Anniversaries - don't extract the urine

Gresford Mining disaster memorial (Photo: Richard Hoare)

Friday's session once again saw Steve C joining us. We're not doing too badly recently for bums on seats but with me, the scribe absent for the next two weeks, the deputy scribe will be taking over and more singers and audience are definitely required.

Colin, back in his role as MC after a week's break, started the evening off with Pleasant And Delightful (Roud 660, Laws O30) accompanied as usual by strange sounds and gestures from others present.

Derek noted that his favoured cricket side, Glamorgan had won the Second Eleven 20 20 (SET20) competition and sang a strange song of celebration which went something like "Glamy, Glamy, Glamorgan".

Peace as a starting point

International Day of Peace logo

It was great last Friday to be joined by Steve C and Jane to make us properly quorate for the first time since the harvest. The pub was very quiet, so we had a good session.

Colin MCed as usual and kicked us off by announcing that it was International Day of Peace. As it happens I knew this because I'd heard the Dean of Bristol Cathedral asking the cathedral bell ringers to mark it by ringing a special "touch" at their practice. Colin sang Where Have All The Flowers Gone (Pete Seeger, Joe Hickerson).

Derek said he hadn't worked out a song for the day, 21 September, but he had songs for 20th, 22nd and 23rd. His first three songs were therefore Kevin Barry (Roud 3014) who was executed for his part in an ambush which took place on 20 September 1920, The Gresford Disaster (Roud 3089) which took place on 22 September 1934, and The Boys From Gwent (Meic Stephens) who on 23 September 1962 hampered construction of the Tryweryn Dam which would flood the village of Capel Celyn.

The anniversary waltz

Kevin Barry

Before getting down to the report of last week's session there is an important notice, that there will be no Dragon Folk Club session on 13 October because The Bridge Inn is hosting a wake for someone from the village. There is no need though to go without music that week because there are two recommended events.

On Wednesday 11 October Simon's friend Damian Clarke is doing a gig in aid of Médecins Sans Frontières. Damian, who plays hammered dulcimer and hurdy gurdy, will be joined by George Whitfield on accordion and Kent Nielsen on ukulele. All this will be at The Star Inn, Fishponds and will kick off at 7:30pm.

The second recommended gig is friend of the Dragon Folk Club, Keith Hyett who is performing his own classical guitar compositions as part of his Memories of You tour at Mount Pleasant Community Centre, Bradford on Avon at 7:30pm on Friday 13 October. Tickets at £7.00 are available on the door or from www.ents24.com.

A right good do

Photo by Tim Green

A good turn out last week with returns for John and Geoff and an appearance from Steve G after his visit to Burleigh Horse Trials.

Colin was MC and Derek started off the session. Given that this week will be the Harvest session, both Derek and Mike were using up a few songs a week early relating to other timely events. Derek's first contribution was The Gresford Disaster (Roud 3089) which took place on 22 September 1934.

Mike added The Heights of Alma to mark the Battle of Alma (20 September 1854). Derek's next was Kevin Barry, marking 20 September 1920 when the titular Irish republican was involved in an ambush by IRA volunteers on a British army truck, an action which led to his execution in November that year.

Dogs and absent friends

The early part of this week's session was marked by some wining from Mike's dog, Indy. Mike was intending to leave at the interval anyway but made an early exit when things got too bad. This also influenced the singing, with several dog-themed songs, including Mike's own opener, Noah's ark shanty (Roud 318).

The first of two Steve's (Steve 1) continued the canine theme with Dido Bendigo (Roud 584). Simon's doggy offering was The smuggler's song (Rudyard Kipling). This last song was one of two sung from the repertoire of our late friend Ray Croll, the other being Buddy can you spare a dime (words: E. Y. "Yip" Harburg; music: Jay Gorney), sung by Roger.

Mining disasters and yet more May

Shirley and Dolly Collins

The May theme continued this week for some people, joined with some mining disasters following the news this week of the disaster at the Soma mine in Turkey.

Mike started us off with Cape Cod girls, which I have also seen called the Codfish Shanty.

The mining disaster theme was taken up by Derek with The Blantyre explosion. This song is about the Blantyre mining disaster, which happened on the morning of 22 October 1877. At Blantyre Colliery, William Dixon's pit, numbers 1 and 2 were both blasted, killing 207 miners of which the youngest victim was a boy of only 11. The accident left 92 widows and 250 fatherless children.