Last updated: 23 Feb 2012
| December 2011 | 'Seasonal Offerings' | Des | 325 |
| November 2011 | 'Gunpowder, Treason, Season and Plot' | Ted | 324 |
| October 2011 | 'America' | Ian | 323 |
| September 2011 | 'Town and Country' | Steve & Maureen | 322 |
| August 2011 | 'The Famous and the Infamous' | Pete B | 321 |
| July 2011 | 'Sun, Moon & Stars' | Peter | 320 |
| June 2011 | 'Home, Sweet Home' | Sue | 319 |
| May 2011 | 'Fun & Frivolity' | Doug & Janny | 318 |
| April 2011 | 'Songs of the Sea' | Des & Debbie | 317 |
| March 2011 | 'Food & Drink' | Ted & Sue | 316 |
| February 2011 | No theme | Ian | 315 |
| January 2011 | 'Songs for Friends' | Steve & Maureen | 314 |
Bereft of Debbie for the evening, it also falls to me to report on proceedings (unlikely to be as entertaining though the evening was very entertaining). To begin with, I changed my hat for a fetching seasonal variety and later offered my kangaroo hat to Peter while he was singing his Australian Christmas song, but he declined.
We started the evening with an offering from Thrup’nny Bits (a small group of singers unhindered by instrumentation other than an anglo-concertina used as pitch pipes which I may now have time to learn to play) who also ended the first of the three sessions as well as finishing the evening. I’ll list contributions at the end of this report, but to mention that Pete Mason offered “Streets of London” towards the end of the first session and Thrup’nny Bits “Time to Remember the Poor”, both of which echoed the theme of the charity. Others contributors for this part where Rik, John, Richard, Peter and Margaret, and Pete Mason.
I never quite know which configuration of Harbury groups may turn up on any particular night but the second half kicked off with the Harbury Folk Club Choir. Ted and Sue continued to claim the stage following this and then Gareth offered a monologue. This was followed by The Harvesters and Keith Donnelly and the second session was completed by and invasion of Grasshoppers (a motley crew headed up by Pete Grassby).
Debbie had arrived in the intervening period so I asked her to pull the tickets for the raffle which was all very satisfactory. She was dressed, as was I, in fetching seasonal red. We then had Terry to open this final third and he was followed by Karen and Ewan on flute and whistle respectively. Harriet, Tina and David then offered a couple followed by Pete Bones who only wished to offer one but the juxtaposition of “The Ivy and the Holly” closely followed by Thrup’nny Bits closing the evening with “The Holly and the Ivy” was very droll.
It was a busy evening with the usually high standard of entertainment. Here’s the list of the items I noted (a total of fifteen acts with 29 contributions):
Thrup’nny Bits: Shepherds Arise, Time to
Remember the Poor, The Holly and the Ivy
Rik: Who Knows Where the Time Goes, A monologue about a Christmas cake
John: They don’t write them like that, a version of Christ was Born in Bethlehem
Richard: Thirty Foot Trailer, plus one I didn’t catch the title of.
Peter and Margaret: Tall Ships, Christmas in Australia
Pete Mason: Winter Song, Streets of London
Folk Club Choir: Arise Arise Ye Mortals All, Hereburgh Carol
Gareth: Christmas Day in the Workhouse
The Harvesters: Just a Closer Walk with Thee, Wagon Wheel
Keith Donnelly: Winter Lady, A Christmas Present
The Grasshoppers: Mr Trill’s Song, The Higgler
Terry: Hush-a-by Lou, Boys of Risley Town
Karen and Ewan: Tunes
Harriet, Tina and David: School Days are Over, Ding Dong Merrily on High
Pete Bones: The Ivy and the Holly
I must report on the raffle. The evening’s theme was “Seasonal Offerings” so I chose the Salvation Army as our charity. Steve Darby agreed to be Debbie’s stand in for the evening and sold the tickets for me. The raffle raised £100. This was a tremendously generous response for which I thank all of those who attended. I had said that if the raffle topped £90 I would make this up to £100 and in that spirit have made the amount up to £110. Here is a link to the website:
http://www.salvationarmy.org.uk
Des Patalong
A full house was treated to a sparkling evening of songs and tunes on the theme of ‘Gunpowder, Treason, Season and Plot’. Your scribe started proceedings with ‘Monks March’ and ‘The Eynsham March Past’, and was followed onto the stage by Stuart, whose songs reminded us of the Christmas truces on the Western Front during the Great War, and Mary’s very effective and unusual method of picking cherries. Richard followed, singing ‘Mary Hamilton’ and a Mike O’Connor song with a surprise whistled solo in the middle. Rik then related the tale of the VTOL turkey, followed somewhat appropriately by ‘The Wild Goose’, the song of a wandering man. Pete Mason gave us ‘In the Early Morning Rain’ and the Dave Goulder classic ‘January Man’. Terry sang the New Zealand song ‘Sam’s Off to Otago’, and one must mention his amazing moves. Janny and Maureen finished off the first half with ‘Hamlet’ and ‘Allen Water’ in their own inimitable style.
