After a busy couple of days helping my daughter move had lovely evening of music at the Four Chesnuts. No guest tonight, so a good old singaround, chalky was M.C. and we had afew newcomers…a melodeon player, Lester, a lovely unaccompanied singer Jan fro petersfield and Nigel, new to the area, but will certainly come again bringing his instruments next time.
I sang The Grey Cockerel and the Unquiet Grave and they both went down well.
Another good night in good company.
I spent a relaxing evening on Sunday in the company of the local folk club. There weren’t many of us, so we went round the group several times and shared our music.
I sang: King Jame’s Version
The Ploughboy
The Farmer’s Boy
Bay of Biscay
Stow Brow
Springhill Mining Disaster
Well, I went to this gathering with mixed feelings, because I wasn’t really sure how it was going to work out. There had been a lot of changes to the programme and I ended up with a slot in the evening. however I was there for nearly the whole day and helped out on the door, which was fine. It also enabled me to take in the Titchfield talk by Paul Hawkins and Bob Askew’s really interesting profile of George Gardiner, the not so well known folk song collector.
There were also good performances from Jeff Henry, Gwillam Jones, Tangle, Pete Watkinson, Steve Jordan and the Askew Sisters. We’d all taken on the task of learning new songs from the Gardiner collection, and all of us had found it a very difficult, but rewarding process. Some interspersed their sets with other material and everyone enjoyed the day.
I had a particularly enjoyable set comprising of songs collected by Gardiner, but some with a different twist to them.
I sang: the Drowned Lover
Bushes and Briars
The Cruel Ship’s Carpenter
Sheepcrook and Blackdog
The Blacksmith
The Unquiet Grave
Blackberry Fold
Wow! what a buzz that was…to do so many songs to a very appreciative audience. I so enjoyed myself. I received a lot of positive feedback: Steve Jordan has invited me to do a spot at his club in the New Year, the organisers of St. Dennys club invited me down, as did Trevor and Jane from the Fo’c's’le and the Gosport King’s Head club. Bob Askew and the Askew sisters all said how much they enjoyed the set, so I came away feeling on top of the world.
I’ve decided to bite the bullet and go to the recording studio…watch this space!!!
Last Wednesday, I joined Ken and Mave from Chichester for a trip to the Ashurst club. I wasn’t really sure what to expect, but we had a really great evening of harmonies and choruses. I think it’s a different idea, which went down well. I have never really learned any chorus songs, so that was a challenge for a start, but I managed The Ploughboy and that was well received. Then I surprised myself and joined in with many of the other songs that were offered. It certainly won’t be my last visit there. I’ll have to look out some new material and practise harmonising, but all good experience!
Another lovely evening at the Chichester folk club. Sue and Malcolm had to try to get round the large circle with the theme Moments in History. Most of us took this to mean war stories, or related items, but the poignancy of the evening was the actual date 9/11: an event that no-one took up for their rendition. There were poems, readings and songs on a variety of aspects in history and Malcolm related some interesting historical facts.
I sang the Springhill Mining Disaster and Brave Wolfe, so managed to keep with the theme without being totally war dominated.
I’m going to try a “new to me” club tomorrow evening, so I’ll keep you posted.
headed down to catch some different folk music…not so traditional as I normally listen to….met up with friends and we all took in the Friday night concert.Black friday…a really enjoyable evening of drinking and dancing!!
The rest of the weekend we moved from pub to pub taking in the varieties of music that were on offer. Two notable bands were Fallen Apples and Armitage Skanks, not my usual listening material, but great bands both. I did an opn mic spot, singing Bay of Biscay, Diego’s Bold Shore and 10,000 miles and really enjoyed it. On Sunday we heard various groups playing in the park: Bag of Rats, Dragonsfly and then Jackie Oates and Ron Trueman Border. They were all very entertaining and the rain held off right till the end. A thoroughly enjoyable weekend all round.
Tuesday evening and back to the Four Chesnuts with the fantastic Askew Sisters guesting. They performed 2 great sets and everyone really enjoyed them. Only the chance of one song each from the audience tonight, so I did The Ploughboy, one I had learned from the singing of the Watersons.
