Overview
Born in 1942, Ian spent the first twenty years of his life in Suffolk where traditional song and music was part of everyday life. Moving to Cheshire in 1963 he was introduced to “folk clubs” and in 1967 started a club which is still running very healthily. Indeed he believes that the club is probably the only folk club in the world to be featured on the official postcard of the town – Frodsham – and have an MP as a member!
Together with Charley Yarwood he made a record: “Hooks and Nets” in 1982. This was very well received both by the public and the critics. Over the years he has sung the UK and much of Europe, appearing at festivals such as Sidmouth, Ameland, Lubeck, Liverpool, Krakow, and Lodz – singing both traditional songs and his own compositions, and remains a much-liked and respected artist. [From Discogs]
Woods recorded the album, Pieśni Spod Żagli, with Polish group, North Cape in 2002. In 2006 he recorded Time & Tide with Cztery Refy.
Ian Woods co-wrote the maritime music genre standard, “One More Pull” with Ken Stephens.
The fan website for The Longest Johns, The Longest Song, attributes the song only to “the late Ian Woods of Suffolk and Cheshire in approximately 1980.” It goes on to quote Woods,
“Charley Yarwood and I recorded it in 1982 on “Hooks and Nets”. Twenty years later people still come up and request it, which is very satisfying. As I said then it’s just a love song – no special social significance.”
Christie Dalby from Bounding Main cites a Mudcat Café thread that covered several different origin stories for the song.
There are two versions of the song, “One More Pull”. Each version shares the same lyrics in the chorus and the same melody while having different lyrics in the verses. Both versions of the song are lovely and where the Ian Woods version is more of a love song, the Ken Stephens version focuses more on the demise of the fishing industry.
The version with lyrics written by Ken Stephens is the one performed by Bounding Main and appears on our CD, Fish Out of Water.
You may be asking yourselves, how did these two versions come about? According to a discussion thread on the folk music site, Mudcat Café, there are two different theories.
One theory is that Ian Woods wrote his version first and then Ken Stephens wrote his version after that.
The second theory is that Ian Woods and Ken Stephens wrote the chorus and tune together at a festival, then went off and produced two completely different sets of verses. Christie, Bounding Main’s soloist for the piece, prefers this theory!
According to a thread on Mudcat Café Woods passed away sometime after 4 March 2017.