Sad Ballads & Crazy Salads FRIDAY 30th January 2026
£8.00
Sad Ballads & Crazy Salads with Elaine Claxton & Rick Williams
A night of miserable music and (not so) wise words with Rick and Elaine… Rick and Elaine think they met about 18 years ago and since then, along with Rick’s brother Grev, they have become friends and have sung together at various traditional music sessions in West Penwith and Bodmin folk club. It’s something of a standing joke that the songs are largely about drownings, murder, unrequited love, grinding poverty and other such cheerful subjects.
So when Rick and Elaine decided to put together and evening of music and readings, “Sad Ballads” came to mind. The “Crazy Salads” part of the title is a quote from a poem by Yeats, commenting on the odd choices some “fine women” make. So the show will be a mixture of mainly sad songs, and very varied selction of readings by or about women who…
42 in stock
Description
Born and brought up in Newlyn, Rick Williams come from a long line of musicians. Grandfather, Norris Williams, was accompanist at the first Newlyn Male Voice choir concert in 1921 and later conductor & musical director, a tradiEon that Rick conEnues with his work as formaEve member of the Boilerhouse singers, for whom he is 2nd tenor, arranger & musical director. As a child Rick greatly admired Job Morris, an old family friend who ran the SenEnel record label. Job recorded choirs, brass bands, Brenda WooJon, the fish market, the sea, mining machinery or anything he fancied that reflected the culture & environment of the West Penwith of his Eme.
Rick’s enthusiasm for music wasn’t spoJed by his school teachers & he took inspiraEon from listening to the John Peel radio shows, especially during the early punk years. But every year there was always the carols with his father Grev sr, brother Grev jr, aunEes, cousins, friends and neighbours.
Musical staples over the years have included the Tinners barndance band with Grev jr and the late Mike Pritchard and, since 1999, Rick has worked as composer and performer with Bagas Degol & Annamaria Murphy, currently touring with their well-received show Exiles, stories and songs based on people & places from the Cable & Wireless archive in Porthcurno. September 2025 sees Bagas & Anna presenEng Exiles for the Cornish Gorsedh’s annual Esedhvos fesEval, this year held at Marazion.
In 2006 some of Rick’s home-computer-produced dub reggae versions of Cornish folk tunes (“Party Like it’s 1399” by Bagas Degol) were played on the Andy Kershaw show on radio 3. In 2020 Rick’s arrangement of the Charles Causley poem Nelson Gardens was covered by Billy Bragg.
More recently his arrangement of the Alfred Noyes poem “Peace In The Breaking Wave” has been used on radio 4 in Callum Mitchell’s play about a homeless Cornish father & son “GreeEngs From Sunny Cornwall” and an episode of Open Country, sung by the Boilerhouse singers & recorded in Penzance. He has worked alongside filmmaker, Mark Jenkin on the films “Gorthwedh, commissioned by the NaEonal Trust, and “Enough To Fill An Eggcup”, commissioned by Golden Tree ProducEons.
Has taught choral arrangements to O Region & CollecEve Arts theatre, arranged music for the Story Republic & teaches music from home.
He says he has played in too many bands to menEon since age 14, but the ones he is proudest of are Bagas Degol & the Boilerhouse singers.
Elaine has been an actor for some 48 years, working in theatre, TV,
radio, and film. Theatre includes two seasons at The National
Theatre, summer seasons at The Stephen Joseph Theatre,
Scarborough, and at Chichester Festival Theatre. She has been a
member of the BBC Radio Drama Company four times, recording
hundreds of plays, many of which are currently getting a second
airing on Radio 4 Extra.
Among her TV appearances there is Wire in the Blood, Emmerdale,
Doc Martin, and most recently, Episode 3 of Season 7 of Black
Mirror, but often she is recognised by parents of young children as
Mrs Pickles from Andy’s Prehistoric Adventures. She has also
narrated around 40 audiobooks.
Brought up in North Bucks, family holidays were nearly always to
Pendeen and she and her sisters vowed to live here one day. They
all managed to do that and Elaine came to live in West Penwith in
2003. Work often takes her away from home, but happily she has
also appeared at the Hall for Cornwall, with Miracle Theatre, Cube
Theatre and, most recently, she played the dastardly Antonio in The
Tempest in Trebah gardens, directed by Trevow’s Guy Watson
Rick has already played at The Old Cemetery Chapel but Elaine
has so far been only an audience member. She is delighted to be
joining him at such a beautiful venue.