The Kipper Family

The Kipper family of Trunch, Norfolk have retained a store of their own, idiosyncratic repertoire of English folk songs which remained undiscovered until the 1980s, when Henry Kipper (then in his later years) and his 40-something son Sid discovered somehow the folk club revival circuit, and started performing their songs in rather hesitant, unaccompanied fashion, complete with regional (Norfolk) background material. Some (most) of the songs seemed oddly familiar - such as Dido Fido, The Wild Mounting Thyme and Uncle Tom Cobbley Can't Come. With the passage of time they seemed to have the uncanny ability to “remember” yet more songs. Eventually they remembered a complete opera (The Crab Wars). By the 1990s, old Henry Kipper had retired and Sid Kipper was carrying on alone... In reality the Kippers are/were Chris Sugden and Dick Nudds (Kipper being most likely an affectionate borrowing from Copper).

[Tony Rees]