THOUGHTS FOR MUPPETT
Colin's tribute to Muppett before the wake session in Guiseley on Sept 14th.Nah Then
'Ow do, 'Ow do, 'Ow do
How’s tha’ diddlin’ ?
I wish it was not me saying these words, but our dear, too-soon-lost singer-songwriter, impresario, compere, poet, social worker, organiser, colleague and friend Michael Pascal who we all knew as Muppett, taken from us far too soon.
You could never meet Muppett without soon breaking into a smile, one of the most positive human beings it has ever been my privilege to know. If there was a problem, Muppett would find his way around it. He could even turn a form of insult – a Muppett – into a badge of honour, a trademark big smile and let’s do it.
I only knew Muppett for a few precious years, as a regular traveller, with his partner Ann, on DalesBus, who when we were chatting about the need to raise funds to help keep DalesBus – that brilliant, volunteer run network of integrated buses to and from the Yorkshire Dales National Park – told me he had an idea. He could organise a few folk singers and musician friends to put on a gig initially in Otley and later here in Guiseley to raise those desperately needed funds for DalesBus.
I wasn’t sure how seriously to take him, but Muppett was a guy who when he said he would do something meant business. The result was the series of annual DalesBus gatherings of hugely talented singers and instrumentalists which were soon raising amazing sums – by the second year passing the £1,000 mark – for DalesBus. This provided money which could be used as match funding to attract sponsorship and grant funding from elsewhere. This helped DalesBus to flourish like never before, adding new routes to the network, planned not by bureaucrats, but by walkers for walkers, especially for that important and hitherto neglected minority of us who for whatever reasons do not own or cannot drive a car. How many people, including many young people, older people, those on low incomes, with disabilities whether mental or physical, and increasingly those from different ethnic backgrounds, have been able to enjoy a day in the Yorkshire Dales thanks to efforts of like people like Muppett.
Little wonder that one of the best loved theme songs of the Muppet concerts was “The Last Bus to Gunnerside” — DalesBus 830 which I am pleased to say will be running until October 20th.
But Muppett also became one of our most popular walk leaders, sharing his knowledge of the Dales and its footpaths with so many others, but this year even starting the Dales Strollers groups health giving walks that tied in with his daytime responsibilities with Bradford CNET and other groups. He was a leading light with Keighley Walking Festival, again not just organising but leading walks including off the Nidderdale DalesBus. He even produced with CNET a booklet Muppett’s Rambles in and around Bradford, all based on public transport. As a folk singer himself, and lover of Yorkshire dialect, he also helped establish and compere the popular Buck Inn Sessions, all designed to fit in with the Sunday 874 DalesBus to Buckden.
Behind all this activity was a very caring individual, deeply committed to those values he held dear – an opponent of all forms of racism and bigotry, passionate about the countryside and above all a passionate Yorkshireman and Bradfordian, a commitment celebrated in his writing, above all in his poems and songs.
We have all lost a dear friend and ally, but his family have lost more than all of us.
Yet what lives on beyond our physical life is something truly enduring – our spirit which is shared with all who knew us, most of all our family and friends. Muppett was always positive about whatever life threw at him, including in recent years his own health issues, and he would have wanted us, at this moment, to remain so.
We live on through the memories we give to our family and friends, through the words that survive in those memories and on paper, and these days electronically, and through the values that we share. Muppett is with us at tonight’s gathering, as he will be at future music sessions, even if he can no longer share a pint with us. He will be with us on the next DalesBus to Gunnerside or Buckden, or heading along the track over Stake Pass from Kidstones, over the top to Semerwater and Wensleydale.
I am sure we shall be arranging, after this evening, other ways to celebrate a life so well spent. Maybe a commemorative walk along a favourite walk in the Dales of his and Ann’s, maybe a printed publication to share with others, perhaps a plaque or bench, but something tangible to remind those who follow us that they also owe Muppett more than they can ever repay.
So let’s give Muppett a reet good send’ off toneet but perhaps with more good things to come.
Let’s drink a toast – to our dear friend Muppett!
Colin Speakman
9th September 2024