Last updated: 04 Jan 2008
| December 2005 | 'Christmas - traditional or ...' | Steve & Maureen | 253 |
| November 2005 | 'Royalty' | Sue | 252 |
| October 2005 | 'Coast' | Peter | 251 |
| September 2005 | 'Home' | Des | 250 |
| August 2005 | 'Poverty' | Doug & Janny | 249 |
| July 2005 | 'Light' | Ian | 248 |
| June 2005 | 'The Meaning of Life' | Peter M | 247 |
| May 2005 | 'Days, Weeks, Months, Years' | Steve & Maureen | 246 |
| April 2005 | 'Planets' | Sue | 245 |
| March 2005 | * see below | Pete B | 244 |
| February 2005 | 'Out of season' | Des | 243 |
| January 2005 | 'Numbers' | Ian | 242 |
The theme for the 253rd Folk Club was "Christmas - traditional or not so traditional" which, led to a very broad range of performances from the sublime to the not quite ridiculous but surprising all the same!
Maureen began the evening with the traditional "Wexford Carol" accompanied by Ian on guitar and this was followed by Steve who opened a debate about the existence of Father Christmas and concluded the case against him by applying the laws of physics which would mean Santa vaporising as he took off on his first ever attempt to deliver Christmas presents around the world. Will and Dan entertained us with "The Soldiers Christmas Joy" followed by a jig and then Peter Mason sang "A Winter Song" followed by "Streets of London". Ron, true to form, humoured us with songs about Stoneleigh Mummers on Boxing Day and the Office Party. Pete Grassby told us the tale of his unexploded block of Beeswax and then performed a song written by Keith Christmas (just to ensure it was in the spirit of the evening). We then welcomed back Tony Baylis whom we do not see often enough these days - he makes such easy work of singing and playing guitar. The Harvesters closed the first half with a seasonal song about adultery called "Ships that Pass in the Night"; this was followed by reference to traditional Christmas candles and the song "Moth to a Flame".
The second half began with a bang (literally) as the Coventry Mummers acted out their Christmas play with the enduring opening line... "In comes I". We were all shaken out of our comfort zone when a replica gun was produced, which was fired with such effect that our ears were left ringing for a few seconds and gasps of surprise were forthcoming from the audience. Steve then concluded his defence for the existence of Father Christmas by reading an editorial article from the New York Sun from 1897 - yes Santa does exist, for if he didn't, what hope for the children of the future! Pete Bones delivered us "Twas Christmas Day in the Workhouse" then accompanied his son as "Dan and Booze" to sing "Thank You". Peter McDonald supplied us with a medley of carols he last performed some 15 years ago and then out came that hat, corks and all, and we all joined in with a rousing version of "Christmas in Australia". Debbie sang the not-so-traditional "Summer Time" and Des followed on with a 15th Century French carol and a wassail by Ian Robb. The second half concluded with the Folk Club Choir who sang two songs from their ever expanding repertoire, "The Boar's Head" and "The Giving Song", both tunes featured on the now famous "A Christmas Celebration" CD (copies available from Celia Neill, Lynne Cooke or any choir member).
Pete Mason, Pete Grassby, Dan and Will each performed another song or tune and the whole evening drew to a close with Tony Baylis who left us all with a smile on our faces as we learnt that they never mention the flies that you get in Australia.
The raffle raised £34 which has been forwarded to a project in Malawi where funds are badly needed to help a village develop self dependency through improved access to water.
Next month will be led by Pete Bones when the theme will be in commemoration of the battle of Trafalgar, "Battle and Booze".
Steve & Maureen Darby
The theme for the 252nd Harbury Folk Club was Royalty and most of the evening’s performers managed to include a reference to the theme in their songs or introductions. The Harvesters opened with the Stanley Holloway classic, “With Her Head Tucked underneath her Arm” and a new song entitled “King of the Mild Frontier”, Peter Mason followed with “Lancashire Lads” and “Benjamin Bowmaneer”. Debbie read one of her poems and then Ron kept strictly to the theme singing “King John & The Abbot of Canterbury”. Barbara gave a rendition of “The Battle of Hastings” and sang “Geordie” then Rick gave us “Good King Arthur’s Days” and “A Begging I will Go”. Harriet & Ruth made a rare appearance and played some tunes and Des closed the first half with the 5th of November Song and “Babylon is Fallen”.
