JohnRichardsSongwriter.co.uk
Title
John Richards - Original songs covered by Fairport, Show of Hands and Bill Caddick
Description
The granddaughter of John Sharkey, the landlord of the Black Horse at Sodom (Upper Ettingshall), met the son of the Choirmaster of Sodom chapel (Arthur Richards) who unlike many Methodists of the time felt that an hour in the pub before choir practice was essential.
Both families were intensely musical and as well as the Choirmaster liking a drink, the pub landlord was a violinist. By the time that John was born, there was a whole collection of family choirmasters, singers and musicians.
At five years of age, John was dispatched to Uncle Harold, who was church organist at Hurst Hill, to learn piano. Piano was not a fashionable instrument in 1950's Coseley and Johns' footballing mates were not impressed by this excuse for time off. John also hated it, had no interest in the music that he was being taught, and failed to practice. After some years of under achievement, Johns' practice of wandering around the house strumming his Mothers violin finally persuaded, his parents to buy him his long term wish, his first guitar, an Eros six string.
