Remembrance 2024

Remembrance Sunday parade, Bristol 2023
(Photo: Simon Meeds)

11th November is Remembrance Day or Armistice Day in the UK, so the Dragon Folk Club session on 15th was our annual Remembrance theme. Traditionally we include anything to do with war, anti-war sentiment and wartime songs. We stayed reasonably well on topic though there are a few songs where you might struggle to find the link.

This Friday we have a break from themes with an entirely themeless session, so anything goes as long as it's acoustic.

The following week (Friday 29th) will be our St Andrews Day theme, where anything relevant to Scotland or St Andrew will be ideal. It has been suggested that since Lancashire Day is on 27th we should have that as a second theme, and that's fine. Remember that the traditional county of Lancashire also includes Manchester, Salford and Liverpool, so that gives plenty of scope! Remember also that all our themes are optional, so ultimately anything goes as long as it's acoustic.

Let's get back to last week's session. It was started by Colin, our MC, with Robert Garioch's Kriegie Ballad (*). I've marked it with an asterisk as being new to the Dragon database though it has previously been mentioned there. In 2019 our good friend Derek sang a song he called The Kriegie Ballad which somewhat resembled Garioch's song, but instead of starting "Yes this is the place we were took Sir", its first line was "We sailed on the good ship Rapallo". While Garioch's song is easier to find on the web than the one Derek sang I still haven't found it on YouTube and it is therefore not included in the playlist linked from "a selection" below.

Denny sang Cicely Fox Smith's Half past eleven square recalling the destruction of French towns in the First World War. Paul followed with the non-wartime destruction of Close the coalhouse door (Alex Glasgow).

Simon completed the first rotation with The Accrington Pals, the first of three Mike Harding songs which he sang together with one other which Harding recorded but didn't write:

• Bombers' moon (Mike Harding)
• Jimmy Spoons (Mike Harding)
• The band played Waltzing Matilda (Eric Bogle)

Colin added two more new entries to the Dragon database:

• Mademoiselle from Armentières (* roud 4703 -  a clean version of course)
• We haven't got a hope in the morning (A song from a book of songs used by 54th Wing of the RFC - not included in the YouTube playlist)

This last song started the final rotation of the evening which continued with Denny singing White cockade (roud 709) and Paul with Lowlands (roud 681). Simon finished off the evening with the junior school version of Boney was a warrior (roud 485).

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

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

Guy Fawkes Night 2024

Last week's Dragon Folk Club session was our annual Bonfire Night or Guy Fawkes Night theme. Anything about fireworks, fires, camping, or typical campfire songs was fair game and we did pretty well at sticking, albeit sometimes tenuously, to the theme.

This Friday the theme will be Remembrance, which you might also frame as armistice, war songs, anti-war songs, wartime songs... and in any case the theme is, as always, optional, so ultimately anything goes as long as it's acoustic.

Colin as MC got the ball rolling with the first of several songs he sang that were actually about Guy Fawkes, a feat the rest of us didn't match. His first was Penny for the Guy (* Leon Rosselson). This was the first of eight songs from the evening which were new to the Dragon database, but not necessarily all new to the club. Such songs are marked here with an asterisk (*).

Paul had not been present at the previous week's Halloween themed session so he harked back to the spooks with Sweet William's ghost (roud 50, child 77).

Denny proposed singing by the campfire Ten green bottles (* roud 7603). It was hard to choose videos to link for some of the songs this week. In this case I chose the one which gave the option of clicking through to a version of the song in mandarin, which I thought was quite cool.

Simon got his mention of bonfires in early, the second line, with Brian Bedford's This is the way the world ends, and so ended the first rotation.

Colin's next song was Guy Fawkes, Prince of sinister (* roud 4974), a humorous take on Guy Fawkes which dates from about 1800.

Colin's song on the following round was one he had sung before, but I have found more information. The grand old duke of York (roud 742) is a traditional nursery rhyme, but the version he sang was an extended one from a children's book illustrated by Maureen Roffrey and written by Roffrey together with Bernard Lodge, a British graphic designer best known for his work on early series of BBC TV's Doctor Who.

Paul sang the first song of the night not to be found on YouTube and therefore not included in the playlist linked from "a selection" below. It was Jon Heslop's comedic mashup of two traditional songs entitled Dead knight behind the hedge, which you can hear by clicking on that link.

I was disappointed not to find a recording, or really any mention, of Richard Digance's Boy scout song, which Colin sang. It used to be there, but it seems almost all trace of it has been removed from the web, not just from YouTube.

Another song not in the playlist was sung by Simon: When the scouts come hiking in, predictably to the tune of When the saints go marching in.

Colin introduced us to Quick's new speech for the fifth of November on the downfall of Guy Fawkes (* roud V27114), a broadside ballad published by JV Quick in the second quarter of the 19th century. The writing, printing and selling of the ballads that usually included a Guy Fawkes speech began in October in preparation for the bonfire celebrations on 5th November. In order to boost sales publishers attempted to vary the speeches from year to year. In this example the publisher announces in the title of his broadside that this year he is publishing an entirely 'new speech for the 5th of November.'

