Richard Digance

Richard Digance marked his 50th birthday on February 24, 1999, by declaring his retirement from the stage, an exit that left British entertainment noticeably thinner until a sold-out return trek across UK theatres restored his presence three years afterward. Emerging from the folk scene that flourished in Glasgow during the late 1960s, where he spent a short time at Reid Kerr College, the east London native steadily rose to rank among England’s leading writer-performers. In the 1980s he fronted the BBC series A Dabble With Digance along with other programmes such as Stop the World; by the early 1990s he had shifted to Capital Radio, spending five years at the London outlet presenting a music programme that included conversations with Joni Mitchell, Arlo Guthrie and Roy Orbison. He reappeared on the live circuit as support for Eric Clapton at the Victoria Theater and maintained a stage partnership with musical comedian and vocalist Jim Davidson through 1999.

Born in the east London district of Plaistow to a doctor’s receptionist and a cab driver, Digance initially aimed at mechanical engineering yet found himself captivated by the folk music circulating at his college club. A contemporary of singer-songwriter John Martyn, he drew inspiration from the comic style of performers such as Billy Connolly and changed his academic focus to English literature and modern British history, transferring to East Ham Technical College in London. He devoted five hours daily to guitar practice while sustaining himself through assorted work, one role being the driver of an animal ambulance. After several solo sets at the Ilford Folk Club he joined John O’Connor and Tim Greenwood in the music-hall-flavoured trio Pisces, which issued a self-titled debut album in 1971 before Digance reformed the group as a duo alongside guitarist Frank McConnell.

His breakthrough arrived with the 1975 solo release How the West Was Lost, whose wry numbers “Working Class Millionaire” and “Drag Queen Blues” earned Melody Maker’s Folk Album of the Year accolade. Disappointed by dealings with Transatlantic, he established his own Dambuster imprint in 1977, later divesting his stake. Digance wrote and directed the plays Sex, Spangles and Sensible Shoes and Fear of Frying, and Robson Books issued his autobiography A Wealth of Comedy. In 1998 he participated in founding the children’s media venture SKD Media.