Saint Andrew and Scotland

Everyone seemed to be in a bad way this week. Maggie was absent with the lurgy of which Mike had a milder dose. Paul was hobbling around and Carl couldn't play his beloved guitar since his left arm wasn't working properly. Nevertheless Colin managed to MC efficiently while Mike managed the whining dog, Indy.

Richard noticed that the following Sunday would be Saint Andrew's Day and started off an impromptu theme of Scotland. Mike noted that Indy seemed to whine more at the Scottish songs than the others. Whether this is significant I'll leave to you to decide.

Thanks from St Peter's Hospice

Patricia Hyett

Both our harvest session and a session we held in celebration of the life of Patricia Hyett raised money in aid of St Peter's Hospice. Maggie has received the following letter of thanks from St Peter's.

Dear members of the Dragon Folk Club, I am writing to thank you for raising £110.00 which we received on 13/10/2014 from your special remembrance night for Patricia Hyett. It is such an amazing achievement and we are so proud to have such brilliant supporters like you. As you may know we are the only adult hospice that covers the wider Bristol region, and we play a vital role in the care of terminally ill patients across a huge area. One of the hardest parts of our work is helping the bereaved to deal with the loss of loved ones - people like Tom Drury, aged 20 from Bradley Stoke, who explains... "St Peter's Hospice cared for my Mum Kate who died when I was 14 years old. "Then my Dad passed away at the Hospice in March 2010, having lost his own battle with cancer. "When we had Dad's diagnosis I couldn't believe that cancer was about to tear my family apart again. My Mum and Dad died too young, but St Peter's Hospice gave them both a good end to their lives." It is only thanks to the generosity of people like you that stories like Tom's are possible so thank you so very much Maggie for your support and I hope that you had a great time fundraising for us!! ... Best Wishes Jo Plummer Community Fundraiser

A war deferred

Soldier's comrades watching him as he sleeps,
Thievpal, France, during World War I

After last week's abortive attempt at a remembrance session some people clearly wanted to get their war, anti-war and such songs out of their system.

Mike started off this theme and the session with Homeward (words Cicely Fox Smith, tune Sarah Morgan). Gary's contribution was James Keogh (Michael Burns). Simon joined the trend with Jimmy Spoons (Mike Harding). Mike took us into the second tour of the room with Hanging on the old barbed wire (Roud 9618) before Colin, arriving late as forewarned, took on anti-war songs as his theme for the rest of the evening.

Not a night to remember

Tonight was supposed to be our remembrance session where you could all bring out your songs of war, bravery, anti-war and peace. Unfortunately, to Mike and Maggie's annoyance, we were once again ousted from our room by a party. We should be back to normal next week with no official theme, so if you want to sing something you intended to sing this week, that's fine and if not, then that's fine too.

With recent disruption, Maggie is considering a change of venue; there's nothing firm yet, so in the meantime keep coming to The Bridge in Shortwood and if you can't do that, keep looking at the blog for any further news.

It sounds as though there was a fairly good crowd planning to come to tonight's session. Some people Maggie managed to head off by phone, others made it to the pub without any suspicion of what was happening. Sorry to everyone who planned to attend, and especially those who turned up. We hope to see you next week.

Since December 2014, the Dragon Folk Club has met at The New Inn, Westerleigh, near Bristol.

Around the bonfire

Around the camp-fire, men of Company A,
16th Infantry, San Geronimo, Mexico, May 27th, 1916.

There were only eight of us for the gunpower, treason and plt of the bonfire session this week. We don't even have bottle gas fires in the middle of the room since the refurbishment, so any fire was entirely imaginary. Nevertheless, huddled around our metaphorical campfire, everyone present sang.

There was chat before we started about learning songs, and the preference, certainly among those established on the sing-around scene for people singing without words. Simon suggested, with no dig intended, that Derek probably learnt songs on one hearing in a pub many years ago. Derek initially said that this was an exaggeration but then admitted there was at least one song just like that.

Halloween

Ghost catchers

This week's session was actually on Halloween so there were, as you would expect, lots of ghosties and ghoulies and... things that go bump in the night but in fact it turned out to be quite an eclectic evening.

It was an evening for couples. In a very rare occurrence Colin brought his wife, and even more unusually, Gary (currently unable to drive himself about) brought his wife, Helen. While it's a treat for all of us, since  Helen is an excellent singer, the unfortunate trade-off was that they had to leave at half-time.

Joe and Josci were also present but decided not to sing this time. Joe wanted Simon to sing something with him but I'm not sure it would have worked unaccompanied. See what you think.