I know for a fact that Denny's performance of Norwegian Wood (This bird has flown) (John Lennon, Paul McCartney) isn't a first for the club, but it is a new entry in the Dragon database. I remember Keith G playing it as an instrumental when he had forgotten something: his word sheet or his glasses, but I can't guarantee to remember which.

Colin's I love to go a-gorging, a parody of The Happy Wanderer (roud 25580), is another song not found on YouTube as was his song Devil and the washerwoman.

Paul sang Salty young sea dog (Graham Holland), which was yet another not found on YouTube, which is proving quite weak this week. He went on to score a database entry with One man went to mow (* roud 143).

The final new entry in the database this week came from Colin and was Porridge tragedy (*).

The final song of the evening came from Paul who, inspired by Colin's singing of the same song on another occasion, gave us The Scaffold's 2 day's Monday (Mike McGear, Roger McGough and John Gorman).

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

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

Halloween 2024

(Photo: Simon Meeds)

It'll be a very quick report for last week's Dragon Folk Club session I'm afraid. Perhaps back to normal service next week. Being in the full flow of themes season, we were going all spooky for Halloween and we seem to have met the theme pretty well most of the time. This Friday the theme is related to Bonfire Night, so anything about Guy Fawkes, fireworks, campfires, camping, scouts and guides or anything tenuously related would work just fine, and as always it's an optional theme so anything really goes as long as it's acoustic.

Colin started us off as usual, this time with Hallows eve (Chris Hoban). Simon offered his only real Halloween song with The souling song (roud 304). Bob went all ghoulish with Ghost trains (Famous Lashua) from the singing of Hank Snow and Sue finished the first rotation with Hotel California (Don Felder, Don Henley, Glenn Frey).

The one song of the evening not on YouTube and therefore not included in the playlist linked from "a selection" below was Sue's own composition A chilly song, written in the depths of winter with some reference to our venue.

There were four songs new to the Dragon database last week though not necessarily new to the club:

• Bob - See that my grave is kept clean (roud 7382, Blind Lemon Jefferson)
• Bob - Walking to New Orleans (Bobby Charles, Fats Domino, Dave Bartholomew)
• Colin - Father Frankenstein is behind your pillow (James Warren)
• Colin - Fifteen men on a dead man's chest (Robert Louis Stevenson, Young Ewing Allison)

It fell to Sue to close the session which she did with Make you feel my love (Bob Dylan).

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

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

Blue, purple and green

Rain at Dungeness (Photo: Simon Meeds)

Last week's Dragon Folk Club session was unusual for this time of year having no theme. This Friday it will be our Halloween session, which gives quite a wide scope. Halloween is the eve of All Saints Day and is thought to be associated with the Celtic festival Samhain, when ghosts and spirits were believed to be abroad. If in doubt anything a bit spooky will do, and in any case as is always the case with our themes, it's entirely optional and anything goes as long as it's acoustic.

Back to last week, we were pleased to see Paul back and in fine voice after his serious surgical interventions, more of which later in the report. We also saw the return of occasional Dragon, John B without his sloop, but with his drum and harmonica (not at the same time).

Colin started things off with Galtee farmer (roud 9305) and John followed up with Freedom town (Delila Paz, Edgey Pires).

Paul had written a brand new song about his recent operation called Mandibulectomy blues (Paul Welcomme) and Denny gave us Half past eleven square (Cicely Fox Smith), which is about the clock in Armentiéres which remained at that time following the almost complete destruction of the town near the start of the First World War. The title of the poem and song comes from the nickname given by British soldiers to the place where it stood.

Simon finished the first rotation, not as he originally hoped with Jackson by the recently deceased Billy Edd Wheeler and his co-writer, Jerry Leiber, but with Ian "Nobby" Dye's Welsh back quay.

Apart from Paul's brand new song mentioned above there was one other sung during the evening which does not seem to appear on YouTube and is therefore not included in the playlist linked below from "a selection". That song was sung by Colin and is The sea dog, originally a poem in a book called Sea Lanes, edited by Burt Franklin Jenness, and later adapted into a song by Bob Zentz, with later adaptations also contributed by Charlie Ipcar.

As usual there were some songs new to the Dragon database, though some of them may have been sung previously at the club:

• Colin - Peg and awl (roud 4619)
• John - Purple rain (Prince)
• Denny - Evergreen (Barbra Streisand, Paul Williams)
• Colin - Shrimp boats (Paul Mason Howard, Paul Weston)

Simon finished off the evening by inviting everyone present to join in with Blow the man down (roud 2624).

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

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

Harvest 2024

(Photo: Simon Meeds)

Last week at the Dragon Folk Club our Harvest themed session bore fruit. We started off strongly with the theme with plenty of bucolic ballads and songs, migrating to songs of the harvest of the sea, and from there to poaching and eventually to the harvest of mineral deposits. You know how it goes.

Colin sowed the seed with John Barleycorn (roud 164) to the tune Wir Pflügen (We plough the fields and scatter). Denny followed him in the same furrow with Hey John Barleycorn (roud 2141) and Simon, not one to go against the grain, sang Windmills (Alan Bell). You'll be pleased to know I can't keep this up beyond the first (crop) rotation.

