Remembrance

(Photo: Simon Meeds)

As I keep saying, we are currently refraining from announcing official themes, but last Friday falling on 12 November meant that we were still thinking of remembrance, which therefore coloured many of the songs. Our usual room was in the middle of being decorated so we spent the evening in the small bar which was pleasant and we even got appreciation from some of the customers passing through to the toilets.

MC Colin started the ball rolling with Jez Lowe's Old Bones, which Maggie L noted was often sung by our late friend Ray Croll.

Derek hadn't been at our sessions for the previous two weeks, so he first took us back to Halloween with Sweet William's Ghost (roud 50, child 77) and The Unquiet Grave (roud 51, child 78), then to Guy Fawkes with Bonfire Night before bringing us back to the present with There's A Simple Little Cross Out At Mons.

Simon started with Elizabeth Padgett's tale of second world war wild-fowling in the fens, The Plover Catcher.

Colin took us to the First World War Balkans with Salonika (roud 10513), a song often sung by our late friend Pat Hyett.

Simon's singing of Where have all the flowers gone (Pete Seeger, Joe Hickerson) prompted Derek to burst into the German version, Sag mir, wo die Blumen sind (words by Max Colpet).

Colin contributed two songs from the singing of Roy Bailey: Ghost Story (Jim Woodland) and Maria Diaz (Lenny Galant). Simon gave us two from Mike Harding's pen: Bombers' Moon and Jimmy Spoons.

In the end it fell to Simon to finish off the night which he did, as the song says (metaphorically) "shaking plaster from the wall" with When all men sing (Keith Scowcroft, Derek Gifford).

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

(Number of people present - 4, of whom 3 performed)

Guy Fawkes, bonfires and camp fires

With fireworks for Guy Fawkes' Night well under way, Gerty kept Derek and Maggie home, no doubt to watch the local display while cowering under a table. Meanwhile there was no such trouble for Indy who kept an eye out for stray bangs but didn't cause too much trouble for Mike.

As is usual at the moment we didn't have an official theme but there was a strong leaning to songs to sing around the campfire with a few contemporary to Guido himself.

Colin arrived first and as MC put himself on to sing The grand old Duke of York (Roud 742). He sang several verses and said he hadn't come across them before; Mike remembered them from his schooldays.

Simon, almost completely off topic, said he had a request (from Colin) the week before at Halloween, so he sang Monster Mash (Bobby Pickett).

Mike's first song was Spencer the rover (Roud 1115) which mentions the fifth of November.

We had twenty five songs, twenty six of which can be heard via the "a selection" link below. Oh, 26 of 25? Mike, noting that the others were singing children's songs, sang I've got sixpence (Roud 1116 - yes, consecutive to Spencer!) and later returned with a snippet of the shanty version, Mop her down (Roud 17004) on a turn when he really sang Martin said to his man (Roud 473). This latter song was one of two later versions we had of political nonsense songs which originated around the time of the gunpowder plot (1605); the other was Benjamin Bowmaneer (Roud 1514) which Simon sang. Mike told us that they were from the time of the Napoleonic Wars with the evidence being that the "flea" was Napoleon in both songs. 

Other songs of note from Mike included his own Children of the train (the recording doesn't use Mike's tune). He also sang the JCB Song (Seamus Moore), not to be confused with the equally wonderful but totally different JCB Song (Luke Concannon).

Colin reminded us of our friend Roger, who we haven't seen for a while by singing Upidee. Known with different words as an American Civil War song, the song used the words of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem Exelsior and was a Harvard college song.

Simon finished off the evening with When I first came to this land (Roud 16813) which was translated by Oscar Brand in 1957 from a Pennsylvania Dutch song.

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

(Number of people present - 3, of whom 3 performed)

Eerily quiet

Friendly zombies in Dublin (Photo: Simon Meeds)

We aren't setting themes for our sessions at the moment but last Friday presented an obvious opportunity to bring out something spooky for Halloween. Unfortunately only two of us rose to the challenge.

Colin MCing started the evening off with a song of his own writing entitled Great Uncle Frank which Simon followed up with the properly traditional Halloween Souling Song (Roud 304).

