All Fools Day 2022

Album cover of Save the last gherkin for me
by Mike Absalom

Like the previous one, this will be a very brief report. We were very thin on the ground last Friday but in honour of All Fools Day we had a good amount of jollity and mirth.

The first two songs are not available on YouTube, but most of the rest are and can be found on the "a selection" link below. Colin kicked us off with our friend Richard Gillion's song Superstition's Game and was followed by Simon with Richard Stilgoe's The Transplant Squad.

The first song I managed to find on YouTube was The Leprechaun. The strange thing about this is Roud seems to list it as both 5264 and 5274 - both with the same first line "In a shady nook one moonlit night", so I can't differentiate between them. One of the collected instances of roud 5274 records a writer - PW Joyce.

I promised Colin I would find out a little more about his song Laura the Leg. While I didn't find a recording, it was written and recorded by Mike Absalom, and featured on his 1969 album Save the last gherkin for me (this recording from John Peel's extensive record collection is missing the last two tracks, one of which is sadly Laura the Leg). I didn't exactly find the lyrics, but if you're quick you may find an obscured copy here.

Simon closed the evening with Bare Necessities (Terry Gilkyson).

Upcoming optional themes will be:

• 15th April 2022 - Easter
• 22nd April 2022 - St George

All other Friday sessions will be unthemed until further notice.

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

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

They've come to take me away

Ambulance (thanks to anyjazz65)

An interesting session last week had a variety of mini-themes and outliers. Before settling down to a report I must inform you that our St George's Day session has been postponed, so this week's session (20 April) will have no theme and it is next week (27 April), when you are invited to bring all your material relating to England, St George, dragons and anything else that may seem relevant.

Back to last week, there was no official theme but Colin, while efficiently filling his role as MC, took upon himself a theme of songs written by our old friend, Richard Gillion, most of which took superstitions as their subject, it being Friday 13th.

Cohen and Sands

Leonard Cohen

This week Maggie was absent, apparently packing for a holiday with Mike in nearby Somerset. Mike was around for the first half but left early, declaring that next week should be the now customary "sing Mike's songs" evening, and will be led by Richard, who ably managed the last part of this week's session.

This week's unfamiliar face was Paul, who has visited several times in the last few months, and before that turned up at the club about twenty years ago. Paul played some of his own guitar instrumental compositions: Peppermint Nile, recalling a holiday on the river where stewards had a ready supply of peppermint to combat stomach problems, and an unnamed tune which, when Richard asked what it was called, was quickly named "Richard's question".