It wasn't the first time Colin had sung Linstead Market (roud 16397), but it's worth a mention as something a bit different, being in the mento style.

Both songs from the evening not found on YouTube and therefore not included in the playlist linked from "a selection" below, were sung by Colin and from the pen of Chris Sugden: All things dark and dangerous, and The stick of rhubarb.

At risk of monopoly, Colin sang both songs of the evening not previously recorded in the Dragon database, though quite possibly previously sung at the club: Our Sarah (roud 16652) and The harvest supper song (roud 1379) - the linked recording of Sheepshearing sung by The Watersons is the same song though the words may not be identical.

Possibly the first to break from country pursuits and head for the fishing grounds was Denny with John Conolly's Fiddlers Green. Hot on her heels was Simon with Candlelight fisherman (roud 1852).

Colin threw in a curve ball with Forever Autumn (Jeff Wayne, Gary Osborne, Paul Vigrass). Too late for the playlist, but I have now found the original Osborne and Vigrass recording of Forever Autumn from their 1972 album Queues. Actually, the real original was Jeff Wayne's jingle for a Lego advert before the words were added by Osborne and Vigrass.

Simon was the champion of poaching with The Lincolnshire poacher (roud 299) and Geordie (roud 90, child 209). Denny's Cadgwith anthem (roud 3314) may also just qualify.

Colin's tenuous link at this stage was Goin' Home (William Arms Fisher) set to that part of Antonín Dvořák's New World Symphony later used to advertise bread in Hovis commercials.

Denny was first to take us harvesting the black stuff with I can hew boys (Dave Dodds), but Simon soon followed her down the mine winging Dark as a dungeon (Merle Travis).

It fell to Simon to bring in the sheaves with When all men sing (Keith Scowcroft, Derek Gifford).

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

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

Dates for your diary

PC King on a 1972 Norton Commando
(Photo: Simon Meeds)

We had a great little session last week at the Dragon Folk Club despite the absence of a few regulars. Before I mention what we sang there is an important news item to cover.

The autumn/winter theme season is here when many of our sessions have optional themes. Remember that where there isn't a theme there is still a session unless otherwise noted, and also that the themes are always optional; as usual at the Dragon Folk Club, anything goes as long as it's acoustic.

2024 Autumn/Winter theme season

18th October - Harvest

1st November - Halloween

8th November - Bonfire Night / Guy Fawkes / Campfire

15th November - Armistice / Remembrance / War / Anti-war

29th November - St Andrew's Day / Scotland / St Andrew

13th December - Christmas theme

20th December - Christmas theme left-overs

27th December - **No session**

Yes, 27th December is one of those very rare Fridays when there is no Dragon Folk Club session. We should be back on 3rd January 2025 - watch this space for the latest.

Back to last week's session, we had a notable number of songs new to the Dragon database, though not necessarily new to the club. They are indicated in this report with an asterisk (*).

Colin, as the regular MC, started the session with Streets of London (Ralph McTell). Simon followed with Cyril Tawney's Sally free and easy, and Denny completed the first rotation with Mountains of Mourne (Percy French).

The first song new to the database came from Colin who sang Shalom chaverim (*) in several languages including English, Hebrew and Arabic. The title means "Peace, friends" and it is a Hebrew round. It is traditional, with unknown origin, possibly going back to the Habonim Labor Zionist Youth movement. The song expresses wishes for peace and well-being for a farewell, but has often been used advocating for peace.

This set off a flurry of anti-war songs, a dangerous ploy with our Remembrance-themed session just around the corner. This sub-theme included:

• Colin - H-bomb's thunder (* John Brunner)
• Denny - Cuddle against the war (* Nancy Nicolson)
• Simon - Jimmy Spoons (Mike Harding)

Colin sang Wayward wind (* Herb Newman, Stanley Lebowsky) which was first recorded by Gogi Grant in 1955.

Colin sang British Bobby (* DaveTurner) or rather Fred Wedlock's version of it which replaced Dave's home of Hyson Green, a neighbourhood in Nottingham, with Redland Green, a park in the Bristol suburb of Redland. Fred met Dave in the mid-70s on the folk circuit. "He stayed with me when he played in Bristol and I'd stay at his flat above a launderette in Hyson Green when I played in Nottingham." Fred added: "He wrote some very funny songs and he was a lovely, friendly, generous, gentle bloke. And a bit of a hippy, really."

Colin also gave us Windmills of your mind (*), first recorded in 1968 by English actor Noel Harrison after Andy Williams passed on it. The tune was written by French composer Michel Legrand. I remembered that it is a French chanson, and indeed the song is Les Moulins de mon cœur in French, the words written by French songwriter Eddy Marnay and first recorded by Marcel Amont, however it seems that the English words were written first which surprised me.

I'm drawn to Colin again for The Bristol slaver (*), written by Steve Knightley from whose songbook Colin often draws. Steve's song material often comes from Cornwall, but on this occasion we have lots of local references, particularly to Clifton.

