Back to the top Last updated: 04 Jan 2008
| December 2001 | 'Winter Wonderland' | Gilly | 205 |
| November 2001 | 'Fire and Rain' | Sue | 204 |
| October 2001 | Fancy Dress - song titles | Bob | 203 |
| September 2001 | 'Hats & Heckling' | John | 202 |
| August 2001 | Singaround | Pete B | 201 |
| July 2001 | Celebration of 200th session | All | 200 |
| June 2001 | Themeless | Ian | 199 |
| May 2001 | 'Sport' | Peter M | 198 |
| April 2001 | 'When Irish Eyes are Smiling' | Bob | 197 |
| March 2001 | 'Occupations' | Sue | 196 |
| February 2001 | 'Surprise' | John | 195 |
| January 2001 | 'Abstinence' | Pete B | 194 |
The theme was "Winter Wonderland", it being the first Thursday of December and the last folk club before Christmas - a novel idea (I thought) for my first attempt at "hosting" the evening. I had already told some people that the theme was "women at work", but forgot about that; also forgot about the raffle prize and the raffle tickets and something, or was it someone else?
The performers arrived thick and fast and so did my
butterflies. Who to put where, for how many songs to make the
"three" halves fit nicely together, and hopefully not miss anyone
out? I still have a nagging worry at the back of my mind about this.
My bright idea to drape each performer in flashing fairy lights came to a
whimpering halt as the batteries ran out but no one needed lights to shine!
1st Half
Pete and Liz were worried about Santa lost in Harbury at the Dog.
Margaret astounded us with her "Swanee Whistle" solo in Rudolph the
Red Nosed Reindeer. Ron also seemed to be concerned with drink and
dogs! John put the "wonderland" back into fiddle playing.
Ruth joined forces with several regulars to do an "S club 7", perhaps
some dance routines next time? First break and no time to hit the bar or
loo…..eeek!
2nd Half
Most of the audience were on stage as Harbury choir, gorgeous! They'll
be out and about singing carols in the local pubs over Christmas. We had a
Mexican Christmas recitation from Senôr Andrew, and our chestnuts were roasted
by Bob and Paul as a barbershop duo. Then, always a delight, we had two
younger members: Dan, slightly worried, as he hadn't done it standing up before
and Susie, singing beautifully. Rik was Logging on the Road to
Dundee! Then another newcomer, also a Suzy (please note the different
spelling) with two self penned songs, both wonderful. Dez finished the
second half by walking backwards to Christmas! Second break, still no time
to dash to bar or loo.….oooh er!!
3rd Half
Keith and I complained about the "Winter Time" up north, and then
Keith rocked Rudolph's red nose off accompanied by spoons, bells, and that
swanee whistle again. Pete (Grassby) invited us ALL to his 40th (yeah
yeah) birthday party and frightened us with a panto song called "Terror
Time". Allen "Rolled Home" with the "Boarshead
Carol", with wonderful harmonies from the audience, who had obviously had
chance to go the bar! Ruth "spirited" us away with "Sweet
Baby Jesus" and the whole evening was brought to a close with a dead sheep
song, that Sue and Ian had "hoped to sneak in whilst we weren't paying
attention earlier on in the evening". Plenty of sheep noise
accompaniment from the audience, whom it would appear had taken at least two
trips to the bar!
We raised £46 for the Samaritans, who I may need after this. Then we all trouped out into the wintry wonderland and home. I still have this nagging feeling that I've forgotten someone?? [
Yes, you have! - Ed.]Gilly Murphy
At the 204th Harbury Folk Club, the theme was 'Fire and Rain' in celebration of Bonfire Night! This was obviously a very popular theme as there was an amazing 18 sets of performers.
True to form The Harvesters had great difficulty sticking to the theme, but they did manage to find two songs that mentioned both elements.
