Battles, Yeats and slashed wrists

Stanley Holloway

This week's session was well attended. Robin brought along Sylvia, who is an occasional visitor. Mervyn was with us for the first time in two years - not particularly surprising since his usual habitat is Newbury. We also had a couple of non-singing visitors who were very welcome - sorry I didn't get their names.

Mike kicked off the evening with Eric Bogle's And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda. Alan continued the war theme with Marriot Edgar's monologue The Battle of Hastings.

Mervyn's first contribution was With Her Head Tucked Underneath Her Arm, written by RP Weston and Bert Lee, and originally performed by Stanley Holloway. One of Mervyn's later contributions was Benjamin Bowmaneer, but with the titular character replaced by "Anthony Blair-eo".

Summer made a brief appearance, three weeks after stepping out from behind the bar at The Bridge. She was serenaded by Alan K performing Dave Paskett's I Couldn't Take My Eyes off Her.

As occasionally happens, Derek came up with his own theme this week, and it was certainly an obscure one. I suppose it was something like "songs not written by the Irish poet you thought they were". He sang a version of Down by the Sally Gardens which he held was not written by WB Yeats, then another song, which he was convinced wasn't Yeats but may have been George Bernard Shaw. Finally, he sang The Old Triangle, often  claimed for Brendan Behan, but apparently not by him.

Kevin sang a run of songs to slash your wrists to, rounded off by Bert Jansch's The Needle of Death. Maggie requested Keith Hancock's Chase the Dragon for next week. It will remain to be seen whether we survive the experience.

Alan K closed the evening with a sing-along to Buddy Holly's It Doesn't Matter Anymore.

As we left The Bridge, Ray fell down on the steps outside the pub. He seemed to be OK and with Robin's help made it to Richard's car which was his transport home. I do hope he wasn't hurt.