Hosted by Helga

A Night of Hats, Newcomers, and Great Music
For years – in double figures - I have been a regular player at the Bells, but this night was the very first time I was hosting the open mic all by myself (standing in for Tambourine Laura). Understandably, I felt a bit nervous. So, I came in my black jazz hat with red, orange, and blue feathers, which immediately gave me extra confidence and a ‘new persona’. Terry and Chris also wore their performance hats, which was great!

Noteworthy also is that we had three newcomers: Paul with tuneful Fisherman’s Songs; Will with impressive versions of Tougher than the Rest (Bruce Springsteen) and Fulsom Prison (Johnny Cash); and Lynn – singing publicly for the first time - who gave us a beautiful rendition of Joni Mitchell’s Both Sides Now. A special welcome to you and we look forward to having you with us again!

Summer, Sun, and Seasons were a strong theme of the night, not surprising after such a long, cold, schleppy winter! We enjoyed interpretations of Summertime (George & Ira Gershwin, DuBois Heyward), Ain’t No Sunshine When She’s Gone (Bill Withers), Shine on, Harvest Moon (Nora Bayes & Jack Norworth), Hotel California (Eagles), Diamonds in the Rain (Jeannie Riley), Sunrise, Sunset (Jerry Bock). Thanks Jason, Helga, Mike, Heather, Frank, Hugh, Manus, Nelson, and Steph!

Current Issues and General Problems were ably addressed in Running out of Time (Bells’ songwriter Chris), Insomniac’s Dream (another Chris song apparently inspired by the actor and comedian Robin Williams), Human Beings are not very Bright and Southern Water Pollution Calypso (Bells’ songwriter Emma with sardonic wit), It Ain’t Me Babe (Bob Dylan), Born Under a Bad Sign (Albert King), and Miss this Sweet Old World (Lucinda Williams). Thanks Chris, Emma, Frank, Helga, Hugh, Manus, Terry, and Simon!

Finally, Positive Future Visions made an uplifting final theme: Simple Smiling Face (written by Jason), Black Lives Matter and White Socks (Bells’ songwriter Lance), Down the Highway (Bert Jansch), I Will Always Love You (Dolly Parton), Chance (written by Nelson King), Ticket to Paradise (Bells’ songwriter Simon), and a Traditional (Robert Burns). Thanks Jason, Lance, Hugh, Manus, Mike, Nelson, Simon, and Steph!
A raucous Blues in E Jam brought this great evening to a crowning finale. Thanks Mike, Jason, Helga, Frank, Terry, and Will!

I look forward to my next open mic hosting! It would be great if you can try and wear a hat, Helga

Hosted by Jason

“Collaboration Night"
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We start with the hammer
Flute swaying, swinging with the Blues
Sunshine ain’t but shining
When a man loves a woman is news
 
Dancing to the end of love
With Sebastian a story of a life
If you see him, say Hello
He might be longing for a wife
 
Cool breezing in from the South
They sing of their love under the moon
And with the art of the Botticellis
Such musical beauty is over all too soon
 
Rocket fires into the night sky
As we love the simple prairie town
Silent sounds never helpless, but hoping
Even Blues can lift you when you’re down
 
Summertime is coming, as it always will
Sunny afternoons abound for us once again
San Francisco Bay be where we found our love
Songs we sing and let us never refrain . . .
 
Jason, poem, May 2024
Thank you Helga, Lance, Mike, Manus, Hugh, Kat, Andy, Frank, The Botticellis, Simon, Ella, The Low Profile, and my wonderful Lisa for singing with me yet again. Another lovely evening of music and friendship.

We welcomed our dear friend Nelson King as our latest new host at the Six Bells and what a great job he did. His original songs are always a delight and he performed with his usual energy and charisma. We also enjoyed wonderful performances by Lance (who also did a great job on the sound desk), Manus, Frank, Lisa & Jason, Mike, Emma, Terry, Simon and Penny. There were the customary collaborations between fellow performers which all made for another great night of music and friendship. Thank you all for being a part of this great scene. Until next time . .

