THANK YOU!

Well, here we are in the festive season and, as the solstice approaches, we gathered on Friday 13th for our annual celebration.

Thank you to everyone who came along to share music, songs, festive food and great company.

Here's a carol that we heard courtesy of Elayne, Suzanne and
Helen ...

If you weren't there, you missed a treat.

Nevertheless, I thank you all who have supported our gatherings throughout the year whenever you have been able.

True ... sometimes our attendances have been small, but the music has never been disappointing.

For the future, we will have another pre-Christmas bash on Friday, 20th, but on Friday 27th we will all be staying at home to recover from seasonal overindulgence!

Keep an eye on the informative blog: cityfolkchi.blogspot.com for details of meetings next year.

... and God bless us, everyone!

An Invitation ...

THE CITY FOLK CLUB

Moseley invites you to our …

GRAND FESTIVE PARTY

Friday, 13^th December

At The Guide Hall in Whyke Lane

Doors open 7.30 for prompt start at 8.00pm.

Seasonal music in great company.

Festive food, (please bring a plate to share.)

Bring your own beverages.

Entry: £2.50 which will include a free raffle ticket.

Being Halloween ...

Here is Jane's seasonal craft-work ...

Actually, I was searching for some appropriately scary music ...

Orff: Carmina Burana?
Greig: Hall of the Mountain King?
Mussorgsky: Night on a Bald Mountain?
Wagner: Götterdämmerung?

Then I found Berlioz ...

OK, kids, ring my doorbell if you dare ...

Arrgh!

Programme and blog changes

OK, we've been operating this blog for several years, and it all gets a little repetitive at best ... enormously silly at worst.

It has been pointed out that anyone searching Google for 'the city folk club' is directed to this frivolous, and not very informative, account of our activities.

So ... I endeavoured to make our informative blog, (The City Folk Club in Chichester,) more accessible.
I changed the link to https://cityfolkchi.blogspot.com/
That blog is updated monthly, or as and when necessary.

Meanwhile, here's our programme for the next few weeks ...

All Fridays in November:
1st, 8th,15th, 22nd and 29th are confirmed.

ADVANCE NOTICE
Put this date in your diary:
Friday,13th December.
GRAND SEASONAL PARTY!

Details to follow.

Now is come September ...

The sixth day thereof, precisely.

Yes, we have all enjoyed our summer holiday, and there seems to have been some reluctance to return to our home ...

Seating for 22.

By 20.10 hours we had attracted 1 accordionist, 1 poet, 1 listener and 1 singer of folk songs.

We began on an autumnal note ...

... is monarch of them all.

Then Ken arrived ...

... and the whistle did sing.

Bryan, our resident poet SANG ...

a mighty herd of red-eyed cows he saw, a-ploughing through the ragged sky ...

Pray never let me see the day that will not let me sing!

Farewell to a lovely lady ...

We were all deeply sorry to learn that Lucy Phillips recently lost her battle with cancer.
She passed away peacefully in St. Wilfrid's Hospice on Sunday, 21st July.

Lucy was a friend to us all, a regular participant of this club and other local musical enterprises over many years. She was a fine singer and musician who engaged all genres of music including folk, blues, jazz and classical. She was great fun.

Here's a song that we often enjoyed Lucy singing ...

(... although Lucy was never keen on the brass band!)

Her funeral is to be held at Chichester Crematorium on Tuesday, 6th August at 12.30pm.

Afterwards we plan to meet at The Chichester Inn in West Street.

• Family flowers.
• Donations to St. Wilfrid's Hospice.

RIP, Lucy.

You will be sadly missed by us all.

P.S. The club has already made a donation to St. Wifrid's in memory of Lucy.

Being July 2019, the Fifth day thereof ...

Elayne accompanied Dogsbody with a rendition in ancient French of a C14 song composed by a musician of questionable reputation ...

Guillaume de Mauchaut, (c.1300 -  1377,) was a much celebrated poet and composer who, while in his sixties, appears to have enjoyed a love affair with a nineteen year old lady, Peronne d'Armentiers.

Paul was more up to date with a visit to a celebrated piece of civil engineering on the Columbia River in the USA ...

Mike wore a strange piece of head-gear ...

Marion couldn't find her footwear so she had to stay all evening ...

We wondered why Elayne looked so happy ... 

Bryan gave account of having entertained visitors ...

That was the nearest we got to holiness this week!

Being Friday the twenty-eighth day of June, 2109 ...

8 people decided to give Glastonbury a miss.

Bryan entered the realms of poetic metaphysics again ...

The Phantom Lady

(Bryan has a wonderful imagination.)

This was countered by a considerable amount of holiness ...

He calls me by the lightning.

There was dance music played by Elizabeth, but we weren't dressed for the cotillion ...

We were circumspect as to whether this Eagles' song referred to Bognor Regis ...

Beautifully sung by Lynda.

Then we shared a holy farewell ...

We love thee well, but Jesus loves thee best..

Moseley refurbished ...

Our mascot now stands erect on his new plinth ...

Why is a penguin the club mascot?
Look carefully and you will discern that Moseley carries a copy of The Penguin Book of English Folk Songs, as well as a facsimile of a fiddle.

Why is he called Moseley?
Well, he's a rockhopper of the subspecies Eudyptes (chrysocome) moseleyi.

Being Midsummer's Day ...

Now, here's a conundrum ...
21st June is the summer solstice when Pagans celebrate sunrise at Stonehenge ...

Summer, according to Carol, begins on the 1st day of June ...

