The Bard of Ballarat

Gathering together and publishing all of Geordie Corrigall’s work is a job that has been waiting to be done for a long time and Orkney is greatly indebted to Beatrice Thomson for rising to this daunting but noble task. Here assembled in one volume are the absolutely priceless collected works of a man who had the combined gifts of original thought, poetry and humour and the end product is now so much easier to appreciate, many pieces deserving not just humorous, but literary acclaim.

The accompanying tape is not a “Geordie Corrigall’s Greatest Hits” and some may be disappointed that old favourites are not included but the ten recorded songs offer a balanced cross section of his work and are remarkable for their clarity, thanks to the skills of Onnie Tierny of Attic Records and the wonders of digital technology. However for us poor tuneless individuals who do not know the old songs he wrote to it can take a few minutes of perseverance to get into the metre of a piece and perhaps a second tape, even if of poorer sound quality would have been useful as recordings do exist of more of his songs.

The book has a valuable introduction to Geordie’s literary style by Gregor Lamb and also includes touching personal reminiscences and tributes from Louie Sinclair, Mary Bichan and Inga Shervington which give some insight into the kind of man Geordie was.

His appreciation of the simple life features strongly in the hilarious “Great Grandad”, certainly one of the top ten of Geordie Corrigall hits, but the sentiment is expressed with much deeper feeling in the touching “Supperan the Kye”. Many pieces have more relevance today than when written in the forties and fifties; not just the classic Corrigall comedy “Brack him up for Spares” with its obvious parallels with spare part surgery but also in the very serious reflective piece “The Quiet Hills.”

Geordie’s work has also a lesson for many of the so-called script writers of today who seem to think that causing offence, using obscene language and having constant reference to sex and other bodily functions are essential criteria for humour. He had a rare gift of being funny, hilariously funny without any of the above.

The intention not to offend was most important to him and with his most risque piece being “The Willow Pattern Po”, there was little fear of that happening. His ability to see humour in almost any situation and to present it in his own inimitable style with his audience in the impression that they were laughing at him when so often they were laughing at themselves is the mark of true comic genius.

Many times over the last four decades when there has been an event of great world significance, or more importantly a seemingly insignificant event in some corner of darkest Harray, I have heard the much lamented phrase “Hid’s a peety Geordie o’ Ballarat’s no alive for I’m sure he wid hin a song written aboot that fur the next Harray concert.”

This attractively packaged produce is an absolute essential for all those of us who knew him and will find a ready place in every house in Harray and many throughout the rest of Orkney and the dominions where the name of Geordie Corrigall is still revered, but I would commend it to a wider audience.

Anyone with an interest in Orkney and things Orcadian, an interest in the social and economic history of the mid-twentieth century or just someone who wants a right good laugh could do a lot worse with £20 than buy this, which, at the present time is the only monument to the Bard of Ballarat, Geordie Corrigall – A Man In A Million.

JHJ