Frankie Armstrong

Frankie Armstrong (born 13 January 1941 in Workington, Cumberland, England) is a singer and voice teacher.

She has worked as a singer in the folk scene and the women's movement and as a trainer in social and youth work. Involved with folk and political songs from the 1950s, she has performed and/or recorded with Blowzabella, The Orckestra (with Henry Cow and the Mike Westbrook Brass Band), Ken Hyder's Talisker, John Kirkpatrick, Brian Pearson, Leon Rosselson, Dave Van Ronk and Maddy Prior. She is blind from glaucoma.

Frankie Armstrong moved to Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire, as a young child. She began singing in a group with her brother singing Elvis Presley and Little Richard numbers, and in 1957 joined the Stort Valley Skiffle Group which a few years later changed its name to the Ceilidh Singers as its repertoire moved towards folk music. The group founded the Hoddesdon Folk Club.

In 1963 she began working with Louis Killen and performing solo, then in 1964 she joined The Critics Group directed by Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger. (Louis Killen's advice led to her developing the harder voice quality for which she is noted.) In 1965 sang at the Edinburgh Festival "Poets in Public", with John Betjeman, Stevie Smith and Ted Hughes. Her first recording, in 1965, was at the invitation of Bert Lloyd who as director of Topic Records was putting together an album of erotic songs with Anne Briggs, released as The Bird in the Bush (12T135, 1966).

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