Waterfall - Gilly Darbey Keith Donnelly, Martyn Oram

 Waterfall - Gilly Darbey, Keith Donnelly, Martyn Oram.

by Pete Clemons

I read recently that Gilly Darbey, one time student at Warwick University, one time member of folk group Waterfall and now resident of New Zealand, is returning to the UK. A concert is being organised by the good people at CV folk who operate at the Albany Theatre. Here is a little bit of history about Waterfall as written in a Warwick bulletin. It also includes a review of concert Waterfall performed at the university.......

Waterfall are an acoustic trio who originated from the Folk Clubs of Lanchester Polytechnic and Warwick University. Gilly Darbey was a regular singer at the Lanch Folk Club while she was at the college and gained a reputation for being an excellent vocalist, as well as having a thriving fan club.

Keith Donnelly and Martyn Oram, meanwhile, were gaining a following here at Warwick with their singing musicianship and songwriting although Keith's jokes were received in the same style as one too many pints of Rootes cider.

The summer of 1977 proved to be a sad term for all those involved in the university folk clubs were leaving to take their places in society. Waterfall however, decided to turn professional and attempt to make a living on the folk circuit, as they had, by this time established a growing reputation in the local folk clubs around Coventry and Leamington.

The final folk club of that term was a very moving occasion for all those present, with everyone preparing for the traditional farewell songs, when Waterfall gave their first performance at Warwick of 'And For You', a song that summed up the mood of the evening beautifully.

All those present joined in as if they had known the song for years. Although one line of the song goes: 'We used to sing for you when we were two, yet very much as one', the words seem truer now than they did then because, early in 1978, Keith and Martyn teamed up with Gilly Darbey, whose amazing voice added an entirely new dimension to the group.

Over the last two and a half years Waterfall have gone from strength to strength, gaining a reputation on the European folk circuit in Holland, Germany and Switzerland, to name hut a few and are at present on a tour of Geordieland (Keith's home country).

Waterfall have released two albums as a group; the first featured just Keith and Martyn playing most of the material they wrote at Warwick and as it was produced privately, lost a lot in the sound quality of the recording.

However, their second album, which includes Gilly, is a thoroughly professional job, and contains a variety of song styles, from the sensitive 'Swansong' and 'Three Birds' to the more up-tempo 'Smiler', This album is currently available in record shops, but for those of you who would prefer to hear a sample of the album's material before you buy, the record will be on sale at the Firkin Folk Club Christmas Party.

We are assured that a lot of what they'll play is on neither album, however, so those of you who have heard Waterfall before will have some new treats handed to you.

Website http://www.martynoram.co.uk/waterfall.htm

An article on Waterfall from the Hobo Coventry Folk Club blogger 

https://coventryfolkclubs.blogspot.com/2011/07/gilly-darbey-coventry-singers.html

NEW - PART TWO NOW ADDED 16 SEPTEMBER 2023

November 77 - Waterfall, Keith Donnelly and Martyn Oram, finally took an evening off their current jobs playing in a country band to return to where they started for a whole evening of familiar songs, jokes and farces.

However, some of the material they played was unfamiliar even to those who had seen them regularly in the past two or three years and in some ways their set suffered because of this. They seemed either very nervous or under rehearsed or both for this was the weakest Waterfall performance I have seen

There were several obvious errors: forgetting some lyrics, messing up the tune of other songs and playing a badly structured set probably because 'we've had lots and lots of requests so the second half is cancelled, sorry, mainly requests'.

For one of the encores following Martyn's excellent Troy Tempest impression they were joined by Sue Hammond for 'Mozambique' a song which highlighted their problems of the evening mentioned above. On a good night their version can at least equal the power of the original but not that night.

However don't let this stop you seeing them or buying the album for even on a night like last Wednesday, they are still at least as good as many of the other acts who have been professional for several years.

February 78 - The Warwick folk club debut of the new augmented Waterfall with Gilly Darby (Gillyfall?) showed the new Waterfall to have an even more promising future than the old.

February 79 - Firkin Bar (Warwick folk club), Warwick Universities own Waterfall - Keith and Martyn, now firmly augmented by Gilly and her fabulous voice, are currently recording their second album having been signed to the major contemporary folk agency. Wonderful players, jokers, songwriters and much more.

By 1983 folk clubs were in decline and, as such, finances were not what they were. Also, Waterfall were back to being a duo when Martyn Oram left the group during 1982. Waterfall were not keen with being tagged as a folk group. The group were now based in Leamington and the band were in financial trouble.

All this despite building up a decent following all over the world including in Germany, Cyprus Japan and, towards the end of 1982, the Falkland Islands.

Waterfall had played to the forces before they were invited to warm up those service people stationed on the islands. Keith admitted that the decision to go was not an easy one, due to the 'political implications'. They performed 18 shows in just 10 days, playing to the civilians as well as to the forces.

Sadly Waterfall never really became nationally known outside Folk circles. They did record two albums with small independent companies but both never really had a chance of being very successful.

Unhappy at being called a folk group the duo apparently struggled to find an alternative genre to fit into. A name change was hinted upon. During an interview Keith mentioned that 'Someone once described the music as adult orientated rock - I liked that' he responded.

The name change did happen. Future music was released using the name 'Nothing by Chance'. This they used for a good number of years after.