Mandela, floods and Scottish remnants

Hamish Henderson

The big world event this week was the death of Nelson Mandela. At the beginning of the evening only Derek had a relevant song; one he had written himself, called Mandela. This was a song which he considered to be poorly written and he had therefore sung it only three times before. This, he declared, would be its last outing. We didn't think it anywhere near so bad. Later on Terry turned up and sung another song related to South Africa. Unfortunately I've been unable to identify it.

Simon spoke of the tidal surge that has affected Lincolnshire. The flooding got to within a mile of his parents' house and flooded the homes of several people he knows. It was noted that Three score and ten would be appropriate but it had been sung the previous week. Simon had considered reading High tide on the coast of Lincolnshire by Jean Ingelow until he realised how long it is!

So, while there was no theme worth the name this week, Derek, having filled most of last week's St Andrews session with other things, sang Scottish songs all evening and one or two others joined in.

Maggie (2) was present for the first half with canine folk fan, Gerty, who spent most of the time inside her pet human's coat, coming out only long enough to suffer the embarrassment of getting tangled in her lead.

Maggie (1) seemed keen to sing again this week, starting several songs but never getting past the first line or two. I am sure she will be persuaded to perform again before long; I have heard her do so before. Mike started the evening, on Maggie's request, with Turpin hero.

I already mentioned that Derek was singing Scottish songs. He sang two from Hamish Henderson. The second of these was The 51st Highland Division's farewell to Sicily and I think the first was Freedom come-all-ye (though I may be wrong). He went on to sing Jamie Raeburn's farewell. He was going to sing Geordie, but Simon beat him to it, so he sang The four Marys. Colin's contribution to the Scottish strand was Ian Campbell's Canny miner lad.

When Terry turned up later in the evening, Maggie complained that he was present at the session when she was ill and sang many of her favourite songs. As a consolation he reprised John Willie's Ferret. Prompted by the recent government announcement that pension ages would rise more quickly than previously expected, Kevin sang I just can't wait by Ian Campbell and John Dunkerley.

Terry was asked to sing the last song of the evening. He said he only knows one closing song and that is Eric Bogle's Leaving Nancy. It transpired that Terry learnt the song during a guitar tutorial run many years ago by Kevin.

Here's a selection of these songs plus some others sung during the session.