Resources
Website links
A selection of other websites associated with Ewan MacColl or with further information.
Ewan MacColl’s Facebook
The official facebook page run by the family with news, events and information.
Ewan MacColl Journeyman
A facebook discussion group dedicated to Ewan’s songs and life.
Peggy Seeger’s website
Peggy Seeger was Ewan’s partner for more than 35 years and is still a working musician and songwriter in her own right. She was the inspiration for Ewan’s classic song ‘The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face’.
Kirsty MacColl’s website
Kirsty MacColl was Ewan’s daughter by his second wife, Jean Newlove. She is greatly missed by everyone.
BBC Radio 4 – Archive on 4 ‘Dirty Old Town at 75’
Radio 4 commissioned a classical version of Dirty Old Town, the timeless classic that Ewan MacColl wrote about Salford. Peggy Seeger returned to Salford for a conversation with Mike Sweeney in which they peel back the layers of history, meaning and emotion of the song.
BBC Radio 4 – Great Lives
Peggy Seeger and Peter Cox discuss Ewan MacColl’s life and music with Miles Warde.
The Critics Group: An Experiment in Singing Folk Songs by Jim Carroll
Ewan set up ‘The Critics Group’ in 1963 – a self-help group working on the basis of ‘mutual criticism’; they met regularly at Ewan and Peggy’s home in Beckenham, Kent; among the first members were Sandra Kerr, John Faulkner, Luke Kelly (of the Dubliners) and radio producer, Charles Parker. Read Jim Carroll’s knowledgable discussion about The Critics Group here…
The Working Class Movement Library
Extensive information on Ewan’s work in music, theatre & radio.
Toppermost
A thorough and well written overview of Ewan’s life and recordings by Andrew Shields on the excellent Toppermost blog.
Studs Terkel Radio Archives
Interviews with Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger.
Studs Terkel Radio Archives: Interviews with Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger.
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Ewan MacColl & Peggy Seeger discuss Scottish Folk Music
A detailed chronology of rare Ewan MacColl recordings, where you can see the track list, album cover and other information.
Discography by John Ross
The discography of Ewan MacColl created by John Ross (1947 – 2009). It was for many years the one and only complete listing of Ewan’s records.
Studs Terkel Radio Archives: Interviews with Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger.
The Radio Ballads
The BBC Radio Ballads were ground-breaking documentaries produced by Ewan MacColl, Charles Parker and Peggy Seeger in the late 1950s and 1960s and broadcast on the BBC Home Service. They were masterpieces of radio, weaving the voices of rarely-heard communities with songs written from and about the recorded experiences of the interviewees – read about their history here.
The Radio Ballads
All the Radio Ballads are now available to download on Ewan MacColl’s Bandcamp page.
Radio Ballad Transcripts
All the transcripts of the Radio Ballads are available via The Charles Parker Archive Trust website.
Further info:
Further information about The Radio Ballads can be found through these links:
BBC information on the original Radio Ballads
The Charles Parker Archive
BBC information on the 2006 Radio Ballads
Primary Transmission by Broadcaster
Excerpts from the Radio Ballads set against a dance music backdrop.
Books & Plays
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Journeyman: An Autobiography by Ewan MacColl
Introduction by Peggy Seeger.
2009 Edition published by Manchester University Press.
The Essential Ewan MacColl Songbook: Sixty Years of Songmaking
Compiled and Annotated by Peggy Seeger.
Foreword by Pete Seeger.
2009 Edition published by Camsco Music.
Set Into Song: Ewan MacColl, Charles Parker, Peggy Seeger and the Radio Ballads
By Peter Cox (2008).
Although now out of print, all the information about this remarkable book is available from the Charles Parker Archive Trust, including all the text.
Legacies of Ewan MacColl – The Last Interview
Edited by Allan F. Moore, University of Surrey, UK and Giovanni Vacca.
Foreword by Peggy Seeger.
2014 published by Ashgate Books.
Class Act: The Cultural and Political Life of Ewan MacColl
By Ben Harker.
2007 Paperback published by Pluto Press.
Ewan MacColl Plays: 1
Introduced by Robert Leach.
2009 Paperback published by Methuen.
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