Biography
Born in Little Sutton, Cheshire, England, Dave Arthur earned lasting recognition not only through the traditional albums he cut in the late 1960s alongside his then-wife Toni Arthur but also as a respected author, radio and television broadcaster, and scholar of folklore.
His formative years unfolded chiefly in London after he secured a scholarship to St. Olave’s Grammar School. Although his initial ambition was to pursue painting, an affinity for folk music and traditional jazz drew him steadily into the city’s expanding network of clubs. There he acquired fluency on guitar and banjo, becoming a familiar presence by the mid-1960s at the folk evenings Nigel Denver hosted at the Unity Theatre. While apprenticing as an academic bookseller he encountered Toni, then a trainee nurse who had earlier trained in voice and piano at the Royal Academy of Music. Following their marriage the couple moved to Oxford, where they managed a university bookshop and began appearing together in local folk clubs.
Between the late 1960s and early 1970s they issued several notable traditional recordings on the Transatlantic and Topic Records labels, among them the 1970 album Hearken To The Witches’ Rune, whose impact derived in part from Toni’s multi-octave vocal range and Dave’s spoken-word passages. Throughout the 1970s they carried an expansive stage presentation—integrating song, dance, drama, and narrative—on international tours while also staging children’s concerts and delivering lectures on diverse facets of folklore. When Toni obtained presenting roles on the BBC children’s programmes Playschool and Play Away, Dave contributed occasional on-air appearances together with behind-the-scenes musical and research support; that involvement culminated in 1976 with the launch of her own series, Take A Ticket To ….
In the closing years of the 1960s Arthur joined the editorial board of the Folk Music Journal as a delegate for the emerging generation of young performers. He assumed the editorship of English Dance And Song in 1978, retaining the post until 2000, and also served for shorter periods as editor of Storylines and Animations. Concurrently he maintained an active freelance career encompassing writing, research, broadcasting, folklore scholarship, theatre performance, storytelling, and puppetry, often in partnership with Toni and, later, their son Tim. In 1997 he formed the Rufus Crisp Experience with veteran musician Barry Murphy, resulting in the buoyant old-time album Chickens Are A-Crowing. The 2003 project Return Journey united Arthur with Pete Cooper on fiddle and viola and guitarist Chris Moreton (b. 1954, Surrey, England) in interpretations of traditional American material; the detailed liner notes underscored that many of these pieces had first taken shape in Britain, prompting the trio to graft British melodic elements onto the American songs. That same year Arthur received the Gold Badge of the English Folk Dance and Song Society.
His formative years unfolded chiefly in London after he secured a scholarship to St. Olave’s Grammar School. Although his initial ambition was to pursue painting, an affinity for folk music and traditional jazz drew him steadily into the city’s expanding network of clubs. There he acquired fluency on guitar and banjo, becoming a familiar presence by the mid-1960s at the folk evenings Nigel Denver hosted at the Unity Theatre. While apprenticing as an academic bookseller he encountered Toni, then a trainee nurse who had earlier trained in voice and piano at the Royal Academy of Music. Following their marriage the couple moved to Oxford, where they managed a university bookshop and began appearing together in local folk clubs.
Between the late 1960s and early 1970s they issued several notable traditional recordings on the Transatlantic and Topic Records labels, among them the 1970 album Hearken To The Witches’ Rune, whose impact derived in part from Toni’s multi-octave vocal range and Dave’s spoken-word passages. Throughout the 1970s they carried an expansive stage presentation—integrating song, dance, drama, and narrative—on international tours while also staging children’s concerts and delivering lectures on diverse facets of folklore. When Toni obtained presenting roles on the BBC children’s programmes Playschool and Play Away, Dave contributed occasional on-air appearances together with behind-the-scenes musical and research support; that involvement culminated in 1976 with the launch of her own series, Take A Ticket To ….
In the closing years of the 1960s Arthur joined the editorial board of the Folk Music Journal as a delegate for the emerging generation of young performers. He assumed the editorship of English Dance And Song in 1978, retaining the post until 2000, and also served for shorter periods as editor of Storylines and Animations. Concurrently he maintained an active freelance career encompassing writing, research, broadcasting, folklore scholarship, theatre performance, storytelling, and puppetry, often in partnership with Toni and, later, their son Tim. In 1997 he formed the Rufus Crisp Experience with veteran musician Barry Murphy, resulting in the buoyant old-time album Chickens Are A-Crowing. The 2003 project Return Journey united Arthur with Pete Cooper on fiddle and viola and guitarist Chris Moreton (b. 1954, Surrey, England) in interpretations of traditional American material; the detailed liner notes underscored that many of these pieces had first taken shape in Britain, prompting the trio to graft British melodic elements onto the American songs. That same year Arthur received the Gold Badge of the English Folk Dance and Song Society.
Albums
