Hunting for pet hates

Headstone of John Peel in the churchyard of
St Kentigern's Church,
Caldbeck, Wigton, Cumbria, UK
(Photo: Mark W Barker)

Last week's session had no official theme. Fewer songs were sung than usual as for a change, and quite unplanned, the whole of the second half was given over to chat, mainly about driving tests and riding motorbikes. Normal service will no doubt be restored this week.

Nevertheless, a good range of material was aired in the first half. Colin was MC and started us off with Gentlemen Of High Renown (Roud 190), singing the Copper Family's words to Martin Carthy's tune. Mike's attempt at following the hunting theme had to be delayed when he initially forgot the tune to The Hounds Are Out (Roud 24901).

While Mike was struggling, Derek offered to help, suggesting at one stage that he might be thinking of John Peel. Mike told us how his class at school had to sing that song and while he was in the choir others were not so proficient and the awful sound they made put him off singing for ten years until he joined a rock and roll band. Derek therefore dug deep to give us a rendition of The Old John Peel, just to annoy Mike. Derek carried on the theme with The Horn Of The Hunter (Roud 1859, Jackson Gillbanks) from the singing of Fred Jordan but he was foiled because it turned out that Mike likes that song.

A handful of songs

We met as seven for last week's session which had no theme. The title of this report does not mean we sang only a few songs, for in fact we sang a good number if not exactly a record; I make the total forty. Nor does it imply that the song made famous by Guy Mitchell and Tommy Steele was sung. Nor is there any particular connection with the 1970s children's TV programme of that name (see the photo). It is rather that they seemed to come in a number of small, logical groupings, some of which I will attempt to bring out here.

But first a quick mention of this Friday's session, which will mark St Andrew's Day which takes place just the day before. So the main intent is for the singing of Scottish songs and the playing of Scottish tunes but if you need more scope, then look into the other places and activities of which St Andrew is patron, or otherwise just sing, play or recite anything you like because the theme is optional.

Should I sing this?

Cotton Bales, Savanna, Georgia

It was almost two weeks ago that the Dragon Folk Club last met. Last week was a fallow Friday for us and this is the somewhat belated report of the session from the previous week. Seven was a decent turn-out for us in recent weeks and it was good to see Richard for the second time recently (not Richard G, who has left the area but Richard who is apparently a regular at Folk Around Fishponds and is known to Colin from that club).

The parish notices, as placed in the previous short blog post involve a number of themed nights coming up, so you are encouraged mainly to come and be part of the fun, but if possible to dig out some songs and tunes to match the themes:

• 20 October - Session with no theme
• 27 October - Halloween session
• 3 November - Campfire, Guy Fawkes, etc.
• 10 November - Remembrance

Singing Together

BBC Singing Together

In the unlikely event that the Substitute Scribe has any readers from among the Younger Generation he apologises to them for the obscurity of this week's title. Singing Together was an educational programme back in the days when the only multimedia presentations for school students were delivered by moving a 'portable' (i.e. capable of being lifted by two people) Bakelite radio from room to room.

For many of us, it was our first introduction to folk music, and it was remembered this week when Colin sang Grey Hawk (Roud 293), a song Derek recalled voting for (the only one in his class who did) at the end of term Eurovision Song Contest type vote for best song. John P then recalled from the same source, and sang, Lincolnshire Poacher (Roud 299).

Somewhat unconventional

USS Portsmouth

It is advertised on this blog that Dragon Folk Club starts at 8:15pm when in fact it's not a secret that the music rarely gets going much before 8:30pm. The earlier time is however useful because you can pretty much guarantee that the regulars start drifting in around then, so a visitor will not be left wondering for long whether they are at the right pub. I mention this because I arrived at around my usual time to find Derek already in full flow.

Apparently the story was that Richard, who was MC for the night, was so shocked by the early arrival of Colin that he accidentally kicked off the session by trying to sing Farewell To Grog. I'll come to the song later but suffice to say that at this stage something went wrong and Richard barely got started before he had to give up and hand over to Derek who sang The Water Is Wide (Roud 87, Child 204).