A. L. LLOYD—A TRIBUTE – Lucy Duran

ICTM has lost one of its most honoured and long-standing members—A. L. Lloyd has died at the age of 74 in his home in Greenwich, London.

Founder-member of the UK National Committee of the ICTM, he was its chairman from 1978 until his death. For those of on in the L.K. who were privileged to meet and work with him either through the ICI :A or London University, where he had been teaching for the pa ff ten years, the loss will be immense.

But he will be keenly missed by many more besides. For he was a scholar of international repu-tation- a man as conversant with East European folk music as with his own native English folk tradition, equally at home as a broadcaster, film scripter, recordist, and folksinger. Albert Lancaster Lloyd was born in London on February 29, 1908.

His parents died when he was in his early teens, and shortly afterwards, around 1924. he went to Australia as a migrant worker. There he worked on sheep stations, and his  knowledge of Australian ballads and songs dates from this period.

He returned to England in 1935 and found work on an Antarctic whaling ship; for the next two years he learnt many whaling and sea songs through first hand experience. Later on, in the 50s and 60s, as one of the pioneers of the English folksong revival, he brought these scarcely known repertoires to the attention of British audiences, both through his work in foil, cltiff. around the country and through two records on the Topic la bcq,

Leviathan and The Great Australian Legend. His vocal style, which was highly distinctive. always bore the mark of his direct personal involvement with traditional song and culture. In 1938 Lloyd produced his first BBC Radio documentary, about life on board a ship—from the lower-deck point of view. It provoked a considerable public response, and started him off on his career as broad-caster and journalist.

During the 1940s he joined Picture Post magazine, for whom he travelled in South America and the Middle East. bow around 1950, with an already extensive knowledge of different folk traditions, he began recording in Romania, Bulgaria and Albania; some of these recordings were issued on the Topic label and were among the first of their kind available in the United Kingdom.

Lloyd had a knack for getting the best performance out of a musician, and unearthed many treasures in the field, apparently effortlessly. His recordings are in them-selves a work of art. From the early 60s Lloyd collaborated in the production of many records and anthologies. He was a founder-member of Topic records and remained its artistic director until his death. His sleeve notes to a record featuring the Norfolk singer Walter Pardon, only just released, were among his last contributions to Topic.