The second spasm began with Pete and Liz singing ‘High Germany’ and ‘Tim Maguire’, a song concerning a trainee arsonist. Des took over and delighted your scribe by quoting the words of the theme almost in their entirety in his first song, ‘Come a Cob o’ Coaling’. He followed with the Eric Bogle classic ‘Waltzing Matilda’, and was brilliantly accompanied by Margaret on her new instrument, the fizzy water bottle. Ian and Sue gave us ‘The Thistle and the Rose’, a love song structured by the seasons, and ‘Bring Out the Old Songs’. Pete McDonald sang the Joni Mitchell favourite ‘Circle Game’, and a song of the travelling people, ‘My Wagon Keeps on Rolling’. John Rowan went north with ‘Geordie’s Lost his Penker’, and the gentle remembrance that is ‘Ladies go Dancing at Whitsun’, with an extra verse which he said helped close the circle. To end the first half, your scribe was joined by his old partners in crime Jem Patterson and Phil Ferrar (The Somervilles) to sing Woody Guthrie’s ‘Billy the Kid’ and the spiritual ‘Hallelujah, I’m Ready’, which sparked a deal of chorus singing from a well-prepared audience.
The legendary third half began with Guy, Morris and Thompson, the latest Harbury super-group. They produced a gorgeous version of ‘The White Cockade’, and we expect great things in future. Pete Mason came back to give us a song using an Australian soldier’s diatribe on the futility of war. To finish the evening, Des sang ‘Roll Alabama Roll’ and Peter McDonald followed with ‘Four Strong Winds’, both songs benefitting from more hearty chorus singing.
We made £65 on the raffle which as we speak is on its way to MND, the Motor Neurone Association. Next month’s compere will be Des, ably assisted by Steve Darby as a short term replacement for Debbie, and the theme will be ‘Seasonal Offerings’.
Ted Crum
The October meeting of Harbury Folk Club (number 323, if you’re counting) took “America” as its theme. The hope had been to inspire performers to search from Alaska to Tierra Del Fuego for their inspiration. Most seemed happy to limit themselves to the 50 States of the USA, and so any hope of a Mariachi Band appearing faded soon after the start.
The evening kicked off with The Harvesters performing “Willie Moore”, with my guitar deciding to join Sue’s banjo in making do with five strings. The floor was given over to Des, who had no such problems with strings as he sings a cappella. Fine renditions of the Bee Gees’ “New York Mining Disaster 1942” and a popular shanty got the crowd singing in appreciation. Janny and Maureen were on next and gave us “The Flame” by Beth Nielsen-Chapman and the popular Old Time song “I’ll Fly Away” with Sue providing some rhythmic Appalachian Flatfooting.
Peter Mason came up next and sang the excellent “Dry Season Land” and “Slip Jigs and Reels”. A new partnership of Mike Jerome and me, both on guitars, performed Steve Goodman’s “City of New Orleans” and the traditional “House Of The Rising Sun”. Pete Grassby was persuaded to perform next and gave us Scott Mackenzie’s lovely “What’s The Difference?” and “The Indian Lass”, made famous by Nic Jones. The first half was expertly closed by Ted and Sue with two American tunes, “Turkey In The Straw / Bill Cheatham” on melodeon and ukulele, followed by that great old sing-along “Salty Dog”.
After the break, Sue and me completed our interrupted set from the first half with “Someday Soon”. Next to take the stage were Sue and I, Ruth Guy and Sue Crum, temporarily known as Part-Of-The-Harbury-Ukulele-Group, or POTHUG for short! The quartet performed “New York Girls” and “Five Feet Two” to enthusiastic acclaim. Newcomer to Harbury Folk Club, John Rowan was next with a fine song about immigrants arriving in America at Ellis Island. He followed this with Woody Guthrie’s excellent song about deportees and a plane crash. Richard took to the floor and sang Tom Paxton’s “Nothing But Time” and followed this with a Stan Graham song, called “Across The Sea”. Pete W., another new face to Harbury, played and sang “Truck Drivin’ Man” on his banjo, and added “Cripple Creek”. Although normally played as an instrumental, Pete introduced us to the simple and fun lyrics that can be sung to it. Another debut performance followed from Terry with a song called “Caledonia”, this one being about a mine in Nova Scotia, and then sang the delightful “Prairie Lullaby” with expressive gestures. Norman Wheatley, always a popular singer at the club, gave the audience the second Tom Paxton song of the evening, “Can’t Help But Wonder Where I’m Bound”. His version of James Taylor’s “Carolina On My Mind” was accompanied by some skilful guitar playing. To close the second half, Harriet, Tina and David played the instrumental “Violet Tulloch, Queen of Lerwick” and then Harriet sang the lovely “Starting All Over Again”, showcasing her fine voice and the trio’s accompaniment skills.
