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 In 1973 Bill Caddick joined Magic Lantern, a group that illustrated folk songs with shadow puppets, which became a leading light in British street theatre.
In 1973 Bill Caddick joined Magic Lantern, a group that illustrated folk songs with shadow puppets, which became a leading light in British street theatre. Photograph: Vic Smith
In 1973 Bill Caddick joined Magic Lantern, a group that illustrated folk songs with shadow puppets, which became a leading light in British street theatre. Photograph: Vic Smith

Bill Caddick obituary

This article is more than 5 years old
Folk singer, songwriter and festival performer best known for She Moves Among Men, John O’Dreams and Unicorns

Bill Caddick, who has died aged 74, was already well known on the British folk scene as a master craftsman of songwriting when he was recruited to join the Albion Band at the National Theatre in performances of Lark Rise (1978), Keith Dewhurst’s adaptation of Flora Thompson’s memoir of late-19th century rural England.

The innovative production, directed by Bill Bryden, was performed as a promenade: no seats but with the audience, actors and musicians intermingled. The band, led by Ashley Hutchings and also featuring John Tams, added traditional folk songs to the production, played in a folk-rock style. Caddick was in his element, playing guitar and percussion as well as providing vocals, and he relished the theatrical experience and the closeness of the audience. Dewhurst’s Candleford followed, and Caddick performed on the Albion Band’s 1980 album Lark Rise to Candleford.

Caddick continued to perform and sometimes write songs for National Theatre shows, including Don Quixote (1982), A Country Calendar (1979) and, most notably, the trilogy of plays, The Passion, The Nativity and Doomsday, which made up The Mysteries, Bryden’s landmark promenade production of medieval mystery plays, which transferred to the Lyceum theatre in 1985.

Frustrated by the Albion Band’s inability to tour as the theatre’s resident band, Caddick and Tams had formed Home Service, a rock band with folk roots, which showcased their songs. In the event, the other musical commitments of band members frustrated their touring ambitions, and Home Service became the featured band in The Mysteries. Caddick and his songs, including She Moves Among Men, were featured on the band’s much-delayed eponymous debut album in 1984, and on the album The Mysteries (1985), after which Caddick left the group.

Theatrical performance was nothing new to Caddick. In 1973 he had joined Magic Lantern, a theatre group that illustrated folk songs with shadow puppets, which was at the forefront of street theatre in England. Led by Taffy Thomas, Magic Lantern was based in the West Midlands, and Caddick added his own songs and strong singing voice to performances. When he left, in early 1975, he embarked on a solo career, with warm and passionate performances of his own moving repertoire.

Caddick’s debut album, Rough Music (1976), featured two of his best-known songs. John O’Dreams was set to a tune from Tchaikovsky’s Pathetique, while Unicorns was written in the Magic Lantern tour van after a dream. Both songs continue to be popular and have been recorded by others, including June Tabor and Christy Moore.

His next album, Sunny Memories (1977), was inspired by an old photograph album from the first decade of the 20th century. The songs explored various individual experiences seen against the backdrop of national and international events as the country slid into war. The highlight of the album, The Writing of Tipperary, illustrated the theme perfectly, telling the tale of how Jack Judge wrote It’s a Long Way to Tipperary for a bet, interspersed with headline events between the death of Edward VII and the outbreak of war.

After Home Service, Caddick resumed his solo career, and continued working on themed shows with fellow folk singers Pete Bond and Tim Laycock, in particular A Duck on His Head, about the circus. The theme of the solo and allegorical album The Wild West Show (1986) was, Caddick said, “cynicism and desperation”, which seemed to fit both his mood at the time and the era of Thatcherism. Collaboration with Neti Vaandrager and Bernard O’Neill led to the short-lived band Urban Legend.

Having moved to Shropshire, Caddick was musical director for Lark Rise in Shrewsbury Castle in 2005, using musicians from the ceilidh dance band All Blacked Up (now called The Ironmasters) who had backed Caddick on his 1995 album Winter with Flowers.

Then, for 10 years, Caddick played in the band, often singing as accompaniment to the dancing. Though his solo concerts were less frequent, he continued writing, and his acclaimed song The Cloud Factory was recorded by Tabor, a champion of Caddick’s songs. Caddick re-recorded three dozen of his songs for a double CD, Unicorns, in 2002.

Bill was born in Hurst Hill, Wolverhampton, to Sarah (nee Carter) and Bill Caddick, an engineering plater. After Tipton grammar school, Bill Jr studied languages for business at Lanchester College of Technology (now Coventry University) and returned to Wolverhampton, working as a salesman for Star Aluminium.

In Coventry he heard Rory McEwen’s renditions of Lead Belly songs on the 12-string guitar, which had, Caddick later recalled, “a mind-blowing effect”. He already owned a 12-string, but now studied and copied Lead Belly’s style. Back in Wolverhampton, he performed in folk clubs, but the demands of the day job restricted how far he could travel. After seven years, he eschewed work promotion for life as a full-time musician with Magic Lantern.

Bill is survived by his second wife, Katherine Soutar, whom he married in 1996, and their son, Tam, and by Christy, his son from his first marriage, to June Powell, which ended in divorce.

Lewis Frederick William Caddick, folk singer and songwriter, born 27 June 1944; died 19 November 2018

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