Last updated: 02 Jan 2011
| December 2008 | 'Seasonal songs, stories & silliness' | Steve & Maureen | 289 |
| November 2008 | 'Dreams & Fantasies' | Sue | 288 |
| October 2008 | 'Heroes & Villains' | Peter M | 287 |
| September 2008 | 'Thinking outside the box' | Des & Debbie | 286 |
| August 2008 | 'Relaxation' | Doug & Janny | 285 |
| July 2008 | 'The Great Outdoors' | Ian | 284 |
| June 2008 | 'Meetings & Partings' | Ted & Sue | 283 |
| May 2008 | 'May I have the pleasure?' | Pete B | 282 |
| April 2008 | 'Elements' | Steve & Maureen | 281 |
| March 2008 | 'Pub names' | Sue | 280 |
| February 2008 | 'Health & Happiness' | Peter M | 279 |
| January 2008 | 'Names' | Des & Debbie | 278 |
Described by one of the ‘old timers’ as a vintage folk evening, number 289 had the theme of Seasonal Songs, Stories and Silliness…although there was a suggestion it should have been Coughs, Sneezes and Headaches!
Maureen and Janny opened the evening by taking us back to the Harbury winter of 1991 when there was heavy snow and many of us enjoyed the hospitality of the McDonalds by candlelight, hence they sang Artisan’s “Power Cut”. They were followed by who was possibly the youngest ever performer at Folk Club when Connie and her father Bob played “Cripple Creek” during which Ian and Sue Hartland did some rhythmic step dancing and then Connie played and sang her party piece, ”Go tell Aunt Rhody”.
Barbara had travelled down from Leicester in her camper van and sang the traditional carol “Mary’s Boy Child”. She then had us all in stitches with “Uncle Joe’s Mint Balls”, definitely very silly! Hot on the theme of silliness came Rik with “Christmas Day in the Trenches”, when there was no Christmas Pud for Sam but he saved the day when said Pud brought down the walls of the enemy’s stronghold. He then gave us a Government Health Warning about over enthusiastic chefs whose cooking resulted in turkeys shooting out of the oven.
Ron told us it was the centenary of Bert Lloyd, an Australian who was interested in workers songs. We heard the scary story of a sheep station with a reputation for employing ‘Bull men’ who cursed and whipped … was the English ‘Bull man’ real or was he a ghost?
Pete Mason gave us “Winter Song” followed by a Steve Knightley number about getting through winter, “I promise you”. The first half was closed by Jenny and Summer who sang a cheery little number based upon a poem by Robert Frost about death called “Far Away” and finished with “Dance On”.
During the first interval, we all savoured Sue Crum’s wonderful mince pies - a big thank you Sue, we all enjoyed them!
The second half began with the Folk Club Choir singing, “Masters in this Hall” and “Pentonville”, they were followed by Des who sang about the Christmas pudding hunt and the “Cherry Tree Carol”. Sue and Ian took us back to their early ‘70’s vinyl years by singing “The Stranger” and “Calico Printers Clerk”.
Peter McDonald mixed tradition with silliness by playing 3 carols, “We three Kings”, “In Dulce Jubilo” and “On Christmas Night” and then donned his fly-swatting, corks-on-strings, bush hat to give a rendition of “Christmas In Australia” – an enthusiastic audience loudly joined in with the chorus!
Sue and Ted played and sang “The Holly and the Ivy” and followed this with “While Shepherds” to the tune of “Ilkla Moor Baht 'at”, which we all sang along to. Next up was the “Clapper Family” (alias Doug, Pete and Steve) who last performed and shook Celia’s bells on 6th December 1990. They sang a very silly “Hark, Hark the Bells” and told everyone to call the Police next time the Morris Men make too much noise with their bells.
The second half was well and truly finished off by Pete Grassby who enthralled and enthused us with the monotony of “The Enigma of the Southwold Tide” and then he surprised everyone with his scratch band who ‘slayed’ us with a truly awful version of “Merry Christmas Everyone”. Still, it was in keeping with the theme of silliness!!
