Torquay's other history: the inspiration of folk superstars Donovan and Mac Macleod

By Kevin Dixon, on Saturday, July 17, 2010

Donovan was Britain’s Bob Dylan. Emerging from the folk scene, he came to fame in early 1965 with a series of live performances on the pop TV series, Ready Steady Go!, and his popularity spread to the USA and other countries.

One of the leading British recording artists of his day, he produced a series of hit albums and singles between 1965 and 1970. He became a friend of leading pop musicians including Joan Baez, Brian Jones, Bruce Springsteen, and was one of the few artists to collaborate on songs with the Beatles. He influenced both John Lennon and Paul McCartney when he taught them his finger-picking guitar style in 1968.

However, in 1964 he spent the summer in Torquay. He worked at the Phyllis Court Hotel and the Conway Court Hotel in the day and began busking, ‘smoking pot, drinking and playing at various bars and on the beach’. He also started a more serious study of the guitar and learning traditional folk and blues songs. Donovan bought his trademark fisherman’s cap in Brixham, where he played in the Rising Sun.   Donovan was interviewed about his time in Torquay for Beat Instrumental in May 1965.

While in Torquay, Donovan wrote his first hit, Catch the Wind, which reached #4 in the UK and #23 in the United States in 1965. It has since been covered by, among others, Bruce Springsteen, Cher, Glen Campbell, Peter Fonda, Sammy Hagar, Susanna Hoffs, and Joan Baez.   Here’s Catch the Wind:

Mac Macleod is a folk and blues musician and an early influence on Donovan. They spent the summer of 1964 living in a bedsit in Abbey Road.   Later, MacLeod was the lead singer and bassist in a band in Denmark (inspired by Cream) which he named Hurdy Gurdy, the inspiration for Donovan’s The Hurdy Gurdy Man – which reached #4 in the UK charts and #5 in the US.

Donovan had written the song before going to India with The Beatles where he taught John Lennon and Paul McCartney the finger pick styles he had learned from MacLeod. These resulted in songs like Julia and Blackbird on the White Album. (Donovan has also stated that while in India an extra verse was added to the song by George Harrison that wasn’t part of the radio single.) This is Hurdy Gurdy Man:

As a really good resource, try Marmalade Skies: The Home of British Psychedelia. It covers record releases, and month-by-month news from 1966 to 1975. Of particular interest is the list of live gigs which show how many bands performed in Torquay, including Pink Floyd, Slade, Thin Lizzy, Bowie, Hawkwind, Status Quo and many more.

Towards the mid-seventies, South Devon College – on its Newton Road site – was also on the circuit.

(Image: © Copyright Stephen McKay / CC BY-SA 2.0)

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Diane Wyles

Hi Kevin,
I met my husband, Moses, in July 1966,in the Marine Tavern,which is no longer there.He was part of the Beat Scene,and Knight of the Road. He and many other travelling people slept in the woods near Meadfoot Beach, leaving their bed rolls hidden in the bushes throughout the day. They would congregate mostly on the Strand area, where people would play guitars etc.,He was very well-known in Torquay, we lived in Oxford, for awhile then Mid Devon, we moved back here in 2002, and he has become quite unexpectedly, very well known once again!
Best wishes
Diane
ps He can tell you much more than I about the scene around Torquay, in the 60's, than I can!

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Kevin

Guitarist John Reborn is possibly best known for his work with the folk group Pentangle, although he maintained a solo career both before, during and after that band's existence (1967–1973).

Some Web sources say that John was born in Torquay while others disagree. Clarifying this and ask him about the Bay's 1960s folk scene, we received an email from John:

"Mac was a very big influence on young Don. There were quite a few guitar playing characters around Torquay and Brixham in the early '60s.

I don't know how it got around that I was born in Torquay. Maybe its because I practically lived in the Rising Sun* at the time. There was a Tarantula living in the juke box.

All the best, John"

* Now the Old Mill on Belgrave Rd.

Here's a clip from John:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CufrCLbAwGI&a=G...

Peter Thornhill

Dear Kevin
I have just read your article on Donovan in Torquay.
My father started and ran a Folk Club on Paignton seafront from the early 1960s with a chap from Martins Bank called John, as the doorman, he was a security guard for the bank. We had at time nearly 400 in the audience, depending who the guest artist was.
At that time I was part of a trio called The Torbay Three, consisting of my mother ‘Meg’ Guitar, Dick on Guitar and me on Guitar, Banjo and Harmonica, we played every week at this club.
I remember I used to collect Don Leitch, at the Phyllis Court Hotel on my way through from Torquay, as at that time I lived in Babbacombe with my parents.
We had several successful local artists such as Pat Keen, Max Eastley, Cyril Tawney, Peggy Seeger a young lady who’s name escapes me who went on to do very well with a well known Billy Munn Big Band singing Jazz at the Imperial Hotel. There was another trio called the Wayfarers, from East Devon, who would come to the club occasionally.
There was quite a collection of visiting artists in these early years 1963 – 1966 such as Bill Clifton, Paul Simons, The Watersons, John Renbourn, Miriam Mckenssey, Davy Graham, Martin Carthy, Mark Sullivan and many more until I joined the RAF and lost contact.
In August 1965 I celebrated my 21st birthday and my parents organized a party for me and many of the artists came to our house, with music from every room, I can still hear Maddy Prior singing in the kitchen.
Regards Peter

...& here's Mac: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKe8VBuEYfg

Received from Mac Macleod:

Dear Kevin

That was very thoughtful of you to not only include me in your article, but to forward me with the link. Your knowledge of events is also commendable with the only discrepancy being the fact that in 1964 Don and I only worked at the Phyllis Court (later changed to the Corbyn Head after some wag had added 'SY' to the front of the 4 foot letters that ran along the sea wall,).

I had worked at the Conway Court Hotel when I arrived alone for my first season in Torquay. That was in 1962 when, incidentally I first met and got to know John Renbourn, as well as the local and Scouse contingency who were into folk music at the time.

Anyway, I would like to take a trip down memory lane in the Torbay area sometime in the future, so possibly our paths could cross.

With thanks
Mac