Frankie Armstrong

Frankie Armstrong is an English folk singer and voice teacher from Workington, Cumbria, who grows up in Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire. She works with a repertoire that ranges from traditional ballads to music-hall and contemporary songs, and her singing often centres on women’s lives. She is also associated with folk and political songs from the 1950s and with work in the women’s movement and social and youth work.

Early singing and folk work

As a child, Armstrong moves with her family to Hoddesdon. She begins singing in a group with her brother, performing Elvis Presley and Little Richard numbers, and in 1957 joins the Stort Valley Skiffle Group. That group later changes its name to the Ceilidh Singers as its repertoire shifts towards folk music, and it goes on to found the Hoddesdon Folk Club. In 1963 she begins working with Louis Killen and performing solo, then in 1964 joins The Critics Group under Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger. She appears at the Edinburgh Festival in 1965 in Poets In Public alongside John Betjeman, Stevie Smith and Ted Hughes.

Recordings, collaborators and groups

Armstrong’s first recording is made in 1965 at the invitation of Bert Lloyd, then director of Topic Records, for a recording of erotic songs with Anne Briggs, later released as The Bird in the Bush. Over the years she performs and records with Blowzabella, The Orckestra, Ken Hyder’s Talisker, John Kirkpatrick, Brian Pearson, Leon Rosselson, Dave Van Ronk and Maddy Prior, as well as with the Mike Westbrook Band and Henry Cow. The Orckestra line-up includes Henry Cow and the Mike Westbrook Brass Band. In the mid-1970s she pioneers workshops based on traditional singing styles.

Feminist Improvising Group and later projects

Armstrong is a member of the Feminist Improvising Group, which is co-founded in 1977 by Maggie Nicols, Lindsay Cooper, Cathy Williams, Georgina Born and Corinne Liensol. Within that group she also works after 1978 with Irène Schweizer, Sally Potter, Annemarie Roelofs, Angèle Veltmeijer and Françoise Dupety. In 2019 she helps form Green Ribbons, an unaccompanied singing group with Alasdair Roberts, Jinnwoo and Burd Ellen. She is also listed as a member of The Anti-Capitalist Roadshow.

Recognition

In 2018, Armstrong receives a Gold Badge Award from the English Folk Dance and Song Society for outstanding contributions to folk music. Her career places her within both the folk scene and wider strands of political and feminist performance.