And so it all came round too quickly this time; back to Colin for Dancers of Stanton Drew (Jim Parker, Muriel Holland), a cautionary tale from Somerset warning not to dance on a Sunday. Simon drew on the songwriting of Russian / Ingush performer Daria Kulesh and her song Begone! (The Witch of Walkern) telling a story from her adopted Hertfordshire about a woman accused of witchcraft and saved by a judge from the city.

Colin took his next from the singing of Martin Carthy: The Devil and the Feathery Wife (Roud 12551) while Simon took us westward for Stan Jones' 1948 song Riders in the Sky. Yes, the word "Ghost" was not in the original title.

Back to Colin for The Wife of Usher's Well (Roud 196, Child 79). Colin often takes songs from the works of bands such as Steeleye Span, but in this case though they popularised it, he assures us his version is from the tradition. Simon's song this round was certainly not from "the tradition" being a 1971 hit single by Native American band Redbone, Witch Queen of New Orleans (Lolly Vegas, Pat Vegas).

Being such a small contingent we wove much conversation through the evening touching such subjects as guitar playing, the Roud index and Wikipedia.

Finally we came to the closing round where Colin sang Widecombe Fair (Roud 137) and Simon finished with Zombie Jamboree (possibly written by Conrad Eugene Mauge, Jr).

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

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

A drop of Nelson's blood

HMS Victory (Photo: Simon Meeds)

I'm afraid this is going to be a short report again on last Friday's session though we were reasonably quorate in numbers. It's simply that I'm running out of time. Nevertheless you can follow the link below to hear most of the songs we sang, and even better come along to The Bridge this Friday to see in person what we do. Maybe you will be able to join in.

Colin, taking his usual role of MC, started with The Drummer and the Cook (Roud 3136). It's entirely coincidental that I have linked Harry Belafonte's recording and that Simon followed it with the bawdy mento song Big Bamboo, which as Derek pointed out is of course entirely about plant products (hmm!). Derek's own first song was Mill O' Tifty's Annie (Roud 98). Mike rounded of the first circuit with Roll the Old Chariot (Roud 3632 - "a drop of Nelson's blood...") to mark the previous day's celebration of Trafalgar.

Keeping on the Napoleonic Wars theme, Simon sang an unapologetically junior school version of Boney Was a Warrior (Roud 485). And so we went on singing until there were only two of us and Colin rounded off the evening with Pull for the Shore (Roud 17400 - it actually starts in the linked video at 2:26).

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

(Number of people present - 5, of whom 4 performed)

For Singing

Harry Brown
(Based on a photograph by Hugh Llewelyn - Flickr)

Numbers were unfortunately back to being depleted last Friday but some worthwhile singing was done.

Colin arrived in time to take up his regular role as MC, but with Simon arriving first it was his job to start off the session, singing a Canadian song, Peggy Gordon (Roud 2280). This was followed by Colin with Old Johnny Bugger (Roud 19111). Those who are squeamish of the title of this Lancashire/ Yorkshire version may prefer the title used by Shirley Collins on her 2016 album Lodestar which was Old Johnny Buckle. The album notes say "Sung by Mrs Hewett, a ploughman's wife of Mapledurwell, Hants, recorded by Bob Copper in July 1955. It's an upside-down song, a daft little nonsense song of contradictions. A far nobler variant of this type of song is Nottamun Town." I have also seen the final name of the title as Booker, Bigger, Booger, Boker, and many more.

Mike's first song was Napoleon Bonaparte (Roud 1626) which is also called Napoleon's Farewell to Paris.

We visited a couple of the big folk rock bands. First Simon with Boys of Bedlam (V16366) the tune being by Dave Moran and Nic Jones of The Halliard, and which became associated with Steeleye Span. Second was Colin with Fairport Convention's Genesis Hall (Richard Thompson). "Genesis Hall" was an abandoned hotel in London's Drury Lane, originally the Bell Hotel. It had been occupied by hippie squatters. The London police had evicted the squatters, and eventually caused the building to be razed. Thompson's father was a member of the London police force at the time, and the lyrics refer to the incident.

