fRoots

[diane easby]

Just posted on eceilidh:

I am sorry to have to announce that due to ill health (a recent
stroke and an ongoing heart condition) I am retiring from my career
as a musician and caller with immediate effect.

This also means that Boka Halat is winding up. News which, I am sure
will disappoint some and delight others. Since we launched ourselves
on the eceilidh scene with an LNE in Sidmouth in 2001, opinion has
been split over us. But like or loathe us, we have, I hope, made you
think about English dance music. If you know why you were either a
supporter or a detractor, then you will know more about your attitude
to ceilidh. All TAPS projects - and that's how Boka Halat started out
- were intended to encourage new thinking about English traditions.

If you caught what it is now clear was our last gig, at Chippenham
this year, thank you. We thought it was a good one to have gone out
on.
Thank you also for the positive criticism and encouragement which
many of you have given us over the years. I look forward to following
opinion about eceilidh through this group.

Farewell and best wishes
Announcements will in due course be placed at www.bokahalat.xco.uk
and www.rogerwatson.co.uk


What a terrible shame.

[ian]

That's very sad. Roger's one of the good ones - to paraZimphrase, like the late Tony Rose he was so much older when he was a VERY serious young traddie on first encounter in the 60s, and became so much younger as time passed by. Always an open-minded enthusiast, always a tireless activist, rarely feted and appreciated by the wider scene. They should give him next year's Good Tradition Award at the FAs.

But if retiring helps him to live to a ripe younger old age, then no harm done.

Boka Halat were on blazing good form at the FAFbash at the South Bank in May.

[roger]

Very sad news indeed but all I can do is wish Roger a long and happy retirement. I've known him since he played Nic Jones club in Chelmsford goodness knows how long ago and he was recently a guest at Hove Folk Club where he gave us a stormingly good evening.

I will also miss his contributions to Robb Johnson's Irregulars

[Vic Smith]

He was indeed excellent at Hove and again when we booked him at the Royal Oak in Lewes recently with Musa M'Boob.
We were lucky enough to share both a concert stage and a curry with him at Chippenham this year. We were also lucky enough to have been at the LNE in Sidmouth in 2001 that Roger mentions. This stands out in my memory as one of the best dances that I have been to and the standard at Sidmouth LNEs is very high.

All best wishes to Roger. Take it easy and enjoy life. I hope that we will still be meeting up.

[sean]

Sorry to hear this. Roger was always hugely supportive when I started Rock'n'Reel mag back in the late 80s and continued to please and suprise as part of Robb Johnson's band.
Good man Roger.
Sean