A short third half commenced with Janny and Maureen’s wonderful harmonies on “Sleigh rider in the sky”, they were really good!! Pete Bones maintained a Welsh accent throughout his rendition of “Underwood’s Milk”, Sue and Ian were still reminiscing with another song from their vinyl years and the evening was brought to a close with a traditional shanty from Des that we all joined in with. It really had been a vintage Christmas Folk Club evening!
The raffle raised £33 for Leamington Christian Mission and the theme for next month is “Dance” with the host being Pete Bones.
Steve and Maureen Darby
Dreams & Fantasies was the theme for the 288th Harbury Folk Club night. As usual there was an enthusiastic bunch of performers and an audience to match!
The Harvesters opened the evening with “Dreaming America” and then Ian sang “Adieu Sweet Lovely Nancy”. Stuart followed with “Liverpool Lullaby” and “Dirty Old Town”. Summer & Jenny performed “King of the Fairies” and a French Canadian Song with Jenny foot tappin’, singing and playing! Peter Mason kept strictly to the theme with 2 songs about dreaming and Rick closed the first half with “Dreaming Again” and the superb “Angie Baby”.
The second half started with Ted & Sue “Killing Dragons” and then Ted playing 2 tunes, “Panerge” and “Matt’s 48” written by their son who is far too talented for his own good! Next to perform was Alan Foster, a visitor from Australia, (that’s a long way to travel to visit the club) who entertained us with “Dream On” and an amusing tale of “How Granny Died”. Peter McDonald followed with the alternative version of “Lord Franklin” and then had us all joining in with an Everly Brothers medley of “Crying in the Rain” and “Dream”. Keith then sang about dreams and his love of chocolate! The Harbury Choir closed with “O Makunde” a beautiful song with made up words meaning nothing at all!
We had a short third half with Des singing a lullaby and the “The Band played
Waltzing Matilda”. Debbie had the audience singing “Moon River” with her and Ted
playing harmonica. She then recited one of her excellent poems entitled “The
Play”
Alan returned to entertain us with “The Cockroach in a Folk Club” (we learnt
what happens in Australian Folk Clubs!). Ron finished the evening with a Medley
and “Jaberwocky”.
The raffle raised £39.50 which is being added to Sue & Ian’s sponsor money to Cancer Research following their completion of the Great South Run.
Next month we will all meet again to contribute to the theme of “Seasonal songs, stories and silliness”.
Sue Hartland
At the 287th session of the Folk Club on October 2nd, the theme was ‘Heroes and Villains’ and our performers used their imagination well to feature several of each in music and song.
I started with “Captain Swing”, a working man’s hero (and farmer’s villain) from the Agricultural Revolution, and I was followed by mother-and-daughter, Summer and Jenny, cleverly duetting on fiddles with the song “Sorry the day I was married” (guess the villain). Next up was the smooth tones of Stuart and the excellent song “Sam Hall” about an infamous thief and chimney sweep (but more of a rogue than a villain) who has hanged in 1707 at Tyburn. An occasional visitor from Warwick Folk Club, Sue Harris, introduced us to Richard Stilgoe’s sad (but amusing) heroine in “Joyce the librarian” while Pete & Liz revived their delicious song about “Aunt Clara” with her enviable life-style.
In the second half, Des exposed that dastardly villain, the “Man who waters the workers’ beer” and Peter Mason sang Pete Coe’s song about “Joseph Baker”, a long-distance runner from Cheshire. Ron turned to the world of Victorian melodrama for his villain, the vile fiend who caused Betty to protest “No, no, a thousand times, no!” in the show of the same name, but Rik’s characters in “The Three Rogues” were rather more harmless. The Harvesters guaranteed themselves a good fit for the theme but writing a new song, “Hero or Villain”. That’s the way to do it.
That left Keith Donnelly to take over the stage for a shorter-than-usual third half – with a typically zany mixture of jokes, stories and the odd song, including “Bonzo, the dog-faced boy”. Keith clearly enjoys his visits to our Club and the feeling is mutual.
The raffle raised £37 for Cancer Research UK. The next session of Harbury Folk Club on November 6th will be run by Sue and the theme is ‘Dreams and Fantasies’.
