John Tams

John Tams
Background information
Born	16 February 1949 (1949-02-16) (age 60)
Genres	Folk
Occupations	Actor/Singer
Instruments	Guitar
Associated acts	Muckram Wakes, Albion Band, Home Service, Barry Coope
Website	http://www.johntams.co.uk/

John Tams (born 16 February, 1949) is an English actor, singer, songwriter, composer and musician.^[1]

Folk 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 70s. 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 a music consultant at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre on Holding Fire (opened July 2007), and on Warhorse (opened October 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 for the Best Sound, for Tams 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 (18 to date - Nov 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.

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 Best Album for The Reckoning, Best Traditional Track (for Bitter Withy) and Folk Singer of the Year.^[2] 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.^[2] At the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards 2008 he and singing partner Barry Coope were presented with the prestigious Best Duo award from actor Sean Bean, alongside whom he acted in the Sharpe TV series.^[3] John has now received ten nominations, resulting in a record six BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards.

Radio producer

In 2006, Tams 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 been nominated for a 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, Tams is also 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, Tams was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from Sheffield Hallam University,^[4] then in January 2009 another Honorary Doctorate from Derby University.^[5]

Personal life

John is married to Sally Tams,^[6] who also works as his manager. The couple have a daughter.

References

External links

• Official website
• Topic Records