PETE
ARNOLD About The Album
Buy Album -Children Of The Dust   Pete
Arnold was born in Liverpool, England, UK, in 1949. A guitar and banjo playing
folk singer songwriter from an Dublin-Irish family background, and founder member
of folk groups Salty Dog, Johnny Was, The Travelling Folk, Peaky Blinders and
Almost Blues. His history in the folk scene spans some forty years learning his
trade in clubs such as the "Old Washhouse" folk club in Lord Street,
Liverpool, "Gregsons Wall" the home club of "The Spinners"
and other folk clubs on the Wirral and Merseyside area, before moving on to appearances
initially with the Creek Jug Band touring the UK and Ireland, whilst at the same
time songwriting and winning three Welsh Eistedfodd song writing prizes.
Pete
Arnold's songs have also been acclaimed by many other folk artistes such as the
Fureys recording Pete's song "I Remember Mary" for EMI Records on their
"Claddagh Road" album release to Ireland's Brendan Shine recording Pete's
song the "Robinsons Ball" for Play Records released on CD, cassette,
video, DVD and film, to various other international folk artistes performing and
recording Pete's songs, to congratulatory correspondence and interest on Pete's
songwriting and performing from that legend of folk, Christy Moore etc. Pete
Arnold's notable appearances over the years with his various groups in England,
UK, have been not only at eminent folk clubs but also at folk festivals to include
the Bromyard Folk Festival, Kendal Folk Festival, The Sidmouth Folk Festival,
The Edinburgh Folk Festival, The Cambridge Folk Festival, The Cheltenham Folk
Festival, to name but a few. As a songwriter Pete Arnold's achievements
are numerous to include being the winner of the 21st Anniversary competition for
Birmingham Bull Ring where the song was commercially released, Winner of the Edinburgh
Folk Festival "Songsearch" competition with the song "Echoing Still",
Birmingham Buskers competition winners 1985/86 and 1986/87, songwriter and performer
of the song "Olympic City 1992" the song chosen by the Birmingham Olympic
Committee as their official anthem to host the 1992 Olympic games (commercially
released on record), the song "The Fitzroy Girl" placed fourth out of
3,600 songs at the Kendal Folk Festival (released commercially on record and which
has become a classic folk song being recorded by many folk artistes, voted top
act at the Droitwitch SPA Busking Festival. The song "Ghost Trains"
being placed out of 4,000 songs entered for the 1987 Legal and General "Songsearch"
competition, songwriting contributor with songs "Summer Lane" and "Tall
Ships" featuring on the British Rail Commemorative album celebrating twenty-one
years of inner city travel, songwriter, performer and producer of BBC West Midlands
television's song "Children In Need", contributor to Radio West Midlands
for many years to the stations weekly spot "It's a Dogs Life" and to
broadcasts and performances on BBC Pebble Mill and "Central Live Weekend"
television and much, much more. Peter Arnold's folk release "Children of
the Dust" is digitally re-mastered from mainly unreleased archive recordings
which are part of English and Irish folk history. ABOUT
THE ALBUM:Peter Arnold's seventeen track folk release "Children of
the Dust" has been digitally re-mastered from mainly unreleased archive recordings
from 1986, 1987 & 1988 and which are part of English and Irish folk history. Pete
Arnold's songs on this "Children of the Dust" release comprise such
classics as "The Fitzroy Girl" a true story and a highly emotional song
about Rosemary Fitzroy, who in 1922 died of consumption in a Paris sanatorium
near Montparnasse, France. Six months earlier, her father, mother, elder brother
and younger sister died savagely in an Irish republican ambush outside the town
of Colraine. Rosemary's lover was a member of that same IRA brigade, betrayed,
rejected and devastated she left the shores of Ireland in the company of a young
British officer, a long time admirer. It is his story that the song recalls and
the unassailable fact that the innocent always seem to suffer disproportionately
to the guilty, whatever and wherever the conflict. "Precious Lady" is
a song about romantic difficulties with a very beautiful vagabond lady. "Echoing
Still" is a song about and for Liverpool, bringing a contrast of sadness
and joy, with the Edge Hill in the song being the last stop on the London train
before Lime Street and with the Black River (Mersey) speaking for itself. The
tragic song "Children of the Dust" expresses in many ways the most painful
of all tragedies of the Holocaust - the fate of many children - no one can read
or hear about these terrible years without being moved and at times overwhelmed
by the ruthless, diabolical destruction of young life, from the tiniest baby to
the teenager on the verge of what ought to have been the years of opportunity
and fulfilment (Martin Gilbert - "The Holocaust") this song is truly
one to stir the emotions. This album release is full of great songs. "Cobblestone
days" recalling childhood days in Liverpool. "The Drums of Childhood
Dreams", a song originally written for the BBC to commemorate "Poppy
Day" and is a testament to the valour of all those who fight for the right
to freedom, expressing the insanity of man. "Remembrance Day" is a classic
song based loosely on recollections of Pete Arnold's grandfather who saw action
at Gallipoli (1915) and the Somme (1916) and was later invalided out of the army.
"Ghost Trains" is a song about bright eyed children who would chalk
up pictures of ghosts, witches and skeletons on the walls of back entries down
Earl Road in Liverpool and pretend they were the famed "Ghost Train"
of New Brighton, a ferry ride across the Mersey. Like the fairground in New Brighton,
the game has long since finished, childhood friends are gone but the fond memories
are never forgotten. "Lady Mary" is a song which recalls the legend
of a ruined fort on the west coast of Ireland, one of the thirty to forty thousand
ruined forts throughout Ireland, two thousand in Limerick alone. During Oliver
Cromwell's insurgence in 1649, it tells of a royalist cavalier who during his
flight from Cromwell's men, abducted the beautiful Lady Mary from her future Lord
Martin and fled to the comparative safety of France. All the other fantastic folk
songs, "Midnight on the Road", "The Leinster Fusilier", "Wild
Geese", "Easy Come Mornings", "The Night of the Robinsons
Ball", "Time Was", "I Remember Mary", "Cassandra's
Last Waltz" on this classic folk release have a story and history to tell,
and will no doubt grace any folk collectors collection of artistes and folk songs. Download
tracks at: 
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