Band of Folk started the 2nd half with “The Princess Royal” and “Life in the Old Dog” and they left Peter McDonald to sing “The Massacre of Glencoe” and a new song for him entitled “Wandering Soul”. Martin sang a very clever song about the year the old King died and an equally clever one about the royal families past and present! A new performer, Fran, delighted us with her fiddle playing and Graham followed with ”The Little Ploughboy” and “Honest John”. Mal Waite visiting from Chester closed the second half with “The Norman Castle”.
Our old friend Mike Putnam brought his choir, “The Prince Albert Consort”, to perform the third half for us. It was a joy to listen to and I hope they will visit us again in the future.
The raffle raised £52.00 for Macmillan Nurses, thanks to all who contributed.
We’ll do it all again next month, hope to see you there!
Sue Hartland
National Poetry Day went nearly unnoticed at the Folk Club on October 6th but the theme of ‘Coast’ was embraced enthusiastically by 19 musicians and singers – quite remarkable for a folk club in the heart of England!
Band of Folk (Janny, Ruth, Celia, Liz, Margaret, Ian and I) did the job properly with three tunes which required no contrived explanations –‘Horseshoe Harbour’, ‘Waves of Kilkee’ and ‘Portsmouth’ – although we did have to humble ourselves to Barbara who had already played the last one on her accordion earlier in the evening. Another instrumentalist was young Will Pound who, for his first performance in a folk club, displayed considerable virtuosity on the harmonica, particularly when he played ‘Three around Three’ whilst accompanying himself on the melodeon!
Rik sang about ‘Waves’ and the South Coast while Martin reminded us in song of the Braer oil tanker disaster which caused considerable coastal damage around the Shetlands in 1993. I covered another disaster, the virtual demise of the Hastings fishing fleet, in ‘I once was a fisherman’ while Ron went ‘Rounding the Horn’ in the Gallant Frigate Amphitrite but also delighted us with the only poem of the evening, the self-penned ‘Oh to be a poet’.
I enjoyed playing the piano accompaniment for Maureen when she sang the beautiful ‘Song for Ireland’ and then, in the second half, she joined Janny for ‘I’ll fly away’ with Ian accompanying and step-dancing simultaneously (it was one of those evenings!). Without Sue on this occasion, Ian stayed ‘on stage’ with his feet firmly on the ground to sing ‘The Unfortunate Tailor’ and ‘Nobody understands’ (formerly the ‘Folk Club Anthem’). Ian was followed by newcomer Tim who gave us some solid coastal material – ‘Grey Funnel Line’ and ‘Skye Boat Song’ while Pete Grassby finished the second half in a similar vein with ‘Neptune’ and ‘The Seagull and the Mermaid’.
In a short third half, Bernard Overton sang ‘Sailor’s Life’, the Joy family sang ‘Sweet Ladies of Plymouth’ and Des rounded off the evening with a couple of shanties with the slightly depleted audience singing like a much bigger one.
The raffle raised £37 for Ovacome, a nationwide support group for all those concerned with ovarian cancer. The next session, on December 1st, will be hosted by Steve & Maureen. As usual, we’ll be in the Shakespeare Inn, at 8:30pm.
Peter McDonald
I’m still not certain I’m the best person to have asked to join the Harbury MC committee, but no matter. I was slightly fazed by learning quite late on that, not only was this the 250th Harbury Folk Club, but it was also the 21st Birthday. Had I known earlier, I’d have tried to arrange something special.
The evening began with some small reminiscence of 1984 and then went from strength to strength. Being in a state of complete agitation because of the numbers of people who perform who turned up, I completely forgot to make a note of what people sang or performed. All I can be sure of is that “Away with Rum” and “Rolling Home” where amongst these.
What I can say is that in the first spasm, we had contributions from Ninepenny Marl who, on hearing what the charity and theme were going to be, dropped all other commitments to offer support. We also had contributions from Band of Folk, Peter McDonald, Summer and Jenny Joy, Alan Whitbread and Peter Mason.
The second spasm opened with The Harvesters, and saw contributions from Jilly Kemp, Debbie, a new partnership this evening calling themselves Dixon and Dickson (or possibly the other way round), Stuart and Three Men in a Boat. True professional standards were upheld by Danansooz.
The third spasm was shorter by gist of the fact we were running out of time, but opened with Ron and then Jane who made one of her infrequent visits to Harbury. Ninepenny Marl did the penultimate spot and the evening ended with a spirited rendition of “Rolling Home” offered by Pete and Liz Bones. Pete was quite insistent that an evening with the theme of “Home” should end with this.