Peter McDonald had far more success with Captain Swing and hit the nail right on the head with Fire and Rain. Brian stuck to the theme with 2 fiddle tunes and Pete & Liz followed with The Loch Tay Boat Song and then Pete went solo with Dog in the Microwave (Liz didn’t seem keen to join him in that one!) Des closed the 1st half with a song about Bonfire Night.
Band of Folk opened the 2nd half with 2 tunes, but I can’t spell them! It was good to see Rick back at the club singing Jolly Wagoner and Butter & Cheese & All. Margaret sang a lovely version of I think it’s gonna rain today. John Black followed with Joan of Arc. Janny and Maureen gave us some great harmony singing with Two Brothers. Newcomers, Dave and Bruce, had us all joining in with their songs. Keith Donnelly finished the 2nd half and managed to play guitar even with his injured arm!
The 3rd half commenced with Keith and Jonathan from Warwick Folk Club followed by Ron in excellent form with Wine & Water. Pete Grassby gave a fine rendition of The Oggie Man. Gilly gave us Can’t let Go and Stan followed with All the friends I ever had are gone. Ruth finished the evening with her lovely singing of 100 Tears Away.
The raffle raised £42.50 for Macmillan Nurses. Thank you to all the performers and the audience for being there! We had a great evening.
Sue Hartland
As a theme, I suggested people should turn up dressed as song titles and, as usual, most of the performers made the effort as well as some of the audience (examples of songs represented included: Bob The Builder, I’m a Lady Policeman, Where Have All The Flowers Gone, and Durham Jail). Peter Bones showed off his origami skills by making a very large hat out of a street map of London to represent Ralph McTell’s best-known song, which he later performed.
Celia reminded us it was National Poetry Day and read us Little Red Riding Hood and The Wolf (suitably dressed in red cape of course) and we also had a self-penned ditty from Ron Shuttleworth, entitled ‘I Wish I Was A Poet!’
All of the other regular performers were there showing once again how lucky we are to have such talent at our Folk Club. It’s always nice to see new faces and we were all pleased to listen to Anna playing a couple of tunes on her flute – let’s hope she comes again and gets a chance to join some of our other talented musicians to form an impromptu band.
As usual we had a raffle and we managed to raise £36, which will be added to the Soroptimist Swimathon 2001 sponsorship money raised by the Hereburgh Morris team.
The highlight of the evening for me was a fabulous rendition of ‘Albert Goes To Cleethorpes’. Once again we had a great night of free entertainment.
The next meeting will be on Thursday 6th December run by Gilly Darbey and the theme will be Winter Wonderland. I’ll be there as usual, why not come along to The Dog Inn and see what it’s all about.
Bob Hodgkiss
Hats off to all those that joined in the theme! It was another surreal evening of mixed entertainment way ahead of expectation. With a display of headwear from homburgs to baseball caps, Stetsons to Derby's (Gilly) with others thrown in for good measure. Janny Freeman was the highlight giving a very balanced performance wearing two hats, ever the diplomat.
The raffle raised 22.38 UKP donations made to leukaemia research with a hatless Peter Bones being the winner of a fine bottle of wine. Other, more organic prizes were won by Molly and Sue. Nick, who has donated more of his fine manure to my garden, won the courgettes. Watch out for the size of my courgettes next year!
Brimming with ideas, next month is even more bizarre, Bob has invited you all to dress up as a song title. Unfortunately I will be away but “Help!” springs to mind. It may be worth a peek. The Incredible Sweat Band?!
John Black
With this in mind, for the meeting which took place on 2nd August, I decided to have a themeless sing-around evening. I had visions of ten or twelve people sitting in a circle, taking in turns to sing or play tunes while the others joined in when they felt so inspired. I therefore arrived early and arranged the chairs accordingly.
By half past eight we were having to bring in more chairs as the numbers markedly exceeded my earlier expectations. I reckon that in total, there were more than 40 people who came.
In spite of the larger than expected number, we continued with a sing around and before long, a pleasant and relaxed atmosphere had developed. We were treated to a variety of items led by a host of talented artistes and during the evening we had plenty of opportunities to join in, either in song or with instrument.