Tonight we welcomed Kat Black and Mr White as our newest hosts. They did a wonderful job of making us all feel the love. Their harmony as a duo is a delight and they give new life and meaning to any old favourite song they cover. We also enjoyed fine performances from Steve, Simon, Manus, Chris, Mike, Heather, Lisa & Jason, Terry & Becky, and Derry. Until next time . . .

Hosted by Lance

The evening started at 07:40 with everyone singing 2 songs each
 
Lance kicked off proceedings as host with Mr Tamborine Man and Like a Rolling Stone
 
Manus and Hugh were up next and performed Cyndi Lauper’s True Colours and Don’t Think Twice           
 
Ella brought along her keyboard and sang  2 Bob songs….from the Bob Dylan album ‘Modern Times’ Ella sang ‘Thunder On The Mountain’ and from another Bob Dylan Album ‘Standing In The   Doorway’                   
                                               
Alchemy followed with renditions of ‘To Make Me Feel Your Love’ and Nina Simone’s ‘I Wish I Knew How It would Feel To Be Free’
 
Frank was up next and  performed the Bob songs ‘Hard Rain and ‘Just Like A Woman’
 
Kat Black and Mr W  sang ‘It’s All Over Now Baby Blue and  a song written by Joan Baez about her relationship with Bob Dylan, ’Diamonds and Rust’
 
Lisa and Jason chose these 2 Bob Dylan songs ‘Tonight I’ll Be Staying Her With You’ and ‘You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go’
 
Terry O’Brian and friends followed with ‘All Along The Watchtower’ and ‘Forever Young’.
 
Mike Osbourne performed Carol King’s song ‘Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow and Bob Dylan’s ‘Simple Twist Of Fate’
 
Simon Watt was up next wit the 2 Bob Dylan songs, ’You Ain’t Going Nowhere’ and ‘Shooting Star’
 
Jacob finished the first half with ‘The Times They Are A Changing’ and ‘Johnny Cash’s song ‘Folsom Prison Blues’
 
We went round again.  Anyone who wanted to perform another song could do so.
 
Ella returned with ‘If You See Her, Say Hello’
 
Alchemy returned to perform ‘Suspicious Minds’
 
Terry and Friends followed with ‘Helplessly Hoping’
 
Kat Black and Mr W  sang ’Sound Of Silence’
 
Frank followed with Bob Dylans’ This Wheel’s On Fire’
 
Jason and Lisa were up next with ‘Girl From the North Country’
 
Finally, Mike Osbourne closed a pleasant evening with ‘Ain’t No Sunshine’
 

Hosted by Erika

Hosted by Keith

Jason and I arrived early and he initiated me into the mysteries of setting up the PA. It’s a tricky job stringing all those cables out of the way of the audience and overhead using secret hooks and crannies on and between the ceiling beams. All hail to Jason for doing this time after time which requires muscle and brain, knowing what goes where and humping cabinets about.
 
We got off to a prompt start with my Requiem and then, to lighten the mood, Brighton Rock. The chorus demands audience voice, and I wasn’t disappointed.
 
Manus was first on the list and his technical mastery of jazz standards was evident with his performance of Hoagy Carmichael’s The Nearness of You. He managed to fit in two choruses of guitar improvisation between the vocal verses – he’s a true Jazzman at heart. Hugh is one of Manus’s neighbours ­­and a good one too, schlepping from St Leonards to accompany Manus on what Manus claimed was a post-modern washboard. It turned out to be a plastic stool of the kind used in showers, played with wire brushes. An effective, but definitely off-label, use for the device. Manus then launched into the classic blues Fanny Mae, morphing into Keb Mo’s Angelina.
 
