Unexpected but welcome visitors

Ned Kelly on 10 November 1880,
the day before his execution

Well, last week's Dragon Folk Club session was different, in mostly good ways. Colin's wife has been ill and while she is happily recovering it was not unexpected that he was a little late arriving, so Simon took over as MC for the evening.

Mike was the first of the regulars to arrive and found five, yes five, people already present. They were a group of four ladies, Sheila, Carol, Angela and Kay, who were accompanied by non-singer Tony, who I believe to be Sheila's husband. They weren't totally unknown because Mike knew Tony and Sheila and I understand that Angela had visited the Dragon Folk Club at least once before. They were however entirely unexpected and would be very welcome to come again as many times as they wish, just remember that our official starting time is 8:15pm - the music usually starts at around 8:30pm.

Since our visitors had already been singing, Simon asked them to perform two of their songs to start off the first circuit of the room. It turned out that as a group they had only practised twice and only officially had two songs which were The Fields Of Athenry (Pete St John) and Act Naturally (Johnny Russell, Voni Morrison).

Valentine's Day 2020

(Photo: Simon Meeds)

At our Valentine's Day session it was great to see Mel return for his second visit and even better that he indicated it is likely to become a regular occurrence. There were many songs of love and/or lust and a few which were simply calendar-relevant.

Colin, our MC, started things off with Jan Knuckey.

Let's get out of the way the songs which referred to the calendar rather than to love and lust. The ones I spotted were Mike's Last Valentine's Day (Roud 6475) and Derek's Bold Princess Royal (Roud 528, Laws K29).

Simon's slightly sideways glance at Valentine started with reminiscences of a love lost with Harvey Andrews' Margarita. Mike's more conventional approach, if with some playing hard-to-get was Come Write Me Down (Roud 381).

Some more nonsense

(Photo: Simon Meeds)

Last Friday's session was a time for announcements of forthcoming themes, so here are some dates for your diary:

• 14 Feb - St Valentine - principally love and lust but taking note of his patronages: Affianced couples, against fainting, beekeepers, happy marriages, love, plague, epilepsy, Lesbos
• 28 Feb - St David - Wales; Pembrokeshire; Naas; vegetarians; poets
• 20 Mar - St Patrick - Ireland, Nigeria, Montserrat, Archdiocese of New York, Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Newark, Boston, Rolla, Missouri, Loíza, Puerto Rico, Murcia (Spain), Clann Giolla Phádraig, engineers, paralegals, Archdiocese of Melbourne; against snakes and sins
• 24 April - St George - England, Ethiopia, Georgia, Catalonia, etc.; agricultural workers, farmers, field workers; soldiers; archers; armourers; equestrians, cavalry, saddle makers; chivalry; skin diseases, lepers and leprosy, syphilis; sheep, shepherds;

I Can See for Miles and Miles...

Aletsch Glacier (Photo:Simon Meeds)

The Substitute Scribe was on duty again and declared he could see no more obvious topic for the 31st Jan 2020 than to celebrate Dick Miles' 69th birthday, performing our favourite songs learnt from Dick. Derek therefore sang Bogie's Bonny Belle (Roud 2155), Farewell to the Monty (Johnny Handle), Tommy's Lot (Dominic Williams) and Lord Bateman (Roud 40 Child 53), as well as his own Flatlands, the first verse of which was inspired by Dick's Sugartown (a Suffolk nickname for Bury St Edmunds). No-one else chose to contribute a song to this, but Mike told a number of amusing anecdotes attesting to Dick's maladroitness with technology.

The Day The Pub Burnt Down / Closed Early

OK, it was originally supposed to be
a castle burning down (Image by Simon Meeds)

This evening being earmarked for Robbie Burns, your Substitute Scribe decided, as a fatuous pun on 'Burns', to sing The Day the Pub Burned Down (Rudy Sunde – brother of Ruby Tuesday?). Shortly afterwards the barmaid gave the dreadful news that our festivity was to stop at 10:15 as the rest of the pub was practically empty and they were closing early.

Given Burns' propensity for claiming authorship of most of the songs known in Scotland in C18, I have put together those songs which are associated with as well as those actually written by Burns.

Burns:

[Colin] You Jacobites by Name (Roud 5517), Parcel of Rogues (Roud 5516) & Lassie with the Yellow Coatie (Roud 2582). This last caused great problems, since Colin found himself using the similar tune of the shanty I'm Bound Away – perhaps understandably similar, since the Yellow Coatie girls were fisherwomen, gutting fish etc on the quayside. With a little tutoring from Mike, he got through it, only to find Derek struggling to escape the same tune while singing Coming Through the Rye (Roud 5512).

Surprise, Surprise!

In the knowledge that the Regular Scribe would be absent on a mission of mercy, your Substitute Scribe came to the club door, depressed by the idea that the death that day of Derek Fowlds signified bad news for all Dereks, and anticipating a thin attendance. Instead he was met by three of our favourite Irregulars.

One person who did not attend was the one who the day before had stumped up a million pounds for a gold sovereign. He might well have been worried by Gary's first, self-penned, song King David Hartley which recounts the activities of the eponymous Hartley and his gang of counterfeiters and coin clippers in the area around Heptonstall in the 1760s.

Beggars and tinkers

Not a beggar (Photo: Simon Meeds)

While last week's session had no official theme we fairly quickly got into a groove of beggars, tinkers, hawkers and down-and-outs. There will be no theme again this week, but be prepared for Burns' Night the following Friday (24 January).

Colin started us off straight into the theme with When This Old Hat Was New (Roud 1693) although of course he didn't yet realise it would be a theme.

Mike told us that it was forty years since he first met his wife, our good friend Maggie. He met her at a ceilidh where she turned up overdressed for the occasion. His first song was Dave Paskett's I Couldn't Take My Eyes Off Her, which Kevin Adams (see linked video) sang at their wedding and with pretty accurately told the story of their first meeting except the reference to a pizza house, which didn't come into it.