The Copper Family are a family of singers of traditional, unaccompanied English folk song. Originally from Rottingdean, near Brighton, Sussex, England, the nucleus of the family now live in the neighbouring village of Peacehaven. They have been described as "the first family of English roots music, vital to its history and a frame of reference for the new generation that is reviving a tradition of earthy, hard edged story based music".
History
The Copper Family have a tradition of the unaccompanied singing of traditional local songs that has been passed down through several generations. In 1898, they came to the attention of Kate Lee, one of the founders of the Folk Song Society. Vic Gammon notes, in the leaflet accompanying the society's archive CD Come Write Me Down, that both the collecting of songs and their unaccompanied singing were less common than is often imagined at this time and that Lee, a singer herself, knew she had found something special when she encountered the Coppers. James 'Brasser' Copper and his brother Thomas were made honorary members of the society, and 'Brasser' was prevailed upon to write down the songs that he knew. 'Brasser' had two sons, John and Jim. In 1936, Jim wrote a further volume of songs. Jim had two children – Joyce and Bob. In 1950, Jim and Bob were invited to sing on an episode of the BBC Radio programmeCountry Magazine and, over the next few years, the BBC would record them further, even producing a feature The Life of James Copper, broadcast in September 1951. John's son was Walter Ronald, known as Ron. Together, Jim, John, Ron and Bob sang at the Royal Albert Hall and wider public attention followed the broadcast of a six-part television series Song Hunter, presented by Alan Lomax and featuring Jim, Bob and Ron. Bob wrote several books about the family and its songs, beginning with the widely acclaimed A Song For Every Season in 1971. The accompanying 4-LP set found Bob and Ron singing alongside Bob's daughter Jill and son John, bringing a further generation into the family tradition. The death of Ron was followed by the introduction of Jill's husband Jon into the core line-up, and some of Bob's grandchildren began to appear with the group. The six grandchildren now also appear independently as The Young Coppers, singing the same family repertoire. Various recordings of the family's singing have been made since the 1950s and some are still available, notably the aforementioned Come Write Me Down, which comes with two booklets full of biographical detail. In the 1980s, Bob Copper published the book Across Sussex with Belloc in which he retraced the route across Sussex of Hilaire Belloc and the characters of Belloc's novel . Bob Copper died in 2004, a few days after receiving an MBE. In an obituary by Ken Hunt in The Independent newspaper, Bob Copper was described as "England's most important traditional folk-singer". In The Guardian obituary, Michael Grosvenor Myer wrote "Towards the end of his life, Bob frequently expressed the greatest satisfaction that the family's fine tradition was safe for at least the next two generations". The present generations of the family continue to sing unaccompanied traditional songs and, in 2004, BBC Four broadcast an hour-long programme about the family, filmed during the last months of Bob's life. They are involved in The Imagined Village project. In 2009 Topic Records included in their 70-year anniversary boxed setThree Score and TenSpencer the Rover by Bob & Ron from the albumCome Write Me Down – Early Recordings of The Copper Family of Rottingdean as track two of the second CD in the set.