The third half was kicked off by Des, performing the atmospheric shanty “Shallow Brown”. Peter Mason with the tear-jerking “Kilkelly, Ireland” followed him. John Rowan returned to the front of house with the rousing “This Land Is Your Land”, and was followed by Pete W, playing “Handsome Molly”. Ted gave us the superb Flanders and Swann number, “Misalliance” about two plants falling in love, and the evening was brought to a rousing climax by Pete Grassby playing two instrumentals on the melodeon, and inviting Sue to flat-foot to the second, the lively “Patchwork Polka”.
The memorable evening had effortlessly fulfilled the brief of the ‘America’ theme and the raffle made an impressive £64.00 for the British Heart Foundation. Some nights are truly impressive and the only way to find out which those are is to come along on the first Thursday of any month to The Dog Inn, where you’ll receive a warm welcome and an evening of first-class music and entertainment.
Ian Hartland
The theme for evening number 322 was “Town and Country” and Steve was worried that the evening was going to be very rural as there was plenty of space in the room for a few more performers. However, as it turned out, the evening was yet another wonderful event packed full of superb performances from all who took to the stage. It had been some 83 months since Steve and Maureen first hosted a folk club (number 239) and there was enough room in Steve’s notebook to record a further 5 or 6 folk evenings. So, with 8 months between each host’s event, there would be another possible 4 years’ worth of folk clubs before the book was full – Peter McDonald frighteningly said he would be nearly 70 years of age by then…a scary thought. It was also noted that Pete and Liz Bones were not present and, by coincidence, they were also not present at number 239 (see above). There were to be yet more strange coincidences between Folk Club numbers 239 and 322!
The first half began with Maureen and Janny singing “The Village Green Appreciation Society ”, as made famous by the Kinks, which was followed by “Whitby Maid”. Mike and Debbie performed a “smorgasbord of gems” (as Debbie described it), “Scarlet Ribbons” and “Dancing at Whitsun”, a song originating from WW1 when there were not enough males to dance so the women danced amongst themselves. Debbie and Mike are relatively new to performing at Folk Club but continue to grow in confidence with each performance. Rik sang a song he learnt from his daughter some 25 years ago about a woman who had moved from the countryside to live in London but wanted to return. He followed this with a similarly themed song about a lady who moved to a seaside town where seagulls could fly away if they didn’t like it but people couldn’t. Pete Mason gave us two songs about the toil of country life, one about the hard life of working in the Outback and the other about having to resort to the crime of poaching to make ends meet. The first half closed with three numbers from the excellent vocal trio “Thrup’nny Bit”. The first song had its origins in the Granges, which were outer lying farms that became strong Union areas with the song itself a Union song about having a good time. This was followed by a tilt at Dick Van Dyke by singing in a Cockney accent “Down Below”, which was all about working in the dark in St James’s Park and finally they sang “Gossip John” who was a very decent chap. Thrup’nny Bit don’t perform in Harbury very often and it was coincidental that at number 239 their forerunner group Ninepenny Marl had performed.
Maureen and Janny commenced the second half with the Silly Sisters version of “What will we do if we have no Money?”. Peter McDonald, despite his hatred for blood sports, was able pluck up the courage to sing “Innocent Hare”, a hunting song where the quarry is able to escape. He followed this with a Bing Lyle number about the drudgery of life, “Painting the Town”. Debbie then delighted us with her poetry based upon the true-life experience of losing her mobile phone down the Ambulance Station toilet; having recovered it, she returned it to the “techies” with her poem. She then vented her spleen with “The Rioter” which she based upon her anger towards the people involved in the recent riots. The youthful Harriet Guy on violin and Tina on accordion played an Aly Bain tune, “Sophie’s Lullaby”, then they were joined by David with his double bass – the three instruments together sounded wonderful and we were entertained with “Waiting for the Federals” – we hope they return! It was yet another coincidence that Harriet had made a rare appearance at club number 239 when she had performed with Ruth (her mum) at what must have been the tender age of 14. Sue and Ted Crum spend most of the summer frolicking at Festivals and so sang a song about a Milk Maid who frolicked a lot in the summer months. This was followed by Ted who sang “The Husband Man and Servant Man”, a song about a farmer and servant relationship. Sue and Ian closed the second half by firstly passing on best wishes from ex Folk Club stalwart Tony Baylis who they recently met in Norfolk and then sang “The Country Set” (OK yah!) and “Scarlet Town”.
The third half saw more great performances from Thrupp’ny Bit, Peter Mason, Sue and Ian, Harriet, Tina and David with Des closing what had been a lovely evening’s entertainment with a rousing chorus which the audience all joined in with.
