Phil Manchester

I thought I would mention Phil Manchester who was a longstanding and active member of the Colchester folk music scene.  He did a lot of stuff over the years.  He was very encouraging to The Doomed Bird of Providence in their early days.  I took a lot of inspiration from an EP he created with Colchester Waits in 1974 called Witchfinder (available here) and listened to it A LOT.  It’s still something I listened to regularly.  But he was involved in a lot of different things musically and his solo stuff is also excellent.

The Doomed Bird played with Colchester Waits on one occasion (and they played Witchfinder in its entirety).  It was a real honour to be on the same bill as them.

Anyway, Phil is no longer with us.  He was one of the good guys.