 Tuesday November 29th
It was a cold night. But the atmosphere was warm and friendly We always try to make it that way. As host for the evening, it was my job to start up the musical offerings, and I chose to begin with Maddy Prior's song 'Deep in the darkest night.' Two of the verses are in French ' Dans un noir de nuit, Je n'avait rien dit, souvenir d'un etait chaud, souvenir de soleil et d'eau, dans un noir de nuit.' ( I can tell you are impressed - eh? ) Then I followed with one of my own songs, 'Blue above the grey'. I have to admit that I wasn't concentrating too well on what I was doing, and I wrongly blamed Chris on the sound desk for putting me off. -- Sorry Chris. John Oddie came next, and made a really nice sound on slide guitar and voice with 'Sweet little mystery', and then was joined by Lisa Jackson and Terry Lees, backing him on 'Angel of Montgomery'. It was good to see John back this week, as we had been missing him for a while. Next in line was Simon Watt, who gave us a nice version of 'Nobel Prize-Winner' Bob Dylan's 'You aint goin' nowhere'. ( I think that is a double negative isn't it? ) -- If you aint goin nowhere , you must be going somewhere? Bob Dylan wouldn't win prizes for grammar! Simon then produced from his case,a banjo/guitar and sang us a great comedy song, called ' I Don't look good Naked Anymore'. -- I think we'll take his word for that. We don't want him to prove it. Both Simon and John are 'Vertebrae' in the 'Backbone' of the Folk and Blues Club, and so is Chris Martin, who came in at number four on tonight's list. Chris took 'time' to sing 'Tick -tock, one of his own compositions, with Lisa and then John as his backing band, followed by his 'Xeroxed armies' song. Chris had a busy night looking after the sound desk as well, so thanks Chris. While the piano was being set up for Ella Moonbridge, I did a (very bad) impression of Donald Trump, building his 'Wall'. He was building his wall himself, all around him, round and round, higher and higher, up and up, so that no-one could get in. and no-one could get out. " Oh dear. - I've bricked myself in. I can't get out!" "HELP"! So, Ella then gave us a great sound on piano and her voice with Bob Dylan's 'Standing in the doorway' and then revving up the tempo to run into 'Danny's all-star joint'. I'd like to go to that place. -- It sounds good! Thank you Ella. Terry Lees always plays beautifully, and he was on great form tonight with a nice version of 'Pick a bale of cotton', and then a great number from Ike and Tina Turner. (And Ry Cooder)? - I missed the title of the song. Now it was time for our helping of 'Culture' from Derry on piano,and with Renata singing a short but sweet love song in German. Well! - What with songs in German, and earlier in French,you could almost imagine that we were somehow in some sort of Union with Europe. Well! - What a fanciful idea! Number eight on the list was Lisa Jackson , who had already been busy with backing vocals earlier, but now on her own with 'Rain rain go away', and her good version of 'Jolene', which would have annoyed Dolly Parton, because it was nicer. We had a new visitor, in the shape of Annie Wheeler , who had been waiting very patiently for her turn to come. She sang un-accompanied with her first song, 'Let no man steal your thyme' , and then with guitar to give us The Fureys' 'Steal away'. Annie has contacts in the village, so we will be seeing her again. Penny Payne had also been very patient in waiting to come up and sing us some 'Blues', in her great style, backed by John and Terry, and a neat version of Prince's 'Purple rain'. -- Nice. Following on from the fanciful notion of some kind of link between us and Europe, we had another song in German, from Renata ,'Lilly Marlene' ,with Simon on guitar. Nicely done, but I couldn't help myself from thinking about 'Rene and Renata' from years ago ,and their song 'Save your Love my Darling, save your Love'. Sorry! Having had four ladies in a row on the list, it was time to have some 'Blokes' back on, so Chris and John took to the floor again to do Chris' song 'Toast for one'. This made me feel hungry. Another welcome return for one more song from Terry Lees, and then, joined by Simon and John the evening came to an end with a toe -tapping rendition of 'Oh Suzanna' (With Banjo/ guitar) ! (Yee- Hahh)! Having got warm through the evening, we all went off into the cold and frosty night Thank you to Simon for setting up the equipment at lunchtime. Did he have a beer? -- And thanks to everyone who came tonight, and come again next time for The Christmas Party, hosted by John Oddie, with special guests 'The Conspirators' . Clive Woodman
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