Fred Dibnah Interview (Extremely Rare)
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 9 เม.ย. 2020
- This is an extremely rare interview of Fred Dibnah in his yard by Martin Caplan (broadcasting as Martin Stevens).
The historic interview was originally broadcast on 31st August 2003 to close 106 FM East Bolton Radio, which was a three day community radio station running from 29th - 30th August 2003. The broadcast was put together by DBBC (Diversity in Barrier-Breaking Communication) and was part of the East Bolton Regeneration Scheme.
The interview has only been repeated once as far as I know, and that was for the Community Corner programme on 96.5 Bolton FM in 2009. This was shortly after Martin Caplan had sadly passed away.
www.dbbc.org.uk/
I could listen to him all day, everyday.
Me too!
Sometimes I do! Great stuff.
Same here
Agreed. Just found my first video a week ago and have been down the Fred Dibnah rabbit hole ever since. I think this interview is my favorite. Thanks for uploading it.
Yup. Me too. What a guy. Bless
I’ve become addicted to all things Fred of late. I must of watched hours of footage back to back of Fred just living his life. It’s left me with an impression that he was a true salt of the earth type, very knowledgeable and very wise, I would love to have met him. RIP Dr Fred!
I know exactly what u mean. I've binged watched EVERY one of his Vids on You Tube in the last year. He worked on 1 of 2 huge chimneys that once stood right next to each other where I grew up, in 1982. He answered all our naive questions. Top bloke, a complete 1 off. There ain't no other Fred Dibnahs in this world.
You would never get bored listening to Fred he learned the hard way he was the salt of the earth very knowledgeable and very wise I would call him a grafter I would have liked to met him may he RIP Dr Fred
Brilliant interview Fred was a legend there will never be another fred dibnah
Great upload. Thank u. Fred worked on 1 of 2 huge chimneys that once stood right next to each other in 1982. He answered all our naive questions. RIP Fred Dibnah!
The most inspiring bloke ever
Fantastic, love listening to him , rip Fred x
Humble hardworking and big balls the guy was a working class legend RIP fred
not just big balls, my mother reckons he had 8 and a half inches.
Lol🤣🤣
Excellant interview fred was one of lifes *charectors you dont get to meet many but these people are precious and so fred dibners life was told to us bit by bit and you couldnt help but like the bloke. Sadly gone before his time missed by all including myself his films will live on and he wont be forgotten..... rip fred ......
This is brilliant and only ten min into it...god I love dibnah.
This is really a fascinating rare find of an interview of good old Fred there!.No one else can tell a good story like he can!.
I think this is probably the only interview I had not heard with Fred up to today. Great stuff.
Fred is a legend, thank you from Canada
Thank so much for this ... a true Englishman .. a true gentleman... he wasn’t born in the wrong time , we have become the wrong time .
A real person down to earth there was only one Fred 👍
The man is sadly missed
This was a great interview, glad i found it, this guy was a hard working, smart chap. I feel bad he divorced twice, but i can see he needed a partner who loved the thing's he loved. I remember watching a video of him taking the family on a trip on the steam roller, and the wife just didn't look at all like she enjoyed it. I would have loved to travel in show's, and even drive the steam roller. Hope he is resting in peace.
Thanks so much for uploading this gem! This really is rare and shows Fred at his best! Thank you!
Cheers Peter. I've got another video on my channel of a chap who was a miner in the Ladyshore Pit in the 1930s that you might be interested in. We interviewed him many years later in 2008, and he was actually living in what was originally the colliery office. He had many tales to tell, and if you liked the Fred Dibnah interview I thnk you'd like this one. He had just the same sort of no nonsense attitude that Fred had.
th-cam.com/video/zc21ckfXMoQ/w-d-xo.html
@@johnthecloud Brilliant! Sounds great! I'll check your channel out John. Cheers. 🙂
One of the best gents ever, and a real craftsman
I could listen to Fred all day long I'm sitting with a coffee first thing in the morning and listening to Fred brings back a lot of memories he has a way of taking you back a riet good bloke was Fred
A bloke so down to earth he was part of the soil.....interesting to hear him talk about his early life..
Good to hear Fred talking relaxed and at length.
