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Description: | Song reflecting the shock at the death of this well known musician.'Blind Willy' was infact one William Purvis, or as he was more commonly known, Billy Purvis. Purvis, an inhabitant of the poor-house at All Saints, was a multi-skilled musician and showman as well as a revered dance teacher and is remembered in a number of Tyneside songs. Blind Willy died on 20th July, 1832.The author of this song, Robert Nunn, was a slater by trade. Losing his sight in an industrial accident Nunn turned to music as a means to support his family. An accomplished fiddler and good singer, Nunn composed a number of well known local songs, which he sung with much success. Robert Nunn died at Queen Street, Newcastle on 2nd May, 1853 aged forty-five years.Similar to the cheap press of today these poorly printed books and broadsides catered for popular tastes, being sold by chapmen in the country and booksellers in the town. Usually sold for no more than a penny, the production of these little books and broadsides were extremely profitable for most printers. Sold in bulk the material required little proof-reading, was widely plagiarised, and badly printed.Newcastle was the second largest producer of chapbooks in the country at the time of this book's publication. 'Songs of the Tyne' were a short series of chapbooks printed by, J. Ross of the Royal Arcade. This book forms no.1 of the 'Songs of the Tyne' series and references to the building of the High Level Bridge dates the book's publication to no earlier than 1846. A number of the songs however, can be dated to the early nineteenth century, some such as 'The pitman's courtship' appearing as early as 1816.The book contains some of the region's best known traditional songs. From 'Cappy; or, the pitman's dog' to 'Canny Newcassel', the book has offerings from well known Tyneside composers such as William Mitford and would have been extremely popular among the local population. ; Popular Tyneside songs published in chapbook form. | Publisher: | J. Ross Royal Arcade, Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear | Rights holder: | rights holder : Newcastle University | Subjects: | entertainment and sport death & entertainment local characters and strange events & leisure | Temporal: | start=1841;end=1860; | Source: | Folk Archive Resource North East | Identifier: | farne:N1200301 | Go to resource |
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