The anniversary waltz

Kevin Barry

Before getting down to the report of last week's session there is an important notice, that there will be no Dragon Folk Club session on 13 October because The Bridge Inn is hosting a wake for someone from the village. There is no need though to go without music that week because there are two recommended events.

On Wednesday 11 October Simon's friend Damian Clarke is doing a gig in aid of Médecins Sans Frontières. Damian, who plays hammered dulcimer and hurdy gurdy, will be joined by George Whitfield on accordion and Kent Nielsen on ukulele. All this will be at The Star Inn, Fishponds and will kick off at 7:30pm.

The second recommended gig is friend of the Dragon Folk Club, Keith Hyett who is performing his own classical guitar compositions as part of his Memories of You tour at Mount Pleasant Community Centre, Bradford on Avon at 7:30pm on Friday 13 October. Tickets at £7.00 are available on the door or from www.ents24.com.

Now down to last week's session. Let's not beat about the bush. While we did sing this week, the assembled crowd was hardly large at four men and a dog. We really do need more people to get out and come down on Friday nights to make this thing worthwhile. We have some great singers and musicians out there who come and see us from time to time. If you are one of those people, your presence really is appreciated, and if you are a would-be newcomer, yours is too whether or not you want to perform.

Colin was MC and kicked off the evening with Louisa's Journey (Rachelle Jeffs). Derek had a number of anniversaries to deal with, some from this week and some from the previous one when there was no singing. His first anniversary dealt with Kevin Barry (Roud 3014) who was executed for the murder of Private Marshall Whitehead during an ambush on a British Army truck which took place on 20 September 1920.

Simon, who had recently returned from a holiday in France, was encouraged by Derek to sing something in French, which meant a rendition of Chevaliers De La Table Ronde.

To complete the first rotation, Mike, following Derek's example, marked the Battle of Alma on 20 September 1854 with Heights Of Alma (Roud 830, Laws J10).

Derek's next anniversary was the Gresford Disaster (Roud 3089) which took place on 22 September 1934.

Mike sang I Can Hew Boys, written by Dave Dodds. He went on to ask for the words to Dave's sing The Magpie, which Simon quickly found on-line. In terms of presenting the words and giving some examples of performances, this is probably the best location to try.

Derek kept up his pursuit of anniversaries (23 September 1962) with The Boys From Gwent (Meic Stevens). The song tells of the civil disobedience carried out by two Welsh Nationalists in protest at the drowning of the village of Capel Celyn to provide water for Liverpool. In September 1962 they hampered construction at the site by releasing 1000 gallons of oil. In February 1963 a transformer supplying electricity to the site was blown up and a university student was subsequently imprisoned for causing the explosion.

After Mike and Indy's departure at the interval we were down to three men and swimming against the tide, nevertheless we soldiered on and finished only slightly early after Colin left us with Gamble Gold (Roud 333, Child 132).

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

(Number of people present - 4, of whom 4 performed)