Seth Lakeman tells Rosanna Rothery why he believes in ghosts

By [rrothery]

HEARD the one about the Bodmin bad boys who played hurling instead of going to church and were turned to stone by a vengeful priest? Or Lady Howard, whose ghost still rides through Tavistock in a coach of bones drawn by headless horses?

Welcome to the strange and often dark world inhabited by Seth Lakeman, who armed with a raging fiddle and rampant imagination explores the legends that lurk in the shadows of Devon and Cornwall.

Born and bred in the desolate beauty of Dartmoor, Lakeman, headliner at this year's North Devon Festival, was raised on such ghastly, ghostly tales. The latest album, Poor Man's Heaven, is something of a catalogue of death, destruction and dastardly deeds.

On our North Devon shores, of course, we have plenty of shipwrecks and coastal dramas. Might he look to the north for some grisly inspiration for his next song?

"You do," he agrees. "There are all sorts of wrecks around there. I've been looking at stuff from Ilfracombe and Lundy Island quite recently. I might do. I haven't done yet but, to be honest, you've reminded me of one or two stories."

Perhaps we'll see a North Devon song on the next album? (Am I beginning to push my luck?)

"I will do a bit of research and see what I can find out," he promises.

Lakeman and his band will be joined by folk favourite, Benji Kirkpatrick, at the Queen's Theatre this month.

"We are going to play loads and loads of new songs," he reveals. "You will hear the music from our other three records but we've got some exciting new stuff."

Since his Mercury Music Award nomination — he was in a shortlist alongside the likes of the Kaiser Chiefs, Coldplay and Magic Numbers — it's been a bit of a whirlwind for this Devon talent. However for the past four months he's been hiding away in Dartmoor writing new material.

"I prefer to write here. I find it quite difficult to be anywhere else. I like to go out and explore while I'm doing it to try and feed off the wilds."

The spooky surrounds of Dartmoor must feed the imagination. Does he actually believe in ghosts?

"I've seen all sorts of things but I might have been intoxicated when I saw them," he laughs. "I do believe in ghosts. I lived in a haunted house once in my early twenties. That pretty much convinced me. There was an old lady living with myself and three mates in Tavistock. It was quite interesting. She was a nice ghost though."

I'm intrigued to know more. Yet why do I get the feeling my leg is being well and truly pulled?

"She used to send us out every night to the pub," he continues. "We couldn't believe she was doing that. We couldn't help it. We had to go. She locked the door behind us."

Not all Lakeman's songs hark back to ghostly goings-on of the past. Some recount more recent history. Seth was barely five when a coaster called the Union Star sent out distress signals in a terrible storm south of Cornwall in 1981. His dad, the West Country correspondent for the Daily Mirror, went to report on the story. Seth can recall every detail.

There were eight volunteers from the village of Mousehole who set out on the Penlee lifeboat, the Solomon Browne, trying to save the eight people on board the stricken Union Star. Shock waves resonated throughout the country when news came back that all 16 people had perished.

On the 25th anniversary of the Penlee disaster, Lakeman wrote his own tribute to the courage of the lifeboat crew.

"It was a lovely tune and came out well on the album," he says. "It's a very powerful. It was great because the BBC got behind it and they supported us because we raised an awful lot of money for the RNLI on the back of the song. That was great."

Anyone who has heard Lakeman live will know he takes no prisoners. You're catapulted into a passionate fiery sound, underpinned with percussive fireworks.

"I love performing. It's my favourite part of music. It's great fun to get a reaction from the crowd and I hope that they go away with a different perception of how acoustic music can be played. That is quite unique in what we do."

He's certainly in hot demand.

Think hit singles, major festival appearances, a gig in Trafalgar Square, playing the Royal Albert Hall, TV appearances and a strange encounter with Sharon Osbourne, who — for reasons best known to herself — licked his face on live TV.

"Oh yeah that was a couple of years ago," he replies his voice gradually trailing out. "We played on her show and she just came over and licked… well you know gave me a quick snog… as you do… took me by surprise… one of those things."

Hope I haven't embarrassed him! The subject is changed and I remind him we'd love to hear a heroic ballad set on the North Devon coast.

"Okay," he replies. "I'll look into that, all right?"

● Seth Lakeman is at the Queen's Theatre on Thursday May 28. Box office: 01271 324242.