Welcome to the Dragon Folk Club

Welcome to the official blog of the Dragon Folk Club, which meets for a singers night every Friday at The Bridge Inn, Shortwood, Bristol. Everyone is welcome whether you sing, play or just listen.

Wednesday 21 October 2015

Tumbleweed blows over Westerleigh

Frank Harte
I admit I have had to stretch a point in this report to make things look reasonable. Yes, there were only four of us last Friday, although we were joined in the bar by a couple who while not entirely involved in what we were doing didn't seem to consider it objectionable, so I've included them in the count.

Colin was MC for the evening and he asked Derek to start us off. It later transpired that Derek was suffering from some nasty lurgy but he soldiered on with Johnny Doyle (as requested the linked recording is Frank Harte).

Colin's first song of the evening was Butter And Cheese And All (Roud 510). Mike tried hard to remember a particular song but we never did work out what it was. It was suggested that it might be Jolly Waggoners (Roud 1088). Apparently that wasn't Mike's target but for want of any better ideas, that is what he sang. Simon performed Jackson C Frank's Blues Run The Game, and that was the first round of the room complete.

The second round was a bit difficult to document, since Derek started off with Jack Elliott's four-line parody of Banks Of The Clyde, entitled On Yon Bottle Bank.
On yon bottle bank stands a lad and a lassie.
His name is Geordy as you'll understand.
He's going to fight for his queen and his country,
With a sword in his teeth and a brick in each hand.
Simon asked whether this was a competition to find the shortest songs in order to make an attempt on the record number sung in one evening. At this Derek and Mike entered into a competition to sing as many one or two line parodies as possible. This scribe's pen could not keep up I'm afraid.

Colin brought back some decorum to proceedings with George Papavgeris' Friends Like These.

Having already sung the Elliott parody, Derek challenged himself to sing Banks Of The Clyde (Roud 1784).

Mike took on a Bristol theme with Adge Cutler's Thee's Got'n Where Thee Cassn't Back'n, Hassn't. Derek commented that even all the ancient Greek he studied at university didn't provide anything as opaquely difficult to understand as that song. Mike followed up with the easier to comprehend Bristol Buses (Fred Wedlock).

Being short-handed and with numbers diminishing and one of the survivors suffering badly, we decided to call it a night shortly after the break. Simon finished us off with When All Men Sing (Keith Scowcroft and Derek Gifford).

Here's a selection of songs sung during this session.

(Number of people present - 6, of which 4 performed)

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