60 years ago, Ralph McTell made history by being the first act to perform at the famous Half Moon. Now he’s back again at the famous Putney venue to honour that memory with a five-date residency…
By Ian Woolley
Early Ralph McTell
I reminded him that it’s also been an astonishing 55 years since his debut album was released.
Where has that time gone?
“I can tell because it’s been written in my face with all those lines. People say the older you get the faster the time goes. You seem to do so much when I was a late teenager with the traveling and all that but in the last few years, I can’t begin to tell you where the time has gone.”
What did he learn from his early busking life around Europe?
“Not to do it (he laughs). It’s a tough life and I did busk around Europe that’s for sure. I was very nervous but I did manage to feed myself with the coins I took and I did have quite an adventure which I did write extensively about in my book. The best time was when I was in Paris in 1965 and I had a little area where I worked with a friend of mine. I actually got picked up by a producer at the Paris Olympia and they were launching a French Bob Dylan called Antione. I played guitar for him as I could play fingerstyle so that’s a bit of magic that happened.”
“When I got back to England I think the streets had toughened me up a bit and I finally got noticed as a guitar player more than anything. The guitar drives everything I do and always has done and I think it’s helped me a bit with nerves but I wasn’t prepared for the quick success I seemed to have when my second album came out as it had “Streets Of London” on it.”
“The rest as they say is history.”