I thank everyone who came and performed which was virtually everyone.
The theme was “Home”. I think probably that I will not be able to keep this up, but what I have tried to do is link the themes I choose to the charity the raffle is used for. On this occasion special thanks must be given to a colleague of mine who donated a truly splendid raffle prize and asked that the money be given to “The Salvation Army”. The raffle raised a very respectable £50.05p (the 5p having leapt off the floor and into the collecting tin). Again as is my custom I’m offering this link to anyone who wishes to follow it to find out more about what this organisation does (they don’t only have superb brass bands that you can hear at Xmas).
http://www1.salvationarmy.org.uk/uki/www_uki.nsfDes Patalong
August is normally a quiet month for the Folk Club, competing with holidays and Folk Festivals like Sidmouth and Broadstairs. This year though it was nearly as busy as other months and it was good to welcome new people to the club.
The theme was poverty and the performers where skilled in selecting songs or tunes which fitted the theme, or alternatively twisted the theme to fit their selected contribution. In sympathy with the theme, there follows a poor and probably inaccurate record of what happened.
The first half got underway by those “Silly Sisters” Maureen and Janny singing What will we do if we have no money. It is always good to get contributions from the vibrant “young” folk scene, and Lizzy sang and played on the keyboard Blue from Joni Mitchell. Summer manipulated the theme with a tune she had written for her granddaughter, and was joined by more “young” folk Jenny and Nicole (visiting from Canada), who enthralled the audience by playing at set of 4 fiddle tunes. Young Ron declared he was only 35 years old, and gave us Sixpence a Day and My Family. Gilly delighted us with a couple of songs (sorry we forgot to note the titles) before Peter McD closed the first half with Hard Times of old England and the thought provoking Making Choices from Huw Williams.
Maureen and Janny gave us Hedger and Ditcher, and then Debbie gave a stunning singing debut with her song Deepest Sympathy which she had written in 1991. Martin treated us to another Huw Williams song, followed by a fishy Les Barker ditty. Barbara included Lancashire Lass, and Des the Sailors Prayer by Tom Lewis. How else to finish the second half but with a favourite of ours Ruth, whose singing was so spell binding we completely forgot to record the names of her songs. We were later informed that one of the songs was Never dreamed you would leave in summer.
The audience thinned somewhat in the third half, leaving a slim contingent, and as always those who left early missed an excellent half or third. Vaughan included Gone on strike for 10% whilst Judith visiting from deepest Sussex gave us a couple fine songs. Janny, Maureen, Pete McD and Margaret joined forces with Seven Days are in the Week. Finally Ruth closed the evening in great style with Fields of Gold from Sting.
When originally setting the theme as Poverty, we had in mind collecting for Farm Africa. Given the recent DEC appeal for Niger, we could not ignore that, so in the end we collected for both charities and have donated £48.50 to each charity. The next folk club, our 250th and also our 21st birthday, will be on 1st September led by Des and the theme is Home.
Doug & Janny
The theme for the July folk club had been chosen as “Light”, it being on the longest day in the folk club calendar. Sadly, tragic events in London on the same day brought a more subdued atmosphere but all the contributors were determined to carry on as usual and the end result was a very enjoyable evening in the circumstances.
The Harvesters got the evening under way with “The Bonny Light Horseman”, a Napoleonic theme, and a traditional love song about “The Leeboy’s (or Lightboy’s) Lassie”. Peter Mc was next to the floor and invited us to “Have a Barbecue”, followed by the haunting Dougie MacLean song “The Boatbuilders”, complete with pre-recorded piano accompaniment. Pete and Liz gave us the “Tay Boat Song” and then Pete provided a solo version of Ralph McTell’s “Clown”. Debbie announced that her poem for the month had been written only two hours earlier and in light of the events of the day. “The Inner Light” was both moving and thought-provoking and deserved the warm applause that greeted it. Rick decided it was time for that famous shanty “Windy Old Weather”, accompanied on concertina, and the charming “When The Night Surrenders To The Sun”. Ron finished the first half with “The Nor’ Light Man” and a stirring song about the Charge of The Light Brigade.