Peter McDonald
When I arrived at the Shakespeare Inn, it was just before eight o’clock and I walked into absolute bedlam. There was talent from wall to wall and it spilled out into the pub. In fact I was completely overwhelmed by the sheer amount of talent in front of me that both Des and I had to make the emergency contingency of beginning proceedings ten minutes early so that we could allow everyone to perform.
The theme this month was “Thinking outside the Box” and, to begin the first half of our 286th Folk Club, Des set to with two beautiful instrumentations of “Give it a Whirl” and a “girlie” number. Summer had spent a considerable amount of time gluing her ukulele but to no avail. Her back-up instrument came “out of a box” and she played “Sunday Driver” and then with Jim sang the song with the easiest chorus “Why I am painting the living room?”. Jenny played two wonderful fiddle pieces and then Summer joined her with “Dawn Chorus” and the “Maid of Galway”. Rik played a tune in which Eileen was spinning and played a lamentable Scottish bagpipe tune on his guitar. Maureen and Janny sang the “Thoughts Stay Free” and “Silly Old Fool”, a tune by Artisan. Pete Mason brought along his daughter Jess to her first folk evening at Harbury and she played very well. Danansooz followed. Sooz admitted that they were “rubbish at keeping to the theme” but offered two extremely fabulous tunes to a very happy crowd. To close this half, and for their second outing, the MD’s (Mike and DebZ) performed “Let it be” and “Love me Tender”.
‘Seven Crooning Wildlife Photographers on a Weekend Away in a Pony and Trap’ (all of whom took part in the Singing Safari at Warwick Folk Festival) sang “Haere Mai”, a Maori welcoming song, “Shenandoah” and “Ladum Izulu”, a Zulu song. Peter McDonald was going to play his saxophone but instead settled for an “ornament” (an Appalachian dulcimer) that he last played at the folk club 22 years ago. He also played the same song as then, “Hard on Your Heels”, and his double bluff of the evening was “Caledonia” by Dougie MacLean. Then the Crums and Bones’ appeared as the QPAP (QP Aged Parents) with a reworded Ovaltine song. Pete Grassby began with an impersonation of an ape and whilst he delivered his songs, he posed for photographs taken by Des. Keith Donnelly was simply awesome. His performance reduced Debs to tears. Then along came the Harvesters who performed “O Mio Babbino” and then delivered a superb display of beat box and Appalachian footwork. To complete the rather packed second half came the Folk Club Choir with “Myfanwy”.
The third half was opened by BoneHart who twinned Yorkshire and French influences. Ron began by telling the audience that “if you get it right first time… quit whilst you’re ahead”. He also sang “Messing About on the River” to the musical accompaniment of a bucket of water and small plunger. Stuart looked rather fetching wearing his hat of flowers with “Claude Monet” on it. He sang a favourite of John’s even though he did not like it himself. Peter McD held the music and Stuart finished with Scaffold’s “Lily the Pink”. To end the evening, Tony sang two rather smashing tunes.
During this action packed evening we managed to have a raffle and raised £61 for Amnesty International. For further information about Amnesty International, see: http://www.amnesty.org.uk/
On October 2nd, we meet again with the theme being “Heroes and Villains” with Peter McDonald.
Des & Debbie
For some of Des' photos of the evening, see http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/Dessinger/HarburySep08
The theme of “Relaxation” was chosen for Harbury Folk Club number 285, as the month of August is normally a quiet month for the Folk Club when a number of the regulars are away relaxing at summer folk festivals. We decided to have a change of format for the evening, with the performance order selected by the draw of a playing card, and each act asked to play one number rather than the usual two.
There were nine acts, and the evening started with those Nine of Diamonds Janny and Maureen. They were followed by Des (AC), Pete Mason (2D), Pat & John (3D), Ron (3H), Summer (9C), Rik (8S), Peter McD (8H), Ian & Sue (6D). Their contributions covered: credit, death, song, birds, cider, fairs, waltzing, grannies, and ladies. It was great to welcome Pat & John to the Shakespeare for the first time; a number of us know them from Royal Oak Morris. A not so relaxed Peter McD had to cope with the tension of not knowing when he was on. It was the first time the club had ever managed to get all artists on the “stage” in the first half.