The raffle was very well supported with donations of home made jams from Janny and raised £72 which will be sent to a project in Malawi where the Folk Club have already provide a goat to a family as well as funds to repair the village water pump so crops could be watered to produce food to feed the villagers. A big thanks from Steve and Maureen for everyone’s generosity.
Next month’s Folk Club will be led by Ian with the theme “America”.
Steve & Maureen Darby
With it being the height of the holiday season, and with it clashing with Sidmouth Folk Festival, it was not surprising that the meeting of the August Folk club was a bit thin on the ground. In fact there were only twenty people present and included only 6 regular performers. This is less than half the number we often have.
However, an advantage of having a small number of artists to fit in is that we can take our time and relax. On reflection, I think this must have been one of the most stress-free folk clubs I have ever hosted.
The theme for the evening was “The Famous and Infamous”, and we started with a scratch band playing the well known morris tune “Princess Royal”. This was followed by Liz and me, Keith Donnelly, Debbie Ellis, Peter McDonald, Ian and Sue Hartland and Des Patalong all doing one or two songs to make it a rather longer than usual first half. As that was the full complement of artists present, in the second half, all six did another one or two songs, augmented by Mike doing his humorous account of an insurance claim following an unfortunate accident on a building site.
After the second break, the not-so-usual combination of Janny, Peter and Margaret McDonald and Ian Hartland played the tune “The Wounded Hussar”. This was followed by an informal music session by all those wishing to take part.
What was lacking in quantity was more than made up for with quality as the standard of music and general entertainment was excellent. I particularly enjoyed the items provided by our two megastars of Warwick Folk Festival, i.e. Keith Donnelly and his singing of his own song “I saw Jesus at the Airport”, and Debbie Ellis with her self penned poetry, some of which was very much of an adult nature (but hilariously funny!). For a full list of who sang what, please see below.
The raffle raised £40 for the East African Famine Appeal which, considering the small number of those present, was a good result. Many thanks to those who bought tickets. Thanks also to all those who took part and helped make the evening such a pleasant experience, and also to Wayne and the staff of the Dog Inn for again making us so welcome.
The meeting in September would have taken place by the time you read this, so the next meeting will be on October 6th. As usual, it will be in the restaurant of the Dog Inn and start at 8:00pm.
Who Did What
First Half
Scratch Band: Princess Royal
Pete & Liz: Aunt Clara
Keith Donnelly: Assorted jokes and a song or two (I think???)
Debbie: Love, Mobility Morris
Peter McDonald: Lord Franklin Parody (Les Barker), Appalachian Front Porch Game
Des Patalong: General Taylor, Captain Noah and the Rainbow
The Harvesters: Good King Arthur and the Lancashire Lads, The Lily of the West
Second Half
Scratch Band: Jack Robinson
Pete & Liz: Beards and Sandals
Keith Donnelly: I Saw Jesus at the Airport
Debbie: Limericks, Carnival Queen Song
Mike: Building Site Disaster
Peter McDonald: Captain Swing, Play it all Again
Des Patalong: March of the Women, John Barleycorn
The Harvesters: The Stranger
Third Half
Janny, Ian, Peter, Margaret: The Wounded Hussar
Session
Peter Bones
At the 320th session of Harbury Folk Club on July 7th, the theme was ‘Sun, Moon and Stars’. As I studied my notes from the evening, I couldn’t see many songs which were an obvious fit for the theme but many performers (including yours truly) are happy if just one of the keywords makes any sort of appearance in a song.
I started the evening with ‘Once in a very blue moon’, a song I sing only very occasionally, then Pete & Jess Mason did a thorough job with the theme, singing ‘Blue Skies’ and ‘Planets’ (the Kate Rusby song, not the suite by Gustav Holst). Rik did likewise with ‘Skylark’ (a song requiring considerably more than three chords on the guitar) followed by the very educational ‘Galaxy Song’. Ted & Sue brought the first half to a close with ‘John O’ Dreams’ and ‘The Poacher’s Fate’ – I’m sure the theme got a mention in there somewhere.
Pete Grassby got the second half off to a promising start with ‘Everyone’s gone to the moon’ followed by something completely different – a very catchy mazurka played on the melodeon. Des felt a bit uneasy singing Keith Donnelly’s song ‘Heave away, Harry’ while the composer was in the room so, for his second, he chose one of his own greatest hits, ‘Deep Blue Sea’, with the customary hearty chorus singing from the audience. The Harvesters sang one of their greatest hits (in my humble opinion), ‘Dance of the Harvest Moon’, followed by ‘I don’t believe you met my baby’. Then it was time for the aforementioned Keith to take to the stage with a couple of sensitive songs, including ‘The Meaning of Life’. To finish off the second half, the Harbury Folk Club Choir squeezed in three songs which all included one or more of the theme words – ‘Early One Morning’, ‘After the Goldrush’ and ‘Unison in Harmony’.
