Being Friday the 30th of March, 2012 ...

26 wonderful people turned out on a fine spring evening to make music at the City Folk Club.
Every carefully arranged chair was occupied!

The seats look a bit like this:

This chair is known as 'Ronnie': available on-line, with free delivery at £21.50 + VAT.

Paul wielded the bell-tree at 20.15 hours and 43 seconds, (precisely!) and we got on with it ...

The Week Before Easter: Paul & Colin
High Germany: Lynda
I Like to Lie in the Sun: Tony
Bold Princess Royal: Roland
I Just Want to Dance with You: Les
Eriskay Love Lilt: Elayne, Angela & Colin
Leaning on the Everlasting Arms: Jane R.
Leaves of Life: Roger
Girl with April in her Eyes: Dave
Brisk Young Butcher: Laura & Colin
A Place in Me: Greg
A Spring Song: Lorna & Laura
The Nutting Girl: Nick
I Gave my Love a Cherry: Pat
Hey Sandy: Mike
Old Rugged Cross: Nigel
Sammy's Bar: Jane W.
Bermuda Triangle Exit: Mick
Awake, Awake, You Drowsy Sleeper: Angela
Sunday Morning Coming Down: Paul
Rare Old Times: Lynda
Knee Deep: Les
Fooling Love: Elayne
My Night Turns into Day: Greg
Ohio River Boat Song: Jane R.
Adieu, Adieu: Roger
Matty Groves: Dave
The Heart is True: Colin
Rakes of Mallow: Lorna
Benjamin Bowmaneer: Laura & Colin
Mazurka (Saint-Saëns): Nick
Kumbaya: Pat
House of the Rising Sun: Mike
Imagine: Nigel
Alll My Trials: Jane W.
Kilmona Barn Dance: Mick & Mike
In the Pines: Angela & Paul

"What's a mazurka?" someone asked ...

Please remember: we won't be here next week, 6th April.

More about April ...

Now for the really Special Event …

THE CITY FOLK CLUB'S
SPRING CELEBRATION

Saturday 28^th April, 3.00 - 6.00pm.

We have booked the hall during the afternoon for an indoor 'picnic' in anticipation of May Day.

What will we do?

Eat, drink, be merry, make and enjoy music, of course!


Catering?

The club will supply a simple buffet of sandwiches and savouries.

Please bring along some of your own culinary delights to share: sweet things, cakes, puddings etc.
Such contributions will be gratefully received … and, doubtless, enthusiastically consumed by a ravenous horde of revellers!

As always, it’s a ‘bring-your-own-beverages’ affair, but the kitchen will be available for tea/coffee-making.

How much?

FREE!!!

Dress-code?

The following images are just suggestions from the May Day tradition ...

May Queen

Jack-in-the-Green

Of course, all that is entirely optional, and if you would like to bring along some flowers and greenery, Angela has generously offered to make garlands/headdresses for you to wear.

Be warned: if you are not there, the pagan gods are unlikely to bless your summer harvest!

Being Friday the 23rd of March, 2012 ...

A splendid evening during which we were entranced, enchanted and entertained by this wondrous instrument ...

 No, it's not a model boat!
It's Nick's exquisitely decorated and finely tuned lute-back hurdy-gurdy!

Hear this ...

Recorded and engineered by Beresford Greene of Bognor Road Studios.

Berry successfully confused some of us by proceeding anticlockwise around the gathering.
Of course, this is considered by some to be unlucky - even unholy:
In folklore there are tales of people being transported to Elfland after running around a church widdershins, (Childe Rowland).

However, we're not superstitious.
Thunderbolts did not descend from the celestial realm, so we just got on with it ...

