Folk hero

What makes this modern-day troubadour so special, certainly around these streets, is that much of his best work is influenced and inhabited by real characters from his formative years in Croydon; the much-loved neighbour, Mr Connaughton, the Sunday school organist Mrs Adlam and famously the killing of PC Miles by Christopher Craig, the Tamworth Road shooting that turned into a national outcry against the death penalty handed out to Derek Bentley.

Ralph has now published two autobiographical volumes that offer a tantalising glimpse of life in 50s Croydon and an insight into the people and background to his songs.

"Certainly the first volume, Angel Laughter, may throw light on certain aspects of some of my songs from the early days; Croydon was a great place to grow up in and I hope I've captured some of that in the book.

"The real reason was to put the record straight that it hasn't been an easy run through to where I am now, there were some tough times growing up in post-war south London. It had its deprivations, but there were many compensations too, because Croydon had its own identity, with all the music it produced and the characters that peopled our lives. It was a stimulating time and I look back on it very fondly," he says.

In November 2004, Ralph celebrated his 60th birthday with a landmark concert at the Royal Festival Hall. It was an emotional evening among friends that was captured for posterity on DVD.

"It was a fantastic evening and we filmed the entire show; I put a group of friends together, trusting that they would not let me down and they didn't. Bert Jansch, another Croydon boy Wizz Jones, Cara Dillon, Martin Allcock on keyboards, Chris Parkinson, Dave Pegg on bass, Graham Preskett on mandolin, Frankie Gallagher on violin, and I had the London Community Gospel choir join me. We did the whole thing with minimal rehearsal and the DVD has got a lovely, live feel to it, it was warm and friendly and the audience loved it.

"There's not much of me singing anything on film apart from the hit' and the children's TV show (Alphabet Zoo), so this is a little something to leave behind and I'm delighted with it."

Entitled The London Show, it is currently only available via Ralph's website www.ralph mctell.co.uk.

Scheduled for release later this year is a fascinating four disc boxset of unreleased material, live cuts and alternative takes, yet Ralph remains surprisingly apprehensive.

"Yes, I'm still not sure about the idea it's a bit ominous when they do a boxset and you're still alive! It has a working title of The Journey and we hope to put it out ourselves with the help of David Suff from Fledgling Records.

"David suggested that it was time for such a collection, but I really didn't think there was anything out there of any great interest, I thought that everything I liked had gone on record. But he asked for access to everything, taking away van-loads of tapes, live performances, out-takes, acetates and has managed to assemble an interesting set of four albums.

"We've even found a version of Streets of London from 1973 that never came out in this country, but was a hit in Holland and a turntable hit in America. I'm gradually getting used to the idea."

Ralph has also recently published a complete collection of his song lyrics, yet Time's Poems is far more than just a lyric book.

"I wanted it to have interest as a book in itself. I contend that song lyrics are very seldom poetry; they do have to rhyme, or they used to, and it's important to me that they still do and that sometimes the discipline of writing to a fixed rhyme scheme is just a joy and a challenge in itself.

"One of the verses says time's poems cannot be cheated by carving it in stone' and my editor said, that's what we should call the book, Time's Poems.'"

Finally, I asked Ralph for an opinion on the current state of acoustic music.

"From what I hear, particularly around the festivals, I think that traditional acoustic music has never been played with as much enthusiasm and brio and confidence as it is now. Partly because the new generation of musicians have some great teachers and some wonderful recordings to listen to, plus interesting fusions to draw from, like the folk/rock bands that our generation created. The young traditional players have also brought a rebellious, almost punk-like attitude to it as well, an aggressive and rhythmic way of playing that is very exciting.

"There are some very good instrumentalists buried within bands, but what I feel the scene lacks, is someone who can play guitar well and write great material of their own I don't see a new Bert Jansch or a John Martyn coming through, at least not that I'm aware of.

"When Bert and John were writing, those songs filtered right through the network and people wanted to learn from them and copy their guitar style. They took the traditional methods of accompaniment and merged them with blues playing to create a uniquely British style of guitar playing, which is readily identifiable.

"I believe we still lack a good, young songwriter in the male department; we have a great deal of fine female writers about, Karine Polwart and little Kate Rusby, but it's the dangerous-looking young guy I want to see discovering that the acoustic guitar can be just as sexy as the electric variety."

Ralph McTell returns to his old stomping ground on Friday, April 7, to start his Walk Into The Morning tour.

- Ralph McTell
Ashcroft Theatre, Fairfield
April 7
£16.50, £14.50 020 8688 9291