The Andy Townend Award
A message from Rick Townend
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I have decided at present that I will not hold a memorial concert as such for my brother Andy - it has been a long period of re-adjustment musically and personally for myself, Patsy, my family and friends and fellow musicians. The obituaryAs some of you may know by now, we have made up a new band - Rosie still on bass and Tim on banjo, but with Adrian Farmer on guitar and myself mainly on fiddle; a new sound and predominantly new material. We’re calling ourselves 'Bluegrass Experience; though Colin at Dartford folk-club, whom I hadn't briefed about how we like to be introduced, simply said “... and here's Rick Townend's Bluegrass Experience!" and it seems to have stuck Our heartfelt thanks go out to all the Bluegrass and old-timey music community who have shown us such warmth and understanding and have given us old photos and recordings of Andy that we had not realised existed. At some point in the future I’ll think again about a concert of some sort, but we will have a presentation at the concert at Hastings on May 8th when Bill Clifton will be over. Bill wanted very much to be part of some remembrance event and it's really appropriate that he should as he gave so much help to Andy and myself (as he did to many people in what was then the folk music world back in the 1960’s. I’ll also invite other people who played music with Andy if they can come and take part; people such as Mike Artes, Dave Plane, Gerry Williams, Jerry Webb, Mick Audsley, Chris Cox and, of course, Rosie Davis, Tim Davies and Adrian Farmer. What I have decided to do is to make an ‘Andy Townend Award’ for a Bluegrass composition by a younger player - someone aged under thirty - born in the UK or resident here. I will include full details as an insert in the May 99 BBN, but in the meantime if you know anyone who might like to apply for this I would be grateful if you would spread the word. I intend the award to be a cheque of about £125 - enough perhaps to make a good studio recording - and I’ll start the ball rolling. A number of people have asked if there was some way they could make a donation to something worthwhile in Andy's memory and I think this might be what he'd have liked to happen. I’ll set up a bank account and some independent Trustees, so if anyone would like to contribute there will be a place to collect donations to build up a capital base for future awards. Very best wishes to all, Rick Townend.
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