In the Summertime

Last week's Dragon Folk Club session got off to a simple start with Colin singing to himself for the first few songs, but he was soon joined by Steve who had been held up in traffic. The lack of people wasn't unexpected and we should be back to normal this Friday. Do come and join us from 8:15pm in the barn (just past the toilets) at The Bridge Inn, Shortwood, Bristol (UK), BS16 9NG.

For those who are interested, the new mega-batch of club beer mats have arrived and should be available on Friday for use or for marketing purposes.

This dragon wasn't present at the session, so please forgive any minor inaccuracies.

Colin started off with four straight songs before Steve arrived:

• Deportee - plane crash at Los Gatos (roud 26302 - Woody Guthrie)
• History lesson (Leon Rosselson)
• Here comes the sun (* George Harrison)
• I'll follow the sun (* John Lennon, Paul McCartney)

Although there was no official theme for the evening you may detect something of summer developing.

My guess is that Colin sang Summer in the city (* John Sebastian, Mark Sebastian, Steve Boone) to allow Steve time to settle down, but I may be wrong, which would throw the rest of the YouTube playlist linked from "a selection" below out of line slightly. Let's not worry about that too much.

Steve's first song of the evening was Streets of London (Ralph McTell).

Two further songs from the evening, both sung by Colin, which require a mention are Ageing old hippie (#) by our old friend Richard Gillion which doesn't appear on YouTube, and Come to the fair (* roud V21367 - Easthope Martin) which is new to the Dragon database.

The final rotation, in one or other order as explained above, involved Colin singing Cracklin' Rosie (Neil Diamond) and Steve singing Ranter's wharf (John Conolly).

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

(Number of people present - 2 of whom 2 performed)

In the above report songs new to the Dragon database (though no always new to the club) are marked with an asterisk (*).

Three score and ten minus thirty

Today's news is tomorrow's chip paper
(Photo: Simon Meeds)

Last week's Dragon Folk Club session wasn't notable for there being a large number of singers, and there were no visitors, first timers, or long lost souls. Nevertheless those who were present had a pretty good time, a good sing and a good chat, which are the most important things when we meet.

It was the first time for a while that I've known before the end of the session what would be the featured picture in the report. In this case Denny sang a song which happened to coincide with an image I had created only a couple of days before for another purpose. I hope you realise it isn't mean to be disrespectful, but rather is a restatement of a principle understood by journalists for a very long time. I did check, and fish and chip shops started to become popular in Britain around 1860.

The title of this report refers to the same song, but also to the fact that we sang forty songs in the evening.

I'll keep this week's report very short because I've let the time roll on and I would have preferred to have it finished by now. Nevertheless you can hear all but three of the songs we sang in the playlist linked from "a selection" below. The remaining three are mentioned here and marked with a hash (#). Also two of the songs sung were new to the Dragon database and they are marked with an asterisk (*).

Colin started us off with Goodbye to you, dear Mabel (# Don Thompson).

Simon harked back to the previous week's unofficial Canada theme with Lukey's boat (roud 1828).

Denny took us to see The chickens in the garden (roud 2552) and Paul finished off the first rotation with Rose of Allandale (roud 1218 - words Charles Jefferys, music Sidney Nelson).

Colin provided the first new entry in the database with Swift and bold (celer et audax) (* Steve Knightley), maybe a subtle reference to the Olympic motto (citius, altius, fortius) while the games progressed in Paris.

As the evening progressed Denny sang the song I previously alluded to: Three score and ten (roud 16873 - William Delf).

Colin challenged this scribe by singing the almost untraceable Base over apex (# Bob Barratt,Tony Baylis). Later he made an addition to the database with History lesson (* Leon Rosselson)

Paul had a last practice of his own song Fathom my bowel (# Paul Welcomme) which is of course modelled on Fathom the bowl (roud 880) and provides a humourous take on his own history of cancer.

Paul was asked to finish off the session and he did that with When all men sing (Keith Scowcroft, Derek Gifford).

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

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