The Spinners' Cliff Hall dies

Jun 26 2008 by Catherine Jones

A FOUNDER member of Liverpool folk legends the Spinners has died.

Cliff Hall passed away early this morning at the home he shared with his third wife Dottie, in Australia. He was 82.

The Cuban-born singer and musician moved to Adelaide several years ago from Liverpool.

Granddaughter Helen Hall, from Vauxhall, said today: “Grandad was lovely.

“ I remember going to all the concerts as a child and we always had the records on around the house.

“He was born in Cuba but brought up in Jamaica, and he never lost his Jamaican accent which was nice to hear.

“He met my grandmother, who was Scottish, here and they had my dad who is also called Cliff, my uncle and my aunt.”

Cliff Hall came to the UK to serve in the Royal Air Force.

He met musician Tony Davis when they worked on the same building site, and in the late 1950s the two men joined forces with Hughie Jones and Mick Groves to form the Spinners.

Mr Hall’s Jamaican background brought Caribbean songs into the group’s repertoire, and in concert he would play both the guitar and harmonica - the latter with a unique sound like an English concertina.

Affectionately known as “the other Fab Four’, the Spinners changed the face of the folk music scene.

The group - later joined by bass player John Count McCormick - produced almost 40 albums together in a career which spanned three decade, and revived some of the country’s greatest folk music as well as singing new songs.

One of their best- known numbers was Peter McGovern’s In My Liverpool Home. The group split up in the late 1980s.