WHEN THE British folk revival was at full steam in the 1960s, the musicians, promoters, enthusiasts, researchers and fans making it happen invariably congregated at one key point — Collet’s Record Shop in New Oxford Street, London. There, they would listen to the new sounds and share opinions, laughter and coffee with the folk department manager, Gill Cook.
A vivacious, energetic and colourful character, Cook — who has died of cancer — became central to the exciting folk scene of the era. She was much loved by the artists involved and widely respected for her vital role as a catalyst in the expansion of interest in roots music in all its guises. She also went on to be a folk club organiser, a publisher and, briefly, a record company boss. It was, however, her infectious enthusiasm in dispensing knowledge, advice and encouragement that made her and Collet’s such an irresistible focus.
Born in Stratford, East London, in 1937, Cook was raised in Cambridge from the age of 2. She went to grammar school, then worked as a student lab technician in a hospital and later in a bookshop.
In 1958 the skiffle music boom took off. Would-be musicians all over the country adapted household implements into makeshift instruments. It was this scene — specifically the Stan Kelly Skiffle Club at the Dog & Pheasant in Cambridge — that got Cook hooked on music. She took up acoustic guitar, joined Stan Kelly’s band and became friendly with Eric Winter, left-wing journalist and editor of the folk magazine Sing! As skiffle faded, she explored other areas of folk music and was particularly inspired by a Paul Robeson concert and a visit to the World Youth Festival in Vienna, from which she came home enthusing about the Bulgarian Koutev Ensemble.
By now Bill Leader, a part-time producer at Topic Records and full-time manager of Collet’s, was looking for an assistant and Eric Winter had recommended her. So in 1960 she moved to London where, among other things, she sang with John Hasted’s London Youth Choir, played double bass with folk group The Fielders, helped Eric Winter to produce Sing! and worked with playwright Arnold Wesker on Centre 42, which was set up with trade union backing to popularise the arts outside London. She also became involved in a succession of folk clubs, initially setting up the Broadside Folk Club at the Black Horse, Soho, with Bill Leader.
Advertisement
Her world, though, quickly began to revolve round Collet’s, which started as a left-wing publishing house in Wellingborough, Northamptonshire but now had various shops in London. In 1964 she took over running the folk department on the store’s ground floor, quickly attracting many of the scene’s prime movers. She had a knack of selling relatively obscure music to people, who trusted her judgment.
At a time when old blues, traditional folk, Eastern European musicians and African bands were almost impossible to obtain, there was a good chance Gill Cook would locate them at Collet’s. Artists gathered to discuss music and treat the place as their personal club, with Gill as their DJ and convivial hostess. Cook’s close friend, the singer Anne Briggs, even used Collet’s as her postal address. Pete Seeger, Marlene Dietrich, Paul Simon, Jerry Garcia, Allen Ginsberg and members of the Rolling Stones were among those who came to hang out and buy new records.
After a short relationship with the singer Owen Hand, she starting going out with the brilliant young Scots guitarist Bert Jansch and in 1965 had a son, Richard, with him. Jansch wrote some of his early songs at her flat in Gray’s Inn Road.
She later set up home with Shirley Collins’s ex-husband, Austin John Marshall, and briefly launched the Righteous record label, reissuing the groundbreaking Shirley Collins/Davy Graham album Folk Roots, New Routes. She also briefly ventured into publishing with John Brune’s folk collection, The Roving Songster.
Cook worked at Collet’s for nearly 30 years until the advent of the West End superstores squeezed trade so much that in 1989 it closed. She did, however, maintain her passion for folk music, in its widest form, working on the folk catalogue at the Mechanical Copyright Protection Society collecting royalties for songwriters. She continued to be involved in music, working with the Fledgling label on a series of reissues by the innovative guitarist Davy Graham.
Advertisement
Gill Cook, record shop manager and folk music entrepreneur, was born on July 8, 1937. She died on January 16, 2006, aged 68.