Starting the third half, Band of Folk (missing their leader, Janny) played two medleys of tunes, including ‘Man in the Moon’ and ‘Morning Star’. Pete Bones was persuaded to deliver his John Conolly monologue, ‘Albert goes to Cleethorpes’, and was followed by Band And Ragged Folk (Tina, Rosie and David) playing a delightful tune ‘Granton Fishbowl’. To my shame, I couldn’t resist finishing the evening by going back to the piano and singing a cheesy arrangement of ‘Moon River’. I’m sure the audience never doubted my sincerity!
The raffle raised a splendid £60 to be split equally between Ovacome (a support organisation for people affected by ovarian cancer) and Cancer Research UK. The next meeting of the Folk Club will be on August 4th, starting at 8pm in the Dog Inn, hosted by Pete Bones.
Peter McDonald
The theme for Folk Club Number 319 was Home Sweet Home. Ian & Sue opened with “Who will watch the Home Place” and “ No Place like Home”. Rik followed up with an Australian song called “Cock of the North” and a Billy Joel song. Pete Bones sang “Welcome Home” and Liz joined him for “Rosebuds in June” (cos it’s June), Stuart gave us a version of “Gypsy Davey” and then “Rhondda Grey”. Richard closed the first half with “We lived over yonder banks over there” and “When the snows of Winter fall”.
Peter Mason started the second half with “Across the Hills of Home” and “Who knows where the time goes”, Maureen and Janny sang a beautiful version of the Simon & Garfunkel song “Homeward Bound” and then they were joined by Margaret for the best performance of the night, a Shetland cradle song which I can’t spell.
Debs gave us a couple of her poems, “The Journey” and “Under the Radar – part 2 – The Meeting”, Peter McDonald sang my favourite song, “Home for me is anywhere you are”, and then he was joined by his glamorous assistant, Margaret, for “Pasadena” to which we all contributed. Ted and Sue finished the second half with 2 instrumentals and “Coming Home to me”.
Ian & Sue kicked off the third half with “Spencer the Rover”. Then, with some gentle persuasion, Maureen and Janny sang “The Whitby Maid”, Ted & Sue sang “Our Captain cried all Hands”, Stuart gave us “If wishes were fishes”, Peter Mason contributed and then Pete Grassby, who had just arrived, closed the evening with “The Cottager’s reply” and two Irish Set Dance tunes.
I’m sorry if this is a bit jumbled but I was very jet lagged!
The raffle raised £34 for Cancer Research; I will be running the 5k Race For Life later in June. Peter McDonald will be hosting the July Folk Club when the theme will be 'Sun, Moon and Stars'. Be there or be square!
Sue Hartland
The theme for the Harbury Folk Club number 318 was “‘Fun and Frivolity”. The room was soon full of performers and audience, and we had 16 acts ready to entertain us with funny and frivolous folk.
It can be a challenge deciding who to schedule in which of the “three” halves, but we had our running order in place as Janny and Maureen started the evening. We had a fine and varied first half with other performances from Martin, Pete Mason, Ted & Sue, Stuart, Rik, Ian & Sue. As expected, some of the performers had fun being frivolous with the theme, and a couple of acts more than tested the decency boundaries of before the nine clock watershed. They will of course remain nameless, but Rik and Ian & Sue know who they are.
The second half started with the massed ensemble of the Harbury Folk Club choir. They were followed by some first time visitors from the Black Country, who performed under the name of “Billy & Lozz” and they treated us to some fine Black Country musical stories. One of the duo, Brian Dakin, is a research associate from Aston University working on a “Black Country and Birmingham” dialect project. He had come along to record Ian and Sue, and to ask members of the audience to complete a questionnaire on his project. The second half fun was filled with excellent and varied contributions from Des, BARF (Janny, Rosie, Tina, David), Norman and Peter McDonald.
The raffle was held at the end of the second half. Apart from the obligatory bottle of wine, there was the treat of some Dutch “stroopwafels”, to celebrate the liberation of The Netherlands on the 5th of May 1945. The raffle raised £60 towards the cost of our daughter’s August trip to Uganda, when she is on a working holiday with the Teams4U charity she works for, and they are building a school for disadvantaged children including AIDS orphans.
I would like to thank those performers who patiently waited until the third half before taking to the stage. Those who had left missed a truly mesmerising performance by Four Play (Celia, Pete B, Peter McD, Ted), when they became a single 8 armed and 4 melodeon creation. Celia was severely disadvantaged by her height, but I am sure she enjoyed a good squeeze. Pete Grassby had to follow this extravaganza, which he did with great aplomb. Finally Pete Bones reluctantly agreed to finish the evening. He gave a truly unforgettable and tuneful rendition of that Kipper Family great “The Wild Mounting Time”.
