(b London, 25 June 1942). English traditional-style singer, melodeon player and record producer. He became involved in skiffle music in the mid-1950s and in the early 1960s discovered ‘folk music’ when he attended the Singers Club run by Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger in London. In 1964 he and his wife, Danny Stradling, founded and ran the Fighting Cocks, a traditional folk club in Kingston, and in 1968 the King's Head traditional folk club in Islington. In 1973 he moved to the West Country.
Stradling was a member of the trail-blazing group Oak, whose seminal album Welcome to Our Fair is seen as having instigated the renewed interest in traditional English music and dance during the 1970s. He joined Bampton Morris Dancers, went on to form the Old Swan Band, which spearheaded the English country dance revival, and has subsequently been involved with bands as diverse as the English Country Blues Band, Tiger Moth, Edward II, Feckless and, currently, the English Country Dance Band.
In 1996 Stradling published the moribund Musical Traditions magazine on the Internet (and in CD-ROM format), where it continues to flourish and win awards under his editorship. He inaugurated the Musical Traditions label, which produces CDs of traditional musicians. He has been one of the prime movers behind the revival of traditional English music, a catalyst for the formation of key bands and has influenced the melodeon playing style.
‘Recording of Highland Mary’, Microsoft Encarta World Atlas (1998/R)
B. Peters: ‘This English’, Folk Roots, no.196 (1999), 23–6
Welcome to Our Fair, perf. Oak, Topic 12TS212 (1970)
No Reels, perf. Old Swan Band, Free Reed FRR 011 (1976)
Gamesters, Pickpockets and Harlots, perf. Old Swan Band, Dingles DIN 332 (1981)
Two Step to Heaven, perf. Edward the Second, Cooking Vinyl COOKCD 019 (1989)
Rhythms of the Wold, perf. R. Stradling, Green Linnet GLCD 3061 (1991)
Unruly, perf. English Country Blues Band, Rogue FMSD 5027 (1993)
Barn Dance, perf. English Country Dance Band, Carlton 30360 00242 (1995)
Still Swanning, perf. Old Swan Band, Free Reed FRCD 31 (1995)
Mothballs, perf. Tiger Moth, Rogue FMSD 2012 (1996)
CAROLE PEGG