Last train for Easter

Graeme Miles

Officially the theme this week was Easter, since the session was on Good Friday. Visitors were Jan and Ian. Also an occasional irregular regular was Jan (yes, there were two Jans!). Gary also made his first appearance for several weeks.

Mike kicked off the evening as usual. He initially thought he didn't have a song on the subject of Easter but Kevin pointed out that he could sing the Pace Egging Song, which he duly did.

Derek had heard ten minutes before setting out for the club that Graeme Miles had died (29 March 2013). He had known Graeme when he was living in the North of England. Graeme had had a breakdown and did not go out much, until persuaded to start attending some folk clubs in the area though he was still not singing at the time. Derek said he could not sing The Shores of Old Blighty but suggested that someone else might like to sing it - no one did. Sorry, I didn't catch the title of the Graeme Miles song that Derek did sing and a fair amount of Googling later I haven't managed to jog my memory. (Derek commented below this message that the song he sang was King of Ditch Diggers)

Kevin was keen to point out that his singing of Kenny the Kangaroo was Mike's fault, since he had requested it several weeks before.

While Derek sang a song related to Maundy Thursday, he went on to point out that the 50th anniversary of the Beeching cuts to railway services was being mentioned in the media, so he sang The Journey Tae Fyvie. Gary followed that up on the same theme with The Last Train from Bacup. Since it's not obvious to everyone, Bacup is a town in Lancashire and it's name is pronounced "bake-up".

Visitors Jan and Ian sang two songs (Jan singing and Ian on guitar) and played one tune (by O'Carolan, with Ian on mandolin and Jan on guitar). One of their songs, well joined in, was Sandy Denny's Who Knows Where The Time Goes?

The other Jan had some technical problems with her guitar involving tuning and a broken string (I won't say too much more), but she borrowed Steve G's guitar for her first song and then used her own, new string provided by Steve. Her final song, which finished off the evening, was Young Ramble Away.

Next week's session will have no theme, as far as I am aware. More importantly, in two weeks time (12 April), it will be the charity event in aid of BUST. Please come along, and tell your friends; drag them if necessary.