Mike had been reminded about his next song by the singing of his Bristol Shantymen colleague, Jeff Blake. The song was Sailboat Malarkey about which A L Lloyd wrote "The tune and most of the words come from the Bahamas, from the singer Frederick McQueen. In the Bahamas it's mostly used for boat-launching, but it serves equally well for capstan work. ‘Malarkey’ here is a mispronunciation of ‘Malachi’."

Colin brought out If by David Gates of the band Bread. A bit of trivia is that this song reached number one in the UK singles chart in 1975, not for Bread but for Telly Savalas (his version), becoming the song with the shortest title to reach No. 1 in the UK.

Mike sang Harry Brown a written by Pete MacNab with a little help from Mike himself. The song, in the form of a shanty, tells of a well-loved Bristol-based dredger which eventually sank in a second life working in Bahrain.

After a lot more singing the evening was closed by Colin with a new song from Tom Lewis called A Shanty For Singing.

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

(Number of people present - 3, of whom 3 performed)

Harvest, wars and other stuff

Photo: Simon Meeds

Sorry, I won't get round to writing a proper report of last Friday's session. Suffice to say that Colin was MC and he was joined by Mike, Derek, Maggie L and Simon. A good evening of singing was had and you can get an idea of most of the songs sung from the link below.

See you this Friday for more of the same and more of something different.

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

(Number of people present - 5, of whom 4 performed)

That's more like it

The club's old door poster

Last Friday's session was much livelier and more satisfactory than recent efforts. We were pleased to see Derek return to the fold, and Tom make his second visit since we restarted. Even better, Derek brought with him Maggie L and Gerty who we hadn't seen for a very long time. Let's hope we can not only carry on this way but gradually add more names to the roll-call.

MC Colin invited Mike to start the singing but in the end had to kick us off himself with Don't you rock me Daddy-o (Bill Varley, Wally Whyton) which was originally recorded by The Vipers Skiffle Group for whom it  reached number 10 in the UK Singles Chart in early 1957. The song is a variant of Sail Away Ladies (Roud 17635). Whyton was founder of the Vipers which became the resident band at the 2i's Coffee Bar in Soho and had its records produced by George Martin.

Mike did indeed sing the second song of the evening and it was one which Colin had requested the previous week, but which he wouldn't have dared sing had his wife, Maggie S been present. The extremely non-PC song in question was The Chinese Bum-boat Man (Roud 10465).

Tom treated us to an early Gerry Rafferty composition, Her Father Didn't Like Me Anyway. The song was on Rafferty's first solo album, "Can I Have My Money Back?" (1971), and had previously been released by his band, The Humblebums. The band was founded in 1965 by Billy Connolly and Tam Harvey with Rafferty joining in 1969.

Simon sang The Smuggler's Song, which was published in Rudyard Kipling's Puck of Pook's Hill. There is some discussion, not least from Tom who was present, about whether Kipling wrote the poem and who wrote the tune which Simon uses. Is it a variant of Peter Bellamy's tune, or of the one written by Christopher Le Fleming, or is it something else entirely? All Simon knows is that he got the tune from our late friend Ray Croll and that when he first heard Ray sing it the tune was already familiar to him from somewhere.

Derek said he doesn't usually sing a song he doesn't know although we know he sometimes pulls one out of a very dusty corner of his "bag" and sings it perfectly adequately. On this occasion though he started one knowing he would not get very far with it since he wanted to address Maggie L with the first verse of Come Write Me Down (Roud 381). With the first verse out of the way, Mike led us a little further down the path of the song he knows well.

And so the first circuit of the room was complete and there followed several more circuits until 31 songs and poems had been performed. This is not a record by any means (we think that would be about 47) but it is a good tally.

Worth a particular mention is that Tom read us two of his own poems. Grandad's Cracket concerns a stool that his grandfather made him for which young Tom seems to have found many uses. Tom gave a very emotional reading of The Driver, remembering the day when he saw a pit pony driver whose "eyes were full of tears" with a group of blind ponies that had finished their working lives. No one would tell him what lay in store for them and he only found out years later.

Derek was asked to finish the evening and clearing it with Maggie L that he would sing a bawdy song, he sent us home with Mary Went to a Tea Party (Roud 24991).

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

(Number of people present - 6, of whom 5 performed)