John Tams
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John Tams (born February 16 1949) is an English actor, singer, songwriter and musician.
John Tams was a member of Derbyshire folk group Muckram Wakes in the 1970s, then worked with Ashley Hutchings as singer and melodeon-player on albums including 'Son of Morris On', and as a member of the electric folk group Albion Band. Splitting with Hutchings in the 1980s, he formed Home Service. He is now a solo performer, either fronting a folk-rock band or in a duo with Barry Coope (of Coope Boyes and Simpson).
Collector and stage actor
In 1974 John Tams and Neil Wayne went to County Clare to make field recordings of highly-regarded traditional players of the concertina. The recordings were issued on the "Free Reed" label in the 70's. These recordings then became very scarce until 2007 when all the tracks were issued as a 6-CD set called "The Clare Set".
John was a Musical Director and actor at the National Theatre from 1976 to 1985 and then again from 1999 to 2001, working on such shows as The Mysteries, Larkrise to Candleford, Glengarry Glenross, The Crucible, Golden Boy, The Good Hope and The Mysteries Revival in 1999. He was a member of the creative team headed by Bill Bryden.
He also worked as Music Consultant at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre on Holding Fire (opened July 2007) and on Warhorse (opened Oct 2007) at the National Theatre. WarHorse has been described as the most successful show ever staged by the National and has resulted in several awards. It received six nominations for the Olivier Awards, including one the Best Sound for John and fellow team members Chris Shutt and Adrian Sutton
Television actor
John Tams may be best known to the general public through having played one of the supporting roles in the ITV drama series Sharpe as one of the "Chosen Men": Rifleman and former poacher Daniel Hagman, a whimsical, sober, steady hand in the 95th Rifles; always ready with a deadly eye behind a Baker rifle, a folk remedy for an ailment, or a song for a weary heart. He also co-wrote the music for each film (17 to date - Feb 2008) alongside Dominic Muldowney.
In 1996, Tams and Muldowney released the best selling album Over the Hills & Far Away: The Music of Sharpe to accompany the series. This album has sold over 120.000 copies.
Tams and Muldowney are now working on the music for Sharpe's Peril which begins shooting in India in March 2008.
Solo singer
John has released three solo albums to date, 'Unity' (2001), 'Home' (2002) and 'The Reckoning' (2005); all of which have met with critical acclaim. At the 2006 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards, John won Album of the Year for 'The Reckoning', Best Traditional Track (for 'Bitter Withy') and Singer of the Year. John is the only artist to have won the Album of the Year award twice, the first time was with his first solo album 'Unity' in 2001. At the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards 2008 he and singing partner Barry Coope were presented with the prestigious Duo of the Year award from actor Sean Bean. John has now received ten nominations in these awards, resulting in a record six Radio 2 Folk Awards.
Radio producer
In 2006 he became musical director of the BBC Radio 2 2006 Radio Ballads, an updating of Ewan MacColl's Radio Ballads. The series was short-listed for two Sony Radio Awards in 2007. In the event it won a Sony Gold Radio Academy Award for Song of Steel and a Bronze award for Thirty Years of Conflict. It has just been nominated for a pretigious Clarion Award. The song Steelos, written by Tams for the Song Of Steel episode of the 2006 Ballads, was nominated Best Original Song at the 2006 Radio 2 Folk Awards. Currently John is working on a stage version of Steelos to be performed at The Magna Centre in the Rother Valley in 2009. He worked on John McCusker's commission 'Under One Sky' alongside Graham Coxon, Roddy Woomble, Julie Fowlis and others.
In November 2007 he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from Sheffield Hallam University.
He is married to Sally, who also works as his manager and they have a daughter, Rosie.
References
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/radioballads/2006/songwriters.shtml
The John Tams official website:
Topic Records: