Halloween 2019

Is it a bat? (Photo: Simon Meeds)

Our Halloween session was slightly curtailed by the rugby las Friday. Specifically The Bridge Inn closed early in preparation for an early opening on Saturday for the World Cup semi-final. Given that England is through to the final this Saturday we are expecting a similar approach so please make an effort to be there for a prompt start at 8:15pm on 1 November. Don't worry if you do turn up later, we will continue without a break until we are asked to leave... last week it was a little before 10pm. The session will be Campfire themed, to mark Bonfire Night on the following Tuesday.

Your campfire songs will be very welcome together with anything relating to bonfire night, attacking parliament, fireworks or anything else you can think of. Themes are never compulsory though so if you don't have anything relevant just turn up and show us what you can do, which may even just be listening and joining in the banter and a chorus or two.

Last week's session was kicked off by Colin with The Dolefull Dance and Song of Death (Roud V11404) or rather Shaking Of The Sheets (tune Bob Johnson).

Derek offered us some of his usual Halloween fare but promised to mix ghostly ballads with other songs. He started on a ballad with Sweet William's Ghost (Roud 50, Child 77).

Simon had recently picked up The Souling Song (Roud 304) from Mervyn Else singing a topical version. Simon based his version on Peter, Paul and Mary's. This video of Mervyn also gives away where Simon got the idea to sing With Her Head Tucked Underneath Her Arm (RP Weston, Bert Lee, Harris Weston). Unfortunately he fell at the second hurdle and resorted to the Witch Queen Of New Orleans (Lolly Vegas, Pat Vegas) instead.

Geoff's first song of the evening was The Jarvey Was A Leprechaun (Jimmy Kennedy). He commented on the similarity of the tune to that of Riders In The Sky (Stan Jones) which he went on to sing later in the evening.

Mike gave us his own song, Children Of The Train which he wrote in 1971 with some help from his mother. The subject is the Charfield railway disaster of 1928 and the legend of a woman visiting the grave of unidentified children supposed to have been found in the wreck. There are some interesting videos on YouTube about the subject including the original newsreel and an excerpt from a documentary.

The only song of the evening for which I was unable to find a recording was what Derek called The Ballad Of The Nineteenth Lock. My research has traced it to a poem by Arthur Griffith called The Thirteenth Lock, obviously sung to the universal tune of Villikins And His Dinah (Roud 271, Laws M31).

Mike perhaps surprised us with The Addams Family Theme (Vic Mizzy) and got us all finger clicking along. He remembered the original series from his childhood and had been reminded of it when hearing about the recent cartoon feature film.

Another surprise was Geoff singing David Bowie's The Laughing Gnome.

Derek evoked a music hall with two of his songs, She Was Poor But She Was Honest (Roud 9621) and They're Moving Father's Grave To Build A Sewer (Roud 10391).

It fell to Geoff to finish us off with The Ballad Of The Alamo (Dimitri Tiomkin, Paul Francis Webster).

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

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