Thank you for posting such a treasure of an interview. Been a huge fan of Freds since the beginning. 2 great men, just chewing the cud.
You're welcome. I'm very happy to post this interview. Sadly both Fred and Martin are no longer with us. What I like most is the fact that this interview was for a community radio broadcast, and everyone involved volunteered and did their bit for nothing. Both Martin and Fred volunteered their time to do this. Neither of them were paid. Fred could have told East Bolton Radio to jump off a short pier, but he didn't. He volunteered his time for nothing, because that was the type of generous person he was. And I love this interview because it's Fred being Fred, there's no TV crew telling him he has to say this, or he can't say that, there's just Martin on very much the same wavelength as Fred.
I was friends with Martin. We shared a passion for classical music. He was very much older than me, but we had many things in common. He was a very genuine person.
@@johnthecloud i have read in some magazine that once
a guy paid Fred with a few bags of coal for his steam engines for his steam engines for repairing something. i understand this guy was in the process of removing his fire place at the time
What a great interview. Thanks for posting.
What a character an interview missed by the tv series...miss your Fred! Thanks for posting. 👏👍🙋🏻♂️🏴❤️
Great interview! Thanks for sharing. A genuine working-class hero was Fred. Made his life, how he wanted it to be; and you can still here the sort of 'Boyhood' excitement in his voice that Steeplejacking brought him all those years... Wonderful.
Thanks Kieran. I do miss Fred and I also miss Martin who interviewed him on this recording.
There are some people who bring a simple joy to this world, and they have the gift of bringing it to many other people as well. When they're gone the part of the world they filled seems empty and mundane.
I'd have loved to hear Fred's musings on how the world had changed in the last 15 years. I wonder what he would have thought of it all? One thing is certain though: you've have got a no nonsense, down to earth, and common sense opinion from him - and a sincere one too- and how many people can you honestly say that about these days?
Thank you fred 🌻
Legend, and Fred as well. thanks for this, made me day
Thanks a lot Glen. I'm glad you liked the video.
It’s a pity that his house and workshops/possessions couldn’t have been preserved as a Bolton legend !
Yes that is a shame.
Leon is unfortunately selling his legacy off piece by piece 😡
@@Snacks8536 I guess the material is his to sell as he sees fit. I, personally, have no interest in paperweights of cut up bits of wood, metal, and string that once occupied the site. That's not Fred to me, it's not even his handiwork. Some people may feel a connection through it, but I do not. Judging by the constant facebook posts on the Fred Dibnah groups this stuff must be selling. It's not my place to judge, but it does make me feel sad.
It was a council run heritage site for 7 years kept as fred had built and used it but attendence was always nothing and so being unable to financially maintain it due to lack of interest they closed it down. How sad is that.
Brilliant to hear this , its nice 👌.R.I.P Fred.
Thanks. It was broadcast on East Bolton Radio, which was a 3 day community radio broadcast in August 2003. I can't believe that it's nearly 17 years ago. It seems like yesterday.
@@johnthecloud how did you get this recording?
It was broadcast on East Bolton Radio which was a community radio broadcast I was involved with (I was the secretary of the voluntary group, and also the presenter of the breakfast show). Martin Caplin (broadcasting as Martin Stevens) presented the evening show, and - as he was a friend of Fred Dibnah - recorded this show in Fred's yard. It has only been broadcast twice. Firstly on East Boton Radio in August 2003, and then again in September 2009 on Bolton FM (on the Community Corner show which I presented at the time).
Would of loved a pint with him in a pub , legend R.I.P Fred
Me too!
I live in Belgium, Fred is not well known here, but I admire him as a passionate story teller and a true craftsman, industrial historian and I tell about him to anyone who wants to hear it.
As Fred, I admire the victorians who, not just in England, but all over Europe at that time, worked very hard in the Industrial Revolution to evolve to the welfare we have now.
It was not build by academics sitting behind a computer, but hard working folk who paid a high toll, offered their lives as working slaves for very little wages, in the most appalling conditions, but with pride in their work and actually over do their craftsmanship to a work of art.
And that's the story Fred told the world, from the workman perspective, the lost pride of these men and in a lot of ways he really lived that live.
