Just Poets know Norman Prince as a former Houghton Weaver and current after dinner speaker and popular presenter on BBC Radio Lancashire. We wondered how he finds time to be part of a folk group, and how the format of the show might work.

How does it work? Well, of course, after twenty odd years with The Houghton Weavers I decided I needed something different, and I went off and worked on the after dinner circuit and to present a radio programme as I do now. One day, though, I was chatting with Brian Durkin, the manager of The Fivepenny Piece, who for seven or eight years was the manager of The Houghton Weavers. Brian mentioned an upcoming concert and that Eddie Crotty, one of the founder members of The Fivepenny Piece, was not too well and might not be able to do the show, which might have meant having to cancel. I offered to help out, play guitar behind the songs, many of which I know from the folk days. Brian said great and then billed the show with me as "special guest". Really, although I do one or two songs, I am an integral part of the band, an instrumentalist. It isn’t a case of Fivepenny Piece doing a set and Norman Prince doing a set, it’s simply a case of me playing with the band. And what I like it about it is that after twenty four years being a front-man with The Houghton Weavers, and singing a song and then having to think about what we do next, I just stand there and play. At the end of a song step back, relax, and tune my guitar while John and Alan Taylor can do the introductions. I enjoy doing it, although it’s a lazy way of doing it. I can just slip in the odd funny line if I think of one. So really it’s The Fivepenny Piece with Norman Prince as an integral band member.

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