FolkWorld obituary by Michael & Christian Moll:

Obituary for a great man

The beautiful die young, the rest of us just linger on.
(Jim Morrison; quote brought into this context by Tom Kamphans)

Danny Kyle, one of the best known and best loved persons in the Scottish folk music scene - passed away on Sunday, 5th July.

Danny Kyle; photo by The MollisDanny was involved in virtually every good folk festival in Scotland; and people chose their festivals just by his name – if Danny was involved, it would have been a great festival.
With Danny's help several new folk festivals in Scotland started successfully – two of them took first place this summer after his death. Once he had even the plan to start a big festival with worldwide attention taking place in Northern Ireland, in Scotland and on the ferry inbetween – but politics did not allow it to happen.

He was known by his Kyle Files in BBC Radio Scotland's Travelling Folk. His popular Open Stages are legendary; he was well known for always getting together a great bunch of people to perform there; his funny and crazy introductions of the artists alone were worth to join the Open Stage.

But most of all he was a great person – anybody who has ever met him has a funny story about him. He had a great sense of humour, he knew how to get on with people, he was very close to the grass roots scene; he was fair, international thinking. He always wore the ugliest ties and a bonnie bonnet; if there were Germans in a late night session, at 5 a.m he would jump up and more shout than sing the German classic ‚Mein Vater war ein Wandersmann'. He will be missed by his many friends all around the world.

Danny Kyle leaves a gap in the Folk Music World that will hardly ever be filled. Hopefully a bit of his spirit will live on in the international folk music scene.

Meanwhile we are sure that Danny is now sitting in heaven joking with his late friend Hamish Imlach...

Michael & Christian Moll


Photo Credit: The Mollis


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© The Mollis - Editors of FolkWorld; Published 7/98

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