The second half saw the folk club occasional band assembled and tackling the lovely “Slockit Lights”, by the late Tom Anderson. Des, in a somewhat clairvoyant mood, sang of “When Autumn Skies Are Blue”. Let’s hope he’s right. Les Barker’s charming “Will You Walk With Me” completed his first set and he was followed by Ren who sang a Sandgate Song and then an Old Time Music Hall classic, “Now I Have To Call Him Father”. Peter Mason abandoned the apparently doomy songs he had chosen and instead sang two Jez Lowe songs, “Old Bones” and “Idle Time”. Don was next with a song about a lost soldier and the “Homes of Donegal”. Pete Grassby closed the second half with a humorous song about cameras and then played what he described as a “small muddly”, but played with his usual panache.
The third half gave a second chance to some of the earlier performers. Peter Mc gave us the superb “Here Is My Home” and Des supplied the Bee Gees classic “New York Mining Disaster 1941”. Ren and Don combined their talents in an authentic rendering of the late Cyril Tawney’s classic, “Sally Free And Easy”. Peter Mason returned for “The Last Thing On My Mind” and Pete Grassby brought the singing to a close with his lovely “Whale Song”. A few keen instrumentalists carried on with some tunes, doubtless to provide ‘light’ relief, until the pub staff declared themselves replete. Or something like that.
The raffle, which was to raise money for Cancer Research, and specifically for Race For Life that Sue had completed a weekend before, made a total of £29.
The theme for August, run by Doug and Janny, is ”Poverty”. Des leads September’s Folk Club (the 250th!) with the theme of “Home”. We meet every first Thursday of the month and all comers are welcome, whether to perform or simply to enjoy the talents of those who do.
Ian Hartland
There were so many interpretations of the theme ‘The Meaning of Life’ at the Folk Club on June 2nd and so many people to perform them. No fewer than 25 singers, musicians and poets created a scheduling challenge for the MC and there was no time for anyone to perform more than two numbers each. The sheer variety of musical styles was amazing and the topics included love, lust, friends, work, love, a new accordion, parents, reproduction, love, folk singing, death and love!
The nine-strong Folk Club band (Janny, Celia, Pete, Liz, Ian, Sue, Margaret and I with Des on percussion) started and finished the evening with tunes connected with life and death, though the Barbecue Hornpipe’s connection to cremation needed a little explanation.
It was good to see Mike Putnam again with one of his Jake Thackray favourites, ‘Brother Gorilla’ and regular duo, Janny & Maureen, sang ‘Cupid’s Garden’ in harmony. From Brackley, we were pleased to welcome Ren and Don for the first time and they both proved themselves to be very accomplished solo singers. Debbie read her own thoughtful poem, ‘The Journey’, and somewhere amidst all the philosophy, barbershop quarter Bianco brought us a complex arrangement of ‘Sam, the accordion man’!
The Joy family dispensed with the English language when they sang songs from Cape Breton in Gaelic and French, and Jenny accompanied their second with some foot percussion. Rik was on good form with his version of ‘The Folksinger’, itself a skit on ‘The Boxer’, and the Harvesters sang ‘To the ends of the earth’ about the disappearance of the Marie Celeste. Martin told us the story of the ‘Lonely Glow-worm’ (called Reg), Ron gave us a jolly number called ‘The Bells of Hell’ (including that memorable line “Death, where is thy sting-a-ling-a-ling?”), Peter Mason sang the excellent ‘Wings’, Double Up were ‘Friends like these’, Des was ‘Down among the dead men’, I sang Bruce Springstein’s ‘Work Song’ and Barbara played ‘Dark Island’ on her shiny new accordion.
The raffle raised £39 for the Oncology Ward at Birmingham Children’s Hospital. The next session, on July 7th, will be hosted by Ian and the theme is ‘Light’. As usual, we’ll be in the Garden Room of the Shakespeare, at 8:30pm.
Peter McDonald
The Theme for May 5th was days, weeks, months and years - was there some significance that it was 050505? Steve had decided not to perform as he was still searching for E7 so Maureen and Janny opened the evening with a Threlfall Sisters' arrangement of Searching for Lambs. The theme forced Pete Mason to learn January Man, a tune he had been promising to learn for many years. Barbara played the guitar and we joined in the chorus of Glad to See a Man like Thee. Danansooz harmonised on the Whitby Maid followed by the Bonny Light Horseman. Ron resurrected a song from the 60's with The Day we went to Rothsay-o - we knew it was the sixties when we saw his book was entitled "The sing-song book for Drinkers and Thinkers" and had cost 5 shillings, he followed this with a cynical election day song "Tony the Phoneyo". Pete Bones was reminded by Dan that his fly his was undone with amusing cries from the audience of "erection day.. it fell out on a May Day…" other comments have been censored. Having recovered himself, Pete sang a sea fearing song from the village of Trunch about the Losing of the Whale. How we ever found out it had been lost is a mystery as there were no survivors after the boat had capsized whilst searching for the whale in the first place. He followed this with a Lennon and McCartney song, something about being breathalysed yesterday. Pete Grassby commented on the passing away of Cyril Tawney and played a sombre number, Monday Morning.
