[2] He grew up in a musical family – he is distantly related to George Ridley, the writer of "Blaydon Races" – and began performing when an evacuee in the Second World War.
[4] He won awards as the best amateur folk singer in London,[5] and recorded an EP, Geordie Songs, in 1959, backed by Reg Hall (melodeon) and Michael Plunkett (fiddle), known as the Rakes.
[4] He ran folk clubs in north London, with a strong commitment to high quality traditional singing,[2] and featured on several song collections released on record in the early and mid-1960s, including Sea Shanties (with Lou Killen and Redd Sullivan, 1963), Hootenanny in London (with Lou Killen, Alex Campbell, Martin Carthy and others, 1963), Northumbrian Minstrelsy (with Isla Cameron and Jack Armstrong, 1964), and Folksound of Britain (with the Watersons, Cyril Tawney and others, 1965).
[3][6] For Trailer Records in 1971, he made the album Bob Davenport and the Marsden Rattlers, produced by Bill Leader with an eight-piece traditional band from South Shields.
[3][6] In 2004, he released The Common Stone, an album dedicated to his father,[2] and comprising mostly traditional folk songs recorded with musicians including Richard Thompson, Martin Carthy, the Watersons, and the band Chumbawamba.