Wednesday, December 09, 2009

Cosmotheka - (re-up)



Cosmotheka sing a few old favourites from the days of music hall on their 1992 BBC radio show "Cosmotheka's Comedy Songbook" live from the Palace Theatre , Redditch in the West Midlands.

"For those of us that had the pleasure of witnessing the ‘act’ that was Cosmotheka (Dave & Al Sealey) should count ourselves lucky. I say this in the knowledge that I, along with countless others will recall with nostalgia the songs set before us for the first time on CD. So, congratulations to Graham Bradshaw at Folksound for issuing it. I won’t re-trace the history of the duo (Dave does that in the accompanying booklet) but needless to say a majority of the most popular numbers from their extensive repertoire appear here. To name-check a few, we have ‘Wot A Mouth’, ‘Don’t Do It Again, Matilda’, ‘Thuthie’ and ‘Wot I Want Is A Proper Cup Of Coffee’. Dave and Al’s tireless pursuit of the rich music hall heritage that was so much a part of Britain’s social structure is a testament to all song collectors. I reflect with fondness my particular association with the duo when I was asked to play a difficult banjo break on one of their recordings and all the encouragement they gave me in completing the task. Without the likes of Cosmotheka, the world of folk music (which they embraced as much as the music halls) would be a poorer scene. Sadly Al passed away in 1999 leaving a legacy of recordings that if they were to be released today would bring a smile to the sternest of critics. Perhaps now the ball has started rolling someone somewhere will re-issue all of Cosmotheka’s back catalogue."

Buy the CD of some of their best known songs HERE.


Cosmotheka - Radio Session 1980's

Cosmotheka - Guest Spot Radio 2 1986

2 comments:

Cassie said...

Wonderful to see this. Just to let you know that Dave is back on the road, both solo and with his son Dan, and their website is being developed - holding page for the moment, but gigs & details of Twitter and Facebook are listed - at www.cosmotheka.co.uk.

Best wishes
Cassie Tillett

Wastedpapiers said...

Thanks for the link Cassie - much appreciated.