Eccles has long been a hotbed of musical intrigue.
We came across this story from the Eccles and Patricroft Journal from April 1966 which told the story of a young girl, Carol Grayson, who lived on Cromwell Road at Hawthorn Cottage.
18-year-old Carol was educated at Branwood House and Ash Lea School in Eccles before attending Eccles Grammar School.
Eccles Grammar School (now demolished) – Jim Simpson
She then joined the Argyle Theatre, a group of travelling actors who toured schools around the country.
Although she enjoyed acting she told the newspaper that her first love was folk singing, adding that the money working in theatre wasn’t good but enough to enable her singing career.
When she was 11 her father, Albert Grayson, bought her a guitar hoping that she would take an interest in classical music; she didn’t, and the guitar lay idle until she was 15.
Then she met a folk singer called Pete Waugh who was staying in Patricroft who taught her to play guitar.
Interestingly Carol mentions the guitarist Bert Jansch who she mentions is the best blues and folk guitarist in the country.
Bert Jansch helped found the band Pentangle who had great success, he also went on to play with such greats as John Renbourn, Roy Harper, Paul Simon and Albert Lee.
Carol found time to play in folk clubs when she was touring with the Argyle Theatre and performed at cities across the UK, including Dundee.
However, she is highly critical of the Manchester folk club scene, saying that Manchester is “the most backward city in England for folk music and folk clubs”.
A bit harsh I thought.
I recall in the mid-1960s there was a thriving music scene in Manchester.
The Manchester Sports and Guilds Club, better known as the MSG, on Long Millgate, would often put on top-rate folk singers such as Christy Moore and Paul Simon.
She continues to say that she hopes to get on as far as she can, “without getting commercialised like Joan Baez has”.
I didn’t think there was much chance of that happening, to be honest.
Carol did have an agent to help promote her what she hoped would be a stratospheric rise to fame: the wonderfully-named Frederick Russell-Clampitt.
His father was a Superintendent in the Salford Police Force and the man himself held out great hopes for Carol and had made recordings of her singing.
So did Carol break it into the charts and become a successful folk singer?
I have looked through the music pages and sadly can’t find a mention of Carol Grayson, so perhaps success didn’t come her way.
At the very least she would never have to suffer the ignominy of becoming ‘commercialised’.
If you knew Carol Grayson or her family, please contact tonyflynn@salfordonline.com.