The second half order was again chosen by the draw of the cards; 9C, 2D, 3H, AC, 9D, 3D, 8S, 8H, 6D. It was spooky that 8H and 6D also finished the first half, and did nothing to help Peter McD relax. Song topics included; lethargy, idle, death, dogs, cupid, stalker, birds, bbq, and leaning. The high spot for us was the very relaxing Albatross by Rik on guitar.
The third half was down to 8 acts, as 8S had to leave for his return journey to Coventry. The playing order was: 2D, 9D, 3D, 9C, 8H, 3H, AC, 6D. Various sub themes were now emerging involving drink, music, dance, animals, and love. The final contributions covered; drinking, homeward, hills, music, forest, milkman, and lambs. The Band of Folk filled the vacant ninth spot, and ended the evening with a relaxing Tea tune. Twenty seven spots in all, and we were finished by 10.45pm, very relaxing.
The charity for the evening was Harbury Senior Citizens, and the £29 raised will be given to their Christmas Party organising committee. Next month Debbie & Des host the evening on Thursday 4th September, and the theme is “Thinking outside the box”.
Doug & Janny
"The Great Outdoors" was the theme for the July Folk Club, and a large number of performers turned up to share their energy and talents with a room full to bursting. In fact, the weather was so good that there was no small temptation to take the entire club outside to the rear garden of The Shakespeare and truly embrace the theme. Earlier than usual, and in a bid to squeeze in all of the singers and musicians in the time allowed, The Harvesters sang of a Red Rocking Chair from North Carolina, and an English Meadow. From England, obviously. Peter Mason followed with Man Of War and the Sandy Denny classic: Who Knows Where The Time Goes? Summer gave us Green and Gold, followed by Fields of Gold, single-handedly diverting us into an alternative theme. Rik rambled up next, with Ewan MacColl’s Manchester Rambler, and took us coast-bound with the hilarious Sunbathing. Pete and Liz, who had themselves planned to sing of English Meadows, instead performed The Thirty Foot Trailer and the Kipper Family’s Wild Mounting time. Sounded like fun, too! To close the first half, Keith Donnelly showed his mastery of patter before closing with Driving Across New Zealand, a wonderfully funny song about driving in a car with a broken horn.
The second half commenced with Harbury’s own Choir for All Seasons, singing Robert Burns’ Afton Water, and then the mischievous yet menacing Teddy Bears’ Picnic, complete with props! Peter McDonald remained on stage to play a beautiful concertina arrangement for the song Innocent Hare, and then sang the Sid Kipper song Combing the Main (mane), a song about the hairdressing ships in olden days. Debbie sang two lovely songs, Red is the Rose and Summertime, and reduced the audience to rapt silence. Stuart followed with What Colour is the Valley, and his own protest song about the Bygone Days. Ted and Sue were up next and proved that Pleasant And Delightful is just that when sung by two good voices. Ted then squeezed his way expertly through his son’s composition, The Dodgy Moorpost. Maureen and Janny maintained the theme in fine style with Searching For Lambs followed by The Maid Of Whitby. To close the second half, a debut performance at Harbury from Southam’s Triple Bypass. Their rending of Cherry Ripe, which is apparently less about fruit and more about fruitiness, was excellent and they then gave us a stirring performance of Coope, Boyes and Simpson’s song Bringing In The Sheaves.
After another brief break for refreshment, Ron opened the final half (third?) with his own song The Winter Rambler, followed by the Manchester Climber, an amusing alternative version of the Manchester Rambler. Pete Grassby followed with From The North and then his clever song about the deceased, and much-travelled, Brock the Badger. Des gave us the popular Nutting Girl and shantyed us along Esiquibo River. It’s in Venezuela, if you need to know. To close the evening, the prodigious talents of Will Pound on melodeon and harmonica were enough to bring the house down. His sets of Morris tunes were engagingly arranged and expertly performed.
