North East and North West

F. Parker Glass Plate
King George V Bridge, Newcastle-on-Tyne

Last week's session had no theme but as often some emerged as the evening went on. In fact at the beginning we thought we weren't going to be quorate and were resigned to singing a couple of songs each and calling it a night when who should turn up but Mike and his canine companion and occasional singer (OK, howler and winer) Indy.

Colin kicked off the evening with I Wish They'd Do It Now (Roud 1401). Derek picked up on the first line of the song, "I was born of Geordie parents" and decided to make Geordies his chosen theme, for a while at least. He warmed up with Jowl Jowl And Listen (Roud 3191).

Simon wasn't yet ready to join in that theme, so he gave us Sally Gardens (Roud V28639) which as has been noted here before, WB Yeats wrote based on half-remembered snatches of The Rambling Boys Of Pleasure (Roud 386).

Mike, noting that we are in the midst of wassail season gave us something similar to this Apple Tree Wassail (Roud 209), which is in turn similar to one collected in Worcestershire.

Derek sang Jack Elliott of Birtley's one verse parody of Banks Of The Clyde (Roud 1784):

On yon bottle bank stands a lad and a lassie.His name is Geordy as you'll understand.He's going to fight for his queen and his country,With a sword in his teeth and a brick in each hand.

...followed by the song itself.

Simon's first attempt at something North Eastern was Jez Lowe's The Bergen about a shipwreck off Seaton Carew.

Mike returned to his old song list, picking up the alphabet at L with Landlord Fill The Flowing Bowl (Roud 1234).

Simon sang Mark Knopfler's Sailing To Philadelphia. Knopfler was perhaps surprisingly born in Glasgow but raised in Newcastle. More importantly for the theme, the song is about Mason and Dixon: Charles Mason from Gloucestershire and Jeremiah Dixon from County Durham, not quite the "Geordie boy" of the song although his mother was from Newcastle. Simon's next song was definitely written by an old friend of his who originated in Newcastle, Derek Jolly, and was My Grandfather's Ferret. Like many modern folk songs this is one that has travelled far from its roots, with singers not knowing who wrote it, and we have even come to learn that it is the signature song of a folk club on the Isle of Wight.

Mike's trip through the Ls took him to Kirkby Stephen from the Lish Young Buy-a-broom (Roud 1865). I'm sure while researching for this blog report I saw someone claim this as an Irish song, but of course Kirkby Stephen is in Cumbria, which is resolutely in the North West of England.

Derek's next Geordie foray was with a version of the song Geordie, being Roud 90, Child209, actually Child 209F to be precise telling of Geordie Lukely.

Simon went ever less Geordie with Durham Town (Roger Whittaker) which only squeezes in courtesy of a geographical error in the lyric which puts a Durham lad on the bank of the Tyne watching the shipping rather than on the bank of the Tees, which isn't even navigable at that point.

With such liberties well and truly taken, Simon went truly Durham with The Lambton Worm (Roud 2337). Mike suggested in fun that the song was much newer than commonly believed and related to a mutated beast created by Sellafield, his joke disregarding the 100 miles between Durham and Seascale. Nevertheless it left Derek to suggest a new theme of songs mentioning Sellafield, surely a small repertoire. Nevertheless Derek dug up his own song A Ticket For The Meat Draw about the traditional raffle at a folk club, again in the North East, which does indeed mention Sellafield, which is still in the North West of England.

It was Mike's promise, in his theme of songs beginning with the letter L, to sing Little Fishes (Roud 5477), which he did later, and the subsequent discussion that it was translated from a Norwegian shanty, that led Derek to sing a sea song in Norn, The Unst Boat Song.

I've gone on long enough and will finally mention a traditional rather than Beach Boys (after last weeks diversions) version of Sloop John B, or should that be H'ist Up The John B's Sails (Roud 15634)?

It fell to Simon to close the evening heading well to the North East, in fact to Newfoundland, with We'll Rant And We'll Roar (Roud 21113).

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

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