Happy Birthday Colin

Our regular MC, Colin (Photo:Simon Meeds)

Well, MC Colin's birthday session last Friday was certainly something. He brought with him six non-performing family members who complemented the four singers. Not only was the audience good but it was one of those sessions where talk was kept to a minimum and therefore we got through 43 songs, which must be a recent, though no doubt not all-time record.

Colin started off with a Richard Digance song, Spider In The Sink. He returned to Digance later with I've Won The Lottery. Meanwhile Simon followed an awkward arachnid with an equally problematic mustelid, singing Derek Jolly's My Grandfather's Ferret.

Derek gave us two topical songs before permitting the visitors some light entertainment. The topics were The Donibristle Mine Disaster (Roud 3509) of 26 August 1901 and the Dublin Lock-out which started on 26 August 1913 - The Ballad Of James Larkin (Donagh McDonagh).

We got the blues

Cliff Carlisle

While last week's session was theme-less, this week's on 10 February, will be our Valentine's special, so the theme will be Love and Lust. Come prepared with song, tunes and whatever other material you fancy along those lines.

Back to last week, Colin was MC and he had Geoff start us off. Geoff's contribution was the first of several blues that we had through the evening, being Winkle Picker Shoes Blues.

Our other bluesy numbers were John with the St James Infirmary Blues (attributed to Joe Primrose and after Roud 2 - The Unfortunate Rake), Phil with Railroad Bill (Roud 4181), John with Black Water Blues (Bessie Smith), Roger, accompanied by Henry, with Georgia On My Mind (Hoagy Carmichael, Stuart Gorrell) and Phil with My Rockin' Mama (Cliff Carlisle).