| Description | Charles Parker, Peggy Seeger and Ewan MacColl interview Ronnie Balls about the fishing industry:
Track 1: Ronnie Balls talks about the fishermen's social position in England as compared to Scotland, and fishing villages in East Anglia, 2.48 mins
Track 2: changes in economics of fishing, loss of tradition in Yarmouth, 2.40 mins
Track 3: talks about the decline of the herring around the East Anglian coast, 3.33 mins
Track 4: explains why 'the little man is finished in fishing', 3.35 mins
Track 5: talks about the problems with the subsidy system, competition among skippers, 2.25 mins
Track 6: talks about overfishing, explains why line fishing can be overfishing, talks about the Danes overfishing, catching baby herring for fish meal, 3.00 mins
Track 7: Charles Parker interviews Mrs Balls about her early life, not from a fishing family; she tells how she met her husband at a dance, her feelings about being married to a fisherman: sharing her husband with the sea, 2.46 mins
Track 8: talks about how she copes with worrying about her husband being away, not knowing when he'll come home, fishermen's wives having many honeymoons, 2.36 mins
Track 9: talks about waiting for her husband to come back from fishing, missing him; Ronnie Balls says that it's sometimes good to have a break, talks about her life when she was first married, 2.42 mins
Track 10: they talk about not living in a fishing community when she was first married, their happy marriage, would have liked to have daughters as well as sons, glad that their sons aren't in the fishing, Ronnie Balls talks about his feelings about the sea, 'a deep respect', 'the sea ain't cruel...', 4.09 mins
Track 11: Ronnie Balls talks about finding storms on the radar, competition between skippers, 2.02 mins
Track 12: talks about the reasons why people go to sea - because they were forced to, and seasickness, quotes Dr Johnson on going to sea, men getting the feeling of belonging with the sea, 2.01 mins
Track 13: Ronnie Balls and Mrs Balls talk about not living in a fishing community, being able to have several months at home in the winter because he works on the drifters, trawlermen having to be at sea all year, 1.54 mins
Track 14: Mrs Balls talks about people who work at sea 'having a lostness' when they're on shore; Ronnie Balls talks about his feelings about coming ashore and about leaving fishing, 1.54 mins
Track 15: they talk about the changes in the way skippers talk to their crews, 1.48 mins
Track 16: Ronnie Balls describes working on a drifter, the team spirit, compares with the monotony of trawling, 2.27 mins
Track 17: Ronnie Balls talks about 'herring behaviour' and describes fishing for herring, 2.38 mins
Track 18: (pitch slightly too high), talks about scientists not being willing to believe his ideas about herring behaviour, 2.48 mins
Track 19: talks about the song 'Dance for your Daddy', 1.32 mins
Track 20: they talk about bawdy songs, 2.32 mins
Track 21: Ronnie Balls sings 'Although she's not a lady', 1.25 mins
Track 22: talks about Dutch fishing crews having a shantyman when hauling, herring losing their scales when they're caught, scaling herring, 3.09 mins
Track 23: sings part of 'The Bush of Australia', talks about the story behind the song, talks about collecting ice from the frozen rivers to put in the trawlers, talks about a local character called 'Chicky Drain', 2.57 mins
Track 24: talks about hearing 'Chicky Drain' singing in the pubs when he was a boy, jokes 'Chicky Drain' would play, 2.47 mins
Track 25: quotes a local saying; they talk about local ballads, including a song from which 'Blow the Man Down' derives (pitch too high), 2.15 mins
Total: 1.05.30 mins
Dubber's reference number: PLA KF565D1041380 |