Foggy Dew-O – 2 | Conisbrough and Denaby Main Local History

The Foggy dew-O by Danny Clarke

The Foggy Dew-O was a contemporary folk duo formed in 1965 and ceased in 1973.

They were discovered and managed by Matt Moore of Cawthorne. He advertised for a folksy Beatles set up- sacked two of the three members for stealing chairs from a working men´s club where they were working. Then a chance meeting of Danny with Lenny on his first day as a TV rep brought the duo together.

Our first booking was on Wednesday at the Ajanta Indian restaurant on Carver street in Sheffield – the fee – £5.00!

Matt became a surrogate father for Lenny for a time – before a split when Lenny and Danny discovered that Matt had not been paying the instalments on the P. A. and guitar equipment. This was after working the 110 bookings the Foggy Dew-O had received from three working men’s club auditions they did in West Yorkshire!

So I collected Lenny from the Barnsley base -with one Spanish guitar between us! Within a year we had made many TV appearances and had a major recording contract with Decca records. We were discovered for TV by Johnny Hamp of Granada TV and for Decca records by Peter Shelley

Just as the Foggy dew-O were making their national TV debut on Colour me Pop, Lennie´s lungs collapsed -and he nearly died. Two years later we picked up the pieces… but we did not have the same impact as when we were pioneering.

YouTube Video We pioneered the british contemporary music of the time and sang unknown songs at the time of Tom Paxton, Joni Mitchell and Dave Cousins (strawbs).and more.

The photo shoot for the first album was taken at Conisbrough Castle

Lennie lived at 19 Chambers Avenue, Conisbrough with his sister, two brothers, grannie and his mother! Lennie´s Grannie was quite a character and ran a tight ship there. Ralph Mctell stayed there with his manager when we were helping to promote him in the north -and still always mentions it when I see him.

We had become popular through the Simon and Garfunkel era and it now looked like we were a copy of them -when in fact we were England´s Simon and Garfunkel -before they happened.

Danny Clarke