Those who took part in the sing-around included Brian on fiddle, Ian and Sue, a quartet comprising Janny, Maureen, Ian and me, Rick Saunders, Des, Gill Barber, Ron, John Black, Narrow Way (a reduced version of Broadway), Alan Whitbread from Stratford, Liz and me.
The raffle raised £30.50 which went towards the new carpet for the Tom Hauley Room.
Many thanks to all those who came and contributed to the evening, and also for giving generously to the raffle. Thanks also to the new proprietors of the Dog Inn for making us very welcome.
The next meeting will be on September 6th when John Black will be the host. The theme will be “Hats and Heckling”, it will again be in the back room of the Dog and will start at 8.30 p.m.
Pete Bones
With so many comperes, you might have wondered if there would be enough performers to go round but there was certainly no shortage there either. In fact, I think we broke all records. In addition to the seven comperes, there were performances by (in order of appearance) Rik, Gilly, Liz, Des, Brian, Keith D, Alan, Pete G, Janny, Celia, Margaret, Liz, Ruth, Rosie, Colin D, Pete J, Ron, Keith A and Chris. I make that 26 in total and that's not including John Kemsley who sent a greeting and a recording of the Jug Band on tape! It was a fantastic array of talent and a wonderfully varied evening of songs and tunes.
The finale was a unique performance of the rousing song Rolling Home by the team of comperes, singing together for the first (and last?) time. Actually, it was Mike's last turn as a compere. We're sorry to see him go but pleased to welcome Gilly to the team to fill the gap.
The charity raffle raised a magnificent £68.43 for cancer research. The next session of the Folk Club will be at 8:30pm, on September 6th, in the Dog Inn, led by John. You can find Folk Club news and information on the internet at http://welcome.to/HarburyFolkClub
Peter McDonald
The June Folk Club was held in the intimate setting of the Shakespeare's restaurant and drew an audience of regulars and a surprising number of newcomers, some of whom admitted to not having been to a folk club for thirty years! We suspect that the Harbury experience will not persuade them to wait a similar time before coming again as this was an evening of high-quality music and entertainment. Although the club was held on the same night as the General Election, we kept the night theme-free and desisted from polling the audience on their preferences.
The Harvesters canvassed opinions with The Writing on The Wall and Dancing With Nancy. Peter McDonald, as a fully paid-up member of the Melodeon Party, performed two of his fine tunes and then a Cajun-flavoured rendition of a Kipper Family favourite. Pete and Liz Bones voted for A Rosebud in June and a Thirty-foot Trailer. Brian fiddled through Black Mountain Air and an unpronounceable Swedish Walking Tune and then Ron brought the first half to a result with Twelve Sparrows, from the Book of Thomas, and his Party Political and updated Election song.
The second half of the proceedings polled a powerful performance from Des with a Pint of Good Ale and the popular Babylon is Fallen. Next to take the stand was John Davies, a talented singer and songwriter who judged his selection perfectly with All The Riches and What A Fool I've Been. Keith Adams played a sensitive Planxty Hewlett and the Beatles classic All My Loving. Mike arrived fresh from hashing and took us on a short voyage around The Eddystone Light and completed his manifesto with Brother Gorilla. Pete Bones promoted the virtues of The Wild Mounting Time and Peter Mc brought the second part to a close with two more excellent tunes on his melodeon.
The third part saw the four voices of Broadway exercise their mandate with close-harmony renditions of some old favourites, closing with An Irish Lullaby. The Harvesters provided The Moon In A Bottle, Brian chose The King of the Fairies and Ron put his 'X' against Joan The Leather Queen. Des then took us on the Deep Blue Sea and Mike took us all the way to South Australia. Finally, John Davies returned to steal the popular vote with the superb Georgie Laid On The Broon and his Letter To Cindy.
The Returning Officer for the evening announced that Folk Music had been the clear winner with a sizeable majority again. The raffle made an admirable £43 for the Air Ambulance and especial thanks must go to Alison Hunt for generously providing two of the prizes.
