Crowd Dispersal

Last week's session was again well attended with a welcome return for Rose, who also brought along a newcomer to the club, Jonjo.

Colin was MC and Derek started the evening off with Red Roses For Me (Sean O'Casey). Mike followed this with Wave Over Wave (Jim Payne, Janis Spence).

Tony brought us one of his Welsh tunes which this time was Tafarn Y Wheatsheaf (The Wheatsheaf Pub) and Hilary followed that with Try To Remember (Tom Jones, Harvey Schmidt).

Louder than usual

The knocker-upper man

Last weeks session was slightly unusual for us in that our venue at The New Inn was somewhat taken over by people who would usually be at The Old Inn (the pubs have really original names in Westerleigh) which was closed for refurbishment. While they were fairly loud at times they were at least reasonably appreciative of our efforts in the main and in any case they had dwindled to a memory by the break.

Colin was naturally Mc and for a change kicked off the singing himself with General Guinness, which seems as good a place as any to start even if he wasn't actually drinking the black stuff.

I think there was some skulduggery going on, maybe trying to test the resolve of the non-folkies in the bar when Derek sang Molly Bawn (Roud 166, Laws O36) and Mike sang Haul On The Bowline (Roud 652).

Spinning a yarn

(Photo by Hans Splinter)

Last week's session saw the return of Richard and Lesley after their travels and a rare, in recent times, appearance of Gary, who I believe has been busy travelling and performing at festivals over the last few months.

Colin also returned from his break and fell back into his usual role of MC. Derek was the first to sing with Lord Bateman (Roud 40, Child 53). It proved unusually problematic for him since he started off with his usual tune but it morphed half-way into another, equally valid tune for the song.

July on the Somme

Battle of the Somme 1916 - Prelude (Photo by Norman Date)

Last week's session saw novice MC, Simon attempting and not always succeeding to maintain control of the evening but we got there in the end and a total of 31 songs and tunes isn't too bad a tally. Normal service should be resumed this week.

Simon asked Derek to start which he did by saying that he has few July songs but offering Three Flowers, his version starting "As I was walking down the street one evening in July".

Another theme which emerged was the centenary of the start of the Battle of the Somme on 1 July 2016. Mike was first to contribute on this theme with Hanging On The Old Barbed Wire (Roud 9618).