User:K Allen Miller/sandbox

Fourum
This north east of England folk group were formed in February 1972 and officially retired in June 2023, after over 50 years of performing. Fourum is one of the longest performing folk groups in the north east, having given concerts in every single year from 1972 till their retirement in 2023. The group are best known for their songs about the Yorkshire Dales, written by founder member Allen Miller, but Scottish and Tyneside songs also feature in their repertoire.

Fourum's Name
At Fourum's first appearance on February 9th 1972 the group were introduced as "Four teachers from Hummersknott School". When they were asked that same evening by members of the audience to perform at other functions they realised that they would need a name. As a Latin teacher Allen knew that forum meant a meeting place. There were four in the group and between them they were bringing music from different areas and meeting up together, Hence the name Fourum was created.

History
The original members were Jim Jack, Allen Miller, Bob Hattersley and Dave Smith. Allen Miller had arrived in England from Texas in 1959 and, after graduating with a degree in Classics at Durham University, had settled in Darlington. In 1974 Tom Cowley joined the staff of the school and also joined Fourum. Bob Smedley joined Fourum later that year and Dave Smith retired from the group. In 1976 Tom Cowley and Bob Smedley left the group to concentrate on their own style of music. Malcolm Dawson joined the staff of the school in 1976 and performed with Fourum until Christmas of 1977 when Sandy Still joined the staff. Sandy had a history of folk music from his teenage years and began playing with Fourum over the Christmas holidays before he officially joined the staff of Hummersknott School in January of 1978. Jim Jack, Allen Miller, Bob Hattersley and Sandy Still remained together until Christmas of 2010 when Bob Hattersley died of cancer.

In 1978 Allen began writing songs about the Yorkshire Dales - its history, characters, legends and famous incidents. Later that year Fourum released their first LP, recorded at Eclipse Studios in Redcar. In 1979 Fourum released their second LP - Gunnerside Gill - Remembered. This was recorded at Guardian Studios in Pity Me, Durham and was produced and engineered by Terry Gavaghan. It contained 14 tracks, seven Dales songs by Allen Miller and seven traditional folk songs. It was at this time that Fourum gained their first full page spread in the local newspaper. In May of that year Fourum sold out their first concert at the Darlington Civic Theatre.

In 1980 Fourum won the Darlington section of the Northern Lights Talent Competition sponsored by BBC Radio Cleveland. They subsequently represented Darlington in the next stage against other town winners from the region and won the overall competition. The song Fourum performed in the competition was The Swaledale Song, written by Allen Miller. The same year Fourum released their third LP - Singing the Dales - also recorded at Guardian Studios. This contained 12 Dales songs, all composed by Allen Miller. In the same year Fourum became the first resident folk group at the Darlington Arts Centre. By now Allen's reputation as a songwriter was spreading.

In 1981 Fourum released a Christmas single - The Drummer Boy of Richmond - which had been one of the tracks from the previous album. This song was aired on local radio and Terry Wogan also played it on his breakfast program on BBC Radio Two. In the same year Fourum were voted Radio Tees Folk Group of the Year.

In 1983 Jim Jack was promoted to a deputy headship in Cumbria and it looked like the end of the road for Fourum. However Jim soon arranged a concert at his new school and Fourum carried on singing, meeting up in Swaledale or Cumbria.

In 1984 Fourum performed on ITV's Sunday evening show Highway, hosted by Harry Secombe. The show was featuring the Yorkshire town of Richmond and Fourum were filmed in the grounds of Richmond Castle singing their hit The Drummer Boy of Richmond. The programme was aired on ITV on February 19th 1984.

In 1987 Fourum recorded a live concert at Hummersknott School. This was released as a cassette by Guardian Records. In 1992 Jim Jack was promoted to the Headship of Richmond School in North Yorkshire. This meant that Jim was now once again in close proximity with the rest of the group and rehearsals could once again be on a more frequent basis. Allen Miller was inspired to write even more songs about the Yorkshire Dales and these were incorporated into another cassette in 1993 - The Dales Revisited - also produced and engineered by Terry Gavaghan.

In 1994 Fourum were due to appear in Gunnerside for a gig and the acting head of Gunnerside Primary School, Rod Hall, contacted Fourum and asked if he could play the double bass in the concert. He came to a rehearsal and it was immediately clear that Rod's bass added something special to sound of the group. He was invited to join the group and Fourum became five.

