Talk:Jake Thackray

Date of birth
According to this site, his date of birth was 27 February. Anyone have another source? --Whouk (talk) 23:48, 17 December 2005 (UTC)

I rang his wife and confirmed 27 Feb is accurate 82.37.230.28 (talk) 11:34, 28 February 2008 (UTC)(David Harris, Jake Thackray Project)

Retirement and death section
I think the section, He left behind a collection of songs unsurpassed by any contemporary songwriter or poet, the songs of a craftsman whose lyrics, melodies and accompaniment are as relevant and appealing today as they ever were., should either be rewritten or deleted as it's not NPOV. (Yorkshiresky 15:47, 30 May 2006 (UTC))

Done, but the article is still littered with POV (some of it is relevant and I'm hesitant to delete it out of hand) and looks suspiciously like liner notes. (Mon Vier 21:04, 21 June 2006 (UTC))

I agree, it really needs a total rewrite. Nice though the writing is, and I'm in agreement with the sentiments of it, it's not in keeping with the Wikipedia NPOV. I'll have a think about it when I have some time. (Yorkshiresky 11:02, 26 June 2006 (UTC))


 * And it seems to be admitting to copyright violation: "Taken from the insert notes supplied by The Jake Thackray Project for EMI's recent CD compilation" Flapdragon 16:13, 29 June 2006 (UTC)

I've rewritten the article in hopefully a more acceptable style. Please check and amend any factual errors etc.. (Yorkshiresky 22:17, 1 July 2006 (UTC))


 * Looks good, FWIW the tone now seems fine to me, though the copyright problem remains in the many distinctive phrases like "a singer-songwriter in the French tradition, a "chansonnier" whose songs are nevertheless convincingly and idiosyncratically English". Flapdragon 00:08, 2 July 2006 (UTC)

Agreed, I've rewritten them in a more neutral tone. (Yorkshiresky 10:56, 2 July 2006 (UTC))

Last Will and Testament
Does anyone here know whether his wishes as expressed in the "last will and testiment" song were at all respected? Did they put up a memorial to him with "a fancy tombstone or a big-deal angel or a little copper flower pot", or did they just plant a tree after they planted him? --Slashme 14:09, 24 August 2007 (UTC)

Yes - in as much as we played upon his guitar and kissed his little missus - Torrington Jakefest, part of the Jake Thackray Project 82.37.230.28 (talk) 11:34, 28 February 2008 (UTC)(David Harris)

Thackray's guitar
I've put a fact tag on the bit about Thackray using nylon strongs on a steel-string accoustic guitar rather than a classical guitar, because I'm not convinced it's true - all the footage I've seen of him shows him playing a classical guitar. Perhaps it is the case and the footage I've seen is unrepresentative, in which case a cite would be useful. --Nicknack009 (talk) 13:07, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

Copyvio
Chunks of the text of the article are word-for-word copies of the sleeve notes in the Very Best of Jake Thackray CD. (Or maybe the sleeve notes are copies from Wikipedia, but I doubt that). Richard W.M. Jones (talk) 13:26, 13 December 2010 (UTC)

removed text
I've removed this as being OR, but thought I'd put it here for posterity. ''The character of Granny Aching in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series can be read as a nod to Jake's song 'Old Molly Metcalf', which refers to a real shepherdess as being more than a pretty figure: "shepherdess is a word for a woman with a pinafore... this woman was a sheep-minder". It also refers to the counting song Yan Tan Tethera and uses the word 'jiggit' meaning twenty, which Sarah calls her grand-daughter Tiffany, as her twentieth grandchild.'' Pseudomonas(talk) 13:19, 31 January 2011 (UTC)

Influenced Nick Drake?
I've removed this claim as it's been uncited for four years. I'm pretty sure it comes from a misunderstanding of an article comparing the release of Jake in a Box to the similarly posthumous rediscovery of Drake's work. --Nicknack009 (talk) 19:10, 18 March 2013 (UTC)

Birthplace?
Leeds, West Yorkshire, or Pickering, North Yorkshire? Sources conflict. When I met him, he spoke in a decidedly N. Yorks accent, almost Geordie. Edith Waring (talk) 18:41, 16 May 2015 (UTC)


 * All the sources cited in this article say Leeds as far as I'm aware. OR, but I looked up his birth registration on Genes Reunited, and it says Leeds North. --Nicknack009 (talk) 19:35, 16 May 2015 (UTC)
 * I think his birth was registered in "Leeds North". The current source, which is an obituary by Alan Clayson in The Guardian, just says "Leeds", not Kirkstall. 205.239.40.3 (talk) 22:48, 30 September 2022 (UTC)

External links modified
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What did Jake study at Durham?
There's disagreement about Jake's course of study at Durham. His Guardian obituary says modern languages. A Durham University site says English language and literature, as does this review of his biography. Various notes around the web seem to support the latter. Can we resolve this? Jean-de-Nivelle (talk) 22:07, 30 September 2022 (UTC)


 * Jean-de-Nivelle, thank you for those two sources. It looks like it's two to one in favour of English Language and Literature. It seems that Alan Clayson, in his obit in The Guardian, may have been mistaken here. I have no objection to you correcting this and adding those two new sources to support. Thank you. 205.239.40.3 (talk) 22:39, 30 September 2022 (UTC)