We reach our 200th edition on Thursday 5th July and, due to capacity, we have decided to return to the Dog Inn. All of the organisers will join me in thanking the landlord and staff at the Shakespeare for making us so welcome for the last three months - we are hoping to put on some musical events there in the near future.
Ian Hartland
Our theme for May 3rd was 'Sport' and it proved to be quite a challenge for many of our performers. Not so for Ron who always seems to find songs to suit every occasion - on this occasion, the sports were boxing, sailing and scree-running. Rik was also right on the nail with cock fighting and clipper racing while Des and I both chose songs about hunting - "We'll all go a-hunting" and "Innocent Hare". Gilly took a harder line on blood sports with the "The Killing Time" - a Keith Donnelly song guaranteed to wipe the smile off your face.
Making his first visit the Club, artist Colin Dick was not prepared for the theme but sang a delightful Dorset song anyway. The other Colin could not claim ignorance because he had been e-warned so instead he asked us to use our imagination with "Cumbrian Dream" and "Towersey Fair". The same ploy was used by the Harvesters but we all enjoyed "One Hit Wonder" and "Brief Encounter" anyway.
The Scratch Band (consisting of Janny, Rosie, Ian and Sue on concertinas, Margaret on fiddle and me providing the bass line on the left half of a melodeon) struggled with a sporting connection for the tune "Cats and Concertinas". Brian cleverly chose to play "Dingle's Regatta" but we weren't as convinced about the sporting angle on the tune "Ladies of Pleasure". We predicted that Mike would major on climbing and we weren't disappointed - and it was great to hear the "Ballad of Idwell Slabs" again. As a fitting finale, Des had us all "Rolling Home" which allowed us to exercise our voices to the full.
Our charity also had a sporting theme. The raffle raised a magnificent £50 as additional sponsorship for Sue in a 5km run in Stratford on May 20th, in aid of women's cancer - the "Race for Life". It was particularly pleasing to know that her employer (Barclays Bank) would be doubling the money Sue raised.
The Folk Club continues to meet at the Shakespeare and the next session is on Thursday, June 7th at 8:30pm, hosted by Ian. Just for a change, there is no theme so that should cut down the length of the song introductions. On July 5th, we have our 200th session and we are planning a special evening hosted by everyone in the compering team. Don't miss it!
Peter McDonald
This month’s theme was “When Irish Eyes are Smiling” – although at the beginning of the week there were not many smiles about as we had lost our usual venue. Fortunately, The Shakespeare Inn was persuaded to accommodate us and it proved to be a very pleasant change of surroundings (thank you very much the proprietors of The Shakespeare for coming to the rescue).
Most of the performers have, over the years, managed to concoct all sorts of links to connect their particular songs to the theme of the month. To save any embarrassment for people not being able to find any link, I did suggest at the beginning of the evening that they could simply tell an Irish joke – the sillier the better - and believe you me, we did have some silly ones.
I opened the proceedings by singing The Mountains of Mourne’with a very nice keyboard accompaniment provided by Peter McDonald. Des gave us a sea shanty and the The Old Triangle and this was followed by a couple of tunes from Peter on the melodeon. Ron Shuttleworth reminded us it would soon be St. George’s Day and then gave us a very funny version of Kathleen. The first half ended with a beautiful rendition of Danny Boy provided by Rick on his English concertina.
The second half started with a ladies’ Barbershop Quartet singing Accentuate The Positive and San Francisco Bay Blues – nothing to do with the theme, but they did tell us a terrible joke. Other performers in the second half included: John Black, Peter & Liz Bones, Mike Putnam and the fabulous sound of a scratch band of musicians consisting of 2 concertinas, 2 melodeons, 1 guitar, and 2 violins (hope I got that right!).
At the start of the third half the raffle was drawn. Celia won the bottle of wine and the children’s charity N.C.H. is now £30 better off. After the raffle we had an audience participation number followed by one more each from Ron, Des, Peter and Mike (for whom this was to be his last folk club as one of the group of volunteer presenters, as he is moving out of the area. We all wish him well can hope he will visit the Folk Club whenever he is able).