So, another great night at Harbury Folk Club, and the raffle raised a healthy £35.00 for the NSPCC, for whom I will have run a Half-Marathon by the time you read this. Next month, 7 August, Doug and Janny will preside over the proceedings, and the theme will be “Relaxation”. And, by way of advance warning, on September 4 the club will be jointly run by Des and Debbie, when the theme will be “Thinking Outside The Box”. This is an opportunity for performers to step outside their comfort zones and try a different instrument, a new musical style, joining with another performer for the first time or anything else that might be new or challenging. We look forward to seeing you there.
Ian Hartland
The theme was “Meetings and Partings”, and all our singers managed to stay within the guidelines, even Ron who is well known for his lateral thinking skills!
Sue began the proceedings with Bold Riley, and the Harbury Chorus Engine fired up straight away with some super harmony stuff in the chorus.
Maureen and Janny then gave us a fine rendition of Kate Rusby’s “When the cold wind blows”, followed by “Horncastle Fair”, which they told us was one of the first songs they ever learned together.
Barbara, a former regular at the club, was next on piano accordion. She broke her journey home to unleash a veritable wall of sound, singing “Fiddlers Green” and following with an instrumental version of The Seekers’ “The Carnival is Over”.
Rik Middleton sang “Hard Love”, following this with a neat little ditty concerning meetings of a carnal nature between a lodger, his landlady and her daughters (Rik says he will pass on the address of the B&B for the price of a pint)
Pete Mason then sang Mick Ryan’s “The Leaving Time”, and followed with his version of “All used Up” from the John Wright Band.
We then welcomed a new-comer to the club. Peter Scott let fly with a version of “Arthur McBride” and followed with one of the sooty collier/coal-owner’s naughty wife songs, the chorus “Down, down, down derry down” delighting the harmony addicts in the audience.
Ian and Sue finished the first half with “Scarlet Town” (nice song not much heard nowadays), and their own song “Parting of the Ways” which they wrote as a second encore number (now there’s confidence for you!)
Your scribe kicked off the second half with a song from Flanders and Swann, titled “Misalliance”, concerning the relationship between a bindweed and a honeysuckle.
Summer then produced “Now I’ll never see you again”, then gave us “The Green Fields of America”. She then produced the line of the evening by admitting that her G string had parted, and left the stage to roars of approval and offers of support from all sides.
Pete McDonald sang “The Shores of Old Blighty” and Jez Lowe’s great “Big Meeting Day” concerning the 1871 Durham Miners' Gala.
Ron then produced one of his unique insights into life as lived in Coventry with an Arthur McBride style punch-up on a Saturday night to the tune of “The Captain’s Log”. He then followed with a rollicking rendition of “Goodbye” from The White Horse Inn, that famous traditional folk pub.
Debbie then sang “Once I had a Sweetheart” and gave us her poem “No Matter” about meeting upon meeting but never the right meeting.
Keith came roaring in with “Running with Scissors” and then caused the normally sophisticated Harbury audience to regress promptly to childhood with his “Little Alien Flying Saucer.
Des brought the second half to a close in his usual resounding manner with “Hey Jolly Broom Man” and the parting song “Deep blue Sea”
The raffle raised £46.00 and the proceeds have gone to the Motor Neurone charity. Celia, Pete Mason and Janny all walked away with fabulous prizes, and then as a special treat, we wheeled Grandad McDonald up to the front to perform his party piece (bless!!) He finished the evening with Tom Paxton’s “Leaving London” and the company retired, honour satisfied, to home and bed.
Don’t forget, next month’s theme is The Great Outdoors, and the date will be July 3rd.
Ted & Sue
Many of the regulars of Harbury Folk Club were up at 5:00am on the morning of May 1st to take part in or watch the dawn dance at Chesterton Windmill. This was to celebrate the start of the traditional Morris dancing season. I was therefore expecting the folk club later that day to be a somewhat subdued and sleepy event. I was wrong.
Because of the date, I chose “May I have the Pleasure” as a theme, and the Band of Folk opened the evening very aptly with a rendition of the tunes “Sweets of May” and “Pleasures of the Town”.
The evening continued with a wonderful selection of music and songs presented by 13 different performers. Subjects included the month of May, “may” as in request, and several on pleasure, some of which were a little dubious in content! For a complete list of who sang what, see below.