Chris Martin has a very wide repertoire of self-penned songs, every one of which he’s performed at the ‘Bells some time or other. It was an evening for quirky percussion accompaniments: he introduced the recently-discovered tambourine virtuosa Tammy ‘O Reen (aka Laura) who rapped and shook the vellum superbly to Ooh! Ah! Little Red Car, moving in rhythm as only she can. The massed tambourines of the Six Bells assembled as Heather produced one from nowhere for Chris’s second song. The two tambourinists sychronised movements so well that, in the end, I forgot to write down what the second song was. No matter, almost all of tonight’s performances is on YouTube, thanks to Kat’s camerawork and Frank’s webmastering, so history will know (its actually Toast for One. Ed).
 
Lisa and Jason were next up, with their marvellous harmonies enhancing Bruce Springstein’s I’m on Fire, and then their self-penned Who Knows When?  Who Knows What? I’m sorry to have missed them on Sami Raye’s live session on Hailsham FM last Saturday morning. Some of the regulars of the ‘Bells appear on that show, so it’s worth keeping an eye out. 
 
Hat; No Hat. Yes folks, two guys on guitars, with one singing (without a hat) and one with, taking the solo guitar lines. How cool is the wearing of shades by the hatted virtuoso!  They started with an original Waiting for that Light and finished with I’m Tore Down, a widely-covered blues of unknown provenance.
 
Mike Osbourne oozes the blues, whatever type of song he plays the feel is there. He did Stand by Me, then a John Martyn song I Don’t Want to Know About Evil. Mike is now a regular visitor to the club. Worth coming for.
 
The sixties star Melanie’s recent death has shaken the bough of many musicians of a certain generation. Heather performed her tribute with Ruby Tuesday and Glory, Glory Psychotherapy. ‘A thing’s a phallic symbol if it’s longer than it’s wide’ indeed! Heather reminisced about being mightily impressed with her version of Mr Tambourine Man (you wait for a tambourine and three come at once Ed.) and managing to confuse her record label This is the Buddha with the album title (or is it the other way round?).
 
Apart from the odd bouzouki performance, Ella is now concentrating mainly on piano. It takes skill to coax music from the aging ‘Bells’ instrument, but Ella was successful. I don’t know why someone has written ‘X’ on some of the keys in felt tip. They don’t sound any cronkier than any of the others. Ella performed Ricki Lee’s song Danny’s All-Star Joint, a twelve-bar suited to this piano’s honky-tonk nature, followed by Chris Smither’s Love Me Like a Man as performed by Bonny Raitt.
 
Poetry is the new rock ‘n roll, and Brenda stepped up with one of her uplifting ones Cheer Up!, then got us all singing Daisy, the old music hall favourite dating back to the 1880s and officially titled Daisy Bell. Most enjoyable. I think we did better than HAL in 2001: A Space Odyssey.  
 
Simon Watt did Funny that Way a song by the New Zealand songwriter Mark Laurent. Mark is married to Brenda Liddiard, the sister of the prolific and much missed local songwriter Chris Liddiard. Simon followed with one of his many countryish covers Six Blade Knife by Dire Straits.
 
Bob Melrose opened with And How It Feels and finished with the second John Martyn song heard tonight: Sweet Jelly Roll. ‘I don’t wanna know about evil, only just want to know about love’. It’s its good sentiment, up to a point.
 
Erika writes good songs about relationships and motherhood, with sophisticated themes and lyrics. Tonight, she performed Hope in a Hopeless Place and Another Day in Mumlife. That dropped-D tuning she used gives a satisfyingly rich sound to her guitar.
 
Poetry featured bigtime in Monica’s act. The ‘Bells is a broad church and we listened receptively to her complete reading of The Love song of J Alfred Prufrock, by TS Eliot, that iconoclastic proponent of modernism. She followed with a folk tale: Occo and the Bear.
 
Kat didn’t rely on the ‘Bells piano and lugged her own electric one on to the stage. It was worth waiting for; its perfect intonation matched hers in the The Rose. Kat has only recently taken up the piano but that doesn’t show. A beautiful performance, followed by Lady Gaga’s I’ll Always Remember Us This Way.
 
