We were deeply saddened to hear that author and journalist Colin Irwin passed away on 3rd November. Our thoughts and love are with his family and friends during this incredibly sad time.
His son Kevin wrote on Facebook on 4th November: “Dad passed away suddenly last night. We think it was a heart attack, but not sure yet. He was a wonderful, loving, crazy, creative, brilliant man. A truly great, great, great husband, father and grandfather. He had an incredible life. The stories are endless. He was the best.”
To those reading this, Colin is maybe best known for his folk and world music reviews through fRoots, The Guardian, Mojo, The Daily Telegraph, The Independent, The Sunday Times and many other publications…he also wrote some pieces for Folk Radio. That all said, he seemed to be a man of many hats.
He was an assistant editor at Melody Maker and had been a judge for the prestigious Mercury Music Prize (his powers of persuasion led to Anthony and the Johnsons winning the 2005 Mercury Music Prize for ‘I Am A Bird Now’). He was also a TV and radio presenter, including BBC Radio 2’s Acoustic Roots Series (during the 1980s) and Singing Families of Ireland (1996). With the latter, he covered some of the greats, including Mary Black, Frances Black and family, Dolores Keane, Ted Furey, Tommy Makem and the Clancy Brothers, and the Sands Family.
As well as writing biographies for Neil Young and Bob Dylan, he had a deep love for Irish music, something he shared in his book In Search of the Craic: One Man’s Pub Crawl Through Irish Music (2004), which was followed up by In Search of the Albion: From Cornwall to Cumbria – A Ride Through England’s Hidden Soul (2005). His humour shone through in those books – some quotes about it are also great –
“Funnier than Bill Bryson or Pete McCarthy, and also more likeable because Colin is a more generous self-effacing ‘smartass tourist’ than either.”
He was a natural storyteller, and he wrote a number of plays, including The Corridor, One Of Us Is Lying, When Barry Met Cally and I Am The Way. More recently, I did get to see his stage production She Moved Through The Fair: The Legend Of Margaret Barry, which I was totally blown away by. As well as narrating the story of this incredible self-styled ‘queen of the gypsies’, he’d also undertaken a lot of research into the life of Margaret, including interviews with her family and friends. We were given a moving insight into her life both in and out of the public gaze…including the incredible story of her appearance on David Attenborough’s ‘Song Hunter’ TV show when she had forgotten to put her teeth in, and her banjo went out of tune thanks to the heat of the stage lights…and how she became the toast of the London Irish pubs and folk clubs. Along the way, she insulted Frank Sinatra, hung out with Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash, attended Elvis Presley’s wedding and drank Brendan Behan under the table. Colin did such a remarkable job on this…I so hope it’s revisited. Here are Mary McPartlan, Lisa Knapp and Gerry Diver in rehearsals for the Kings Place performance in 2019.
I last saw Colin face-to-face at the last Folk Awards in 2019…which seems a long time ago now. He reviewed the “shenanigans” for us, and, as usual, he never really missed much…he had his own unique style:
The BBC folk awards, God bless ‘em, have provided some memorable moments over the last 20 years.
Numerous luvvies tripping over their own egos attempting to convince us of their folk credentials with endless screeds of waffle when called on to present an award; rambling acceptance speeches from winners (who mentioned Donovan?); a bit of politics (Tony Benn and Roy Bailey getting the best live act award, a standing ovation for Robin Cook as he rose to present an award shortly after resigning from the government over the war in Iraq).
Naturally, there’s been the occasional over-emotional winner (particularly in the decadent days of the London Brewery when the BBC furnished guests with dinner and booze); and some amazing performances from the stage along the way (the Unthanks, Anais Mitchell, Demon Barbers, Josienne Clarke & Ben Walker spring immediately to mind), plus a smattering of dodgy ones too (hello Don McLean).
It’s also an occasion ripe for emotional overload, and there’s been plenty of that, especially when the attention turns to embattled heroes like Bob Copper, Nic Jones, Dave Swarbrick, Shirley Collins and John Martyn.
After a pretty dull ceremony in Belfast in 2018, this year’s awards at Manchester’s grand Bridgewater Hall provided plenty of talking points, a bit of glitz and one particular moment that falls into the ‘not a dry eye in the sparkling water’ category.
Read Colin’s full insight here.
This is just a small personal tribute, and I appreciate this doesn’t even scratch the surface of his fascinating life. One thing that deeply touched me when I did chat with Colin was how warm-hearted, humble and sympathetic he was, and that seems to come up time and again in the comments I’ve read from his many friends.
His play on the life of Margaret Barry was a gorgeous celebration of her life…and that was clearly important to Colin, who also trained as a celebrant. He saw the importance of celebrating someone’s life and how that also played a part in the healing process. Last night, as I sat writing this, I took his book ‘In Search of Albion’ off the shelf and opened to a random page…it opened at Chapter Five…
Heading south again, I stick on a tape. It’s ‘Rainy Night in Soho’, one of the finest songs of all by the Godlike Shane MacGowan, though this heartbreakingly beautiful version is by the sublime Mary McPartlan...
Rest in peace Colin.
Sending all our love and condolences to his family and friends.