Astronomically, however, summer BEGINS on 21st June.
So, why do we refer to 21st June as 'midsummer's day'?
Discussion was inconclusive, so we just got on with music.

Paul opened with a song about a celestial body ...

I won't have to cry no more.

There are those who sing their own songs.
There are those who borrow music from others.
Then there are those who commit the mortal sin of parody ...

Lord Franklin was surprised by the icy
conditions in Milton Keynes!

Twice we commemorated a famous battle of 1815 ...

The Duke of Wellington at Waterloo
(Robert Alexander Hillingford, 1828 – 1904.)

Bryan poetically expressed some dissatisfaction with the state of the nation ...

SHAMBLES!

For the benefit of those unfortunate enough to have missed their very successful concert tour, Angela, Paul and Roger gave several performances ...

Are you missing me?

Then we went home ...

... and joy be with you all!

Being the Eighteenth Day of June, (yesterday!) ...

Two hundred and four years ago ...

Perhaps we can sing this on Friday.

Please join in!

Being Friday the Fourteenth Day of June, 2019 ...

Ken, he of the infallible memory ...

... reminded us that we can celebrate 10 years of our occupation of the Guide Hall.
The blog post at: 5th June, 2019 attests to the veracity of Ken's observation.
(The years seem to have corrupted some of the images, or perhaps we really did look so young!)

Paul went back to his roots in the North ...

She once was a true love of mine.

Then it was Laurie's turn.
Here he is playing a trad-blues on his red instrument ...

Ken indulged in parody.

The traditional song, Rout of the Blues, became ...

You work that out!

Bryan soliloquised ...

The march of evil!

On return from the convenience, Ken engaged in another parody which referred to kitchen appliances ...

Mave was enamoured by a small boy playing with fire ...

We went home celebrating the long life of agricultural workers ...

Being the Seventh Day of June, 2019 ...

So, here we are in June.
We began with a seasonal song about sheep ...

We'll pipe and we'll sing, love;
We'll dance in a ring, love ...

Elizabeth took us on a voyage across the channel ...

Jenny led a workshop about singing 'Cuckoo' ...

75 years ago, would have been D-Day + 1.
True ... none of us are quite old enough to remember that historic event, but it was in our thoughts and songs ...

Yes, the heroes they died with their dreams
at St. Aubin sur Mer.

Getting Vocal ...

Here's a forthcoming event that shouldn't be missed ...

You will see and hear several of our friends.
Tickets available from The Novium in Tower Street.

Being the Sixth Day of June, Seventy-five years on ...

Bless 'em all ...

Being Friday the 24th Day of May, 2019 ...

Paul and Angela accompanied by Roger, supported by goat-whackery and egg-shaking.

Being Mental Health Awareness Week ...

Being May Day ...

Now, what shall sing on Friday?

Original words and music: Dave Webber.

OK, it will be two days too late.

Being Friday the Twenty-sixth Day of April, 2019 ...

David, he of the hand-made harp, educated us ...

The theme-tune to this well-remembered TV cartoon is actually entitled Trumpet Hornpipe.
Like those Pugwash stories, the notion of the hornpipe having any maritime authenticity is entirely fictional.

Being Friday the Fifth day of April, 2019 ...

And we are still all Europeans!

Our club is very blessed to regularly play host to the most accomplished melodion player on the south coast ...

Oh, and Elizabeth is pretty impressive on her flute too.

Being Friday the Twenty-ninth day of March, 2019 ...

Being also the day on which we did not Brexit.

Roger was unrepentant ...

Mike invited us to take a transatlantic voyage with Saint Brendan on a fragile vessel ...

There's an island.
Oh. no it's a whale!

Being Friday the Twenty-Second Day of March, 2019 ...

Being also 2 days after the spring equinox, there were songs about flowers ...

We missed Mike who was holidaying in Madeira.
Here's an image he sent ...

The top half was alright but the rest was a fish!

There were a couple of obscure wines ...

Isn't that a posh name for cider?

Angela was required to explain the term 'wherry' ...

As he rode her over to Farringdon Fair.

We departed in hopes for the morrow ...

... dawn will bathe the sky.

Being Friday the Fifteenth Day of March, 2019 ...

Being also the day of Comic Relief ...

A Posthumous Message from RVW ...

Dr Ralph Vaughan Williams, erstwhile president of EFDSS, is reported to have once asserted thus ...

The practice of rewriting a folk song is abominable.

I wouldn't trust anyone to do it except myself.

(https://mainlynorfolk.info/lloyd/songs/thetwomagicians.html)

Take note all those who indulge in gender substitution, and, worst of all ... PARODY!

Being Friday the First Day of February, 2109 ...

20.10 hours ...

Why do I feel a song coming on?

Actually, with many thanks to all those stalwart souls who braved the winter weather, it got better!

Roger, always inquisitive, posed a question: "In folk songs why are ships described as 'gallant'?"
Is it something to do with square-rigging?
After all, there is a sail known as the topgallant, (or t'gallant.)
That's the one immediately above the upper main topsail.
Above the t'gallant you may find a sail known as a royal and a sky-sail ...

So, where is the gallant?

Further conundra were considered ...

• Why are the waists of fair maidens always 'small and slender'?
• Why are fingers long and small?
• How can a gold ring be gay?
• Why are steeds always milk-white?

Then we went home quietly humming the tune to this song, as performed by Christopher ...

Being Friday the 25th Day of January, 2019 ...

Lynda needed a ride across the river ...

I'll give any money!

Christopher took us to a Devon market ...

Heave down your prong and stamp along ...

Stuart brought along his friend, James ...

Go in peace!