George Deacon's principal interest has always been the traditional songs of England. He recorded with Transatlantic Records releasing "Sweet William's Ghost" on XTRA 1130 one track of which, "The Devonshire Farmer's Daughter", has recently been reissued on the double CD "The Best of English Folk" (ESDCD770). Copies of Sweet Willam's Ghost are much sought after and command high prices. A recent site advertising a copy of sale is http://www.vinyltap.co.uk/shop/label/Xtra.aspxHaving completed John Clare and The Folk Tradition he issued a cassette of songs taken from the John Clare manuscripts - "Dream Not of Love" the recording of which was partly funded with an Arts Council Grant.
In 1987 he completed his Ph D at the University of Essex with a thesis titled "Popular Song and Social History - a study of the Miners of the North East".
Prior to this he had worked as a full-time folk singer.
He has lectured extensively on Popular Song and Social History and the collection and manuscripts of John Clare.
George has written several programmes for BBC Radio 4 including "Helpston Cracked Pippins" a look at Christmasses past in Clare's village of Helpston and written music for radio including the music for Neil Philip's trilogy "Between Earth and Sky". He was also commissioned to act as period music consultant for the film "Comrades" the story of the Tolpuddle Martyrs.
George now lives and works in Oxfordshire providing consultancy support for Health and Social Services projects. However he is currently working on several projects including publishing his doctoral thesis.
For George's activities click here: http://mysite.freeserve.com/SSD
