Bob Pegg
words ~ music ~ place
contact: catsback@gmail.com
Stories are at the core of all my work, whether told, sung, played or written.
In the 1970s, most of the songs I wrote and recorded were narratives, including longer song-sequences such as The
Gipsy, The Shipbuilder and Bones. In 1989, when I moved to the Highlands and began to meet and work with some of
the great Scottish Traveller storytellers, I was inspired by them to tell stories myself. Since then I have worked as a
storyteller in schools, community venues and festivals, all over Scotland, in the Northern and Western Isles, and as far
afield as Iceland. The stories and legends of the north have been a great inspiration, and form the bulk of my repertoire.
My storytelling always incorporates music, song, and riddles. A lot of the performances take place in specific locations,
from neolithic sites to haunted villages, with the occasional cathedral included. In 2002 we received Scottish Arts Council
funding which helped set up The Merry Dancers Storytelling project. This gave great opportunities for storytellers to
work with artists in other media, and produced the award-winning Gizzen Briggs animation (see Schools).
Recently I’ve been using traditional stories as a starting point for a lot of project work. In 2007 A Tale Gathering gave
great opportunities to work with schools, after-school, and community groups, in collaborations with Highland artists, to
produce hand-made books, large-scale artwork, drama for people with special needs and pre-school Gaelic learners,
and model making. Projects with Historic Scotland and Kilmartin House, and Walking the Stories, a series of storywalks
supported by a Creative Scotland bursary, have opened up possibilities for using storytelling in fresh contexts.
The Shipbuilder was released in 1974, by
Transatlantic Records. It was a Gothic
narrative which extended over both sides
of the LP, and was greatly inspired by
Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient
Mariner. While not being unaware of the
Seven Deadly Sins, I’m a little bit proud of
the sleeve design, all my own work, which
was included in the very first book of LP
cover art, Album Sleeve Album.
In the late 70s I wrote a number of songs
which were much performed, but never
recorded. One was A Warning to Minstrels,
which told of a street singer whose music
charmed the Queen so much that she took
him in to the palace so that he might “sing
for her when she pleased” - with, of course,
dire consequences. The exquisite illustration
is by Kate Mellor. An even more beautiful
illustration to the song is in the Gallery.
In 2001-02 I toured with the
Storytelling Yurt in Wester Ross.
My co-worker was drama worker
Judith Aitken. We learned to put it
up in an hour (and take it down
again when the inevitable rain
arrived). The yurt was the focal
point of all manner of activities,
from storytelling to felt making.
Story Walks are great ways to
get some fresh air, explore the
landscape, and find out about the
spirit of a place. Here we’re on
the top of Knockfarrel hill, just
above Ardival where I live,
blowing a big horn, as an
invocation for a story of Finn
MacCoul, the great Irish warrior.
Duncan Williamson is widely feted as one
of the great storytellers of the last century.
He was born in 1928, in a tent in a wood
near the shores of Loch Fyne in Argyll,
and soaked up stories and songs the
whole of his life. Duncan was a great
encourager of younger storytellers. He
taught me how to play the Jew’s harp, and,
by example, how stories, music, songs
and riddles all work together as part of an
ancient entertainment tradition. When he
died, in 2007, it seemed as if everyone
you met had a Duncan anecdote to tell.
Here I am, doing my bit at the Nairn Book
Festival 2007. I Photoshopped the Arthur
Rackham trees into the background,
because of my admiration for his work, and
because, whenever I tell a story that’s set in
a forest, I see it in my head as drawn by
Rackham. I like to tell the old, traditional
stories, that have been around for maybe
thousands of years, moving from continent
to continent and language to language,
taking on the characteristics of their cultural
surroundings like living chameleon
creatures. Where will they pop up next?