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| (Photo: Simon Meeds) |
- 14 Feb - St Valentine - principally love and lust but taking note of his patronages: Affianced couples, against fainting, beekeepers, happy marriages, love, plague, epilepsy, Lesbos
- 28 Feb - St David - Wales; Pembrokeshire; Naas; vegetarians; poets
- 20 Mar - St Patrick - Ireland, Nigeria, Montserrat, Archdiocese of New York, Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Newark, Boston, Rolla, Missouri, Loíza, Puerto Rico, Murcia (Spain), Clann Giolla Phádraig, engineers, paralegals, Archdiocese of Melbourne; against snakes and sins
- 24 April - St George - England, Ethiopia, Georgia, Catalonia, etc.; agricultural workers, farmers, field workers; soldiers; archers; armourers; equestrians, cavalry, saddle makers; chivalry; skin diseases, lepers and leprosy, syphilis; sheep, shepherds;
The regular scribe was back in his seat after an absence of three weeks and Colin, the MC, started off proceedings with Tether's End. Colin gave the clue that it came from the northeast and when he revealed it was written by Jez Lowe, Derek suggested that Jez might be one of the few people from the region that might use the word "rapscallion" in a song.
The next two songs came from Geoff, with Hughie Jones' Ellan Vannin Tragedy, and from Simon, with Ron Angel's Chemical Workers' Song. Mike commented that these were the second and third songs from one of his old set lists, so he sang the fourth: Dave Dodds' I Can Hew Boys. He did not say what was the first song from the series.
Derek had been listening to a programme called Remembering Tryweryn on BBC Radio 4 about the flooding of Capel Celyn in the building of a dam, which caused him to sing Meic Stephens' The Boys From Gwent which he usually only sings near the September anniversary of the action described in the song. In September 1962 two Welsh Nationalists hampered construction at the site by releasing 1000 gallons of oil. In February 1963 a transformer supplying electricity to the site was blown up and a university student was subsequently imprisoned for causing the explosion. The Tryweryn Dam and Reservoir was officially opened in October 1963 by the Lord Mayor of Liverpool who was greeted by a large group of Welsh protestors singing, hymn like, the words ' Twll din pob Sais.....' , which, being translated, is 'Arseholes to all Englishmen'.
Colin brought up a different kind of protest with Ewan MacColl's The Manchester Rambler, a song which recalls the 1932 mass trespass on Kinder Scout in which ramblers and members of the Young Communist League highlighted the fact that walkers in England and Wales were denied access to areas of open country.
Perhaps along the same lines, Mike sang Leon Rosselson's The World Turned Upside Down about The Diggers and their attempts, starting in April 1649, to farm on common land.
At around the half way mark of the session, Mike seemed unsure what to sing next, and came up with Spike Milligan's Ying Tong Song. This started a short discussion of nonsense songs. Mike gave us a snatch of I Know A Song That'll Get On Your Nerves, which prompted Simon to sing a French equivalent: Je Connais Un Chanson Qui Embête Les Gens. Derek brought us part-way back to normality by singing The Nonsense Song (Roud 5269, collected from Aileen Stollery).
Nearing the end of the session, Geoff felt suddenly inspired to sing Gilly Gilly Ossenfeffer Katzenellenbogen by the Sea (Al Hoffman, Dick Manning). He didn't quite make it to the end but that's fine among friends.
It fell to Derek to wind up the evening which he did with Pump Away (Roud 10338). Colin noted that he sang only the even numbered verses; are those the only ones he knows, or are they simply the less bawdy ones?
Now listen to a selection of songs sung during this session.
(Number of people present - 5, of whom 5 performed)
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