Continuing our interview with Max Johnson, we now turn to the short-lived Threadbare, a group that existed in the period between the dissolution of Threadbare Consort and the formation of the Dead Sea Surfers. The group never released a record, but they did record a demo with Nigel Pegrum, the former Steeleye Span drummer, who by this point was running an agency and record label, Plant Life. We bring you four tracks from the demo - Now Is The Month Of Maying, Mars For Evermore, Lazarus and The Silver Spear, the latter of which features Dave East on concertina and Norman Western on fiddle. We hope you agree with our opinion that these never-before-available recordings are a bit of a treat!

LFT: When Threadbare Consort split up, two groups came out of the split, Threadbare and Mrs Spinks. You formed Threadbare. Can you tell us about the group?
 
MJ: When Threadbare Consort disbanded they still had about a year’s worth of bookings left in their diary, including a highly lucrative month in Germany and, as that was my only source of income at that time, I didn't want to waste them. With the approval of the other members of Threadbare Consort and the encouragement of our agents I approached Dave East, Celia O'Neill and Norman Western and we formed Threadbare with the main purpose of working to clear the existing bookings and obviously any others that we picked up within that period. 

LFT: Was there a difference in direction between Threadbare Consort and Threadbare? 

MJ: There was practically no difference in the sort of material we performed. Consort had an eclectic repertoire and so did we. What was different, and particularly enjoyable for me was the fact that Celia (and later, Mary Fookes), and Dave and Norm were all good instrumentalists. We didn’t often use instruments, but now and again we would accompany a song, or just play a tune. This was a new experience for me!  Also a female voice in the group allowed greater versatility in arrangements and also of course the songs we could sing. Consort’s four male voices had placed constraints on the way we arranged. The wider range of voices was now quite liberating in many ways; on a personal level I was now singing bass which I found I enjoyed, and I didn’t have to sing as low as Marshall Cligman! 

LFT: What are your favourite memories of your time with Threadbare?

MJ: We had a lot of fun with Threadbare, the highlight definitely being the long Forces Folk Federation tour in Germany. Celia had taken an opportunity to move to Canada by then, and so Mary Fookes joined us, on loan from the a cappella group Heritage. A lot of folk performers will have fond memories of the British Army of the Rhine tours. Some real characters ran the Forces clubs, and a lot of the squaddies were very talented performers. They tended to have a lot of contacts with local German folk, blues and jazz clubs, and gigs were usually arranged at the clubs for the nights we weren’t playing on a base. What a blast! It was a lot of miles but a very popular tour – and those guys really looked after you.

LFT: Did you ever record an album?

MJ: Sadly, no. But fortunately one recording survives: a single cassette tape, copied from a short demo recorded by Nigel Pegrum in his home studio on a 4-track TEAC in 1978. 

LFT: When did Threadbare disband?

MJ: We went our separate ways with a cheery wave in 1979 having had a lot of laughs. Celia O’Neill is now a singing teacher and choirmaster in Vancouver, Dave East runs the Court Sessions folk clubs in South London and Norman Western lives and works in Lancaster where we occasionally meet up for a pint in the John O’ Gaunt. We’ve lost touch, sadly, with Mary. Perhaps she’ll see this and get in touch!