The second half commenced with Maureen and Janny singing a Silly Sisters version of Seven Days in the Week accompanied by Peter and Margaret - wonderful stuff! Des gave us Captain Ward and the Rainbow and Brian played his fiddle with exceptional confidence. Linda, equally confident, belted out Hal an Tow followed by Bushes and Briars. "Hot foot, I bring news from Warwick" spouted Martin when he told us of a non-smoking venue opening in Warwick. He gave us a Les Barker number and then an oblique number about a Vicar and a Frog. Peter McDonald announced "It's Thursday so it must be Harbury" as he had just returned from his sojourn half way around the world. We were all emotionally drained at the end of his song about the Empty Room at the Top of the Stairs, we all cheered up as he followed this with an amusing ditty about growing old (from what we can remember). Sue and Ian closed the second half with Moth to a Flame
During the final half, Des had us all joining in with a very rousing chorus of Babylon has Fallen. The raffle raised £30 for TOFS - a charity for babies born unable to swallow as they have no oesophagus. The theme for next month is "The Meaning of Life"
Steve & Maureen Darby
The theme for the 245th Harbury Folk Club was Planets, which proved to be quite a challenge, but as usual many of the artistes managed to fit the theme into their songs or introduction. In the first half we had songs about stars, The Southern Cross, Jupiter, Venus and the Sun.
The second half was a little more contrived but we did hear some great songs including the Bundling Song and Rick's song about environmental disasters. Debbie made her debut with a poem she had written called The Ocean and Jim visited us from Bodmin Folk Club and sang a splendid version of The Foggy Dew. The second half closed with a new duo called Boozansooz!
By the third half the theme had almost disappeared apart from Braunston Pickle's Speed the Plough, but who cares when we were entertained by 16 different performers and we all had a good sing and plenty of laughs.
The raffle made £40 for Macmillan Nurses. It's Maureen & Steve's turn to run the next Folk Club and the theme is 'Days, Weeks, Months, Years'.
A big thank you to The Shakespeare for opening specially for us.
Sue Hartland
“Surreal” is perhaps the most succinct way of describing the meeting of the folk club that took place on March 3rd.
Owing to my amnesia, I did not decide on a theme for the evening in time to publish it at the previous meeting. I therefore decided to select the theme after the evening in the light of the material performed. This inspired doing several things in reverse order, for example starting with the third half and ending with the first, and performers starting songs with thanks and ending with an introduction. However a suggestion to present the raffle prize before selling the tickets was not implemented as it was thought it may be a little unfair and unworkable.
In addition to the abundance of humour there was a wonderful variety of music performed to a very high standard. There were 12 different performers during the evening, which is not quite as many as in previous months, so it was easier to let everyone have at least one spot. This led to the atmosphere being pleasantly relaxed. One of my favourite spots was a rendition by Mike Jones, a regular attendee of the Folk Club, but he rarely performs. He did his own version of the well known song by Flanders and Swan, “It was on a Monday Morning”, but in keeping with theme of the evening, he performed it in reverse order!
At the end of the evening I decided that theme had been “Industrial and Military Past while Travelling to and within Ireland and the Antipodes via Seaways and Canals before getting lost in Bushes and Briars while getting Totally Confused and Coming Home Backwards to Cleethorpes” (*). Many thanks to all who contributed to this theme and making it yet another memorable event.
The raffle raised a total of £41.00 and this was donated to Comic Relief. Many thanks to those who contributed.
Don’t forget the next folk club will be on the first Thursday April 7th when Sue Hartland will be leading the evening and the theme will be “Planets”. As usual it will start at 8:30pm and be in the Garden Room of the Shakespeare.