It was Colin again who gave me interesting grounds for research with Wadham's song. It was written by a man called Wadham in 1756 as a pilot verse, giving directions to possibly functionally illiterate seamen navigating around Newfoundland between Bonavista and Notre Dame Bay. It was placed on record at the Admiralty’s Court in London shortly after it was first composed and was considered the best coasting guide for that part of Newfoundland to which it refers. Some people believe that such verses were recited rather than sung, and others that they were sung to popular tunes. Stan Hugill quotes Wadham's Song to the tune of I'll tell me Ma.

Closing the evening fell to Simon who sang Stan Rogers' Northwest Passage.

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

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

Farewell to Kris

Kris Kristofferson in 1978

Last week's session of Dragon Folk Club saw a welcome return for slightly more than occasional visitor Rob, and Denny brought us encouraging news of Paul after his very recent operation.

Colin started off the session with a rendition of Me and Bobby McGee, written by Kris Kristofferson and Fred Foster, no doubt in memory of the recently deceased Kristofferson who originally performed this popular song. Rob told us that while in the vicinity of Salinas, CA, which is a location mentioned in the song, he felt compelled to visit. He didn't find much there, but he will always remember a large sign proclaiming it the "Artichoke Capital of the World". According to Wikipedia that title is claimed by Castroville, but given that the two towns are less than ten miles apart, which would be considered as nothing in the USA, we'll let it go.

Simon referred to the county of his birth with John Sykes' The Lincolnshire Song.

Rob followed with The Keeper: not the traditional roud 1519, but a song written by Steve Knightley.

Denny said on her recent visit to see him in hospital, Paul had managed to sing Peggy Gordon (roud 2280), so she followed his example, asking everyone to join in in the style of a ventriloquist.

Sue was the first to add a new title to the Dragon database, perhaps in this case, but not always new to the club, with I wake up every morning with a smile on my face (* Boxcar Willie). As usual, I will mark new entries to the database with an asterisk (*).

Bob completed the first rotation with Bear Creek Blues (A P Carter).

Colin brought some jollity to the proceedings with Miles Whooton's The fishfinger song (*).

Bob has several strings to his bow, and ballads make up one of them. Drawing on that string he gave us The heir of Linne (* roud 111, child 267).

Sue sang some of her own songs, which are not available on YouTube and therefore not included in the playlist linked below from "a selection". These were: Recycled teenager, A chilly song,  and She was 73.

Denny's song, Wayhill Fair is another that eludes YouTube. It is closely related to Weyhill Fair (roud 1086) and the different spelling isn't significant. They share a tune and have similar structure, but the traditional one is purely about horses at the fair while the one sung apparently by The South Bank Grunters goes more off-piste in its descriptions of the fair.

Colin gives us Cheerily man (*). Apparently Rob was also considering singing it, and they discussed what Stan Hugill apparently described as "probably the most primitive, and one of the oldest of all these heaving and hauling songs of the sea. It was obscene to a degree and most versions have had to be camouflaged". Colin had sung a very much cleaned-up version.

Rob sang his own song, The sailor's return (Rob Winder). Denny commented on its passing similarity to Dorset is beautiful (Bob Gale) sung by The Yetties and The Wurzels. Although Rob accepted that some of his writing may be influenced by existing songs, he didn't seem to be aware of that song. Denny and Simon gave a quick rendition of the chorus to illustrate the point.

Denny sang a song not on YouTube, and that is The pickled herring man (*) by Cathy Wallis. The chorus has the man selling silver (herring) to buy gold (whisky).

Rob's next two songs were Bonnie laddie, hieland laddie (* roud 2330) and Farewell, farewell (* Richard Thompson), both of which were new to the database. Farewell, farewell was written by Thompson after Fairport Convention's van crashed on the way home from a gig in Birmingham killing his girlfriend Jeannie Franklyn and the band's drummer, Martin Lamble.

Uke player Sue sang Making love, ukulele style (Paul Weirick, Charles R Hayes), a song recorded by Dean Martin.

Colin asked Rob to finish off the evening, which he did with Hand me down my walking cane (roud 11733).

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

(Number of people present - 6 of whom 6 performed)

Novelty without novelty songs (this time)

(photo: Simon Meeds)

It was great to see the return of Stan to last week's Dragon Folk Club session. We haven't seen him for a while and he had been missed. You will note that I have added to the tally of those present two non-singers. These were a couple of ladies who joined us for most of one of Paul's songs and while not entirely engaged with the folk club etiquette, they were very appreciative, so they have been counted.

Colin started off the session with Steve Cropper and Otis Redding's Sittin' on the dock of the bay, which according to the Dragon database may well have only previously been sung at the club by Keith G as Colin recalled.

Stan scored the first new song of the evening for the Dragon database (though not necessarily new to the club), all of which are marked in this report with an asterisk (*). It was I'll remember you (* Kui Lee). Stan recalled Elvis Presley's recording, but it was written by Lee who was an American singer-songwriter. Lee began his career in the mainland United States while performing as a dancer. Upon his return to Hawaii he worked in clubs. At the Honey club, he met Don Ho, who popularized Lee's compositions. Ho's fame made Lee a local success in Hawaii. Multiple artists then covered his song "I'll Remember You".