A man who unfortunately died to young, and loved by so many…
Thanks for putting this online for people to hear. 👍
Class. Interviewer sounds like a smashing fella too.
Wish that had been longer...bloody great..really enjoyed that.
Last of the old Guard.... There were Fred’s in a lot of trades who you would listen to as a kid.... Their crazy stories they would tell in the dinner break... the little tricks of the trade no college would never know or learn you
Yer can tell Fred was a good bloke...
Brilliant stuff, loved it. Thanks for posting.
Great find, that was a good interview!
Thank you for uploading this. The half an hour flew by.
Thanks William. I do think it's a good interview, and a fairly unique one. You don't often hear about Fred's life history in the documentaries on TV.
@@johnthecloud Aye.
You only had to give Fred the slightest hint and he was off.
Thanks for this, I really enjoyed it. I went to have a look at Freds house on whim, Probably 8 years or so back. I just had a peep through the railings at the yard, there was no one around on this particular day so I thought I would have a look at one of his old haunts. I remember in one of his programs he stopped off at a pub called the Lever Bridge with his wife Alison and family so, I found it on the net on my phone and off I went. It isn't very far from his house, anyway I got there around lunch time and the place was shut so I never managed to go in. I thought there might have been some old photos or press clipping on the walls or maybe someone who knew him that I could talk to. Oh well I might venture up there again sometime soon when this lockdown has ended. I hear the house is just a shell of it's former self though. All very sad.
I’m wondering what happened to the house ? I heard it was to become a museum, of sorts, but I don’t think this ever happened.
And what happened to his wife Sheila ?
@@michaelfeeney8437 Hi Michael. Some guy bought the house and opened it as a heritage centre. It lasted a while but in the end he sold off all Fred's stuff. I think someone else owns the house now. I think his sons own the steam roller and some guy bought the traction engine at auction.
Unforgettable Fred, A great listen, thanks for uploading 👍
"Did yer like that"
i do rope access but fred was a whole new level ..... i saw him on his traction around 2001
he's openly honest...... isaw him in the 80's as well when i was a kid i went on to do rope access then .........i miss seeing him now..... unfortunately ill get sacked after a beer but i believe like him it does help
2 beers only though
Great stuff, thanks for this.
John, Many thanks for uploading this. Martin Caplan was obvious;y a great interviewer and lets Fred shine here.
There don't seem to be too many radio interviews on Fred knocking around, presumably because he did so much TV work, so it's great to see Fred given the time just to chat here, unencumbered by having to showcase machinery or monuments - just that magical personality and sheer vault of knowledge.
Martin was a good man. I've got some of his jokes on one of my other videos. I pretty much hit it off with him from the start. He could be acerbic, but he had a really wicked sense of humour, and we shared a love of classical music. I liked him a lot.
@@johnthecloud Thanks for sharing that, John. Sad they are both gone, but great to have this as a memorial to two top class gents.
What an inspiration
Thank you for posting
I remember hearing this. Thank you for posting.
Many thanks for posting this. Great to listen to Fred as always.
That was wonderful.So well conducted.Thank-you.
Thx u for this fantastic interview 10 ❤
Best half hour interview I've heard in year's!! Thank you 😊
Thanks for sharing this, never heard this before and it’s brilliant.
You're welcome Kevin. Hardly anyone has heard it. It was broadcast once on East Bolton Radio, and again on Bolton FM, and that's it.
Fred was gone one year three months later,treasured interview time with a legend ,such a loss ,such a character such a brave climber no height scared him wonder if he finds looking down from heaven a pleasant view😮hope your in heaven, Fred had ten ladders, and you have enough ladders there Fred! generally a person has one ladder for general use😮amazing interview cock!
Very nice upload, thank you very much!
Thank you too
Twenty seven years and two divorces, the price of steam engines. Thank you for sharing this. I would have loved to have met Fred, we have a lot in common, and being the same age, we would have shared similar experiences growing up, him on one side of the Pennines, me on the other in Leeds. Greetings from Tasmania Australia-former Leeds Pom, born 1938 fascinating life in medical science, but wider interests in so many things of the past. Made many diverse items over the years, first model when I got a lathe was a Stuart Turnere Vertical 10 steam enging and boiler. Took me a year to machine, still have it. Special interest in building big telescopes in the UK and Tasmania. Southern Cross Observatory 42 South.