Peter Bones
It was my third stint as Harbury's MC, and prompts me to make some observations about the audience at Harbury. I still feel extraordinarily nervous when I do this MC thing, though found this last time felt easier. In part, though, it's because the club has such a generous and good mannered audience who will from the start of the evening join in choruses and have some good natured fun. It's always been a pleasure to perform at Harbury for this reason and I applaud the audience. The theme for the evening was "Out of Season". It was, of course, easy for The Harvesters to be out of season, as it was for Summer who performed with Jane. In fact with contributions from Rick on his dulcimer it was quite a first spasm of dulcimer music. We also had contributions from Linda and John, Three Men in a Boat, Martin and Sue Harris and Pete and Liz as well as myself in this spasm.
The first spasm was followed in time honoured fashion by the second spasm with The Band of Folk opening and followed by Jilly Kemp, Ron, Pete Mason, The Harvesters, and Brian. The third spasm followed on from the second and, following tradition, opened with the raffle. The raffle was this month on behalf of "Amnesty International" and raised a more than respectable £54. I am trying to wean Harbury off its wine for raffle prizes fixation so had brought as one of the prizes some excellent real ales in bottles as well as a double CD given to me at Xmas, but which I discovered I already had a copy of. The discerning folk of Harbury clearly knew a thing or two about music as this was the first prize claimed even though Pete Bones lamented the fact that on this anthology none of the Bones family figured. This is of course a lamentable omission that must at some point be rectified with a future similar release.
The third spasm offered an opportunity to reprise some of the acts seen previously with The Harvesters, Three Men in a Boat, Ron and The Band of Folk. The evening finished with The Band of Folk being led by Ron in their own rendition of "Nutting Girl". For the most part everyone seemed to have found something to link to the theme, Pete Mason and myself finding links to WW2 and The Cold War!
For further information on the activities of Amnesty International there is
a web site and this is the
link:
http://www.amnesty.org.uk/
Des Patalong
It was Twelfth Night, 6th day of the 1st month of 2005 and Folk Club number 242. So, what better theme could we have chosen but “numbers”? The back room of The Shakespeare beckoned the faithful and the seats were quickly filled. The Harvesters opened the night with a song which required the audience to count backwards from 20 in odd numbers and then in even numbers, and at some speed too. The “Two Magicians” required less counting but was equally suitable for warming up an audience. Martin Day, celebrating a birthday of unrevealed proportions, gave us a superb song about events at the beginning of the 20th Century, culminating in the famous Great War song “Tipperary”. A Les Barker poem “Chronology” followed, which shifted time in a spectacularly confusing fashion. Peter Mason gave us the beautiful song “Kilkelly, Ireland” charting a series of letters from an Irish father to his emigrant son. Then we were “Following the Herring Home”. Not easy in Harbury. Rick seemed to be in a ‘size’ mode as he gave us “Little Jimmy Brown”, followed by “Still Growing”, but both expertly executed. Ron closed the first ‘half’ with his “Good Companions” and an almost feminist version of the “Two Magicians”, by request.
The second half was opened by the Folk Club choir, whose highly successful concert in December had raised over £400 for Harbury Church and Leamington Christian Mission. The first, a west gallery carol called “Newton’s or St Paul’s” cleverly uses the words of “Hark The Herald Angels” and is a great sing. The more secular “Holly and the Ivy” completed a fine set. Peter McDonald was next up, or rather stayed on the stage to present “The Circle Game” and “The Shores of Old Blighty”. Des was next with the “Trunch Wassail” and then the “Boar’s Head Carol” to prove that although Christmas may have been over, Wassailing was still very much current. With all of the singers present having performed one spot, it was time to go around again and Rick presented us to the “German Musicianer”, while birthday-boy Martin was joined by wife Val for “Unison In Harmony”, a fine song well delivered. Peter Mason completed the half with an unaccompanied rendition of “John Barleycorn”.
After another well-deserved break, the third ‘half’ began with The Harvesters going “One Step Forward” Mike then agreed to recite a song lyric as a powerful poem, choosing Ian Campbell’s “Old Man’s Tale”. Then Ron returned to perform the seasonal “Stoneleigh Mummers-all”, and was followed by Peter McDonald who played two fine tunes from his excellent repertoire of self-penned music. Des returned to give us a sea shanty and was followed by the Folk Club Choir with the west gallery carol “Lonsdale”, a belting song (I know we’re probably wearing that joke a bit thin, but bear with us) with which to round off another great evening of song and music. The departing audience were treated to a tune from Lynne, Peter Mc and me and a host of percussionists, normally used for the dance “Three Around Three”.
The raffle, which was to raise money for the victims of the Asian tsunami disaster, made a total of £60.
Ian Hartland