Those of you who have heard previous recordings of the Kipper Family may be wondering why we should choose to make another one. The fact is that we wanted to preserve for the nation an important part of our traditional culture, and you can’t, unfortunately always get what you want.

For this fourth Kipper Family album we decided to record Henry and his boy Sid ‘live’ in their natural habitat. The Old Goat Inn, however, does not possess a music licence, and while this does not apparently apply to the singing of the Kippers, it did present problems for our warm-up artist.

So we went to Trunch village hall, and our tireless champions of the Trunch tradition sang their songs and told their tales before an invited audience. Then they did them again after the audience had arrived. The result is a marvellously effective evocation of an evening with Sid and Henry Kipper, though why on earth anyone should want such a thing is quite beyond us.

We trust that the public will understand that the contents of this record are entirely the responsibility of the Kipper Family, and sympathise with the financial difficulties that have made it necessary for us to release it.

Dick Nudds and Chris Sugden

(supplied to us by Chris Sugden)