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WOSAS : F950	WOSAS/CD288/track1 R1003.wav
Sound recording, interview; with storyteller Robin Williamson, at his home in Cardiff, by Ben Haggarty for publication in The Crack Magazine, Issue 3, published by The Crick Crack Club, winter 1993.
An interview with Robin Williamson by Ben Haggarty including comment on who has influenced him (including Duncan Williamson); his identity as a British performer; how he became a storyteller; the nature of traditional narrative and of telling traditional stories; the relationship between land and narrative; the content and role of oral stories and storytellers; music and storytelling; experiences of telling stories; the material he works with, and the different stories which can be told at different ages and points in a storyteller's life.
In 2007 Robin Willaimson adds 'my remark about the religious aspect of bardic storytelling being extinct is intended to refer only to its status in the broad public tradition. Of course druidry, bardic spirituality and various kinds of paganism are all very much alive in the circles dedicated to these practices. I am myself honourary Chief Bard of the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids and Bard of the Caer Abiri Druids, but the subject of the bardic mysteries is outside the scope of this particular interview'.
recording quality
condition:-	good; fair
completeness:-	complete
duration:-	0 hours, 32 minutes, 27 seconds
The Crick Crack Club was founded by Ben Haggarty in 1987 and was the first regular performance storytelling club to be established in the UK. From the outset, the club operated with a programme of storytellers put in place by an artistic director, Ben Haggarty. It had no 'floor spots' whereby anyone had the opportunity to tell stories. The club was created in response to a recognised need for there to be sufficient UK storytellers to perform competent, formal evening shows for adult audiences in the proposed 1989, 15 day long, Third International Storytelling Festival at London's South Bank Centre. In the autumn of 1987 the first season of 26 weekly Crick Crack Club events was launched in a pub theatre (The Chair) in Ladbrook Grove, with the expressed aim of trying out new artists and providing an opportunity for established artists to develop their skills and repertoire for adults. Jenny Pearson of the Kew Storytellers helped Ben Haggarty with the organisation of this first season.The Crick Crack Club promoted weekly events in various venues in London between 1987 and 1995, and then monthly events at the Spitz from 1995 to 2001. During this time it also organised numerous monthly events and mini-festivals in regional arts venues throughout England. In 1991/92 wth £10,000 from the Arts Council Literature department it tried to establish a touring circuit promoting 120 events in a year. Daniel Morden gave invaluable administrative support during this period. In 1993, in partnership with David Ambrose of St. Donats Arts Centre in Wales, the Crick Crack Club Club created the Beyond the Border International Festival of Storytelling and Epic Singing. Ben Haggarty co-directed Beyond the Border from 1993 to 2005. Since 2001 the Crick Crack Club has worked on a peripatetic basis, programming in various venues and in partnership with various organisations, and in 2003 began a long-term partnership with Barbican Education in London, to promote 9 events a year in the Barbican Pit Theatre
interview:-	storyteller; musician; singer; interviewee: Robin Williamson male / Irish
interview:-	interviewer; magazine editor: Ben Haggarty male / British / born 30.11.1958 / occupation performance storyteller; promoter
	Cover of the issue of The Crack Magazine in which the interview was published
	The interview published in The Crack Magazine
	Click to enlarge images
use:-	The Crick Crack Club 1993 publication: The Crack publication: The Crack Magazine
interview:-	Cardiff, Wales research interview

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