the record for years until it turned up on the internet, selling for £28.

“We had more or less forgotten about it,” added David Franklin, who doubled as singer and guitarist.

“But we felt it then and we feel it even more now that the songs of yesteryear are going to be forgotten.”

While the album was recorded in London, the cover photo was shot at the Belfast club Tito’s, with a number of women plucked at random from the audience during a show.

The CD has a new cover featuring George, David, Fred Lucas, who sang and played banjo, and Kenny Beattie, who played accordion, piano and bass guitar.

Three of the members first came together for a competition at Pickie Pool in Bangor in 1959. After they added Kenny, they became the regular act at the Half-Door Supper Club in the town’s former Royal Hotel.

Thanks to the 1960s nightclub wave in Belfast, they got to play in support of the likes of Ruby Murray, Candy Devine and Ronnie Carroll.

“It was our job to be the top act in all six of the Belfast nightclubs and then introduce the follow-up acts,” said George.

They accepted a summer residency at the former Butlin’s holiday camp in Mosney and backed the Scottish musician Donovan at the Ulster Hall

“He was awful. The Belfast audience knows its music, and there was a slow hand clap,” David said.

“So, in our dressing room there was a knock on the door, and we had to go onstage. Away we went.”

First published in the Belfast Telegraph, Sun 7 Aug 2022

Note from site administrator Tony Magee: Original member of the Bangor Folk Four and quoted in the above article, David Franklin, is my second cousin. David was first cousin of my late father Stuart. Our family had the pleasure of meeting David and his wife Hilda for the first time, during their trip to Australia in January 2024. Morning tea at the National Library of Australia, Canberra. David in the red shirt. I took the photo.