Being Friday the 5th day of June, 2015 ...

Being also the sixth anniversary of our weekly tenancy of the Guide Hall ... Thank you, Ken, for that historical intelligence.

Dogsbody occupied the throne of humility.

Somebody asked, "Why don't we see images of Colin on this blog?"
Well, he is an 'umble being, not readily given to self -aggrandisement.
Here is an image of a glorious field of lavender; you might discern an embarrassed figure ...

... sowing the seeds of love!

Combine the following two images, and you will discover what Ken performed ...

... 't were the best that money could buy.

+

My name is Wallace.

Enlightenment* will be provided at the end of this post.

We observed that Pam moved her lips as Les sang of carbohydrates and protein ...

Now, who drinks RED wine with fish?

Mike P. took the opportunity for a commercial interlude.
He has for sale an electric guitar; "A Yamaha Pacifica," he said.
It might look a little like this ...

Mike didn't say what colour.
Nor did he specify a price.

Should you be interested, kindly email cityfolkclub@gmail.com and I will pass your message on to Mike.
By the way, Mike also has a boat for sale.

A rumour was generated that Berry transports a diminutive metamorphosis  of Brenda and her keyboard in this compact box ...

"No!" declared Berry.

"It is all my own, personal suffering."

Was there sympathy?

Yes, for Brenda!

Lynda sang of these birds ...

That led us into discussion of the Irish significance of 'Wild Geese'.

This metaphor historically refers to 30,000 Irish soldiers who left Ireland for France in 1691 after the treaty of Limerick.

Susequently, England tore up said treaty.

The Irish exiles were dispossessed of their land. 

Irish Catholics were stripped of citizenship.

Oh, history is such a dreadful thing!

It's not fiction, as we might sometimes speculate ... it's real people doing really bad things to real people!

Further unreliable clarification may be found here.

All that had nothing to do with Lynda's very charming song!

Phil could have sent us off to observe the night sky...

... how you suffered for your sanity ...

Ken, however, insisted on singing about a distilled Russian spirit, large pectoral appendages, bondage and death ...

Oooh, Natasha!

*So, what is the pointless answer?

Of course:  No wrecks, and nobody drownded 

... 'n fact nothing to laugh at, at all!

It is indeed true that Stanley Holloway died in 1982 in a nursing home in Littlehampton.

He lies buried at St. Mary's Church in East Preston ...

ADDENDUM ...

Further to Mike's commercial interlude, he has submitted the following images of a package for sale:

YAMAHA PACIFICA

Light natural wood with a black scratchguard, code PAC112MX

Roland Micro-cube amp (great bit of kit)

Zoom programmable effects pedal

£150 the lot = bargain (c£350 new!) All as new!

Being Friday the 29th of May, 2015 ...

Paul began with something that had been earlier described as  'sloppy, sentimental and awful' ...

Sylvia, that was very unkind!

Mike H. recollected where he first kissed Yvonne ...

... dreamed a dream by the old canal ...

Ivor, our welcome visitor from Devon, is looking for work ...

Oh, Lord, give me a job of work to do!

Here's Ivor ...

Would you employ this person?

It appears that Phil occupies his early morning hours listening to the Shipping Forecast ...

Phil likes the music.

Then we abode with Roger.
(See previous post.)

Debbie regretted the day before.

Simon sang about this seasonal floribundance ...

Angela and Paul warned about the dangers of tobacco, strong spirits and ...

They'll drive you crazy. They'll drive you insane!
Fortunately, no feral ladies were in attendance.
Nobody smoked, and whiskey was not in evidence.

Sue restored some classical taste to proceedings ...

Paul and Colin had a barely-rehearsed, (under Roger's benign scrutiny,) stab at this ...

Paul and I thought it went rather well.
Roger seemed to agree.
Others subsequently opined* that there is room for improvement.
In all things there is always such scope.

Be not discouraged, Paul, and thank you.

Check out the rest of that video on YouTube here.

Good night and joy ...

* We learned that verb, to opine, from Ken.
Ken is very familiar with such activity, but he wasn't there.

On the eve of the FA Cup Final, 2015 ...

Roger engaged holiness and gave a superb, instrumental rendition of the melody for Abide with Me.
There followed some discussion about the origin of the hymn, and as to why it is associated with English football.

"It's American!" exclaimed one.
"No, it's English," contested Roger.

Both wrong!

The lyrics are a poem composed by a Scot ...

Henry Francis Lyte

Lyte died in 1847 of tuberculosis three weeks after putting down his pen.
The melody that we all know is by William Henry Monk, an Englishman. He composed it in 1861 and entitled it Eventide.

So, why has it become traditional to sing it prior to a football match?

The story goes thus:
In 1927 there was a cup-final match between Arsenal and Cardiff City.
(Cardiff -1, Arsenal - nil ... long before the season of Mr Wenger.)
King George the Fifth was in attendance.
It was well-known that KGV's favourite hymn was Abide with Me, so the organisers arranged that the first and last verses should be sung from the terraces.
... and so it abides to this day.

The complete hymn is most commonly sung at funerals.

Fortunately, in 2015, no footballers died during the match ...

but Aston Villa were rubbish!

Being Friday the 22nd of May, 2015 ...

Berry was electric with this very neat device ...

Berry can always be forgiven for introducing new dimensions
to the notion of traditional music.

We witnessed the mortification of anisoptera ...

... inside a jar.

Phil sang a song with a chorus in French ...

"Na-na-na-nah," it goes.
What has somebody done to this man's brain?

Interestingly, on the previous week, Mike H. had performed a totally different, self-penned song with exactly that same chorus.

We were delighted to welcome our occasional visitors, Derek and Roberta, from Worcestershire.
Derek's music was truly resonating ...

Now, about a song ...
Paul correctly identified the so-called 'Singing Postman' as Allan Smethurst ...

About another song ...
Waltzing Matilda, lyrics by Banjo Paterson in 1895, is reputedly, (reliably?) set to a pre-existing Scottish melody, Bonny Wood of Craigielea, composed by James Barr, published in 1836, for lyrics written by Robert Tannahill, who had died prior to publication ...

Search for almost any traditional song on YouTube and  you will

find that this guy has covered it.

Raymond is a veritable mine of information.

Then we heard a charming instrumental about an extraordinarily large sea-bird ...

Hello, my name is Diomedeida.
You can call me Dom.
Dire consequences will befall anyone who shoots an arrow at me.
Apologies to STC of The Ancient Mariner!

Then we went quietly home with joyful hearts, hopeful souls, intact of limb and sound of mind.

The only fictional death was that poor dragonfly.

I think the albatross survived!