Copper-Bottomed Quality

The Copper Family will be performing their close harmony songs at Rusper in Sussex in September at what has become a shrine to folk music because of its close associations with the music.

The much-loved Coppers will be singing and storytelling at the historic St Mary Magdalene Church, Rusper, where the song collector Lucy Broadwood has a memorial tablet on the wall, at 7pm on Saturday 14 September.

The local Broadwood Morris side place a wreath on Lucy’s memorial every May Day. So, there is a historic logic to the Coppers singing there, explains Simon Machin, Director of Separate Star, the community arts non-profit, which is sponsoring the concert.

“A good argument can be made (from the age when ‘copper-bottomed’ was used to signify quality) that it was the Coppers of Rottingdean, Sussex, who put folksong back on the musical map of England and gave their county top billing. But this was only because another folk-song collector, Kate Lee, happened to learn of the family’s existence when staying at a country house in Rottingdean in November 1898.”

“Enter by the scullery door (the only acceptable access for labourers in those class-conscious times) James ‘Brasser’ Copper, the bailiff of a Quaker-owned farm and his brother Tom, the later landlord of the nearby Black Horse pub. Fuelled by a plentiful supply of whisky on the kitchen table, the two men were worked hard in the coming evenings for their oral collection of songs going back many generations, while Kate wrote their songs down.”

“Claudy Banks, based upon the Copper rendition, became the first song to be reproduced, in 1899, in the first edition of the Journal of the Folk Song Society, of which James and Tom were made honorary members. The family soon forgot about the matter until Jim Copper, the son of ‘Brasser’, happened to hear one of their family songs performed badly on the radio in 1950. Jim wrote in to point out the defects and offer a more authentic approach.”

“BBC executives speedily sent their minions down to Rottingdean for an interview and photographic session, and very soon afterwards the Copper Family were performing their close harmony songs at the Royal Albert Hall, and they haven’t looked back since.”

Simon’s interest in the social history of folk-song is explored in his online podcast, Red Heaven. The Copper Family’s interview with Simon is available as Episode 35 and can be accessed at https://www.redheavenproject.com/.

Simon adds “Rusper Church makes an excellent venue for the folk-singing as its vicar, Revd Nick Flint has pioneered folk events there about Lucy Broadwood and local writer Hilaire Belloc.” Tickets (to include interval refreshments) cost £15. Please contact Churchwarden Mrs Maggie True by emailing [email protected] or phoning 07810 470554.