Mostly remembering

Mike Starkey and Tom Mossman
(Photos: Simon Meeds)

After last week's sad news of the recent deaths of two Dragon Folk Club singers the session was suggested as the first of several where songs sung or written by Tom Mossman and Mike Starkey might be featured, and the originally suggested title of "Songs about singing" understandably faded into the background.

It was great to welcome Paul M and his friend Jane for the first time. Out of the five performers, only Colin and Simon really knew Tom and Mike, but it didn't stop others from selecting songs from their repertoires. Overall it was a great evening and definitely not at all morbid.

We were joined briefly by Mike's cribbage-playing friend, asking whether we knew of  Mike's death, and he stayed to listen to one song, so he is included in the count of attendees.

This Friday the official theme will be St George's Day, but songs from Tom and Mike's repertoires are definitely still on the cards - there may even be some that hit both targets on the bullseye!

Colin, resuming his seat as MC after a spell away from it, started proceedings with Deportee (Plane Crash At Los Gatos) (roud 26302 - Woody Guthrie).

Newcomer Paul M's debut song was Fare thee well Cisco (*  Tom Paxton), written about Cisco Houston.

Denny gave us Linden Lea (T roud X4683 - William Barnes, Ralph Vaughan Williams) and Paul W sang The song goes on (Mick Ryan), which having been written as a posthumous tribute to singer Cyril Tawney was very appropriate on all fronts.

Simon finished the first rotation with Standing at the door (T Allan Taylor).

Unusually, because of the themes, I will mention every song (and poem) performed during the evening:

• Colin - Following the southern star (M Mike Starkey, Dave Marshall)
• Paul M -  The twenty fourth of February (M roud 951)
• Denny - Marching inland (M Tom Lewis)
• Paul W - Jones's ale (M roud 139)
• Simon - After the gold rush (M Neil Young)
• Colin - Autumn leaves (T  Joseph Kosma, Johnny Mercer)
• Paul M - D-Day dodgers (M  Lance-Sergeant Harry Pynn, Norbert Schultze)
• Denny - Holmfirth anthem (M roud 1046)
• Paul W - Blackbird (T John Lennon, Paul McCartney)
• Simon - Lasso the moon (T Tom Mossman in discussion with Ray Croll)
• Colin - Mary Ellen Carter (M Stan Rogers)
• Paul M - Song for the Bowdoin (* Larry Kaplan)
• Denny - Rolling home (M  roud 4766)
• Paul W - Bring us a barrel (M Keith Marsden)
• Simon - John Barleycorn (M  roud 164 - Tune "Wir Pflügen" by Johann Abraham Peter Schulz)
• Colin - Dirty old town (M? Ewan MacColl)
• Paul M - Pastures of plenty (* roud 16377 - Woody Guthrie)
• Denny - When yellow's on the broom (M Adam McNaughton)
• Paul W - Country gardens (roud 29760 - Thomas Walker, Robert M Jordan) - Paul wasn't to know that Mike Starkey actually used to sing Fred Wedlock's parody English Country Garden.
• Simon - Grand Dad's cracket (*T Tom Mossman)
• Colin - British bobby (M Fred Wedlock) - Fred was Mike's English teacher when he was at school. Mike said that Fred taught him Brizzle and claimed that he taught Fred Glott'r.
• Paul M - The Marla Hill ducks (* roud V39873 - Tommy Armstrong)
• Denny - I can hew boys (M Davey Dodds)
• Paul W - John Dead (M). I've given Paul the hit on Mike's repertoire because there are many versions of this song and he was very close, but the one Mike sang is more like this Grey goose.
• Simon - Claudy banks (M roud 266, laws N40)
• Colin -  The band played waltzing matilda (M Eric Bogle)
• Paul M - Nantucket (* Jonathan Michael Peter Darely, David Robinson, Robert James Alexander Sattin, Andrew Robert Yates)
• Denny - Row on (roud 2084)
• Paul W - Hanging Johnny (M roud 2625)
• Simon - Home lass home (T Tom Mossman,  Sarah Morgan)
• Colin - Parting glass (M roud 3004)
• Paul M - Bones in the ocean (* Dave Robinson)
• Denny - Rolling Home (M John Tams)
• Paul W - Farewell shanty (M) This was the song Mike would sing at the funeral of a another singer.
• Simon - The January man (M Dave Goulder) Mike would have had Simon's guts for garters for singing this outside January.
• Colin - I'm bound away (M?)
• Paul M - A great northern river (* Graeme Miles)
• Denny - Teeside bridges (Erik Gooding)
• Paul W - Roll Alabama roll (M roud 4710)

Simon finished the evening with When all men sing (Keith Scowcroft, Derek Gifford) - although I don't think I heard Mike perform this song he would certainly sing along to the chorus with gusto, and this recording is particularly appropriate since I believe he knew and respected Johnny Collins.

