South Yorkshire Times, Saturday, July 4th, 1970
Singing Is Hobby Again for Denaby Main Teenager
Attractive Denaby teenager Mary Bucknell soon became disenchanted when she took up folk singing as a hobby . . because she was too big a success.
The bright lights and club appearances didn’t impress auburn-haired Mary, and now she plans to enjoy her singing as she used to in the past — when it was a hobby.
Mary was the girl singer with local folk group the Toby Jugs until earlier this year. But she quit the group, leaving Tony Whalley, Ron Duffty, Rob Hepburn and Tim Rutherford to go it alone. The boys had asked Mary to join them after hearing her at a charity concert in Mexborough Civic Hall last October.
Too much time
“We sang in a lot of the local clubs and went as far as Sheffield to appear, but I found it began to take up too much of my time,” said 16-years-old Mary.
“The boys had been on the verge of finishing when they asked me to join them as a singer — which was completely unexpected. I had only been playing the guitar and singing for a short time as a hobby.”
The hobby began with a regular folk singing night at Tom Hill Youth Club, just opposite 46 Wadworth Street, where Mary lives with her parents and her three brothers and a Flitter.
From there Mary appeared in a couple of area youth revues — staged annually by local youth clubs — and charity concerts Then the Toby Jugs came along and the clear, lilting voice made its debut on the local club circuit.
“But I had to finish in the end,” said Mary. “Singing was just a hobby, and when it began to take up my weekends and some of the time in the middle of the week, too, I couldn’t enjoy it. Sometimes I would come in from a long day’s work and then have to rush my tea and go straight out again.”
So now, for a while at least, work at the Social Security offices in Goldthorpe will be the only work Mary has each day. And her singing appearances will be strictly limited.
Concert
She sang and played at a recent Concert for the retirement fund of Sister de Sales, headmistress at St. Alban’s Junior School in Denaby, where Mary was a pupil before going on to the Convent High School in Sheffield and later Pope Pius School in Wath.
And she will be going to Germany with an area youth choir next month, to sing at a music festival in Berlin with teenagers from other countries.
After that? “I wouldn’t join a group — at least not on the same basis,” said Mary. But I’m betting an attractive offer could turn a pretty girl’s head.