Very good interview , Fred was a one off i don t think they make them like him anymore
a true working class hero .
Thanks for your kind words Les. You might like this video I've uploaded too, of a miner who worked at Ladyshore Colliery in the 1930s. He's very much in the no nonsense mould of Fred.
th-cam.com/video/zc21ckfXMoQ/w-d-xo.html
@@johnthecloud Thanks John I will have a look at that , I have subscribed also .
In a world full of dobbers, we should strive to be more of a Dibnah.
God bless you fella. RIP ❤️
The world would be a better place if more people were like fred,,, could listen to all his lifes stories,, god bless
How do John. Many thanks for sending me the link to this interview. I've never heard it before. Top marks Sir! That was bloody marvelous :)
As far as I know it's only been broadcast twice - and only once in it's entirety on 31st August 2003 by Martin Caplan (broadcasting as Martin Stevens) who took the evening slot for East Bolton Radio. It was the last piece broadcast before closedown of that station.
I repeated an edited and cut down version of it in September 2009 as part of the Community Corner show for Bolton FM. This show was broadcast every Tuesday between 8 and 9pm.
I made shows as diverse as The Bolton Symphony Orchestra, to the Bolton Mela, to Tonge's Got Talent on Bolton FM - all of which I'm hoping at some point to put up on this channel. I loved volunteering for the radio, but it was very hard work, and when my shift changed at work, I had to give it up in 2010.
The recording of Fred was tucked away on a CD amongst a load of other recordings in my front bedroom. With the current lockdown due to coronavirus I've been climbing the walls, and after some prompting from my friend Steven Parker, and out of sheer boredom I started to upload some of the recordings I have.
Steven is the founder of the Manchester, Bolton, and Bury Canal Society - and Fred Dibnah became the president of that society in 1999.
I have a few videos on my channel showing the history of the canal, and I've also got a video of a miner who worked down Ladyshore Pit in the 1930s which you might find interesting.
As far as this Fred Dibnah interview is concerned, my upload is the only recording available online. The original recording was made by DBBC (Diversity in Barrier-Breaking Communication) which was a charity run by Dorothy Martland and helped many disadvantaged and disabled people. Dorothy was awarded an MBE for her services to the community.
This is the Ladyshore Miner interview. It's a fascinating account of someone who lived an amazing life. Tom recounts his life of working down the pit from the age of 14, to all his exploits during the Second World War.
th-cam.com/video/zc21ckfXMoQ/w-d-xo.html
Good stuff @@johnthecloud I will certainly be watching the canal videos. This kind of thing is right up my street! Much appreciated squire
I've got hours and hours of unedited footage. Steven Parker and I filmed the full length of the Manchester Bolton and Bury Canal. The current lockdown has basically kicked me up the backside into doing some editing. I'm doing little bits at a time, as trying to edit a full documentary for the whole canal is very daunting. Once the lockdown is over I intend to get Steven to do a whole set of new voiceovers, and we'll revisit the canal to see what has changed in the last 12-13 years (quite a lot really). Hopefully with the already edited footage of each bit of the canal we can put together maybe a show that is an hour long and shows the best bits.
very good interview
Thanks for sharing this very interesting interview John we will never have anyone like Fred again cheers Steve (have subbed you back)
Thanks for you kind words. I'd like to get this rare interview out to as many Fred Dibnah fans as possible.
God bless you fred rest easy you've grafted all your life
He died with more than a million pounds in the bank
Lol, thought to myself, gotta take a break from this, been listening to it a while now and need a break .. been listening for 6 minutes xD This guy should be a story teller from his life or something. He can pack so much information into so little time.
I remember trying to edit this down to 15 minutes for a segment on Bolton fm. It was impossible!
Pure gold🐒🐻🤗👍
I liked that!
Nice one.😁
Thanks 😁
Nice fella, would have been fun listening to his being a radio host
Fred was a one of kind person born when Great Britain was a manufacturing powerhouse unfortunately we won’t see a person like him again
Greetings :)
Thank you for this excellent documentary. Would like to use it in English classes for listening learning and learning about the real working class.
