Danger, men at work

Photo by James Butler

There was no official theme this week, so song subjects were a little all over the place. We initially gathered as nine but when Colin, who MCed, asked Steve G to sing, Steve said he had to leave immediately. It's OK, we hadn't upset him, but it did mean we were down to eight and Steve didn't get to sing this time.

Derek kicked off the evening with The Ballad Of William Bloat by Raymond Calvert and Mike responded with The Deserter/Ratcliff Highway (Roud 493).

Richard led us into self parody with the catchy, not to say risqué spoof folk song, Bold Sir John, from The Two Ronnies.

Lesley seems to have set herself a Max Boyce theme with her first song being his Slow Men At Work and her last Ten Thousand Instant Christians, though she also added I Hold Your Hand In Mine (Tom Lehrer) and Cotton Mill Girls (Roud 11548).

Occasional and very welcome visitor, Terry H seemed to play a number of new-to-him songs, varying his instrument between guitar, ukulele and melodeon. The first was Bill Meek's Sailortown, which was followed through the evening by Ned Of The Hill, Dream A Little Dream Of Me (Fabian Andre, Wilbur Schwandt, Gus Kahn) and the Appledore Farewell Shanty. The last of these was appropriate, being the shanty that Mike sings for funerals. This Friday will be Alan Mitchell's funeral, and Derek gave tribute, not by reciting one of Alan's Marriott Edgar monologues, but with another monologue, The Man From God Knows Where by Florence Wilson.

Among Tom's offerings of the evening was his own song, Lasso The Moon and Ralph McTell's Hiring Fair. I mention these because it's always nice to be able to offer you recordings by the person who we heard sing.

Colin went all Disney on us with Roger Miller's Oo De Lally from Robin Hood.

Simon had been on a First Aid at Work course last week, so his songs were themed loosely around that: The Chemical Workers' Song (Ron Angel), The Transplant Squad (Richard Stilgoe), Drill Ye Tarriers Drill (Thomas F Casey, Charles Connolly) and House Of The Rising Damp by Mary McCloud, about a very dodgy hotel in Milton Keynes where the visitor finds all sorts of hazards.

Tom mentioned that his mother was born in Clowne, Derby, which caused Derek to sing The Derby Ram (Roud 126) before Richard finished us off, allowing us to join in with gusto to a very old song, adopted by the shape note system of singing: Babylon Is Fallen.

Being the closest session to Burns' Night I guess this week's theme should be anything Scottish, and particularly things relating to the Bard of Ayrshire, so I hope to see many of you there: highland dress optional!

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

(Number of people present - 9, of which 8 performed)