Rod Hall

Rod was born in Harrow in 1946. By 1973 he was living on Horsefair Green in Stony Stratford. There were lots of local musicians and groups like Smoky Bacon, Leaf and Phillip The Toad.

The germ of the idea for Folk on the Green came from an outdoor performance by about 40 musicians in Nash. He organised the first one to raise funds for the almshouses in Calverton. No permissions were asked, the stage was a farm cart and power came from one of the houses on the Green. There was a sizeable audience and it was such a success that they did a second one in the same year. Rod’s band was Merlin’s Isle and its first performance was a great occasion.

It was always the second Sunday in June and staged near the War Memorial. Individuals got 15 minutes and groups 30, with Chris Allen traditionally performing first. They started to get permission to close the road, replaced the cart with staging-blocks and paid for insurance. Later it changed to the side of the Green so more people could face the stage. Rod handed it over to Bob Adams and left Stony Stratford in 1986.

He felt that folk music played outdoors was delicate. The venue was magic. It was folk music, but it was first and foremost families and picnics. A lot of youngsters tried out singing in public at the event. It brought people together and was the topic of conversations for weeks. He was most proud of giving people memories that would last forever.

He played there a few years before the interview and felt the spirituality had gone; it was too loud and more like a rock concert.

His advice to anyone wanting to set up a similar event – if that was still possible – would be to keep it simple, do it for a couple of years and then forget it.