Transported from Bristol to Australia (and back)

Cootamundra Wattle (Photo: John Jennings)

Well, last week's Dragon Folk Club Session had a slightly more satisfactory turn-out than the previous one. Let's see if we can make a big effort to get a good crowd this Friday for the last in our series of 50th anniversary sessions. We will be two men down, so we really need to make an extra effort. If you can't make it this week then remember that you are welcome any Friday from 8:15pm at The Bridge Inn, Shortwood, Bristol, BS16 9NG. Barring Christmas Day, very deep snow, tempest or a rare double-booking of the room, we will be there. Watch this blog or our Facebook page for such information.

So, last week it was good to have a visit from Tom. We continued to have a few songs from the club's history, mainly from Mike, being items from his repertoire, some long retired. He is after all by far the longest-serving of our current regulars.

Colin, as usual the MC, started with Steve Thomason's Solstice Song.

In conversation, Tom had already mentioned his first song, a work of rather questionable diplomacy variously credited to Paddy Roberts or Patrick Cogshill: She loved A Portuguese.

Derek started by committing to a pair of songs, citing the proximity of 23 June as his reason. I guess this was a reference to Spancil Hill Fair, one of the oldest horse fairs in Ireland which is held annually on that date, since the first of his songs was indeed Spancil Hill (Michael Considine - Roud 22062). His second song of the pair was Pecker Dunne's Sullivan's John.

Simon, for no particularly obvious reason, sang Michelle Shocked's Memories Of East Texas.

Mike's first song was one he learnt at the club and still sings from time-to-time: Ryebuck Shearer (Roud 24820). This led us to a secondary theme of Australia.

Colin sang The Ballad Of Seth Davy (Glyn Hughes) from the repertoire of the late Dragon regular, Ray Croll. Tom recalled how his grandfather used to make wooden dolls like those used by Seth Davy and that his grandmother made clothes for them. His grandfather died while Tom was in the Navy and at sea. On his return he found that the dolls had been disposed of.

Tom brought us right back to Australia with Cootamundra Wattle (John Williamson) and Derek kept us there with his unusual version of Banjo Patterson's Waltzing Matilda. Cootamundra Wattle (Acacia baileyana) is the floral emblem of the small rural township of Cootamundra which is located on the western slopes of New South Wales, about 350 km southwest of Sydney.

Colin carefully introduced his new song, suggesting that the title might not be obvious, but surely everyone but the youngest whippersnapper has heard of The Ballad Of The Woggler's Moulie (Barry Took, Marty Feldman), sung by Kenneth Williams as Rambling Syd Rumpo in Round the Horne. I'm too young to remember the programme first time round but I certainly know some of the songs, and in any case it is constantly repeated on Radio 4 Extra.

Derek was back in the antipodes with Australia (Roud 1488) and had caught the bug by the time it came for him to finish the evening singing Moreton Bay (Roud 2537) - sorry for the bad joke - did you notice it?

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

(Number of people present - 5, of whom 5 performed)