Covid: Folk music legends Carthy family appeal for pandemic help

A well-known folk music dynasty has appealed for financial help from fans after their income "dried up" due to the Covid crisis.

Fiddle player Eliza Carthy is the daughter of two celebrated musicians.

Her mother Norma was one of The Watersons, a famed group from Hull, and her father Martin Carthy is an influential singer and guitarist.

An online fundraiser says the family urgently needs money until she and her father can tour again.

"Right now the Carthy family, as many others, is struggling to survive the pandemic," wrote Eliza, who is based in North Yorkshire.

"Martin and Norma are 80 and 82, Norma being unable to perform for years due to illness. She is currently in hospital with pneumonia.

"For the last two years the family's income has dried up. There have been almost no concerts, club dates or festivals".

More than 2,000 people have supported the appeal.

UK Music Chief Executive Jamie Njoku-Goodwin wrote to the Chancellor Rishi Sunak in December about "the devastating impact the growth of the Omicron variant is having on the UK music industry".

Its research said there were 69,000 fewer jobs in music in 2020 than in 2019 - a drop of 35% - due to coronavirus.

The Carthy family has long been a fixture of the UK folk music scene, with Martin Carthy twice winning BBC Radio 2's Folk Singer of the Year Award.

A plaque to the late Lal Waterson, Norma's sister, was unveiled in September on a house in Hull where she once lived. Many members were present and sang at the event.

Alongside Lal's brother, the late Mike Waterson and a cousin, the family started to sing together around venues in Hull in the 1960s and went on to become a celebrated and influential folk group.