The end of a very enjoyable evening was provided by The Harvesters who gave us: Molly Malone, Jug O’Punch, The Holy Ground and Black Velvet Band. The audience, as they always do at Harbury, were happy to join in the choruses and seemed to have enjoyed the evening as much as I did.
The next Folk Club will be on Thursday 3rd May, again at The Shakespeare, and you can be assured of another great night.
Bob Hodgkiss
The theme for the 196th Folk Club was Occupations. At the start of the evening this seemed to develop into a military theme! The Harvesters sang about soldiers, Brian played a tune called "Jacky Tar" and Peter McDonald combed the Spanish Main (or is it Mane!). Other occupations were Milkmen, Factory Girls, Dalesmen and Songwriters!
During the 2nd half there were contributions about Postmen, Miners and Apprentices. Rick managed to mention three occupations in one song!
The 3rd half commenced with The Harvesters singing about a folk singer from way back. Des sang "Byker Hill" a song about Colliers although it does happen to mention two members of the Harbury Hash, well nearly! John gave us all a holiday and took us to the Mardi Gras and then Pete Bones took us back to work with the "Farmers Song." Ron was in fine voice and brought the evening to a close with "Row Bullies Row."
The raffle raised £27.00 for Macmillan Nurses. Thank you to all the performers for taking part and a big Thank You to the huge audience who joined in so enthusiastically.
Sue Hartland
Surprise! The Dog's not dead yet. Well it was an evening of surprises.
It got off to a cold start but the icy atmosphere (literally) gradually thawed and the event was surprisingly jovial and good-humoured. Des had us enthralled with "Teddy Bears Picnic"; Eleanor made an impromptu debut, playing guitar in public and special guests from Yelvertoft calling themselves Junction 69, or near, sang several Kirsty MacColl songs. Janny lead two sets, including the Finale when Phill and Drill met Morris Dance and Doctor John, surprising the remaining audience and Ian.
Thanks to Rosemary for improvising the raffle on scraps of paper and to all of you there. £34.00 was raised for the India Earthquake Relief Fund. I've forgotten the theme for March (does it matter) but it will be too late by the time you've read this anyway.
John Black
I suppose, I could have been accused of being somewhat sanctimonious in selecting the theme of "abstinence" for the meeting of the Folk Club, which took place on January 4th. This was the result of an attempt of mine to recover from the over indulgences of Christmas and the New Year celebrations, by declaring January an alcohol-free month.
Whether it was the cold weather, or the evening clashing with other events, the numbers seemed to be less than usual at the start of the evening. However, half an hour into the evening, the numbers had grown and a warm atmosphere developed. This more than compensated for one of the heaters in the room, which decided to go on strike.
The artistes seemed to do fairly well in managing to incorporate the theme into most of their material, though abstaining from many things other than alcohol, such as from remembering the words, was often the subject! Many thanks to all those who took part. These included Des Patalong, Ron Shuttleworth, Ian and Sue Hartland, Mike Putnam, Doug (from Warwick) and Rick Middleton. If you took part and I haven't mentioned your name, please accept my apologies (*). I've lost the notes for the evening! Thanks also to Yvonne and Steve at The Dog Inn for their hospitality.
For me, the highlights of the evening were the contributions made by Ruth Fortey who was on vacation from her studies in music at the Boston Conservatoire. Her choice of material was varied and interesting and culminated with the singing of some well-known John Denver songs. These were to an impromptu accompaniment ably provided by Ian on guitar, and Doug on mouth organ.
The raffle raised £30.00, which appropriately has been donated to the Salvation Army. Many thanks for your contributions.
The next meeting will be on March 2nd when Bob Hodgkiss will be the host. As usual, it will be in the back room of The Dog Inn at 8.30 p.m.
Pete Bones
[* Apologies accepted - Ed.]