Program #69, The Dinner Ladies

In this edition of Folkwave, Ed Haber welcomes the offbeat British music group The Dinner Ladies into the studio for an interview and some live performances.

The Dinner Ladies consist of:
Mick Jackson on Vocals;
Ben Davies on Guitar, Ukelele, and Vocals;
Lorraine Bowen on Piano, Recorder, Flute, Clarinet, and Vocals;
and Anabelle Simmons on Vocals and Cello.

The Dinner Ladies sadly disappeared into oblivion around 1990, when Mick Jackson enrolled in a creative writing course at the University of East Anglia, and began working on his first novel, The Underground Man, which was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and won 1997 Whitbread Award for best first novel.

Also, at that time, Billy Bragg encouraged Lorraine Bowen to start a solo career, which she turned into a traveling variety show, mixing comedy and music. She went on to perform at festivals all over the world, eventually hosting a radio program on the BBC entitled Lorraine Bowen's Stereo Spectacular, as well as appearing on Britain's Got Talent.

The Dinner Ladies left behind one full-length LP, one 7" single and one 12" EP, as well as a full album's worth of songs that never got released. Two of these songs were performed live on this very show.

WNYC archives id: 213124