Passing Through: Roger
You Look Wonderful Tonight: Nigel
Over the Lancashire Hills: Mike
Rick-Rack: Mick & Marion T.
Seashore: Mick W.
The Daisy Song: Mave
The Dancing: Marion & Mick T.
A Russian Folk Song: Mark
Little Yellow Roses: Angela
A Sheep Shearing Song: Elaine
Star of County Down: Lorna
Where Have all the Flowers Gone: Margaret
Lonely When I'm with You: Eddie
The Water is Wide: Pat
Le Ruban Bleu: Nick
Bourrée Carrée de Saint Chartier : Nick
Verdant Braes of Skreen: Colin
End of the World: Lynda & Paul
Mole in a Hole: Paul
Devil Woman: Berry
If I go Ten Thousand Miles: Angela & Paul
The Owl and the Pussycat: Roger
Booley-House Jig/The Butterfly: Mick W. & Mike
Stately as a Gallion: Mave
Sweet Thames Flow Softly: Nigel
Black is the Colour: Margaret
Morecombe Bay: Mike
Not the Tennessee Blues: Mick & Marion T.
Brown Dance: Mark
Caledonia: Elaine
Glen o' Maddy: Lorna
The Night is Young: Eddie
Dark-Eyed Sailor: Pat
Bourrée Carrée de Vouvray: Nick
Moorlough Shore: Colin
Andrew Lammie: Lynda
If I had a Hammer: Paul
From a Jack to a King: Berry

Now, shall we all bourrée?

Things You Need to Know about April ...

On Good Friday, 6^th April our meeting is cancelled because The Guide Hall will be occupied by Guides.

On Friday, 20^th April it will be another prompt-start-and-early-finish event.
Doors open at 7.30.

Being Friday the 16th of March, 2012 ...

An unusual evening, given an early start and finish …

Doors opened, as promised, at 7.30pm.

John and Sylvia, (having read the appropriate email,) turned up on-the-dot and asked, “Is nobody else here?”

Not disheartened, they assisted in setting up the room.

Thank you J & S!

By 8.00pm we had a quorum: enough people to pay the rent.

Dogsbody rang the bell shortly after that.

Then he became confused by the presence of two Sylvias, both of whom sang three different songs about ‘my old/young man’.

Anyway, here’s what he thinks might have happened …

Maggie: Max & Paul
My Young Man: Sylvia S.
Too Soon to Know: Paul
A Soft Place to Fall: Lucy
The Trees they do Grow High: Colin
For the Good Times: Lynda
Beulah Land: Angela, Roland, Paul & Colin
My Old Man, (about someone getting lost): Sylvia T.
Go to Sea Once More: John
The Passing of a Queen: Ken
The Daffodils of Farndale: Mave
Bard of Armagh: Nigel
Slieve [Gallen]* Braes: Max
Devoted to You: Paul & Lucy
When You Say Nothing At All: Lucy
Greenland Whale Fisheries: Colin
Raglan Road: Lynda
The Turkish Lady: Roland
The Ballad of Erica Levine: Angela
Banks o' Doon: Elaine
Bloody January Again: Sylvia T.
I Wish it Would Rain: Lucy, Paul & Max
Hartlepool Monkey: John
My Old Man, (about a drunkard): Sylvia S.
The Gaol of Cluain Meala: Nigel
Please Help me I'm Falling: Max, Sylvia, Paul & Lucy

To summarise ...

Quite a few failed or failing amorous relationships.
Five dead whalermen.
One seriously abused mariner.
Three close relatives who have gone to the promised land, whereby they enjoy everlasting life.
A Turkish prostitute (citation required.)
Somebody who 'dilly-dallied'!
A passing female monarch.
A ageing Irish harper.
A host of golden daffodils. (Well, a lonely one was spotted at Haslemere station this week!)
The beauties, flora and fauna of a Scottish glen.
*Here's Slieve Gallen, AKA 'Gallion', in County Londonderry:

... and so much more.
Will this exposure to life's rich kaleidoscope of experience ever end?
No, because, if we are spared, we'll all be back next week.

Some Advance News for April ...

The ‘senior’ club in Chichester, The Chichester Folk Song Club, will be celebrating its fiftieth anniversary throughout April.