A great evening and thanks to all the performers, audience, the pub landlord and staff. Sue Hartland will host the next Folk Club on Thursday 2nd June when the theme will be “Home, Sweet Home”.
Doug & Janny
Ooh arr me hearties! What a fantastic Folk Club (number 317)
we all had, sailing the world’s seas and oceans on board the ship Dog Inn.
Tonight’s theme was Songs of the Seas but nobody was forced to walk the plank
due to stretching the theme or in fact, ignoring it completely.
Roger the cabin boy (aka Debs) began the voyage with some choice facts about the
sea and the oceans to get the crew ready for the trip ahead of us. Then, as we
began to leave port, Captain Des sang us a song he’d been much taken with after
hearing the Reverend Kenneth Loveless sing it many years ago, “General Taylor”.
Maureen and Janny (wearing a t-shirt with another day, another bay written on
it) then brought us an Artisan song “I’ll Sail No More” and for their second,
“April Morning”, a song Maureen dedicated to Celia, Margaret and Peter.
Next up was Rik who apparently had been overwhelmed with the choice of maritime
songs that he could offer us. He told us a story where, as a lad, he could go to
a field in Dagenham (where he was born) and you could see big ships sailing
through the middle of it. This was because the Thames River navigated through
it. So with this Rik sang “London River”. For his second, he sang the Rod Felton
song “The Mermaid”. Andrew Patrick, our on-board linguist or polyglot, sang two
songs in foreign tongues. His first song was in Russian, about life being helped
along by singing a cheerful song, and the next in German, which had a catchy
chorus line of vida-vida-vit-boom-boom!! This song featured Christopher Columbus
and the King of Spain, showing us that time at school can be well spent!
Peter and Liz Bones brought us a European sub-theme and sang about the Ladies of
Spain (they decided not to sing the chorus!) and a song by William Delf, a
fisherman in Grimsby circa 1889. This song, “Three Score and Ten”, was about
boats and lives lost at sea.
The second leg of our ocean crossing was begun by Debs who presented two
self-penned poems – firstly, “Baptism of Fire” secondly, “The Ocean”. Des sang
“Steam Packet” and Ted and Sue Crum sang “My Body Lies Over the Ocean” followed
by Ted singing “Come All Your Gallant Sailor Lads”, a song about going by boat
and then deciding that the train was better!
Peter Mason brought along his daughter, Jess They entertained us with a Steve
Knightley song, “Man of War”, and a song by Johnny Flynn called “Barnacled
Song”. Jess played both her mandolin and ukulele with confidence. Don Thompson
from Brackley Folk came along and sang a song by Richard Wadkins called “Ellen
Vannin”. This song was about a boat that sank in view of the harbour of
Liverpool Bay. The boat belonging to the Isle of Man Company and sank in the
Irish Sea. His next offering was a song called “Johnny Bowline” and this too was
set in Liverpool.
The Harvesters sang “My Johnny is a Shoemaker” about going to sea. Their second
song, a self-penned one, called “To the Ends of the Earth” was about surviving a
sea quake. Bank of Folk took over the stage area. Whilst they were settling in
Janny sang a quick song in French about little boats. Then we were entertained
with the tunes “Westering Home” and “The South Wind”. This was an excellent end
to the second half.
The third half was opened by Ren who boarded us on the final leg of our cruise,
she sang a Steeleye Span song called “Drowning at Sea” and her second song was
all about a boat lost at sea. Peter McDonald sang a Barry Dransfield Song called
“I Once Was a Phisherman” sorry I mean a Fisherman! This had a chorus line of
“they won’t let us go to sea anymore”. His second was a Sid Kipper song about
hairdressing ships called “Combing the Spanish Main”. His chorus had a hey and a
ho and a wash and go!
Richard, who was here for our 300th, sang a song by Bill Meek from Grimsby and
it was about his father that had a gentle sea theme to it. His second was a song
by Stan Graham (who does workshops in France) and this was called “Across the
Sea”. Ted and Peter sang a John Connolly song about the last of the deep sea
librarians. They also sang the song “Fiddlers Green”. As we were sailing into
port after our epic sailing adventure, Des finished off the evening with a sea
shanty called “The Farewell Shanty”.
The raffle raised £55 for the RNLI.
www.rnli.org.uk
The next folk club will be held on May 5th and it will be run by Janny and Doug,
the theme being Fun and Frivolity!!