Thursday evening saw a departure from the norm, when I went to the Half Brick pub in Worthing to see Hamish Currie doing a gig. We all had a good night and I cheekily snuck in a couple of old favourites: The Bay of Biscay and Diego’s Bold Shore.
Just returned from a lovely evening at the Regnum Club in Chichester where we had a very easy singaround. A great time was had by all. I sang Lord Gregory and The Grey Cockerel.
A great day was had by all…or if they didn’t enjoy it, it was their own fault…..I’m talking about Towersey on Monday and what a great line up it was too…there was so much going on you had to pick and choose. So for me it was mainly centred around the concert stage and the bar!
Token Women were a great ensemble that really entertained the crowds…fiddles, drums, spoons, saxaphone, tuba, trombone…probably forgotten something…..then the afternoon concert featured Lau and Parallelogram….I’d particularly gone to see Kris Drever and Lau and wasn’t disappointed with either, but not totally sure about Parallelogram….some tunes were excellent others quite iffy…..
So by the time of the evening performance, after a few beers…Kris Drever went down very well..he is an excellent guitarist and singer and I would recommend him to anybody. To add to the entertainment, there was a funny set by the New Rope String Band…definite lunatics, followed by the Battlefield Band with some stirring renderings.
A flurry into the Dance Tent and the Demon Barbers…..say no more…complete lunatics and loads of people in fancy dress…wish I could have stayed longer…
So, a short week this week, saw Jane and I as m.c.s at Chichester last night. We had great fun at the packed out club and I sang Stow Brow, a stirring traditional song which went down well. We finished the evening with a rendering of The Tree in the Wood for everyone to join in and participate with objects- trees, limbs, branches,leaves etc. a good time was had by all.
Well, I’ve sorely neglected my blogs! Been quite busy, but no excuses.I’ve spent the last couple of Tuesday evenings at the Four Chesnuts, where Pete Watkinson did an interesting mainly traditional session. I sang Sheepcrook and Blackdog. the second Tuesday was a singaround and there seemed to be an underlying theme of a sexual nature!!! It was all good fun. Ray recited a Jake Thackray song called Isabel Makes Love..try and read it sometime. I found it most amusing. I sang Where Are You Tonight and A Sailor’s Life.
The weekend of 17th-20th was spent up in Grays, Essex with friends while my two daughters went to the V festival in Chelmsford. We all had a great time, culminating in a visit to the Sail Loft Folk Club on Sunday evening. It was a really busy evening, but I managed a couple of songs: Where Are You Tonight and The Swallow Song. One of our friend’s 13 year old son, Sam played a tremendous guitar solo. Wow, he was good.
Tonight I have been to the Regnum, where we had an easy laid back session. I sang Follow the Heron and Sheepcrook and Blackdog.
Off to Towersey for the day on Monday…so looking forward to that.
Thought I’d make a trip to The Willows this week to hear Rattle on the Stove Pipe….a great trio who play and sing a mix of Appalachian and traditional songs. There was a really good turn out and I enjoyed the evening. As I won’t be at the Regnum for a couple of weeks had a look in on Friday night. Again a good turn out and everyone in fine form. I sang The Blacksmith and the Swallow Song.
So, since the Cuba experience, things have been quite busy. Last night I was back at the Four Chesnuts in Chichester for a theme night…Around the World in 80 Songs. It was a great evening with loads of people there and we managed to feature 73 countries, not bad going. I sang a Norwegian song Vem Kan Segla, a beautiful love song and another old favourite Diego’s Bold Shore. Both went down well, but the highlight for me was Alison and Marilyn singing the Luton Airport song, can’t remember the song title,but great fun!
Last week I managed the Chichester club on Tuesday where I sang Bay of Biscay and Ship in Distress, after a request from Chalky, then on Friday paid a visit to the Regnum Club, where I sang A Sailor’s Life and Bay of Biscay and finally had a great day at the Wickham festival on Sunday. The weather was fantastic and so was a lot of the music: notably Boo Hewerdine, Quimantu, Hazel O’Connor and Eliza Carthy and the Ratcatchers.
I would like to be able to take in a lot of the summer festivals, but not sure which I would enjoy most and how to fit them all in. So we’ll see.
