Sounding the Century is the story of Bill Leader, the sound engineer and producer who straddled the age of traditional song and the folk revival, his life and times – a projected eight-volume series written by Mike Butler.

Time Immoral 1959–1969 is book four in the series, all of which are standalone reads. If you don’t have previous volumes, and you like the sound of this one, buy with confidence! With Mike’s endeavour beginning to look as wobbly as Bill Leader’s business acumen back in the day – while remaining as fabulous as Bill’s recorded output in that same period – fellow author Colin Harper, marginally better off than Mike and (unlike Mike at present) living in the UK, reckoned he should pay for the printing and handle the online sales. The series must continue! He’s crossing his fingers that a few dozen well-wishers and fans of Mike’s singular contribution to history might purchase copies. And if that well-wishing is drawing from a deep enough well, a couple of exclusive extras are also available – with all revenues after costs going to Mike to support future volumes. The print run will be available for posting by the end of August 2024.

Those extras are: (1) a limited edition (50 copies) revised repressing of Bill’s last album as producer, Hunter Muskett’s That Was Then, This Is Now(2014), signed by Bill and the HM members; (2) a limited edition signed 68-page book by Colin Harper, exclusive to this crowdfunder, Bill Leader: The Man Who Paid the Pipers, focused on Bill’s work with uilleann pipers and other Irish musicians (Séamus Ennis, Willie Clancy, Finbar Furey et al.), including interviews with Bill, Reg Hall, Finbar Furey, Robin Dransfield, Roger Trevitt and the late Nat Joseph. Also included are 30 rare press cuttings about Bill from 1955–79. The CDs are signed and ready; the Colin Harper book will be ready for posting (as above) by the end of August 2024. 

ABOUT TIME IMMORAL 1959–69:

Always active, Bill was the first to record Bert Jansch, and one of the last to document old-timers like Charlie Wills, Margaret Barry and Walter Pardon. The fourth book in the series, Time Immoral 1959–1969, picks up the story on the cusp of the 60s, and the UK folk scene is rapidly losing its innocence. Something has happened to folk music since the days when it was an innocent endeavour to make the world a better place. Hucksters and hustlers have emerged to stir the sedate pond. Some are song hunters from the USA, ready to carve up traditional music with native song hunters and music publishers. The folk record industry has come into line with the business standard – crookedness. Tiny sales, tiny fees, long hours and dodgy accounting methods have absolved the singers and musicians of every obligation except survival. External forces such as the sexual revolution are wrecking their home lives.

Bill, who as a day job at Collet’s record shop when the book commences, becomes the general fixer and factotum of the raffish Nat Joseph, the boss of Transatlantic Records, and is fending off bad lads who would rule the world if only records could be sold cheaply enough. An old adage inverted by Bill neatly sums up the situation: ‘There is many a good fiddle played on an old tune.’

Sounding the Century is the fruit of a hundred-plus interviews with Bill Leader and augmented by the testimony of hundreds of his collaborators. It adds immeasurably to the existing folk literature and pioneers a new way of writing about music, mixing oral history with incisive, witty criticism. Each book in the projected eight-part series comes with illustrations by Peter Seal and rare unpublished photographs.

PRAISE FOR SOUNDING THE CENTURY:

‘I read with fascination. Not just in admiration of the details you’ve unearthed and your engaging style and humour … but also your methodology of direct quotation and revealing sources and  exciting moments of discovery.’ – Shelagh Weir

‘We and Bill are so fortunate that someone so dedicated and capable should take on this enormously worthwhile work…’ – Leo O’Kelly

‘I didn’t realise how many volumes you have been working on. Amazing! You will eventually succeed in getting them all published and they will be reprinted until the end of time. Copies will be fought over, no household will be without them on their shelves and they will be made compulsory reading in schools and be used for GCSE exams. They will be used in court to swear upon instead of the Bible, and you will be knighted for your services and receive the Nobel prize for literature. Never give up the dream.’ – Michele Coxon

‘Butler gives a wonderful insight into the day-to-day challenges of political work such as selling the Daily Worker, education schools at Wortley Hall, agitprop at Unity Theatre and the production of Topic Records. For many comrades of a certain age, it is a wonderful trip down memory lane. For others it provides some historical context to our current struggles.’ – Bevis Miller, Morning Star, 22 August 2022

‘Re the hallucinatory prose – I can’t explain it (save that I read all the chapters in bed circa 12–2am) but I found it magical and dreamlike. After reading it all I thought, ‘What have I read? Was there anything in there at all or was it all undulating, delightful whimsy?’ So I’ve read most of it all AGAIN and I see that it IS all about stuff! So there’s something about your prose that pulls one in and wafts along for the woozy ride.’ – Colin Harper, author of Dazzling Stranger: Bert Jansch and the British folk and blues revival