Paul gave us Adieu sweet lovely Nancy (roud 165) and Denny sang Icy acres (Colin Wilkie). Denny said she had sung this song that very morning while taking her customary dip in the Clevedon Marine Lake which was two degrees (celsius) colder than on her previous visit. Colin challenged her that she might instead have sung Ee by gum (but I'm cold) (John Meeks, Colin Radcliffe, Eddie Crotty) and indeed he went on later to sing it himself.

Simon finished off the first rotation with Graham Moore's Tom Paine's bones.

Stan was definitely hot on new songs for the database, and his next was In dreams (* Roy Orbison). He continued his run of novelty with Strawberry roan (* roud 3239 - Curley Fletcher). For an extra piece of trivia, did you know that current singing star Chappell Roan (real name Kayleigh Rose Amstutz) took her stage name from her grandfather's surname and this, his favourite song?

Simon, who was not present the week before, suggested that he might have honoured the visitors from Pennsylvania with Mark Knopfler's Sailing to Philadelphia.

Colin broke Stan's run with his first contribution to the database: The Sandgate dandling song (* roud B24532 - Robert Nunn) on which the better-known Liverpool lullaby (Stan Kelly) was based - and so it crossed from the North East of England to the North West.

Paul sang Cicely Fox Smith's poem, Homeward to Sarah Morgan's tune and Denny seemingly challenged Colin, keeper of the official club record, with the title of the excellent (in my view) Rap her to bank (roud 1786).

Colin sang forth in Spanish for Guantanamera (* Joseíto Fernández, José Martí) and was followed by Stan with Scott Walker's hit song, Lights of Cincinatti (Tony Macaulay, Geoff Stephens).

Colin brought us the self-referencing Alan Price with his Jarrow Song (*). Of course the rappers of recent decades think nothing of mentioning themselves in a song, but this practice goes back further than Price and at least to Bo Diddley, possibly much further. Any suggestions of earlier examples are welcome. I'm sure there must be plenty from Music Hall and Vaudeville, and probably from the blues.

Stan came back in with Gonna get along without ya now (* Milton Kellem). I considered linking the first known recorded version by Roy Hogsed in 1951. Hogsed was born in a city which goes by the delightful name of "Flippin, Arkansas". The problem with linking this version was that it is barely recognisable as the same song as that sung in the version Stan referred to by Trini Lopez. Oh, go on, here is that first known recorded version.

We had a neat little, unintentional connected pair with Stan's I'll get over you (* Richard Leigh) from the singing of Crystal Gayle, followed by Paul's rendition of Fathom the bowl (roud 880) "There’s a clear crystal fountain near England shall roll".

Stan's and everyone's last "new" song of the evening was Sam Cooke's You send me (*). He went on to give us a precursor to the death three days later of Kris Kristofferson with Kris' song, I'd rather be sorry.

The last song of the evening came from Paul and was Farewell shanty. We don't expect to see Paul for a while since he's off to get some maintenance done, but it's not farewell, rather we hope he will be back and in fine voice in the not too distant future.

In the meantime we are back at the same time and place every Friday, so we really look forward to seeing you and ideally hearing you there.

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

(Number of people present - 7 of whom 5 performed)

A dollop of ketchup

(AI image by Stable Diffusion)

This Dragon Folk Club report is a bit different to the usual. It's what Iain Tyrrell calls a "ketchup", his jokey way of introducing a catch-up on his YouTube channel. The reason for this ketchup is that I was away for a couple of weeks recently and didn't write reports. I'm not going to go back and write full-scale reports for the missing weeks, but I did want to credit a few things, mainly an occasional visit and all the songs that were sung and new to the Dragon database - though as usual, not necessarily new to the club.

6th September 2024

It was good to see that occasional visitor Malcolm swelled the ranks. These are the songs from the evening that were new to the database, not in the order sung:

• Denny - Half past eleven square (Cicely Fox Smith)
• Malcolm - Ev'ry time we say goodbye (Cole Porter)
• Malcolm - Minstrel of dawn (Gordon Lightfoot)
• Malcolm - Slate grey (Malcolm Perrett)
• Sue and Bob - God put a smile upon your face (Christopher Anthony John Martin, Guy Rupert Berryman, Jonathan Mark Buckland, William Champion)
• Sue - Killing me softly with his song (Charles Fox, Normal Gimbel, Lori Lieberman)
• Sue - Puttin' on the style (Dawes-Hughes)

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

(Number of people present - 6 of whom 6 performed)

13th September 2024

MC Colin was on his own for this one - it happens occasionally. As is his wont on these occasions, he drifted well off the folky piste at times, but then we often do that at the Dragon. These are the songs he sang that were new to the database:

• From a distance (Julie Gold)
• Tim Evans (roud V32851 - Ewan McColl)
• Suicide is painless (Mike Altman, Johnny Mandel)
• Hava nagila
• It must be love (Labi Siffre)
• Pictures of Lily (Pete Townshend)
• Sunny afternoon (Ray Davies)
• Hymn for nations (Josephine Daskam Bacon, Ludwig van Beethoven)
• If I had a hammer (the hammer song) (Pete Seeger, Lee Hays)
• Breme (the long way home) (Steve Knightley)
• Which side are you on? (roud 15159 - Florence Reece)
• Three acres and a cow (roud 24484)
• Heave away my Johnny (roud 616)
• When this old hat was new (roud 1693)

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

(Number of people present - 1 of whom 1 performed)

Visitors from across the pond

(Photo: Simon Meeds)

After two weeks without a report the Dragon Folk Club blog is back and this is going to be a good one though I say so myself. There were sessions in the intervening weeks and I will try to put something together to briefly cover the necessaries of those events. In the meantime though here is the latest news from the club.

