TalkAwhile - The Folk Corporation Forum

Message from Blair on FB

"Health update regarding Ashley:
Unfortunately, Ashley has suffered a stroke. It occurred a few weeks ago, and he has since been looked after at Chesterfield Royal Hospital, on the Eastwood Ward. They've been absolutely brilliant, we can't thank them enough.
While it's impossible to get a completely accurate prognosis, given the complex nature of strokes and how they affect people in different ways, we can say that Ashley will be withdrawing from public life for the foreseeable future. He does, however, remain in good spirits, and alarmingly positive about England's chances at the World Cup...
Given the circumstances, Ashley won't be appearing at Sidmouth Folk Festival next month, or with the Albion Xmas Band in December.
Once again, we would like to thank the staff at Chesterfield Royal Hospital, they are true heroes.
Much love to you all, from me and Dad,
Blair x"

Oh heck. Sending our love and best wishes

This is desperately sad news.  I do hope Ashley manages to regain some health and is able to enjoy his remaining days.  If that eventually involves making some music then all the better.

I feel so privileged to have gone (on a very generous freebie) to his 80th birthday bash last year which was awesome.

Sad news. All love and strength to Ashley and the Hutchings clan.

Jules

Sad news indeed. The 80th birthday do was a good celebration (anyone heard any more about the possible release of it?), and we also saw him with Blair on a mini-tour, but it was already clear it wasn't going to be playing much in the future.  Hope he is able to make a good recovery though.

Sad news - fingers crossed for his recovery.

Very fortunate (with a few other members of this parish) to have seen Ashley's epic 80th Birthday concert in Birmingham last year, and to have caught him one last time in a duo gig with Blair at King's Place, London, in June.

The gig at King's Place was more of a Q&A than a gig, the guys played some traditional material, some Dylan, some Leonard Cohen, some of Blair's originals and regaled the audience with tales of Jimi Hendrix jamming with Fairport at the Speakeasy club, also revealing that the poet Philip Larkin considered Fairport Convention the only rock group worth listening to...

Very sad news, and wishing him and his family all the best. I (like many others here) have had the pleasure of seeing Ashley play in various iterations of the Albion Band over the years. Will give the guv’nor discs a spin tonight.

Best wishes for a good recovery

Oh no...poor Ashley...that's awful news. I met him and had a chat at Cropredy back around 2005 and he is a lovely guy. Sending love and wishing him a speedy recovery.

Awful news , at least it doesn't sound as severe as Jerry's a few years ago mercifully , but still - here's wishing Tyger a speedy recovery

Sad news for Ashley and his family, he really is the guv’nr for all our music.
Thank you Blair for telling us about your dad, please keep us informed.
Wishing a very strong recovery Ashley with lots of love and thanks ❤️❤️❤️.

Couple of Albion songs played for him by Banter at Costa festival today.

Sad news. Here's hoping that his recovery & rehabilitation go well.

It's been posted before, I'm sure, but this is a nice little Albion Band documentary from 1979:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUJXwowVn1E&t=233s

Seen it before but many thanks for the reminder... :)

Sending best wishes to Ashley and his family. The Mrs. and I had several very pleasant interactions with him at and around Cropredy in 2007 and 2017, and found him absolutely charming. He even joined our group for lunch one time, and was quite the raconteur. He sold me a leftover Albion Band shirt for "name your price" (I think I decided on 15 or 20 pounds, whatever I had in my pocket). Fond memories and warm feelings abound.

Yes, I assumed it would be well known in these parts but it's nice to see Ashley as a real force of nature, in his prime.  :)

Absolutely.... :)

Marvellous! It's been a long time since I watched that.

From Facebook:

Hello all, Ash's son Blair here.

Thank you so much for all the lovely comments re: Dad's health update last week. It's been lovely reading the well wishes, and Dad was very touched by the outpouring of love.

Dad has settled very well into his new home. He is receiving residential care, and is adjusting to it admirably. We watched the Egypt vs Argentina game last night and both agreed that Egypt should hold their heads up high after a valiant effort! I guess we'll have to knock out Argentina ourselves...

As mentioned before, we sadly had to knock the Guv'nor Podcast on the head (at least for the foreseeable future). The final episode was only live for a few days, as it was the only way to avoid patrons being charged an extra month.

As requested by a few people, I'm reuploading the episode so people can have a chance to listen to what me and my Mum recorded on the day of Dad's discharge. We spoke candidly about the situation as we thought it the best way to deal with the situation. Maybe at some point we will reupload the rest of the Guv'nor Podcast archive, but I guess that's something to be discussed down the line...

Thanks to everyone who listened and supported. Our monthly chats gave Dad so much pleasure, and that wouldn't have happened without the loyal podders!

Again, thanks for all the comments and love re: Dad's health. We're all very touched.

Much love,
Blair, Judy and - of course - The Guv x

Episode available below. It's on Soundcloud so it's free for everyone to listen to 👇


Guv'nor Podcast Episode 48. Goodbye, for now x (https://m.soundcloud.com/john-hart-music/guvnor-podcast-episode-48?fbclid=IwdGRjcAS7oNFjbGNrBLugsWV4dG4DYWVtAjExAHNydGMGYXBwX2lkDDM1MDY4NTUzMTcyOAABHo9NXNK1ZUM76LqTVFiMQho0zGMNUA7S0_Z5wK0wY3RPxE7Ybybd0qHaYRO3_aem_wvRGVOq92XQvGpnAIZ7cPg&utm_id=97757_v0_s00_e0_tv2_a1demo0gxhnn4g)

Blair also just recently posted this up....Ashley looks pretty damned good to me.

Looking great Ashley x