That is a remarkable achievement through sometimes turbulent times, and Marilyn deserves our congratulations for thirty years of unstinting dedication.

That's a great club; we have a significant overlap of participants, and we’re all friends-in-folk, so let’s give our support to these events ...

That image is not entirely clear, so if you need more information click this, and follow the 'events' link.

Meanwhile, The City Folk Club has only 32 years to catch up wih this record
 ... but it's not a competition!

Being Friday the 9th of March, 2012 ...

Dogsbody arrived feeling a little out-of-sorts.

His day had been emotionally and intellectually challenging.

Three ladies turned up and gave him big cuddles.

Dogsbody began to feel better.

The cheery faces of Bill and Berry further lightened his mood.

More ladies arrived – more cuddles and an occasional mwah-mwah!

By then Dogsbody felt able to welcome Nick and Pat, two new faces, into our gathering, and introduce them. Hands were shaken.

At 8.05pm someone asked, “Who’s MC?”

As if on-cue, Mike arrived, smiled warmly, played the bell-tree, and we all settled down for a most enjoyable evening under his sensitive direction.

I am a Rock: Mike

Barmaid Song: Lucy

Piper to the End: Laura & Colin

Some Day: Berry

Alexandra Leaving: Lynda

John Barbary: Jane

Lay me down a Pallet on your Floor: Roger

All the Little Chickens: Mave

Ploughboy and the Cockney: Colin

Three Shetland Tunes: Bill

Census 1851: Nigel

I'll Follow the Sun: Paul

The Shepherd's Daughter: Angela

I'm Getting Older too: Mike

Take a Message to Mary: Lucy & Paul

Valparaiso: Laura & Colin

Whatever Happened to Saturday Night: Lynda

Joan of Arc: Jane

Romeo and Juliet: Roger

Bright Fine Gold: Mave

I Believe in You and Me: Mark

I'm Going Down to the Shade by the River: Berry

Life of a Man: Nigel

Brewer Laddie: Bill

The Folks Who Live on the Hill: Paul & Roger

Groovy Kind of Love: Mark

Rolling On: Laura

Little Darling: Angela & Paul

So, there we have it: Knopfler beat Cohen into second place by 3 to 2.

Caddick - 1.

Disappointments?

There was no yodelling, no songs about trains ... and Nick didn't bring his hurdy-gurdy!

Bill mentioned 'Saint Patrick's Breastplate'.

Those who can handle a bit of holiness might enjoy this charming cover of Rita Connolly's 'The Deer's Cry'.

Now, don't forget - early start next week.

Prompt Start on Friday 16th March ...

On Friday 16th March we will be required to vacate the Guide Hall by 10.30pm.
That's because the Guides will be returning from the exciting night-life of Chichester for a sleep-over.

So, in order to give all our performers a fair opportunity, we will need a prompt start.
The club's timetable for the evening will be as follows:

• 7.30pm: Doors open.
• 8.00pm: Music begins.
• Some arbitrary time: Short interval for free association.
• 10.15pm: Extinguish candles.
• 10.20pm: Music ceases. Clear up rapidly.
• 10.30pm: Say, "Good night, Guides, sleep well."
• Then take your own rubbish home in complete silence.

Another Singing Workshop ...

SINGING WORKSHOP

Come and ‘let yourself go’ for the day, whether you sing in a choir, at church, at a folk club, or just in the privacy of your bathroom!

Led by Helen Yeomans

For Get Vocal Chichester – Community Choir

Saturday 24^th March 2012

From    10am  -  4.30pm

                  

At North Mundham Village Hall

School Lane, N.Mundham, Chichester, PO20 1LA.

Only £15 -To book please contact Angela O’Brien roland@selseypc.net  01243 601183

Helen Yeomans is the founder and leader of Glorious Chorus, a Devon based choir.  She writes and/or arranges all the songs that the choir sings. She is also choir leader for 3 other community choirs in her area.  As an active member of the Natural Voice Practitioners Network she is also experienced in leading workshops all over the UK and overseas.

