Trevor Beales: Talented 1970s Hebden Bridge guitarist’s music brought back to life

“I wonder what he would say now if he was here,” ponders Christine Beales, the wife of the late singer-songwriter, ahead of a launch party to promote Fireside Stories (Hebden Bridge Circa 1971-1974) - a collection of Trevor’s original songs which express a “a worldliness that belies Beales’ young years” according to local author Benjamin Myers.

Born in 1953, to parents John and Lucette, Trevor was brought up on Edward Street in the town before moving to Ivy Bank at the age of ten - which is when he picked up a guitar for the first time.

His abilities, however, were not simply restricted to creating and playing original folk music, in his own, unique finger-picking style.

“He was so talented,” says Christine. “Some people are just bright. He was a self-taught guitarist, he wrote his own poetry and wrote his own songs but he also fixed cars to a very high standard and knew a lot about them. He used to make furniture. He was so diverse.

“He was an extremely sociable person and very funny. He would have you in stitches. I know people always speak positively about the dead but he was funny. Everybody loved him. I can’t think of one person who had a wrong word to say about that lad.

“He knew that not all songs were everyone’s cup of tea. That was the beauty of him. Fireside Stories is his early stuff. He was so non-judgmental.

“He was just curious about life and everything that it offers. He had such a zest for living, for people and for learning about the world.”

After an impromptu departure from Calder High School at only 17, Trevor moved away from Hebden Bridge and headed to London before taking in France and Morocco, while also venturing across America.

Christine - who also moved away from the town to experience Europe - would eventually marry Trevor in 1985. Daughter Lydia arrived in 1986. 18 months after the wedding, tragedy struck when he died from a “hideous, mysterious virus.” He was only 33.

Christine and Lydia were denied a husband and a father. The rest of us, until now, his music.

“When you try and figure things out as to ‘why’, I’m 69 and I know why - there just is no why,” Christine admits. “It just happened and there is no reason why it did happen. He hadn’t fulfilled everything he wanted to. We wanted more children, we wanted to build a house, we wanted to travel. All that was denied.

“For him to die so suddenly it just did not make any sense. That is what you struggle with when you lose someone close to you. Trying to make sense of it.

“At the time it was such a cheat. How dare anyone pull the carpet from under our feet? Just when we were settling down with our own child as well. It was very, very cruel.

“I am grateful and happy that he could write. He knew what he was writing was comfortable and good enough. He knew that and we knew it was good enough.

“And by that I mean it was good. And as good as anybody else’s at the time, like Ralph McTell or Nick Drake. Trev did have his own style.”

Tasked with trying to recreate Trevor’s style at the launch party event, which will be held at Muse Music and Love Cafe in Hebden Bridge on Saturday, January 28, is Bingley-based folk musician Henry Parker who will be performing a short set of songs from Fireside Stories.

Ahead of the special gig, Henry said: “I want to do it justice. I have specifically chosen to only do a few of his songs so I can spend more time on them. I am working them out by ear, stopping and starting the track and figuring it out.

“It is something I enjoy doing and it is cool that I am probably the first person to have played these songs since he has. There are no videos of anyone else playing them so it is quite special to be working these out for the very first time since he was playing them.

“It is absolutely my style of music that I mostly listen to and I am mildly obsessed with music from that time period, so it is a nice thing for me to be involved in.”

One of the reasons Trevor’s story is making headlines in 2023 is due to one of his childhood friends, and fellow musician, John Armstrong, reaching out to Christine after reminiscing about his music.

“We were talking about his music and I asked if she still had anything and she produced these cassettes,” said John. “But she didn’t have a cassette player. She asked if I could digitalise the cassettes so I put them into an audio programme and put them on a CD so she could hear them.

“I overdubbed some piano onto one of them using the SoundCloud website and one of my friends in Todmorden heard it and passed it onto Basin Rock records. They wanted to hear more of his stuff and that’s how it all came about.”

So what would Trevor say now to his name finally being in the limelight?

“If he was alive today, he would be thrilled to bits,” answers Christine. “He would be there at the event and he would be doing the MCing himself!”

Fireside Stories was released on December 2 and is available to buy now.