Hoppin' around

Former ICI prill tower at Avonmouth,
since demolished (Photo: Simon Meeds)

We were slightly down on numbers at last week's Dragon Folk Club session, but not that long ago five would have been a achievement so there are no complaints. We do however convey our hopes for a speedy recovery to Sue. Due to her illness Bob joined us on his own.

Colin, as MC, started proceedings with Jez Lowe's Bother at the Hoppins about a Europe's largest funfair that takes place in Newcastle. This was the first of three of Jez's songs of the evening. The second was Simon's first contribution: The Bergen about a shipwreck off Seaton Carew, County Durham. The final Jez Lowe song came from Colin and was The wrong bus with a First World War theme.

Back to the first rotation, Bob gave us Livin' with the blues, written by Brownie McGhee.

Denny took us to The Mountains Of Mourne (Percy French) and Paul introduced us to The Rose of Allandale (roud 1218 -words Charles Jefferys, music Sidney Nelson).

Simon finished off the first rotation with the aforementioned song The Bergen.

Bob's next song, Blackland farmer, was (like Livin' with the blues before it) a new one for the Dragon database though not necessarily to the club. The song was written by Frankie Miller amd was a US country hit for him in both 1959 and 1961.

Bob also added to the database with Hank Williams' I'm so lonesome I could cry.

Colin was concerned that he might be accused of cultural appropriation singing Dip and fall back. Simon reassured him by climbing in the same barrel with Big bamboo.

Denny added a new one to the database with Mike Jones' Along the Rossendale. And so did Colin with David Gates' The guitar man.

Simon sang Ron Angel's The chemical worker's song, which is based on Angel's experiences of working for ICI, presumably at Billingham, County Durham where he was born. The song considers the long-term effects of working in the chemical factory. Conversation related the ICI factory at Billingham to the one which used to be in Avonmouth, not too far from where the Dragon Folk Club meets. Simon referred to the prill tower which used to be there and to the similarity of the prill manufacturing process to that of making lead shot, a process developed by William Watts in the nearby Redcliffe area of Bristol. By chance I came across this video which tells some of Watts' story and that of his shot tower.

While Colin's singing of The galaxy song (Eric Idle, John Du Prez) created another new entry in the Dragon database, I know for a fact that Colin has sung that here before. Colin also made the last new entry of the evening into the database with Jez Lowe's aforementioned song, The wrong bus.

It fell to Paul this week to close the session which he did with Leave her Johnny (roud 354).

Now listen to a selection of songs sung during this session.

(Number of people present - 6 of whom 5 performed)

A drop of Nelson's blood

HMS Victory (Photo: Simon Meeds)

I'm afraid this is going to be a short report again on last Friday's session though we were reasonably quorate in numbers. It's simply that I'm running out of time. Nevertheless you can follow the link below to hear most of the songs we sang, and even better come along to The Bridge this Friday to see in person what we do. Maybe you will be able to join in.

Colin, taking his usual role of MC, started with The Drummer and the Cook (Roud 3136). It's entirely coincidental that I have linked Harry Belafonte's recording and that Simon followed it with the bawdy mento song Big Bamboo, which as Derek pointed out is of course entirely about plant products (hmm!). Derek's own first song was Mill O' Tifty's Annie (Roud 98). Mike rounded of the first circuit with Roll the Old Chariot (Roud 3632 - "a drop of Nelson's blood...") to mark the previous day's celebration of Trafalgar.

Keeping on the Napoleonic Wars theme, Simon sang an unapologetically junior school version of Boney Was a Warrior (Roud 485). And so we went on singing until there were only two of us and Colin rounded off the evening with Pull for the Shore (Roud 17400 - it actually starts in the linked video at 2:26).

Now listen to a selection of songs sung during this session.

(Number of people present - 5, of whom 4 performed)

Valentine's Day 2017 and Trimdon Grange + 135

Tommy Armstrong

The report will be short and sweet this week since I've ended up writing at the last moment. Last week's session was themed Love and Lust for Valentine's Day. While we were small in number we were strong in voice, and joined as we were by our friends Joe and Josci, who we hadn't seen for some time.

