I see (thanks to the
Fairport website for theinfo) that Beryl has been awarded an EFDSS Gold Badge. The citation deserves repeating in full:
"The Society are today officially awarding the immensely influential and gifted
pianist Beryl Marriott, their highest accolade: The Gold Badge.
Many will be aware of Beryl Marriott because of their interest in Fairport Convention, but her whole oeuvre can now be highlighted and her importance confirmed. Not only is she a mentor to many of us in British Traditional Music but she is a hugely talented and fine musician.
As a young woman, she trained as a teacher, specializing in P.E., where her ability to improvise for dance was soon noticed. She taught in Manchester and Birmingham.
In 1950, she met the fiddler Kay Graham, while staying at the YWCA - Kay sadly passed away last year. They began a lifelong friendship and musical collaboration. During that period, they were overheard by a member of the Society who put them in touch with Ken Clarke and they were soon playing for the Society.
Beryl left teaching to become a full-time musician and along with Kay Graham, became well-known in Birmingham for English and Scottish dancing. Along with the Emerald Isle Ceilidhe Band, they were winners of the Feis Birmingham.
In 1953, Beryl moved to London and was soon playing regularly for the Society.
She worked with those taught by Cecil Sharp - Douglas and Helen Kennedy, Marjorie Sinclair and Elsie Avril and took part in all the major festivals, especially Stratford upon Avon and the annual Albert Hall events.
She appeared on several of the Society's records and broadcast regularly Midland region programmes. She also played for the Royal Scottish Dance society and the Highland Society.
In 1957, after marrying Roger, she returned to the Midlands, devoting most of her time to her family, but still found time to organise the first Birmingham Players' Club, noted for its 1959 Alnwick Summer School, and to work with Charles Parker of Radio Ballad fame, who she introduced to Folk Music.
It was at this time in the late 1950s that a young skiffle band won a talent contest in the Birmingham area. Beryl and roger Marriott were then celebrities in and around the Birmingham music scene and the prize for winning this contest was to meet Beryl and Roger.
The young lad playing guitar in this group was Dave Swarbrick.
Beryl spotted what she said was a 'natural talent' and took me under her wing. She found out that as a boy I had played the violin and she actively encouraged me to drop the guitar and take up the fiddle again, saying "guitarists are ten-a-penny, fiddlers are not, ducky!"
Beryl has always been a tour-de-force, and from that chance event and by coming under her mentoring and active participation with traditional music, my well documented career began.
In 1963 until 1967, Beryl was in Canada, where she ran a workshop at the Mariposa Folk Festival. She became involved in education for children with special needs and founded the English department of the Toronto French School, now one of the International Schools.
In 1967, she returned to England undertaking pioneering work in education specializing in Special Needs, a field in which she had a wide reputation.
Beryl's musical career spans the whole of the post-war Folk Revival. She is the last active musician who learned from those who worked with Cecil Sharp, carrying on the tradition established by him.
Her experience of traditional dance playing is unrivalled and she is regarded as the leading folk keyboard player and an outstanding teacher of dance playing.
Her influence upon the folk scene has been hugely significant. She has always had a unique and special talent. Her contribution to folk music has up until now been perhaps too well hidden under a bushel.
I am totally confident in my convictions that without Beryl Marriott, the Folk Scene over the past 50 years would not have the diversity of flavours and colours that it enjoys today.
Many of us involved in the Tradition, including Folk-Rock, owe Beryl an enormous debt of gratitude, for opening up possibilities and such tremendous joys in music since the 1960s to the present day. To name but a few: Myself, Chris Leslie, Simon Mayor, Hilary James, Richard Green, Fairport Convention and on and on...
All of us have learnt a great deal and we enjoy a strong foundation in being nurtured by Beryl and hopefully, take up her baton, by continuing to encourage the young, up and coming musicians of the future to be involved in the Tradition.
Beryl has charisma. She is a charismatic musician as well as a charismatic character.
She is larger than life even though diminutive in physical size. When Beryl sits at the piano and starts to play, it is literally spellbinding and none can match her.
This Gold Badge is long overdue. Accolades should have been showered upon Beryl Marriott. Perhaps, if she had concentrated purely on music, she would have the fame and applause she missed out on by being a woman, a mother and a teacher.
All of us who are blessed to know her as a dear friend and as a musician of the highest quality and influence, salute her this evening and congratulate her on receiving the Gold Badge."
