has been an ever-present fixture in UK filkdom since the early eighties and is one of the main reasons for its continuance.
In 1988, Rafe was on the organizing committee of the first British filk con, Contabile. Since that year, he has organized and maintained the monthly WiGGLe (We’re Gonna Get Lynched) pub meetings and newsletter. Through the “WiGGLe” pub meetings, Rafe ensured that the British filk fans found a sense of community.
His monthly newsletters provided a focus for the exchange of song ideas, and truly awful puns. He swiftly became the source of information and contact for anyone joining British filkdom. Above and beyond any reasonable call of duty, every month, without fail, for ten years, he has sunk his own time and money into keeping British filkdom informed with over 100 issues. And when more immediate news needed spreading, happy or sad, it has often been Rafe at the root of the phone tree, or near it.
He isn’t known as a singer. He is, though, always there, and a dedicated listener, and archiver on film. He has more than four volumes of catalogued photographs of British filk events, and social events important to the filk community, for the last nine years.
Others might have done what he has done to boost their own ego, or to promote their own songs; Rafe did it because it needed doing. More than any other person he is British filk.
For these contributions to filk music and the filk community, Rafe Culpin is inducted into the Filk Hall of Fame, this Nineteenth Day of April, Nineteen Hundred and Ninety-Eight.