Colin was MC and started off with a version of Clementine which was sung as Valentine. I haven't found any mention of it on the web, so all I can say about it with any confidence is that the first line is "In North Walsham by the cobbler's".

As you might expect there was some smut, including Colin's Bell Bottom Trousers (Roud 20105) and Simon's Big Bamboo.

Tinkers, Bosses and Black Cloth

The Koh-i-Noor diamond before it was re-cut in 1852

It was another great session last week with visitors and irregulars joining us for the evening. Before I go any further I must remember to say, there will be no Dragon Folk Club this Friday (26 August 2016) but we will be back on the following Friday (2 September 2016), so I hope you can come and join in the fun.

Our recent stream of visitors or hopefully first-timers continued with Rod who sang some fine traditional songs. Steve G made his first appearance for a little while, and was later joined by Jo and her husband, Mel. Mel told me they only planned to stay for an hour but enjoyed it so much they stayed for the rest of the evening. We were also joined by Henry, who hasn't been to a Dragon session for quite some time, and he was joined by first-timer Mary.

Serendipity

Walking sticks

It was an evening for bringing along friends, which is definitely to be encouraged.

Steve brought along Jane, who told us some of her fine stories. Simon's friend Chris came along for the first time in years and even made his singing debut. And Henry, who himself hadn't been to the club for a year or two, brought his "entourage" of young ladies. Yes, this sort of behaviour is absolutely to be encouraged.

Colin took his now customary position as MC and while Mike was present at the start, he didn't stay long enough to sing. After a short debate about the order in which people arrived, Colin asked Steve to start off the proceedings. His first song was Just As The Tide Was A-Flowing (Roud 1105). This is a May song ("One morning in the month of May"), which he hoped to excuse by saying he hadn't visited us in the previous month. Simon had no such excuse when he later sang The Galway Shawl ("...one pleasant evening in the month of May").

Valentine's Day 2015

CWAC Valentine's Day 1944

Ignoring the fact that it was Friday 13th, we concentrated on it being the day before Valentine's Day with a theme described by Mike as "Lust and Unrequited Love". I think everyone pretty much stuck to the theme even if we strayed even further than usual from the folk tradition. Roger set out on a tour of songs from the shows, claiming he was "doing a Simon", since Simon sang Summertime a couple of weeks ago.

Colin took the mantel of MC and got Mike to kick off with Black Sloven (Last Valentine's Day), which is not about love at all but is a hunting song. Nevertheless, it somehow got us off on theme.

Valentine's Day - no massacre

The date was 14 February, Valentine's Day, so it seemed obvious that we should sing love songs, and so we did but at the Dragon Folk Club things are never quite that simple. Mike started off by announcing that the theme would be anti-love songs, something even he didn't stick to, but we did have some lust among the romance.

As last week, maybe it's becoming a (good) habit, Maggie S started us off with a poem by "Rick from Portishead" called A Valentine. Mike followed that up with Come write me down (The wedding song) (Roud 281).

Apologies for lateness - law and order

John Tams

It has taken a while to put together the report for last week's session. For that I apologise. I hope it's better late than never.

Mike kicked off with Outward bound. He challenged us to say why this shanty was not a shanty. The answer is that a shanty is either an outward bounder or a homeward bounder. A shantyman would not sing an outward bounder while homeward bound or vice versa but this song includes verses for both outward and homeward bound. In fact it would be sung for hauling while in port but a shanty was by definition a song to accompany work at sea. Hence, it is not really a shanty.

I woke up on a May morning...

The Bristol Shantymen
including our own Mike and occasional visitor, John

I don't think there was an official theme this week, but quite a few people had at least one offering relating to May. Mike opened the evening with Hal an Tow.

Hal-an-tow

Jolly-rum-ba-low

We were up

long before the day-o

To welcome in the summer

To welcome in the May-O

Summer is a coming in

and winter's gone away