Children in Need 2022

The very first Pudsey bear and logo, used in 1985

It was good to have four singers at last week's Dragon Folk Club Session. Bob J and Sue once again joined us. It's good to see them becoming regulars and we hope you will join us. They are regulars at "Folk at Frampton Cotterell", which clashes with us on a Friday night, but is a monthly event, so they are still able to join us most weeks.

That makes us realise that there are three monthly folk-type events on Friday nights within a short distance of our venue at The Bridge Inn, Shortwood. We're not looking to poach their people, but if you attend any of them, please consider coming along on one of your free Fridays to see what we do. We don't bite and you might even enjoy yourself and become a regular while still attending your current venue just like Bob and Sue. The three monthly events in question are:

• Folk at Frampton Cotterell
• Downend Folk & Roots
• Pucklechurch Open Mic

It was Bob who started the ball rolling with John D Loudermilk's Angela Jones. Sue opened her account with a self-penned song called Recycled Teenager.

Simon pointed out that it was the evening of Children in Need, which Maggie S used to mark with a "children" themed session. He therefore made his first few songs somewhat child connected with: Morningtown ride (Malvina Reynolds), Bare necessities (Terry Gilkyson), Lily the Pink (John Gorman, Mike McGear, Roger McGough), amd When I'm five (David Bowie).

Colin's first song of the evening was Cyril Tawney's Grey Funnel Line.

Understandably not in the "a selection" playlist is Sue's own song, Ukulele, a version of Leonard Cohen's song Hallelujah.

Colin asked me to check the origin of a song he sang: 2 day's Monday. It was indeed written by John Gorman, Mike McGear and Roger McGough and recorded by them as the band The Scaffold. You will note this was their second outing of the evening.

By now we were down to two in the session, but we sang on steadfastly.

Colin sang Ring of Fire, which we know from the singing of Johnny Cash. It was in fact written by his wife June Carter Cash together with Merle Kilgore and was first recorded by his sister-in-law Anita Carter. If you listen to the version linked here you will see there is quite a difference between their performances.

It also fell to Colin to close the evening which he did by singing No John No (roud 146).

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

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

All Fools Day 2022

Album cover of Save the last gherkin for me
by Mike Absalom

Like the previous one, this will be a very brief report. We were very thin on the ground last Friday but in honour of All Fools Day we had a good amount of jollity and mirth.

The first two songs are not available on YouTube, but most of the rest are and can be found on the "a selection" link below. Colin kicked us off with our friend Richard Gillion's song Superstition's Game and was followed by Simon with Richard Stilgoe's The Transplant Squad.

The first song I managed to find on YouTube was The Leprechaun. The strange thing about this is Roud seems to list it as both 5264 and 5274 - both with the same first line "In a shady nook one moonlit night", so I can't differentiate between them. One of the collected instances of roud 5274 records a writer - PW Joyce.

I promised Colin I would find out a little more about his song Laura the Leg. While I didn't find a recording, it was written and recorded by Mike Absalom, and featured on his 1969 album Save the last gherkin for me (this recording from John Peel's extensive record collection is missing the last two tracks, one of which is sadly Laura the Leg). I didn't exactly find the lyrics, but if you're quick you may find an obscured copy here.

Simon closed the evening with Bare Necessities (Terry Gilkyson).

Upcoming optional themes will be:

• 15th April 2022 - Easter
• 22nd April 2022 - St George

All other Friday sessions will be unthemed until further notice.

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

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