By 1997 Allen had written many more songs about the Dales and Fourum released their first CD - The Making of Swaledale. It was recorded at Submarine Studios in York and was produced by Allen's son, Gus Miller. Soon after the release of the CD and Cassette of this album, and to coincide with their first 25 years of performing, Fourum were featured in The Dalesman magazine.

In 1998 Tyne Tees Television contacted Fourum wanting to do a piece on Allen Miller for Series Five of The Dales Diary with Luke Casey. The item was introduced as "an American who writes songs about the Yorkshire Dales". Two tracks from the recent CD were featured, including Leaving for America about Dalesmen in the 19th Century who had left Swaledale to live in America. Allen had made the opposite journey. Allen was filmed walking and talking with Luke Casey on Grinton Moor. Then Fourum were recorded singing in St. Andrew's Church, Grinton later that day.

In 2003 Fourum were invited to perform twice in the day at The Swaledale Festival. The first would be at Grinton Smelt Mill performing for a group of walkers on a Festival event, then in St. Andrew's Church, Grinton for a concert in the evening. This would be the first of many Fourum concerts at the Festival, the final one being their final ever concert on June 4th, 2023 at Gunnerside Methodist Chapel.

In late December 2010 Bob Hattersley died from kidney cancer. Fourum were in the process of creating a triple CD of Dales songs, written by Allen Miller, and a book to accompany the CD with background, photographs and words to the songs. Bob had started a few articles before he died and Allen incorporated these into the eventual book.

In November of 2011 the Triple CD - The Dales Collection - was released, featuring 38 Dales songs written by Allen Miller. Work on the accompanying book was still in progress when in 2012 Fourum celebrated their 40th anniversary of performing and were contacted by The Dales TV series, hosted by Ade Edmondson. The ITV programme followed the group over a few concerts and rehearsals and recorded the whole of their 40th anniversary concert at The Georgian Theatre Royal in Richmond. Ade Edmondson himself appeared at the rehearsal and played his mandolin in one of Allen Miller's songs. In addition a second episode featured the late Bob Hattersley's maps exhibition at the Georgian Theatre. Bob had produced a large number of meticulously hand-drawn maps based on Allen's Dales songs and also on the history of Darlington. After his death in 2010 proceeds from the sale of his maps went to a kidney cancer fund set up by his wife, Jean. Proceeds from the book also went to this fund and well over £10,000 was raised in this effort. The programmes were aired on June 24th and July 8th 2013.

This was followed in 2013 with the Book - Fourum's Dales Collection - which Allen had written to accompany the triple CD and for which Jim Jack had collected numerous photographs. All 38 songs were individually illustrated by Sally Zaranko. By 2022 proceeds from this book and Bob's maps had reached nearly £20000. Rod Hall was also a song writer and in September 2014 Fourum released a CD single featuring two songs by Rod - Long Road Home, based on a true Swaledale story from World War 1, and Storm Warrior based on the remarkable escape of Henry Freeman in the Whitby lifeboat disaster of 1861. This was recorded at Forum Studios, Darlington. Two months later Fourum released a Christmas single Christmas Bells, also written by Rod, and based on the first Christmas of the First World War exactly 100 years previously. The proceeds from this song went to Help for Heroes. In addition a YouTube video was created for this song, created by Aby Gedye.

Fourum continued playing and performing concerts, including annual concerts at the Georgian Theatre Royal every October and The Swaledale Festival every May/June until 2022 when the group announced their retirement. The final concert of the year was in October 2022 at the Georgian Theatre Royal. However Fourum had one commitment left for the following year's Swaledale Festival in June 2023. Two Fourum concerts were scheduled on the same day at Gunnerside Methodist Chapel. The latter one sold out within four days of the tickets going on sale - the first event of the whole festival to sell out - and the former sold out not long afterwards.

Discography
(1978) Fourum - LP (1979) Gunnerside Gill Remembered - LP and Cassette (1980) Singing the Dales - LP and Cassette (1981) The Drummer Boy of Richmond/Census 1851 - Vinyl single (1987) Folk with Fourum: In Concert - Cassette (1994) The Dales Revisited - Cassette (1997) The Making of Swaledale - CD (2004) Singing the Dales - CD version of 1980 LP (2011) The Dales Collection - Triple CD compilation of Allen's songs plus 5 new songs (2014) Storm Warrior/Long Road Home - CD double song single (2014) Christmas Bells - CD single