Clive's Pancake Day Folk Night

Before  the evening  began,  there had been   four email  messages  sent  through.      These were from  four of our regular  music - makers,  each one a member of our Six Bells  'committee' and each of them saying that they would not be able to come  tonight. 
 
" Oh Dear"  I thought  to myself.  ( to put it politely )    That means that we will be  a bit thin on the ground tonight, and maybe the evening  will be a bit disappointing and turn out to be as flat as a pancake.    ( One of us had to make that joke, didn't we ? )

 Anyway, as usual, it was not disappointing, and we ended up with an enjoyable night. We were a bit late starting, because I had been held up on my journey with the road being completely closed at Halland for repairs, and had to follow a diversion.   Also, I had trouble with a guitar lead that I hadn't plugged in properly, which caused a bit of a technical glitch.   I blame the guitar lead, not myself.

I got going with The Doobie Brothers' song 'Listen to the music' written by Tom Johnston.    My second one was Paul Simon's 'Take me to the Mardi Gras'.   This song had to be sung tonight.    It's funny how 'Mardi Gras' is a much nicer name than 'Fat Tuesday'.     As for me, I don't just do Fat Tuesday.  -- More like every day of the week.

Mark Lynch has played here several times now, and tonight he was joined by John Budden, and together they gave us 'Till there was you' written by Meredith Willson, from 'The music man',  and followed by  The Beatles number 'Things we said today'.     Mark and John live at opposite ends of the county, but they obviously get to rehearse together sometimes, because they make a good sound.

Chris Martin took time off from the sound desk tonight ( but still stepped in to help here and there),and now, stepped up to the mic to give us not just two, but three of his own compositions. (With permission)!   'King of the flies', 'It's only my time', and 'Standing room only'.   Chris tells us that he has performed every one of his 100 songs at Open Mic Nights, and he is now re-singing them all , in numerical order, song by song.  Tonight was number 33, 34, and 35.   We've suggested that next time round he does them in alphabetical order.
Chris told us that someone else was unable to come tonight.  -- This was Simon Farmer, the brilliant saxophone player who has been joining us for the last few months.   He had  apparently been feeding honey to a wasp and the wasp didn't like it so it stung him !     I've always found that wasps prefer beer.

Our other Simon, Mr Watt, came up next to entertain us with two of his own  very clever and humorous songs, both of them very topical still: 'When Brexit Comes', and 'Rocket Man'. ( featuring Kim Jong -un.)   Simon says The Brexit song will be out of date after March 29th.    I'm not so sure.   And how long will Rocket Man last?    Jong-un could be a long-un.

Manus ( 'Jazz') McDaid, was number five  on the list, and despite having a bad throat, was able to play us, in his great style, 'Song bird' written by Christine McVie, made well known by Eva Cassidy as well as Fleetwood Mac.    Although a bit early in the year, then came 'Autumn leaves', written by Joseph Kosma and Jacques Prevert.    We noticed a bottle of something strong sticking out of  Manus' pocket.  he says it's cough linctus.    Huggh Hum!

Taking to the floor next we had Heather Curry with her take on another song done by Eva Cassidy, 'Fields of gold' written by Sting. ( Gordon Sumner).   Then we were taken back to our childhoods with 'The owl and the pussycat' song with lyrics by Edward Lear.    I think we've got a runcible spoon somewhere in the cutlery drawer.

 A guest that we haven't seen for a while is Dave Dyke.   He started up with 'Don't leave me this way'  - The Ricky Nelson song from 1958, (not the more recent one by The Communards) followed up by Gordon Lightfoot's 'Early morning rain.'  Very nicely done, with some fine finger picking.

 Very patiently, Sylvie had been waiting, and she took the mic to give us a couple of her witty songs, this time with Scottish nursery rhyme themes.    Never sit in the front row when Sylvie sings.   - She'll make you join in with the choruses which you don't know!  

There was now time to carry on into the second round, with Mark Lynch coming back to  give us 'Jenifer', a song by Bert Somner, who  was one of the lesser - known musicians who played at Woodstock in 1969.

John Budden then returned, this time playing on our old piano, making it sound good with a nice  number from the band  Heads Hands and Feet.    Every time I think of them I can't help thinking of 'Heads shoulders knees and toes'.  Sorry !

Chris appeared again (with permission) to do a fourth song of his own 'What happened to our love'  This takes his list up to number 36.

Simon stepped back in to do a very nice take on  'It never rains in Southern California'  by Albert Hammond and Mike Hazelwood.

Following this, Manus launched into 'All the things you are' by Jerome Kearne and Oscar Hammerstein.    Always classy stuff from Manus.

Another piano piece next, this time with Heather, and a nicely done song by Phil Coulter, 'Scorn not his sympathy'.
   
I thought it would be nice to let Mark and John finish off the night, seeing as they seem to have travelled the farthest to get here.  -- Mark from  the dangers of Danehill, and John from the worries of Worthing.   So, back as a duo again, they sang The Korgis' 'Everybody's got to learn sometime', with some very nice guitar playing. 

                  Thank you to all who came and sat and listened
                  And those who sang and played,
                  And to those who enjoyed it, all through the evening, and stayed.

  So there goes another Tuesday night !    Now where have all those pancakes gone ??
               See you next time.
                 Clive Woodman

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