You're welcome to use it, and any of my other youtube videos. I have another video of a Boltonian who worked down Ladyshore Pit as a miner in the 1930s from the age of 14. He had a really good tale to tell, and not just about working in the pit, he was also in the Navy during the second world war, and he has a funny tale about "borrowing" his dad's wellies when he was a kid, to go nicking coal. Sadly he passed away 2 or 3 years after the video was filmed as he was in his late 80s when we spoke to him.
It was amazing how Steven and I met that guy too. His name was Richard Thomas Pritchard (known as Tommy). We were videoing our little youtube documentaries about the Manchester, Bolton, and Bury Canal, and we got to the old Ladyshore Colliery Offices, and his son (I think it was his son in law) had seen us filming, and we asked if we could film the remains of the colliery, and he invited us into have a cup of tea and a chat with his dad. It was just a chance thing, and I'm so happy that we got that recording.
Just like a neighbourly chat over the garden wall; only Fred's wall would have been made o' bricks from an old Bolton chimney stack (and well pointed too).
True!
Best man ever no one like him 👍
bring him back
RIP man of steel balls amazing just incredible
Did you like that ?
way is this a extremely rare interview of the late great Fred Dibnah, did Fred not like the idea of being interviewed? was this made to record his voice because it was made not that long before Fred actually passed away on 6th of november 2004?
Hi Eliot, it's rare because the interview was done for a short term community radio broadcast called East Bolton Radio which broadcast from 29th -31st of August 2003 at the end of the Bolton Festival. It was then rebroadcast on Bolton FM in 2009. Then it sat on a CD for 11 years. Then came the lockdown and I was putting a lot of videos up on TH-cam about industrial heritage, and thought I'd put this up as well.
So it is a rare interview. It's rare because of its broadcast history (only on community radio, and only twice). It's also rare in that it was an informal interview by one of his friends, and involved him talking about his life and passions without being directed by a television company/producer.
As far as I'm aware, this interview is only available on this youtube page, as I was the secretary for East Bolton Radio, and have the recordings in my possession.
At the time of recording we were not aware that Fred was ill, and certainly not aware that he would be terminally ill the next year, so this was not recorded as any kind of impending memorial to him. We just recorded him because he lived in East Bolton and was an icon of Bolton.
@@johnthecloud do you know that some vandels tooks bits off Fred's engines two years after he passed away while they where still in his Back garden? the worst thing that the Vandels did was stealing the brass plate off Fred's steam roller. one of his daughter's has his land rover while Fred's two Sons have Betsy.
@@eliotreader8220 That's awful.
@@johnthecloud some years back i met Fred's Widow Sheila at the Great Dorset steam fair. as it was not long after Betsy was removed from Fred's Back Garden i asked what was then Happening to her and Sheila replied that Betsy was being fitted with a new set of boiler tubes. she then asked me if i knew anything about the workings of steam engines. i replied that i Did thanks to watching Fred on tv. i was born in 1996 so i Didn't get the chance to see many of the later tv series
@@eliotreader8220 wonder why Sheila didn’t stay in the marital house ? Sounds like the house was just abandoned - why ?
I often wonder what his last word was...
I like to think it was something like "Pass us me Guinness"
Yeah. Or wheres me cap
Did you like that
Second hand theiving hahaha
what is a bleach works???
It's a factory for producing bleach which was used in the textile industry. Mills would bleach their cotton and fabrics before dyeing them.
I fear the young don’t give a f to be honest
Not rare, interviews of him are all over the place
This is a rare interview. It was only broadcast twice on community radio. You'll not find it anywhere else. The other interviews and programmes were broadcast on national TV and have been repeated nationwide many times.
@@johnthecloud nope, your wrong
Depends on how you define rare. Care to direct me to another interview of him that is rarer? Bearing in mind this was only broadcast on a community radio station twice with a range of only 3 miles or so from the transmitter.
@@johnthecloud nah, I’ll just tell you your wrong and be about my day
@@ookalar665 in other words you have nothing to back up your completely baseless claim.