Throughout the evening everyone seemed to be on form and there were many particularly memorable items. Among these was a beautiful song written specially for the occasion and performed by the Harvesters entitled “May I have the Pleasure”, and Rik Middleton’s song about May 1st being the start of certain al fresco pursuits of an amorous nature, further details of which cannot be divulged for reasons of censorship!
Many thanks to all who took part and the audience, all of whom kept awake despite sleep deprivation, and provided a good atmosphere. Thanks also to those who contributed to the raffle which raised £36.00 for Christian Aid.
Who Did What
Band of Folk: “Sweets of May”, “Pleasures of the Town”
Pete and Liz: “Isle of Eigg”
One Night Stand: “As I walked out One May Morning”, “Sovay Sovay”
Peter McDonald: “Laundro Loverette”, “Prickle Eye Bush”
Stuart: “Oh You are a Mucky Kid”, “In the Station in the City”
Rik Middleton: “A way hey, it’s the First of May”, “She”
Keith Donnelly: “Dog Dialogue”, “I fell in Love with Voldemort”
Folk Club Choir: “Linden Lea”, “Now is the Month of Maying”
The Harvesters: “May I Have the Pleasure”, "May Song"
Martin Day: “Music of Time”, “In Praise of Wine”
Ron Shuttleworth: “Wife of a Mummer”, “Election”
Des Patalong:
Followed by informal music session
Peter Bones
The theme for the evening was “Elements” – the rain kept away and the temperature rose as the evening went on so we had to open the back doors to allow the elements in to cool us all down.
Maureen and Janny opened the evening with a Beth Nielsen Chapman number called “The Flame”. Janny held her composure and was able to complete the song without getting all emotional as the words are very moving. Ron reminded us it was an appropriate number to sing with all the hoo-ha around the impending arrival of the Olympic Flame
Summer gave us two songs about what women got up to when their sailor husbands were at sea – she would not condone their behaviour, but someone wondered if Jim was ever a sailor as Summer sang them both so well. The first song mentioned how the wife had other men on board (read into that what you will) with the wind and rain helping their return and the second song had the women twiddling their twiddler!!
Ron turned on his magic lantern and in the style of Gilbert and Sullivan gave us a rendition of the Chemical Element Table to the tune of Modern Major General. This was followed by a reminder that it was St George’s day in 3 weeks time and so we honoured him with a tale of the Knights of the Round Table and all joined in the chorus of “George is for England”.
Peter Bones described his song as a “delicate confusion” and sang Les Barker’s “The Element of Administerium” – we all associated the song’s intent with our local Council!! Liz and Peter then sang the Ralph McTell song “Weather the Storm”. Des proudly displayed his new T-shirt that had a representation of Air and Water on the front and Fire and Molten Earth on the back. Des sang the tale of the Alabama Keel which was made in Birkenhead and sank in ’64 and, to commemorate Anzac day, we then heard the sad and very moving “Waltzing Matilda” anthem. Des also made mention of his son’s 22nd birthday which lead to a discussion on birthdays later in the evening.
Sue and Ted closed the first half with “Crazy Man Michael” with Ted playing some superb harmonica and then Ted took us back to our youth and the days of radio by singing the Gas Man song, a song about the woes of poor workmanship, the division of labour and the cycle of everyday life!!
Before the second half got underway, we had to celebrate Jim’s 55th birthday and we had a debate about the number of people born 9 months after the traditional 2 week factory shut down. We discovered that April and May are the most popular months for giving birth and we learnt that Sue Hartland’s parents seemed to have made the most of the “Birmingham Fortnight” as she and her brothers were all born around the same time (different years of course).
The second half began with Janny and Maureen singing a Threlfall Sisters song “the Banks of Allen Water” and then we had the surprise of the evening when Mike Jerome and Debbie made their debut. Mike is a pupil of Ian Hartland for playing the guitar and he carpeted us all with his confident playing as he supported Debbie who sang “Fields of Gold” – they must return!!. Stuart had to apologise in advance for the bad language in his song about being rained off and contented for £4 a day and he followed this with “Across the Valley and Over the Hills”.
