Peace as a starting point

International Day of Peace logo

It was great last Friday to be joined by Steve C and Jane to make us properly quorate for the first time since the harvest. The pub was very quiet, so we had a good session.

Colin MCed as usual and kicked us off by announcing that it was International Day of Peace. As it happens I knew this because I'd heard the Dean of Bristol Cathedral asking the cathedral bell ringers to mark it by ringing a special "touch" at their practice. Colin sang Where Have All The Flowers Gone (Pete Seeger, Joe Hickerson).

Derek said he hadn't worked out a song for the day, 21 September, but he had songs for 20th, 22nd and 23rd. His first three songs were therefore Kevin Barry (Roud 3014) who was executed for his part in an ambush which took place on 20 September 1920, The Gresford Disaster (Roud 3089) which took place on 22 September 1934, and The Boys From Gwent (Meic Stephens) who on 23 September 1962 hampered construction of the Tryweryn Dam which would flood the village of Capel Celyn.

Simon had a random selection of song words piled up in front of him, the first of which was Sally Wheatley (Joe Wilson).

Mike's particular thread this week was to work his way through his 1988 list of songs starting at A. His contributions for the evening were Admiral Benbow (Roud 227), The Holmfirth Anthem ("Aborad For Pleasure" - Roud 1046), The Miner's Lifeguard ("A Miner's Life" - Roud 3510) and (It's) a Working Man I Am (Rita MacNeil).

We speculated where Mike might e heading with this. I don't always record songs we spontaneously sing together but unusually Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah (Allie Wrubel, Ray Gilbert) made it well past the first line.

Master storyteller Jane gave us a selection of traditional and modern stories more or less on the subject of peace proposed at the start by Colin. She was afraid she would repeat herself from previous visits but the verdict seemed to be that she repeated no more than one. Her first story I would call "Two friends in the Welsh mountains" about to men who fell out and later made up. Next came "Tommy's Dad" who was in a reserved occupation but in the usual "my Dad's tougher than your Dad" schoolboy conversations, Tommy still manages to come out on top. In "The Man and the Ash Tree" a mysterious stranger provides relief to a desperate soldier. Leaving the peace theme, Jane went on to tell stories of Finn Mac Cool and a man suffering from agoraphobia who overcomes his fear to support and befriend a girl who has been in an horrific accident.

Steve C opened his account with The Blue Cockade (Roud 191) and eventually it was he who closed the evening with The Ballad Of Sammy's Bar (Cyril Tawney).

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

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