Art Garfunkel in Sheffield

I don't think he stood out amongst the company he was keeping.

Not including Martin Carthy, who's a very nice individual, in that.

So are we saying they were all a bit peculiar? Whatever peoples views they were icons in my life? My music tastes have changed several times over the years but I can still sing along to any their tunes. Wish I was a Kellogg's cornflake springs to mind.

I'm researching a couple of rumours around Art Garfunkel visiting Sheffield.

The strongest of these dates from the 1970's and I've heard it from more than one source. I'm looking for dates or newspaper reports, anything tangible that I can follow up.

The rumour I'm interested in was that Art Garfunkel was picked up hitch hiking in Sheffield and asked to be taken to "an old style hotel". Here, reports diverge. According to some the hotel was the Kenwood and others the Maynard Arms at Grindleford.

Any information welcome.

Simon and Garfunkel performed at a nightclub in town in the early 70s. They stood against the bar, had a drink,then walked to the small stage and sang Bridge Over Troubled Waters. I saw them but they weren’t yet famous.

Simon and Garfunkel performed at a nightclub in town in the early 70s. They stood against the bar, had a drink,then walked to the small stage and sang Bridge Over Troubled Waters. I saw them but they weren’t yet famous.

A little tidbit on that song, " sail on silver girl" was put in the song by Paul Simon because his then-girlfriend Peggy found a few grey hairs and was <removed> off, not as many had suggested, a heroin reference. lol (Wiki)

Simon and Garfunkel performed at a nightclub in town in the early 70s. They stood against the bar, had a drink,then walked to the small stage and sang Bridge Over Troubled Waters. I saw them but they weren’t yet famous.

Weren't they at the height of their fame as a duo by then? Seem to remember them being big in the 60's.

Weren't they at the height of their fame as a duo by then? Seem to remember them being big in the 60's.

I recall seeing a group at the Mojo in 1966 called The Quiet Five, (there were actually seven of them) and were smart dressed London area lads a bit like Unit 4 + 2 and they announced their first recording single 'Homeward Bound' (yes that one.)

Weren't they at the height of their fame as a duo by then? Seem to remember them being big in the 60's.

Yes, they made the big time in 1966, Sound of Silence was the first biggie, by the time Bridge over Troubled Water was in the charts, they were finished as a duo, around 1970/71.

Simon and Garfunkel performed at a nightclub in town in the early 70s. They stood against the bar, had a drink,then walked to the small stage and sang Bridge Over Troubled Waters. I saw them but they weren’t yet famous.

By then, there time as a duo had come to an end. There are stories of Paul Simon performing in the backroom or upstairs room of a pub in the Division St/Fitzwilliam St area in the early 60's but I can find no second sources to back that up.

I would like to get to the truth in the Art Garfunkel story. Since my original post I've been shown a very poor copy of a newspaper cutting backing up the story, but there's no date, no newspaper name and the hotel details are missing.

If I have a date or even a year, I can go and make a sensible search of the archives.

I know it's probably too late to help in your search for information about Art Garfunkel in Sheffield but I have recently been reminded about when I picked him up on Cemetery Road and took him to the Kenwood Hotel. It was a dark, wet evening and I was driving up Cemetery Road when i noticed a soaking-wet figure, carrying a guitar case, standing at the edge of the pavement. As a guitar player myself, I thought that the rain was going to damage the case and probably the guitar, so I stopped to offer him a lift, which he accepted. In an American accent, he asked to be taken to the "Kenwood Hotel" - about a mile up the road. There was something very familiar about him and I said "Shouldn't I know you?" and he told me that he was Art Garfunkel. I didn't have time to find out what he was doing there, but I assumed he was staying at the hotel and had been walking back from a rehearsal somewhere in town when he had got caught in the rainstorm. 

I keep a fairly detailed diary but have been unable to trace which year this incident happened but I think it must have been in the 1970s.  If you could give me a more positive idea of the year, I might be able to look up the diary and satisfy my own curiosity as well as yours.

I also seem to remember from some more recent research that Art went on a loan  "walkabout" trip from Ireland (I think) to Turkey. It may have been at about the time that I met him.

In the early to mid 80s I used to drive the A629 three days a week. I delivered to Halifax, Huddersfield and surrounding areas. I often used to pick up those thumbing a lift. 

Years later I read an account in the local press of a bloke who'd given a ride to a wandering American on that very same road. They'd got talking and it was Art G. Said he was looking around the area with a notion of perhaps buying a place there. Can't fault the man. Some of the views are magnificent.

Long-time supporter of S & G's work. I'd have had a million and a half questions for the poor bloke.  I'd have bored him to death.  As the song goes, "It should have been me!" - but it wasn't. 

Right road, wrong time ☹️.