Christmas 2015

Photo by macinate at Flickr

We were quite thin on the ground for our Christmas session, partly perhaps because it was slightly earlier than usual and partly because it was lower key, having had the mega-bash for Maggie's retirement the week before.

Important news, also posted elsewhere is that there will be no Dragon Folk Club sessions on 18 or 25 December, nor on 1 January, when the New Inn is closed. So we will be back and raring to go on 8 January 2016 when themes could range from Boxing Day, through New Year and Twelfth Night to, well, anything you fancy. Just please be there to see the old year out, albeit belatedly, and welcome the new year in.

Colin was in the driving seat as MC and Derek kicked off proceedings with a medley of Christmas carol parodies - sorry for the shock if you listened to that link but its chorus is close to one of Derek's choice cuts.

Richard sang George Ratcliffe Woodward's Past Three O'Clock. There was some discussion as to what "Past three o'clock on a cold frosty morning. Past three o'clock good morrow masters all" really referred to, Simon was almost right: it's loosely based on the traditional cry of the city night watchman.

Lesley's first was the Sans Day Carol, a song originating from Cornwall in the 19th century.

Mike confused matters by singing The Christmas Goose and then following up on the next round with another song he called The Christmas Goose, a song of the workers based on the old rhyme "Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat..."

Colin sang two songs from The Kipper Family, but since they lay low on the internet I was unable to find recordings of either to share with you: a parody of The Boars Head Carol (Roud 22229), and Arrest These Merry Gentlemen.

Simon's only had two Christmas offerings: Gaudete, a carol thought to have been written in the 16th century but possibly earlier, and The Christmas Song (Robert Wells and Mel Tormé).

That was the first round. With only six singers it came round a few times and quite quickly, Other notable contributions included Colin's singing of The Huron Carol, which Mike maintained was a native American parody of the Christian invaders, though the history here has it that Jesuit missionary Jean de Brébeuf wrote it around 1642 in the native language of the Huron/Wendat people.

Richard had several requests for the words after singing of John Conolly and Bill Meek's Grumpy Men of Old England.

We had at least a couple of local Gloucestershire songs: The Gloucestershire Wassail (Roud 209) from Mike, and A Virgin Unspotted from Lesley.

By the time the end of the evening came and Simon was asked to finish us off, the best he could muster was to evoke the cold of winter with Stan Rogers' Northwest Passage.

Here's a selection of songs sung during this session.

(Number of people present - 6, of which 6 performed)