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Ewan MacColl

Ewan MacColl

English folk singer, songwriter, playwright, and record producer
English folk singer known for his work with wife Peggy Seeger, and as writer of songs "Dirty Old Town" and "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face."
BornJanuary 25, 1915
HometownBroughton, United Kingdom
SpouseJean Newlove, Joan Littlewood, Joan Littlewood, Peggy Seeger
ChildrenKirsty MacColl, Hamish McColl
ParentsWilliam Miller, Betsy Miller
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‘Salford’s poverty was carved out of stone’: the incredible story of Dirty Old Town

  • “Ewan MacColl didn’t want to be from Salford, from what he thought of as a filthy, industrial place,” says Peggy Seeger, the late singer-songwriter’s widow. “He used to insist later he came from Auchterarder, Perthshire, and I never could understand that because it wasn’t true. His parents were Scots and he wanted to be a Scot, too. But he was born in Salford.” You can hear the folk legend’s love/hate relationship with his Northern birthplace in his much beloved 1949 song Dirty Old Town, which h
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