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

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

In the above report songs new to the Dragon database (though no always new to the club) are marked with an asterisk (*) and any songs not included in the "a selection" playlist are marked with a hash (#).

Additionally this week "T" and "M" indicate songs from Tom Mossman's or Mike Starkey's repertoires and a question mark (?) indicates a song only possibly identified as such.

1805, 1066 and all that

HMS Victory (Photo: Simon Meeds)

We may have been a small group at last week's Dragon Folk Club session, but we sang up a storm. There was no official theme, but we touched on the Battle of Trafalgar and the Battle of Hastings which were both near their anniversaries, had a variety of songs directly or indirectly from Singing Together, and several also from the singing of The Spinners. Listen to the playlist linked from "a selection" below and I'm sure you will find other themes that emerged.

There will be no theme this week (24th October), but get ready for the Halloween theme the following Friday (31st October).

Colin, MC as usual, started the ball rolling last Friday with Come fair wind or stormy weather (Steve Knightley).

Paul continued the maritime theme and took us straight to Trafalgar with Nelson's death (roud 18837) and Denny brought us onto dry land (just) with Tom Lewis' Marching inland.

Simon completed the first rotation with Boney was a warrior (roud 485) which was our first from Singing Together - he sang it at junior school in the 1970s.

I won't labour the point about the ad hoc themes, but there are a few things that may be worth a mention.

Colin returned to the work of Steve Knightley to sing Breme fell at Hastings (*), marking the recently passed 959th anniversary of the battle.

In the absence of our resident blues-man, Bob, Paul sang Little red rooster (* roud 16807 - Willie Dixon), and Denny followed on with The chickens in the garden (roud 2552 - James Alan Bland).

Simon sang two songs to the same tune: The wark o' the weavers (roud 374 - David Shaw) and The oyster girl (roud 875, laws Q13).

Denny sang Ye Jacobites by name (roud V31021 - traditional, rewritten by Robert Burns) which caused Simon to bring out Les Barker's My name it is Van Goch (*), a parody of the same song. I don't know whether Denny knew who wrote Simon's song, but shortly afterwards she sang Les Barker's Sloop John A (*), of course a parody of Sloop John B, otherwise known as H'ist Up The John B's Sails (roud 15634).

Simon finished the evening off with No Sir No (roud 146).

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

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

In the above report songs new to the Dragon database (though no always new to the club) are marked with an asterisk (*) and any songs not included in the "a selection" playlist are marked with a hash (#).

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)

Maritime and mining disasters

Just before we started the Drunken Friesian made her first appearance for a few weeks. We thought she was going to leave us alone without a word but at the last minute turned back, apparently threatening death to anyone who found her lost lighter. That seemed a rather upside down take on the idea of thanks or reward. This sent Maggie S into singing a single chorus of Hev you got a loight boy?

Mike started off the session proper with The twenty-third of February, another version of Bold Princess Royal, sung by Derek last week. Apparently there were several different ships under similar names at the time. Derek's was a merchant ship but Mike's is a man o' war.

We were relatively small in number this week, though not as thin on the ground as sometimes in the last couple of months. What we lacked in numbers we seem to have gained in speed, since the number of songs sung in the evening must have been a recent record. Whether the chat was minimised or the songs short we may never know.

More Mike songs, and some others

HMS Mars

Mike and Maggie were off on their travels again last week, so some people took a theme of Mike's songs, but since most of us were sung out of them only three weeks before coverage was patchier than last time.

Richard Started off with Tom Lewis' Marching Inland depriving Robin of his first possible Mike song. The theme was kept going for now with Derek singing Three score and ten. Derek said the scribe at one folk club used to note this one down with what seemed to be a strange symbol. Only years later did Derek realise that the strange symbol was "70".