Peter McDonald apologised for his cold before singing a poem that he had turned into a song about “AFEW”, Air, Fire, Earth and Water and followed this with Paul Metsers’ “Farewell to the Gold” which is set in New Zealand. Peter Mason then performed the “Chemical Workers song” and then gave us an English Cowboy song who took 23 shots to bring 5 men down. Sue and Ian Hartland closed the second half with “Soldiers of Fortune” and “Still Waters”, a song about what happened to old canals.
We had a short third half with Maureen and Janny singing “ ’Twas on one April morning”, Peter Bones told us the sad tale of how 3 score boys and 10 were lost from Grimsby Town, Sue and Ian gave a great rendition of “To the Ends of the Earth” to which we were all able to join in with the chorus and, as is tradition with our turn in hosting the Folk Club, we asked Des to close the evening with something we could all join in with. He didn’t let us down as he told us of how going out in the elements can kill you from exposure.
The raffle raised £45 which was donated in support Ian Hartland’s run in the London Marathon to the British Heart Foundation. (Sue Hartland didn’t win the raffle again).
Next month's Folk Club is on Thursday 1st May, hosted by Peter Bones when the theme will be “May I have the Pleasure?”.
Steve & Maureen Darby
I selected a theme for the March Folk Club that I thought most performers would be experts at – Pub Names! I was right, every artist managed to stick to the theme.
Contributions in the first half came from The Harvesters, Maureen & Janny, Stuart, Summer, who managed to mention 3 Pub names without even realising it, Des, Liz & Pete and Dan & Susie. Pubs mentioned were The Man in the Moon, The Ship, The Shakespeare, The Crown, The Swallow, The Nightly, The Railway, The Barn, The Farmer’s Arms, The Butcher’s Arms The Rainbow, The Windmill, The Dog, and finally, The Admiral Benbow beautifully performed by The Bones family.
The second half opened with Band of Folk who managed to include The Star & Garter and The Black Buoy. Danansooz followed with Dark Eyed Sailor and The Whitby Maid. Pete Grassby was next followed by Ted & Sue who did a great version of Our Captain Cried All Hands then came Rik who got us all singing with The Robin Adair. Martin finished the second half with The Kings & Queens of England, that’s a great song! Pubs mentioned were The Cottage, The Sunrise, The Craftsman, The Station, The Pilgrim, The Captain’s Table, The Poacher, Drops of Ale and General Wolfe.
We had a short third half, Ron drank the old pub dry, Debbie sang Liverpool Lullaby, Stuart followed and Martin closed the evening. Pubs mentioned were The Two Boats, The Cocked Hat, The Fitter’s Arms, The Crown and The Knotty Ash.
The raffle raised £50 which is boosting Ian’s sponsor money for The British Heart Foundation. Did you know he’s running in The London Marathon?
Next month’s theme is The Elements and the evening will be hosted by Steve & Maureen.
If you want a seat then come early, see you then.
Sue Hartland
At the 279th Folk Club on February 7th, I tried to generate a mood of optimism with the theme of ‘Health and Happiness’. The theme inspired a surprisingly large range of topics, not all of them relevant! We got off to a promising start with the room virtually full by 8:15pm and the singers list nearly at full capacity at that time.
I got the first half under way with an exhortation to the “Hard Cheese of Old England” then Summer took us back to the happy days of “Woodstock” while wearing her “Fine Felt Hat”. Stuart was in a philosophical mood with “Wishes for Fishes” while Janny and Maureen were emulating the Everly Brothers with “Bye, Bye, Love”. Rik presented a song by that well-known folk singer, Barbra Streisand, “Clear sailing from now on”, and the Harvesters concluded the first half with the most appropriate “Keep on the sunny side of life”, featuring Sue’s dazzling footwork. It struck me that the first half had been more like a variety show than a folk club!
The second half had an unpleasant start when Sue, Janny, Maureen and Celia abused me with Les Barker’s offensive song “Don’t play me your concertina”. The squeeze-box players got their own back when the Band of Folk squeezed on to the ‘stage’. We played some jolly tunes on a variety of squeezing, scraping and plucking instruments, including “Harper’s Frolic and “Bonny Kate” which sound happy enough to me. Martin was up next with an unusual song about a slogan competition, Keith (in a sombre mood) sang a contemporary shanty that he wrote for his dad and Pete & Liz invited us to “Come by the hills”.