Last Friday's session sounds like a smasher though I'm afraid I wasn't there. There were three visitors, two of whom were singers. Not only that, but they were from another continent, though I believe one of them is currently resident in the vicinity.

Colin, as usual in his MC's seat, started things off with Leave her Johnny (roud 354). Bob followed on with Matchbox (Carl Perkins) and Sue sang Beyond the sea (Charles Trenet, Albert Lasry, Jack Lawrence).

Kate, visiting from Philadelphia, clearly picking up on Colin's first song, gave us Archimedes (The Lever) written by Nat Case and parodying Leave her Johnny. This was also the first of several new songs to be added to the Dragon database this week. The remainder I will simply tag with an asterisk (*).

Kate's friend Sadie, who also hails from across the pond, sang Tom Lewis' The last shanty. Since Sadie's friend Tom wasn't singing this marked the end of the first rotation of the evening.

As is traditional I will list all of the remaining songs sung by newcomers Kate and Sadie.

Kate:

• Will the circle be unbroken (Ada R. Habershon, Charles H. Gabriel)
• Mingulay boat song (Sir Hugh S Roberton)
• Goodnight Irene (roud 11681)
• Preacher and the slave (roud 9612 - Joe Hill)
• Wild mountain thyme (roud 541 - Francis McPeake)
• Solidarity forever (* roud 15158 - Ralph Chaplin)

Sadie:

• Tonight you belong to me (* Billy Rose, Lee David)
• Little boxes (Malvina Reynolds)
• Swingin' on a star (Jimmy Van Heusen, Johnny Burke)
• Take me out to the ball game (* roud 36252 - Jack Norworth, Albert Von Tilzer)
• Ten thousand miles away (* roud 1778 - attributed to Joseph B. Geoghegan)
• The rattlin' bog (* roud 129)

The other songs new to the Dragon database, though not necessarily new to the club, were:

• Colin - Erin grá mo chroí (* roud 14056)
• Sue - Tickle my heart (* Joe Brown)
• Colin - Death of a clown (* Dave Davies, Ray Davies)

There was just one song in the evening which isn't in the YouTube playlist linked from "a selection" below and that was Sue's own autobiographical version of House of the Rising Sun. There's nothing dodgy there, it tells of how she met her late husband on cycle tours of the Cotswolds and the course of her family life since.

It was also Sue who finished off the evening with George Harrison's Something.

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

(Number of people present - 6 of whom 5 performed)

Steady as she goes

Newport Transporter Bridge
(Photo: Simon Meeds)

Last week's Dragon Folk Club session can be described as solid. After a slightly slow start due to traffic issues we had a good evening of song, still managing a creditable 34 performances. It was notable for adding only one song (or rather different version of an existing song) to the database, but we still heard some that hadn't been sung at the club for quite a while and in some cases by different singers.

Colin, in the MC's chair, started us off with Roger Watson's The pick and the maltshovel. I pointed out that I knew Roger a little in the 1980s and that we are Facebook friends. Roger gave up performing for a long time due to ill health, but has recently been persuaded to pick up the melodeon again, which is great news. Colin expressed doubt as to the precise words of the last verse of the song, so I promised to link an early recording of Roger singing the song, and here it is.

Simon's first song of the evening was Mike Harding's Jimmy Spoons.

Denny gave us Percy French's Mountains of Mourne and Paul sang Jonathan Kelly's Ballad of the cursed Anna.

While researching this report I found that Nelson's death (roud 18837), sung by Paul, had been significantly rewritten by Richard Grainger and set to a tune of his composition.

The one new song, or rather new version, of the evening - and new to the Dragon database, definitely not new to the club - was Denny's singing of Good ale (roud 203).

Colin perhaps came up with two surprises  during the evening. The first was Wimoweh or The lion sleeps tonight. Did you know that the original song, before Alan Lomax, Pete Seeger and others had their way, was Mbube (meaning "lion" in Zulu), written and originally performed by Solomon Linda.

Colin's second surprise was delivered in the form of My last cigarette: surprising both for having been written by Sydney Carter and for having been performed by Sheila Hancock.

Denny sang Teeside bridges (Erik Gooding) which I am mentioning for two reason. The first is that the linked recording features Richard Grainger, already mentioned above in relation to Nelson's death, and the second is that it indirectly inspired this week's featured image. One of the bridges referred to in the song is the Middlesbrough Transporter Bridge which "shuttles back and forth a hundred times a day." I didn't have a photograph of it to hand, but you will find here the similar Newport Transporter Bridge.

