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)

The last buds of May?

Bessie Smith (Photo: Carl Van Vechten)

Last week's session again had no theme but again we managed to squeeze out some May themed songs between us. This week again will have no theme, so any sort of performance will be just fine as long as it's acoustic.

Colin, the MC, started us off by twisting May a little as a name, and singing a song of Sam May, which I have failed to trace. It however inspired Derek to think of using "May" as a name and did a version of Tom Paxton's brief The Ballad Of Spiro Agnew but re-titled The Ballad Of Theresa May.

Mike's first May contribution was Bonny Black Hare (Roud 1656) "On the fouteenth of May...".

Having failed at the first fence the previous week, Simon just about managed Claudy Banks (Roud 266, Laws N40) this week which served to deprive Mike of one of his candidates for the evening.

The Seven Seas

Kaskelot in Bristol (Photo: Simon Meeds)

Last week's session got off to a slow start. Parking was unusually busy outside The Bridge Inn, so I wasn't early but was only the third to arrive. We had a pleasant chat and I think were about to decide whether to stay or go when Steve C arrived just on cue. At a grand total of four we were quorate and after some more procrastination we got the evening going.

Colin was MC and he started us off with So Long It's Been Good To Know You (Woody Guthrie, Roud 15161). With no theme we didn't really know what was coming next and despite being small in number we managed to come up with quite an eclectic mix of music for the evening. Some songs were intentionally aimed at a May theme and others accidentally hit that spot. Nevertheless, our official May themed session will be this week (Friday 5 May).

Valentine's Day - 2016

Newly weds take a trip on a traditional Maltese dgħajsa

Being the closest session to Valentine's Day, love and not a little lust was in the air, or at least in some of our songs. Derek introduced a second theme though of songs sung by Roy Harris, who had died the previous Tuesday. One or two seemed even to include both themes in a single song!

Colin as MC asked Derek to kick off the session. Derek said it was 40 years this year since he first met Roy Harris, and from his repertoire sang Poverty Knock (Roud 3491, probably written by Tom Daniel), accompanying himself on the bones. He apologised to Simon, who sometimes sings that song (Simon says that was unnecessary) but suggested that he might like to sing No Sir No (Roud 146), which he did when it came to his turn - thus hitting both themes.

Rambling Syd Rumpo rises again

Cyril Tawney

Mike kicked off the session this week with the Heights of Alma about the Battle of Alma which took place, reasonably topically, on 20 September 1854 and is usually considered to be the first battle of the Crimean War.

Last week Mervyn remembered a folk session with the theme "one song sung to the tune of another", and sang his version of Kathy's Song to the tune of The Silkie. He also related that Kitty Vernon had sung Wild rover to the tune of Away in a manger. This week we heard that Derek went home that night singing just that combination in the car. He said it went quite well, but he couldn't possibly repeat something that had been done before. Derek therefore charmed us with Hell's angel (the parody of Wild rover) to the tune of Lord of all hopefulness, which is in turn based on Banks of the Bann. When Paul showed an interest in knowing the difference between these two tunes, Derek dredged his memory and sang, from beyond his already huge repertoire, Banks of the Bann.