The third half featured yet more performers who had been patiently waiting most of the evening. Ted and Sue sang about “The Fortune Teller”, Debbie read two of her own, very personal, poems and young Neal Pointon returned, after his remarkable debut last month, to play some more fiddle tunes. Des got us all singing along on “While we are together”, Peter Mason treated us to a poignant Eric Bogle song, “Rosie”, and Ron finished the evening for us, as only he can, with “I’m glad I’m a gladiator”. Smiles all round.
The raffle raised £47 and the proceeds were split between the Alzheimer’s Society and Cancer Research UK.
The next session of Harbury Folk Club on March 6th will be run by Sue and the theme is ‘Pub Names’. What a great idea!
Peter McDonald
The January club was the first time that Debbie was officially involved as MC, but her voice was such that she didn’t feel she wanted to perform and observed the proceedings to learn for the future. She did, however, do sterling work during the intervals to raise £59.10 for “The Salvation Army” and knew what number the club had got up to as well having done her homework. I’ve never been quite sure how the odd pennies arrive when the tickets are sold at a pound strip but it seems to be a feature of the sessions I’ve been involved in.
Another feature is that I’ve always tried to find a link between the charity and the theme for the evening, though how long I’m going to manage this is debatable. This evening, however, I was able to extend our knowledge of the Army by reminding the club of their tracing service and ability to act as third party mediators for people who have split from their families for whatever reason and hence the link to the theme for the night “Names”. Both the theme and the charity were chosen by Debbie who also undertook to take the collection down the local headquarters in Leamington Spa. The Salvation Army do have a website where if you are interested you can learn more.
http://www1.salvationarmy.org.uk/uki/www_uki.nsf
This evening we were joined by the exceptional talents of Summer, Rik, Sue and Ted Crum, Peter McDonald, and in the first section the audience depleted as the Harbury Folk Club Choir closed before the interval. This was the first occasion during the evening when there seemed to be fewer audience than performers.
In the second section of the evening we heard from the equally exceptional talents of The Harvesters, Will Pound, Ron, Neal Pointon and Ruth before the audience again diminished to allow The Band of Folk to take centre stage.
Now all of these performers give excellent value and tonight was no exception. However, I am constantly envious of all of our musicians having never applied myself seriously enough to have learned how to play. I’m astounded by what some of our younger talents are able to do with their instruments. In the second section of the evening Will Pound was ably supported by Ted who claimed he was terrified as he walked back to his seat for a drink, but Ted is a consummate professional who given a couple of chords to play with during the interval seemed to quite enjoy himself.
Neal Pointon is a young man who claimed his father’s SatNav got him to the club. I think his dad took him home again. However, he wowed the club with his fiddle playing and we all hope he will return to the club again school, homework and his dad’s SatNav permitting. He reprised in the third section with a duo with Will that they worked out between them during the interval and thus closed the evening together. They both also did solo spots in the third half and we heard again from Ron, Ruth and Ted, I think, but at this stage it seems I’d stopped taking notes. Neal has a YouTube site where Peter McDonald tells me there is now a video of his appearance at Harbury among many others but I’ve not seen this and don’t have the link though Peter is welcome to add this to this report [Ed.- see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-coJgL8lunM].
I know I’ve gone on about the musicians who came this evening and that is because of envy. However, I’m also envious of people with beautiful voices and it was a pleasure and tonic to introduce Ruth making one of her visits to the club. She comes to the club far too infrequently in my opinion (but her job takes her out of the area) and as I’d said at a previous themed night “Favourites”, she is certainly one of my favourites.
My thanks to Debbie for doing the work on the raffle and when she gets her voice back we’ll probably mix and match roles in the future. She can take notes then. My thanks also to all the artists who made the evening so enjoyable and maintained the theme so excellently. The theme for February is “Health and Happiness” hosted by Peter McDonald.
Des Patalong