Des & Debbie
The theme for the 316th Harbury Folk Club was “Food and Drink”, and your hosts began proceedings with The Farmer’s Toast. We were closely followed by Rik Middleton who sang two unaccompanied songs (The Greasy Cook and one concerning an Australian sheep shearer with a mighty thirst who destroyed his own shirt tail). Pete Mason followed this with The Devonshire Keeper and a Canadian farming song, Field Behind the Plough. Maureen and Janny emphasised their bi-national credentials with a song which began with fervent tea-drinking (English) followed immediately by a passionate anthem to coffee (Dutch). Their second song was an epic of double entendre from our next poet laureate, Les Barker, called My Husband’s Got No Porridge in Him…………ahem! Ian and Sue brought us Graham Nash’s Teach your Children Well and the teasing conversation that is Boots of Spanish Leather. Next up was Debbie, who had written a piece especially for us called Mirror Mirror. She reflected on the tyranny of body image, and drew wild applause for a funny and perceptive observation.
Our old friend Des had brought his excellent friends out to play with him. He, Gareth and Barbara are collectively known as Threepenny Bit, and they used their first piece, a round called Hey Ho, Nobody at Home to get the audience singing very successfully in three sections. Their rendition of Dem Bones ended the first half.
We Crums began the second half with Ann Lister’s Dragon Song. Pete and Liz Bones gave us their English original of Waltzing Matilda called Walking a Bulldog, and followed this with Les Barker’s BSA, describing a strange disease which appeared in the nineties.
Pete Grassby introduced us to a technique he called nurdled guitar. Very effective too when applied to Down Where the Drunkards Roll, reminding your scribe of music from the Penguin Café Orchestra. He followed this with a song from his beloved New Zealand, Tambanui. Rik returned to sing John Barleycorn, and Pete Mason gave us Old Bones, before Peter McDonald stepped up to finish the half with Hard Cheese of Old England and Sid Kipper’s masterpiece Jam Tomorrow.
Your humble scribe began the legendary third half with the Flanders and Swann number Have Some Madeira, My Dear. Ian and Sue followed with The Stranger, an Australian song with pineapples, and Maureen and Janny sang a song so clearly moving that I must have cried so much I forgot to write down its name! Sorry ladies. Peter McDonald sang Feed the Children, followed by Des who sang a Keith Donnelly shanty. Pete Grassby administered the coup de grace with his version of Scarborough Fair, and we all retired happily to cocoa and bed.
The raffle raised a very satisfying £59 which is winging its way to the Motor Neurone Association.
Ted & Sue Crum
The 315th edition of the Harbury Folk Club proved to be a busy and entertaining evening, with new faces and world premieres. Well, one of the latter at any rate. No theme had been set for the night in order to encourage performers to take any liberty they wanted.
It being also Chinese New Year on the night, The Harvesters celebrated the Year of the Rabbit with an Arkansas tune called “Little Rabbit”, which gave Sue and opportunity to display her Appalachian Flatfooting talents. She also demonstrated her skill on concertina with Ian’s singing of “East Virginia”. Janny and Maureen followed with “Bushes And Briars” and an excellent Artisan song called “Snakes And Ladders”. Rick sang “The Captain’s Apprentice” to a Vaughan Williams tune and followed with a splendid Eric Idle song from his Monty Python days. Debbie and Mike sang and played John Lennon’s, “Imagine” and The Beatles’ “Let It Be” with so much feeling that you could hear the proverbial pin drop. Peter Mc was next to the front with a solo duet; he played concertina to a recording of his own piano playing and gave us a lovely version of Phil Cunningham’s “Golden Memories”. He followed this with Dougie MacLean’s “Singing Land”. The first half was brought to a confident end by the Band of Folk, who could equally have been called the Band of Bellows. I counted three accordions, two melodeons and a concertina. Or were there two? Anyway, they played “Horseshoe Harbour” and “Taking Steps”, the latter written by Peter Mc.
The second half was beaten in by Ted and Sue with “The Female Drummer Boy”. Ted than gave us a solo version of the W.B. Yeats poem and song “The Golden Apples Of The Sun”. Brenda Hart came to the front next and sang Cyril Tawney’s popular “Sally Free And Easy”. Her next sing “Incredibly Foolish”, about a girl who should have known better, went down a treat. Peter Mason described a “Circle Around The Sun”, and followed it with "The Sitting" about emigration. Des was summoned next and performed “We’ll All Go A-Hunting Today”, which he was keen to point out was because it was a good song, and certainly not because of any fondness for blood sport. His rendition of the traditional shanty “Essequibo River” elicited some fine harmonies from the audience. Newcomer Sheila followed with a fine version of Jez Lowe’s “Nearer To Nettles” and then gave us “Dying Of Thirst”, by American singer Kathy Mattea. The second half was brought to a fine conclusion by Pete and Liz. Their first song, “Landlord Fill The Flowing Bowl” was a sentiment we all happily echoed. Their second was Robert Burns’ “Green Grow The Rashes-O”, always popular with the Harbury audience.
