DECLAN AFFLEY – A LEGACY SERIES OF VINTAGE RECORDINGS
Declan Affley was born in 1939 in Cardiff, Wales, to parents of Irish descent. He was immensely proud of his Celtic background, which became a significant influence on his musical career as one of Australia’s most celebrated folk singers and musicians. He was equally proud of his working-class background.
At age 16, he joined the British Merchant Navy and travelled to Japan and Australia, where he jumped ship in 1959 to find work on coastal ships based in Sydney. In Sydney, he discovered the Royal George Hotel, the home of the Sydney Push, a libertarian group with a self-professed love of intellectualism, poetry, folksong and hard drinking. In these heady days, Declan discovered his voice, and he soon became a Push favourite with his repertoire of Irish drinking songs, bawdy ballads, sea songs and protest songs. His was a uniquely rich, deep and evocative voice that he accompanied with an equally evocative style of guitar playing. He had an extraordinary ability to learn new songs. Over the years, he became one of Australia’s most recognisable and admired folk music performers. While living in Melbourne, he was a regular at Frank Traynor’s Folk & Jazz Club and Dan O’Connell’s Hotel folk club and in demand at folk festivals and clubs across Australia.
He played small parts in several films, including the award-winning ABC history drama The Restless Years (1966), Richard Lowenstein’s Strikebound and Peter Weir’s The Last Wave.
In 1969, he founded The Wild Colonial Boys, a pioneering bush band that set a high benchmark for the subsequent performance of Australian folk tunes and songs. The group appeared in Tony Richardson’s film Ned Kelly. They released the album ‘Glenrowan to the Gulf’ on EMI Records and, with Warren Fahey managing them, toured extensively in Australia. In 1970, Warren Fahey cast Declan Affley and Peter O’Shaughnessy in his twelve-part ABC Radio series The Australian Legend. Declan became a member of Fahey’s band, The Larrikins, and toured rural Australia and also a DFAT cultural exchange tour of Indonesia.
He played guitar, banjo, tin whistle, uilleann pipes and fiddle.
Declan described himself as an atheist and radical. He was a socialist and republican, always available to stand tall and sing at protests, rallies and strikes. Over time, he amassed a huge repertoire of what could be described as political songs. He was especially adept in performing new works by leading songwriters like Don Henderson, Harry Robertson and John Dengate.
Declan married Australian poet Colleen Zeta Burke in 1967. They had two children.
He recorded two albums, Rake and Rambling Man (1967) and The Day the Pub Burned Down (1970), and appeared on several compilation albums. Two posthumous collections were privately released.
Declan had a special magic when performing. He was truly spellbinding.
Declan Affley died of a dissecting aneurysm of the aorta on 27 June 1985. He was only 45. The Declan Affley Memorial Award for Excellence in a Young Performer is awarded annually at the National Folk Festival in his honour.
Rouseabout Records has issued four distinctly different digital albums to ensure Declan Affley’s legacy continues. Culled from rare live performances, private archives and recordings, they will showcase his unique talents as an interpreter of songs and a musician of immense sensitivity. Dave Brannigan recorded the live tracks on this collection.
The cover photographs come from the Bob Bolton Collection of the Bush Music Club.
Bandcamp Artist Page: https://declanaffley.bandcamp.com/
OTHER LINKS:
https://www.discogs.com/release/15775395-Declan-Affley-The-Day-The-Pub-Burned-Down
https://www.discogs.com/release/13794781-Declan-Affley-Mike-Ball-The-Rake-And-Rambling-Man
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Declan_Affley
https://www.discogs.com/release/9136450-Declan-Affley-Declan-Affley
Catalogue Number RRR130
Track Listing:
Although armed with a deep swag of traditional songs, Declan always had room for newer songs, especially those biting back at superficial society and greed. He championed the keen-edged political songs of Don Henderson and John Dengate – both represented in this compilation and storytelling songs like Harry Robertson’s Queensland Whalers.
Catalogue Number RRR129
Track Listing:
There’s little doubt that the songs about drinking are amongst the best of all folk songs. Declan was probably too fond of the drink and, sadly, paid the price of too many heavy sessions. He sang the songs with particular relish, yet remorseful songs like Carrickfergus touched many listeners and became closely associated with the singer’s own story.
Catalogue Number RRR128
Track Listing:
What a strange place the Australian bush must have seemed like for the early settlers. Its remoteness and harshness were so different from ‘back home’. This selection of songs covers a wide spectrum, including shearing songs, songs of struggles and desperation, pioneering settlement, boozing and two Kelly Ballads. There’s also an evocative reading of Ned Kelly’s famous yet little-heard The Jerilderie Letter.
Catalogue Number RRR127
Track Listing:
Declan loved the old bush songs, especially when he could link them to the Irish experience in Australia. He appeared in numerous ABC radio programs, including The Australian Legend, where he was called upon to render little-known ballads and folksongs. Never shy of a musical challenge, he would study the song and return with a brilliant arrangement. He also had a knack for reciting poetry, and this album features one of his recitations of convict poet Frank McNamara’s works. MacNamara, often called ‘Frank the Poet’, is also attributed with writing the ballad ‘Moreton Bay’.