Simon finished off the evening with Graham Moore's rousing Tom Paine's Bones.

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

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

Tunes help you breathe...

David Holgate's statue of Julian,
outside Norwich Cathedral,
completed in 2000
(Photo: Tony Grist)

At last week's Dragon Folk Club session it was great to be joined by first timer Nick, and a pleasant surprise to have a visitor to this predominantly singers' club who mostly played tunes. In fact Nick's weapon of choice is the mandola.

Our regular MC, Colin, started things off with Tom Lewis' Marching inland, which in a slightly obtuse way started a maritime or at least watery theme for many of the songs sung in the evening.

As usual I will mark songs new to the Dragon database (though not always new to the club) with an asterisk (*).

Next came Simon with Dougie McLean's Caledonia followed by Nick's Dragon debut with Egan's polka (*).

Paul had clearly been adding to his repertoire and sang The old miner (* roud 1136) while Denny gave us John Conolly's Fiddlers Green. And so endeth the first rotation.

As is traditional, I will mention everything Nick performed. All but the last were tunes played on the mandola. For the last one he borrowed Simon's guitar and sang; something we understand he is not accustomed to doing in public.

• Ten penny bit (*)
• Mairi's wedding
• Drowsy Maggie (*)
• John Ryan's polka (*)
• Moonstruck (* Kev Carmody)

Other songs new to the Dragon database were:

• Denny - Julian of Norwich (Sydney Carter) Julian lived in permanent seclusion as an anchoress in her cell, which was attached to St Julian's Church, Norwich. She died sometime after 1416.
• Colin - Essequibo River
• Colin - I fought the law (Sonny Curtis)

It fell to Simon to close the evening with When all men sing (Keith Scowcroft, Derek Gifford).

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

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

Almost normal

After a few weeks of ups and downs we were back to some sort of normality last week. The environment was acceptable, and all the usual people were present. All we were missing was a selection of welcome visitors, but we can't have everything and we have enjoyed a good variety of those in the previous weeks and months. Let's hope there are many more to come.

Colin, our usual MC, got the session going with Smith of Bristol. One source I've found claims that the song can trace its roots back to the 17th century and relates it to Spanish Ladies (roud 687), but I'm not so sure because I can't find that in any of my usual, mostly authoritative, sources. It is in Ireland sings: An anthology of modern and ancient Irish songs and ballads (Dominic Behan) [song number 83]. It doesn't have a roud number though it seems to be traditional.

Simon sang his own song, The story of John Twigg (Simon Meeds): the true story of an eccentric chap who lived in Alford, Lincolnshire.

Denny followed that with Young banker (roud 3321) and Paul gave us Adieu Sweet lovely Nancy (roud 165) which is related to Swansea town.

Sue promised something uplifting and sang The crawdad song (roud 4852) before Bob predictably brought us back down with Blood red river (roud 15807). Was Sue thinking of this later when she sang Red river valley (roud 756)?

Denny sang the first song of the evening new to the Dragon database with Charlotte Oliver's Idle women of the waterways about women who worked on the narrow boats during the Second World War in a similar way to the more familiar Women's Land Army whose members worked in the fields.

The next new song to the database was Colin's rendition of Ewan MacColl's Browned off. While this song may be new to the database it certainly isn't new to the club having been sung by our late friend, Pat. Pat was from the North East of England, so it was fitting that the songs which followed were too: Simon with The Lambton Worm (roud 2337), and Denny with Teeside Bridges (Erik Gooding), another song new to the database. Erik, a mathmatics student, worked a holiday job with the Dorman Long Company in Teeside as steel stocks piled high. Erik also worked for a year in Australia as a maths teacher at Scotch College in Melbourne.

Paul suggested that Country life (roud 1752) was first sung by music hall artist Harry Linn. Linn certainly wrote a related song, also categorised as 1752 by roud, but his song: Eggs for Your Breakfast in the Morning is rather different. What I don't know is which song came first. The Watersons got Country Life from Mick Taylor, a sheepdog trainer of Hawes in Wensleydale.

Bob added one to the database with Gram Parsons' Luxury liner and the last new entry of the evening was for Denny with Icy Acres (Colin Wilkie).

Sue closed the session with Ian Tyson's Four strong winds.

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

(Number of people present - 6 of whom 6 performed)

Rare finds

Mike Starkey (Photo: Simon Meeds)

At last week's Dragon Folk Club session it seems that we made a theme of singing less frequently sung songs from our repertoire, with a possible sub-theme of singing Mike's songs after his appearance at the previous week's session.

Listen to the YouTube playlist linked from "a selection" at the bottom of this report to hear everything we sang - I even recorded a couple specially to give us a full house this week. Here is a run down of a few highlights.

After Mike Starkey's first visit to the club in a long time last week, Colin started off proceedings this week with Southern Star, written by Mike Starkey and Dave Marshall. Sorry for my dodgy rendition - Colin's was much better. This was a first for Colin according to the database, though we had of course heard Mike sing it many times before.

Simon followed along with Tracy Chapman's more solemn Behind the wall.