The third half was started by The Harvesters with Iris Dement’s “Let The Mystery Be”. Peter Mc played the “Coffee Pot Song” on his banjolele and was followed by Brenda with a gory Music Hall song about Sweeney Todd The Barber. Des sensed a possible cannibalism theme and followed with “Ilkley Moor Bah Tat”. Peter Mason added some “Idle Time” and Sheila assured us that “Flowers Never Bend With The Rainfall”, a Paul Simon song. Ted told us about “The Old Triangle” and sang with some relish about wanting to be amongst the women prisoners. And so it was time for our World Premiere. Keith Donnelly has travelled to many places with his singing and playing and Australia had provided him with a fine souvenir. His playing of the Didgeridoo was accomplished and mesmerising. We were pleased to have been the first to hear him. He finished the evening with a new song, urging us “Side To Side, Up And Down, Back and Forward and Around and Around”. That should go down very well on the Festival scene this summer.
And so we all applauded all of the excellent singers and performers who had entertained us so well during the evening and stepped out into the night to return home. But not before generously putting £50.00 into the evening’s raffle, in aid of the British Heart Foundation, for which I am running in the Adidas Half Marathon at Silverstone on Sunday March 6th. Any other donations will be gratefully received.
The next Folk Club is on Thursday 2nd March and will probably have gone by the time you read this, which will be a pity because you’ll have missed Ted and Sue running the night with a theme of “Food And Drink”. You can always come along on Thursday April 7th….
Ian Hartland
The official theme for the evening was “Songs for Friends”, however, Steve reminded us that as it was Twelfth Night it was still Christmas and explained the theme as being “for Friends, with Friends, Absent Friends or anything to do with Friendship”. He thanked the audience for their friendship and fellowship over the Christmas and New Year period – this seemed to set a very friendly and warming atmosphere for what turned into a wonderful evening’s entertainment.
Maureen and Janny started proceedings with “Two Little Boys”, a song made famous by the everlasting Rolf Harris and at the end of the tune Maureen made her debut on the Kazoo. Rik followed with a song based upon an A E Houseman poem about one friend speaking to another who was from beyond the grave and then sang a Bill Caddick number “You see we were always here”. Next came Pete and Liz – Pete had nearly lost his voice but managed to tell us a joke from his new joke book (could this become a tradition) and they entertained us with a music hall number followed by “Just watch the Ivy on the old garden wall”.
Peter McDonald played two self-penned tunes, which he had written for friends. The first was in celebration of Doug Freeman’s 50th birthday called “1,2,3, Fudge” and the second was for the Dean of Portsmouth Cathedral entitled “Minuet for a MellowDean” (get it - MellowDean / Melodeon). These tunes were followed by the Carole King song “You’ve Got a Friend” which transported many of us back to our teen years. We then had a surprise debut from Will who had cycled from Leamington on a bitterly cold night, borrowed Pete Bones’s guitar and sung and played a wonderful Flaming Lips number followed by a Nora Jones tune. The first half closed with a set from Band of Friends with late arrival Celia sprinting into the room to join them with her melodeon and they proceeded to play “Rosie’s Rant” and “Marche Nuptiale”.
The second half commenced with Maureen and Janny making us all smile and laugh with Les Barker’s version of Abba’s “Dancing Queen” – just substitute Dancing Queen with Morris Team and you can imagine the rest. Pete Mason was next up and played and sang a delightful “Slip Jigs and Reels” followed by Stan Rogers “Pharisee”. Will was invited back to sing again and he performed a self penned number called “Mornings” which reminded him of a time of day he and a friend always enjoyed. He then played Jackson C. Frank’s “To Sing is a State of Mind”. Sue and Ted sang “Our King” and Ted played tunes written for his visiting friends David and Judy, “Noble’s Nautical Knots” and “Jettison Judy’s Jolly Jaunt”. Des beautifully sang “Will You Walk with me” and then gave a rousing chorus of “John Kanaka-naka”. The second half closed with the Folk Club Choir performing the songs, which they had sung at the Church Christmas eve family service, “Hark, Hark, What News” and “Rolling Downwards”.
Sue and Ian opened the third half with “Winter Draws on” – with “Draws” referring to some form of underwear. They followed this with the reassuring and comfortable number “There’s no Place like Home”. Keith reminded us that friends help you move house but real friends help you move bodies. In memory of Gerry Rafferty he sang “Mary Skeffington” and then in keeping with the theme “Friends like you”. Double Up had reformed for the evening to make a welcome return and sang “Hard Times” and very fittingly “Friends Like These”. The evening drew to a close with Maureen leading the audience with “Auld Lang Syne”. It had been a great evening of bonhomie full of warmth and friendship!
The raffle made a superb £65 for the "Friends of Chernobyl's Children", www.focc.org.uk/ , which will be doubled by the generosity of Bibby Group PLC to £130.
Steve & Maureen