Vaguely Glastonbury

The elusive Mick Jagger

Mike sang The Sailboat Malarky which was one of the first songs that the Bristol Shantymen sang. At the time Mike worked for a dairy and one of the group members took to singing a version -  The Milkfloat Starkey.

Lesley gave a big build up to one of her favourite songs of 1970 - The Wonder of You. Mike says it was a UK hit for Elvis Presley in 1972 but Lesley was playing it on a jukebox in Jersey, so we'll give the benefit of the doubt that it was popular earlier in the Channel Isles, as apparently it was worldwide outside the UK. Following on from this, Mike later sang In the Ghetto, a request from Maggie.

Colin provides the detail

Fred Jordan

Experimenting with a post from my phone. Many thanks to Derek for this great report from Friday's session.

The attendance at start of play was rather sparse; but before long we got up to a count of 28 legs. Admittedly these figures are slightly massaged by including putative club mascot Gert 'Ratty' V, who was introduced by Mike to the old Bristol craft of chewing beermats. Relaxed by this, she was able to resist Steve's attempt to coax her into doggy noises by starting off the night with Dido Bendigo.

The night's new visitor was Dave from the Bath songwriters' workshop. Unable to find a socket into which to plug his electrical gubbins, he reverted to a capella, singing his own songs and Blow the Wind Southerly, which those of your scribe's generation still associate mainly with Kathleen Ferrier. He also won the raffle.

June continues with slightly risqué songs

We haven't had any themes recently but as usual this week people found their own minor themes, and that's what I will focus on here.

Mike kicked off the evening, remembering that 2013 marks 26 years since the Northern Ireland peace process was started following the Remembrance Day bombing in Enniskillen. He sang The Enniskillen Dragoons.

A belated end to May

Stanley Accrington

After last week's abortive attempt at a session, Derek bemoaned not having been able to finish his May songs, so he sang The Easington explosion by Jock Purdon. Rachel took up the slightly belated theme of May with A place called England by Maggie Holland. Derek moved on to Corpus Christi with a version of The Corpus Christi carol and finally admitted that June has arrived with The three O'Donnells.