Something fishy

Fishing smacks in Boston,
Lincolnshire - 1980s
(Photo: Simon Meeds)

We didn't get through quite so many songs last week but that was because there was more chat and that certainly wasn't a problem.

Colin, as MC, started off proceedings with Cam Ye Here Tae Dance (Bob Ferguson), which is unsurprisingly a parody of Cam Ye O'er Frae France (Roud 5814).

Simon followed that with Phil Ochs' There But For Fortune before Derek started a theme of fishing, inspired by a pre-session discussion of freshwater fishing. He began by singing Cod Banging (Roud 1747).

Mike continued the piscatorial theme with Mike Waterson's Three Day Millionaire. Only Derek continued the theme further with Jolly Herring (Roud 128)

An unusual contribution came from Colin in the form of The Court Of King Caractacus, made famous by Rolf Harris. Apparently Colin had obtained the words from The Mucat Café but it seemed to me that Rolf's "... the boys who put the powder on noses on the faces of the ladies..." scanned more easily than Mudcat's "...the boys who powdered the noses on the faces of the ladies...". Anyway, it turns out that the song is older and The King Of Karactacus was first recorded by a music hall duo called Rich and Rich.

Scottish left-overs?

Corncrake

Parish notices first. After a week at old venue of The Bridge, we are back at The New Inn, Westerleigh this week (9 December) for a low-key Christmas session. Songs might be Christmas, bah humbug, or anywhere in between. There may even be some seasonal nibbles but I won't promise anything at this stage.

Next week (16 December) there should also be a session at The New Inn - see next week's blog report for more details. However there will be no sessions on 23 or 30 December. The first session of 2017 will be on 6 January but you'll have to wait for more details of that one as well. Sorry to be mysterious but there really is some uncertainty around at the moment, so please bear with me.