Boxing Day 2019

Charlie Kimber beside William Kimber’s grave
(Photo: Trevor Coppock, 1994)

Oh dear, to say we were thin on the ground last week for our "Boxing Day" session is a bit of an understatement. Nevertheless the three of us soldiered on at least for a slightly shorter time than usual. This Friday's theme will predictably be New Year. I am sure there will be some wassailing if Mike hasn't already worn all the songs out, and perhaps we will find some other appropriate festivals or anniversaries. If you can add something to the mix, we need you, and if you would just like to come and see what we do, you are very welcome too.

Simon took on the role of MC last week and raised the curtain with John Conolly's Punch And Judy Man. Equally off-topic but inspired by the photograph on last week's blog report, which he apparently didn't find cute, Derek sang The Silkie Of Sule Skerrie (Roud 197, Child 113). Mike was already into the New Year with The Begging Wassail (Roud 209).

Derek was the only one of us with properly themed songs for Boxing Day (actually Mike sang one the previous week), when lads in Ireland, the Isle of Man, Wales and other places around Europe would hunt down a wren and as far as I can tell, parade it around the town while begging for money. Derek's wren songs were Hunt The Wren (Roud 236), The Boys Of Barr Na Sráide (Sigerson Clifford) and The Wren Boys Song (Roud 19109), which was the the final song of the evening.

I would usually leave the last song until the end of the report but there remain a couple of other items that ought to be mentioned. Mike, a former hunt saboteur we hear, was persuaded that a hunting song would be appropriate for Boxing Day, and so he sang The Hounds Are Out (Roud 1869).

Derek had one more appropriate contribution which was his own poem about William Kimber, or rather about the effects of the ravages of time on his gravestone. Kimber was an Anglo concertina player and Morris dancer who played a key role in the twentieth century revival of Morris Dancing. It was on Boxing Day 1899 when Kimber first met Cecil Sharp and on the same day of the year in 1961 when he died. The carving on Kimber's grave depicts a concertina on top of a pair of the bells pads worn by morris-dancers around the shins.

And so, I will finish this blog report wishing you a very happy new year and hope that you will join us at The Bridge Inn, Shortwood this Friday and on some other Fridays through the year to join us in some singing, friendly chatting and maybe a little drinking (nothing extreme, we're driving).

Now listen to a selection of songs sung during this session.

(Number of people present - 3, of whom 3 performed)