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)

Sumer is icumen in

Catacombs of Paris
(Photo: Simon Meeds)

Things are getting warmer at The Bridge at last and some of us are "casting clouts". Five slightly less heavily clothed singers turned up to make some noise on a Friday evening.

Colin was MC as usual ans started the session off with Bobby Sands' Back home in Derry.

Paul took us on our first antipodean journey of the evening with The Green Man from the pen of John Thompson who is a member of the Australian band Cloudstreet.

Denny brought us a serving of Good English ale (roud 1512), after which Simon tried to put us to sleep with John o' dreams (Bill Caddick, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky).

Geoff completed the first round with Dinny the piper (roud 8147).

I'll randomly mention a few more of the songs we sang.

Paul sang Generations of change by Matt Armour, which was new to the Dragon database. It was alsoPaul who sang another song new to the database, though not necessarily new to the Dragon, which was Close the coalhourse door by Alex Glasgow, clearly about the hard life of a miner, but with an extra verse dealing with the Aberfan Disaster.

Denny was suffering from the after-effects of a dental appointment which didn't stop her singing, but we later learned that while Paul was waiting for her session in the chair to finish he had rewritten Close the coalhouse door "Close the dentist's door, there's blood inside... there's bones inside... there's screams inside... there's gold inside." We heard the world premier.

There was some discussion after Geoff had sung the challenging Rocky road to Dublin (roud 1676 - DK Gavan) in slip-jig time (9/8).

Colin sang his own song, John Chiddy about a local (Hanham) man who was killed while averting a rail disaster in 1876, and for whose widow and children a house was built with donations.

Simon closed the evening singing Stan Rogers' Northwest Passage.

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

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