Never in 46 years of attending party conferences did I see anything like it. How was it done? It took the British, Irish and Americans standing together as never before. And I thank Bertie Ahern for what he has done, and I thank Bill Clinton too It took Mo Mowlam. " And then the popularity of Mowlam, Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, caused the delegates and visitors to that Labour Party conference to rise to their feet and give her a standing ovation.
Mo Mowlam sparked off one of the most spectacular and unanticipated moments in any Labour Party conference. One Tuesday afternoon at Bournemouth in October 1999, the Prime Minister was in full flow: "Imagine the pride I felt in this country, when I took a call from no less a person than Nelson Mandela, saying that Northern Ireland cast a beacon of hope across the globe. He continued, too, to release albums of his own including Back Porch Swing (1999), Full Circle (2001) and, in 2004, a fascinating blues-based disc, Livin' With the Blues.Paul Wadey. Marjorie Mowlam, politician and writer: born Watford, Hertfordshire 18 September 1949; Lecturer, Florida State University 1977-78; Lecturer, Newcastle University 1979-83; Administrator, Northern College, Barnsley 1984-87; MP (Labour) for Redcar 1987-2001; PC 1997; Secretary of State for Northern Ireland 1997-99; Minister of the Cabinet Office and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster 1999-2001; married 1995 Jon Norton; died Canterbury, Kent 19 August 2005.
Intended as a one-off exercise, the outfit's eponymous album developed cult status and in 1996 led both to a reunion and the release of a new disc, That High Lonesome Sound.Over the past decade Clements had continued to perform regularly onstage and remained an in-demand session musician. In its interplay between pioneering figures such as Scruggs and Roy Acuff, and a group previously dismissed as "four guys with long hair", the project successfully bridged the gulf between the traditional and the progressive in country music, and led to an award-winning follow-up some 16 years later.In 1974 he appeared on disc as a member of Old and in the Way, an influential group that featured bluegrass musicians Peter Rowan, David Grisman and John Kahn alongside the Grateful Dead frontman Jerry Garcia. He followed that with a year's tenure as a member of the Earl Scruggs Revue, joining the great banjo picker in creating a progressive fusion of rock and bluegrass that appealed to younger audiences.Whilst with the Revue, he cut his d?t album as leader: Crossing the Catskills (1972). It was the first in a series of critically acclaimed discs including the appropriately titled Superbow (1975), Hillbilly Jazz (1976), Nashville Jam (1979), the Grammy-nominated Grappelli collaboration Together at Last (1982) and his only straightforward bluegrass album, Grass Routes (1991).In 1972 Clements participated in the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band's seminal three-record set, Will the Circle be Unbroken.