Helen returned to music after a 25 year absence when she had a yearning to sing. To her surprise, she found that not only could she sing but she could write songs too! Writing choral music was the ideal outlet for her creativity, which she could do around all her children, and it was only a matter of time before she formed her own choir.

Glorious Chorus soon gained a reputation for original songs and passionate performances, and for Helen it was like a dam bursting open. "When I finally have some time to myself, I find songs come pouring in from nowhere," says Helen. "It’s as if all lifes’ experiences and stories were meant to have expression in song, and I feel honoured to have the opportunity to bring them alive!"

Helen's song 'Awaken' was chosen as a featured performance piece at 2009's 'Sing For Water' annual fundraiser at London's South Bank, as part of the Mayor's Thames Festival. The songs chosen for this event were performed by choirs from around the country who come together - almost 1,000 singers - to sing for this fantastic charity. Helen's songs were also chosen to be performed at the Brighton Fringe Festival in 2008 and 2009.

Tea/coffee and a bottle of water for each participant will be provided.

Please bring something for a shared pot luck lunch. 

Directions: Village Hall is just behind North Mundham School on B2166 between Runcton and Hunston, South of  the A27 Chichester Bypass, and has its own car park.

A New Venture into the Tradition

The secret is out! (blame Wikileaks!) - for several months now, I have been developing a ten-minute musical entertainment based on the use of TRADITIONAL ENGLISH PERCUSSION INSTRUMENTS, to wit: ......................................................................... and






Expect the results to be revealed at the City Folk Club very soon!

Oh, boy! Is this exciting, or what?

Beware the Hurdy Gurdy Man ...

On Saturday Roland and I met a man who lives nearby.
This man announced, "I play the hurdy gurdy."
"Wow!" I exclaimed; "Why not come along to our club?"



No, this youtube post is not the man we met, but it'll give you an idea.
The acoustically sensitive must provide their own ear defenders.

Being Friday the 2nd of March, 2012 ...

This was an eventful evening under Paul's direction.

Dogsbody counted the following:

151 wounds, one of which was mortal, two murders, two Biblical deaths, one execution, one deportation, one account of cross-dressing, at least one exposed snow-white breast, an indeterminate number of drunken women, a plethora of seductions and several trains running through the Rossendale Valley.

What more could you desire on a Friday evening?

Father and Son: Paul

Sun's Gonna Shine in my Back Door: Angela

Orphan Girl: Lynda

(Three or) Four Drunken Maidens: Dave

My Favourite Things (parody): Sylvia T.

The Taxi-Driver and the Trawlerman's Wife: John

Lonely With You: Eddie

Indian Tea: Ken

Last Train From Bacup: Mave

Dives and Lazarus: Roger

Willie Taylor: Colin

The Four Marys: Margaret

Bold General Wolfe: Nigel

The Jolly Tinkers: Bill

I'm a Believer: Molly

Goodbye my Love: Paul

Le Premier Bonheur du Jour: Angela

Farewell: Lynda

The Day We went to Bangor: Molly & Dave

The Tower: Dave

Bad Times Just Around the Corner: Sylvia T.

Sweet Thames Flow Softly: John

I Gave my Love a Cherry: Eddie

So Sad (To Watch Good Fruit Go Bad): Ken

The Seasons of the Year: Mave

I Need Your Love so Bad: Roger

The Rambling Sailor: Colin

We'll Sing in the Sunshine: Margaret

Emu Plains: Nigel

Mossy Banks of the Lea: Bill

Rolling Home: Nigel

In spite of the content of our performances, everyone went home alive, physically intact, fully clothed and unmolested.

Dogsbody dreamed about trains again ...

That's an ex-LMS 0-6-0T 3F 'Jinty' at Bury Station on the East Lancs Railway.