Bonfire Night 2019

(Photo: Simon Meeds)

Despite Halloween being well out of the way for another year, we were down to a skeleton staff for our Bonfire Night, or more accurately campfire themed session last Friday. Perhaps more will turn out for our Remembrance session this Friday, 8 November when songs, tunes, stories and other performances relating to remembrance, war and anti-war will be particularly welcome though as usual anything goes as long as it's acoustic.

Our MC, Colin started us off with the one Bonfire Night song of the evening, Guy Fawkes (Roud V18439).

In place of a campfire, Simon had us in a dark engine room, huddled round a Wee Pot Stove (Harry Robertson). Mike eschewed fires altogether in his first song, instead opting for a reference to "the fifth of November" in Spencer The Rover (Roud 1115).

Geoff also claimed to miss the theme but we thought he could probably use the campfire to cook the sausages and potatoes from his song Lidl And Aldi (Mickey MacConnell). Mike also wanted it to be known that garden equipment bought from Lidl is too resilient to be made fun of.

Campfire - Guy Fawkes 2018

Lewes Bonfire Night
(Photo by Simon Trimby)

Last week's "campfire" session to mark Guy Fawkes Night. We were a bit think on the ground in part because of a "lurgy" but we soldiered on and came up with quite a variety of material. This week there is no Dragon Folk Club session so don't turn up at The Bridge expecting music unless you want to be in the middle of a Charity Ladies' Night. But we are back at the songface on Friday 16 November with our Remembrance themed session. Please be there so we can make a noise for commemorating wars, condemning war or whatever you fancy.

So, back to last week, MC Colin started proceedings with Richard Digance's Boy Scout Song.

We carried on with mention of campfires such as Simon's Rocky Mountain High (John Denver), mention of camps as in Geoff's Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh (Allan Sherman, Lou Busch) or mention of fires in Mike's The Fireship (Roud 4841).

More campfires than Guy Fawkes

Guy Fawkes Night 1776 at Windsor Castle

Last week's session was our Guy Fawkes Night bash with songs and stories encouraged on any subject related to the man, to fire or things you might do round the campfire. This week's (Friday, 10 November) will be the Remembrance session, so any form of performance war-related, anti-war or for remembrance would be excellent. If you can't manage the theme, then anything goes as long as it's acoustic, and if you don't want to perform then you are most welcome to come along for the fun and make us an audience.

Back to last week, Colin was MC and he started off proceedings with Richard Digance's Boy Scout Song.

Bonfire Night 2016

NOBODY LOVES ME
'Nobody loves me. I'm going into the garden to eat worms.
Yesterday I ate two smooth ones and one woolly one.'

Before proceeding with the report of last week's session I will get the parish notices out of the way.

This week's session is on 11 November, so it is obviously going to be our Remembrance event. Whetehr you want to sing of war, anti-war, banning bombs, remembrance, poppies (red or white), or anything even vaguely related, this is the week to do it.

A slightly early notice to make sure as many people as possible are aware of it. We will not be at our usual venue of The New Inn on 2 December. Instead we will be at our previous venue, The Bridge, Shortwood. Those of you who have been coming to The Dragon Folk Club for a while will know that we can expect some good acoustics in the stone-walled room at the side of the pub.

So, back to last week. The theme was Bonfire Night and Campfire Songs. With Colin as MC, Derek started us off with the Nottinghamshire / Derbyshire version of a Guy Fawkes night rhyme: "All the little angels are dressed in white".