Colin added to the Dragon database Steve Knightley's Widecombe fair, a mysterious whodunnit rather than the traditional song of that name.

Simon sang The oyster girl (roud 875, laws Q13) for possibly the second time; a song he acquired from the singing of Rosie Upton.

Colin had acquired a song from the singing of Rose Little who used to be an occasional visitor to the Dragon Folk Club. That was A maid in Bedlam (roud 578). His next song, which he remembered Ray Croll singing, was London Danny (Jez Lowe). Colin has sung this at least twice before: once just a few weeks ago, and also on 20th July 2018, which may have been his first time.

Simon tried a debut with The hog-eye man (roud 331) and that was followed by Colin singing the American version of The miner's lifeguard (roud 3510) - we often hear the British (Welsh?) version, but rarely this one.

Simon has sung The Hippopotamus song (Michael Flanders and Donald Swann) in Latin before, but only now is there a YouTube video to go with it (imperfect I'm afraid). We don't know the author of this version, but we do know that they don't claim it to be perfect Latin, but at least is rhymes and is able to be sung. Ian Wallace sang it at his inauguration as Rector of St Andrews University.

The final song new to the Dragon database was Sail away ladies (roud 17635). Here Colin didn't sing the hit version credited to Bill Varley, Wally Whyton and first recorded by The Vipers Skiffle Group, but the remarkably similar, earlier version, sung and probably collected by Uncle Dave Macon.

Simon finished the evening in time-honoured fashion with When all men sing (Keith Scowcroft, Derek Gifford)

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

(Number of people present - 2 of whom 2 performed)

The Curate's Egg

In front of the speakers without earplugs
(Photo: Simon Meeds)

[Edit: Just in case it isn't clear, the attached photograph was not taken at The Bridge last week. It is simply intended to suggest the experience we unfortunately had during the session. Read on to see what I mean. The photograph was taken about five years ago at a different event and the girls are not known to us - Simon was an official photographer at that event. We only have acoustic performances at the Dragon Folk Club]

Last week's Dragon Folk Club session wasn't the best, hence the title. The Curate's Egg is known to be good in parts and it was definitely the singers present who were the good part of our evening. Everything else was rather unfortunate, especially since we had our previous MC, Mike, present for the first time since mid-May 2022 (according to the blog records), as well as first time visitor Rob.

There were two issues which conspired to make this possibly our worst ever experience at The Bridge. There was a loud, live band in the main bar, and the gents toilets were out of action. The latter meant that people were constantly filing through our room to the back-up toilets (no pun intended) and while they were all polite, it meant the door was constantly opening and allowing in the full blast of the band's music. We posted a man on the door to keep it closed as much as possible, and we all sang at the top of our voices, but in the end it was just unworkable and we had to give up early.

This Friday should be much better - it certainly couldn't be worse.

Colin, the MC as usual, started off proceedings with The wild goose shanty (roud 328). Mike declared that there are many versions of that song, so he sang The wild goose shanty (roud 328); it's just like old times! If only our friend Derek had been there, we'd probably have got a third.

Rob does his own songs and poems, so naturally they were all new to the Dragon database, and in any case being his first visit they would all be mentioned here. His first was The Napoli (Rob Barratt), about the looting from the ship of that name which was beached at Branscombe in 2007.

Mike marked the recent fiftieth anniversary of the death of Adge Cutler and challenged all present to sign along to the chorus of Adge's Thee's got'n where thee cassn't back'n, hassn't.

Continuing the comedy Rob recited his poem The torpedo turd (Rob Barratt) about an impressive souvenir of the previous user of a toilet. This is one of only two performances of the evening not represented in the YouTube playlist linked from "a selection" below.

Talking of toilets, it was while Simon was singing Mary McCloud's House of the rising damp that we were joined by Sam on his way back from gaining some relief. While he didn't sing to us he did linger for a whole round of the four singers in the room and was very appreciative, listening also to Colin singing Hotel California (Don Felder, Don Henley, Glenn Frey), Mike with The Mary Ellen Carter (Stan Rogers), and Rob with Bloody who? (Rob Barratt).

The second and last performance not represented in the YouTube playlist was Colin's singing of Chris Sugden's Rolling drunk, a parody of Rolling home (John Tams).

Mike gave us Quare bungle rye (roud 2404).

Rob was inspired to write his poem Seventeen in Aberdeen (Rob Barratt) by a television weather forecast. After this things started to disintegrate and while we managed a few more songs we knew we were onto a loser.

I'm not quite sure why our friend Allie came walking though given that it was the gents toilet out of action as far as I was aware, but we introduced her to Rob and explained she was on our side and sometimes could be persuaded to sing. Indeed on her way back to the bar she gave us a couple of verses of Ian Campbell's Here come the navvies.

Colin soldiered on with Neil Young's After the goldrush, Simon gave top volume to Jake Thackray's Isabel makes love upon national monuments, and Mike completed the slightly abridged evening with Whip jamboree (roud 488); I assume it was actually Bristol Channel jamboree and therefore it is that which I linked.

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

(Number of people present - 6 of whom 5 performed - including Sam and Allie who each joined us for a short time and contributed to the evening)