All the performers having been heard, it was time for the bustle of the second time around, trying to get in as many songs as possible before time was called: Manus with Days of Wine and Roses, a Henry Mancini instrumental, Chris Martin with his poignant Cry, Jason with Why the Wasted Lives, and finally, Mike Osborne with Ain’t No Sunshine.
 
Time to go for the dwindling few. Time to tear down the PA, made much lighter by the helping hands of the last stalwarts, curling up all those cables and shifting all that gear.
 
‘Tata Bill’. ‘Tata Lou’. Goodnight Sweet Ladies. Goodnight.
(TS Eliot The Waste Land 1922)
 
Keith Willson

Hosted by Jason

“Songs of the Moon”

Songs of the Blue
Moon you keep on rising yet
Songs of the Oddity
Moon destined for the rocket

Songs of the dance
Moon magic lights up the night
Songs of the wrestler
Moon to brain damaged fright

Songs of the neon light
Moon shines over Italia too
Songs of the peace
Moon river flows on through

Songs of the Buckle
Moon across the sea
Songs of the stars
Moon soon to be rocking thee

Songs of the ghosts
Moon in my mind
Songs of the harvest
Moon in blood red we do find . . .

Jason, poem.
February 2024

Thank you to all our performers singing songs of the moon; namely Lisa & Jason, Lance, Manus & Hugh, Kat Black & Mr White, Simon Joslin, Brenda, Colin, John Stephens, Milton Hide, Frank, Laura, Mike, Emma, Chris, Heather, and Olly.



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Hosted by Heather

“Heather’s Night”:
​ Poem by Jason, January 2024

Laying down the supporting ground
We hear the country bar room girls
Dangerous moonlight not like Frankie Vaughan
He leads us into his deep psyche swirl

Needing love as light as a little wing
Guitars weave around in the air
Cats Cradle created by us as we sing
South Eastern Breeze glides above us so fair

Sunshine sings to us all once more
Blockheaded rhythm raises many smiles
Ashes to Ashes as they fall to the floor
Remember a friend on a park bench and so many miles

Tango old man you are forever young
Angels illusions in your rocking lullabies
Will you still love me in the Summertime
Or love me tender as the Moon River cries

And so much tragedy all over just a pie
This is but another local tale of woe
But we must spread love and joy until we cry
And sing these songs, so forever we go . . .


.

Hosted by Ella

Through wind rain and water we assembled for the first F&B Open Mic evening of 2024. Happy New Year everyone and looking forward to brighter and better times.

Unlike the large Christmas gathering, we were a much smaller group of performers, and so we all had the opportunity to sing a third song. I opened the session accompanying myself on bouzouki singing (Down by) Black Waterside, a traditional folk song probably originating from the River Blackwater area of Northern Ireland. I heard this many, many years ago on an album by Bert Jansch. I followed this with Patty Griffin’s ‘Truth’. My third song was Joni Mitchell’s positive and upbeat ‘Carey’.

Lance, who also spent most of the evening behind the sound desk came forward also to sing about a River, ‘The Old River’, but this was about growing up in East Southampton in the post-war boom and observing the many changes since that time. His second song was ‘Hot Summer Day’ with skylarks, fishing and enjoying the shade. (Hard to imagine at this moment!). His final song for the evening was ‘Black Lives Matter’.

We missed Simon on the last session of the year because with so many performers, we ran out of time for everyone to sing. I was so looking forward to his ‘God’s Christmas Card’ and ‘Too much Snow if You Get my Drift’. We got to hear them both this evening. God’s Christmas Card was Simon’s third song later on, but to follow the snowy song with the high chill factor and advice to stay in front of the fire  he sang a Percy Sledge song ‘What am I living For’ (if not for you, nobody else will do) with Frank on harmonica.

Jason sat at the mic to sing ‘Another Year, Another Song’, ….. ‘his young girl looked the same ….. but get out of that cage … loving you once again’ with a bluesy ending. Jason enjoys a long ‘outro’. He was performing solo this evening but his second song, ‘Sing through the Barbed Wire’ was co-written with Lisa. The song was about persecuted people and how ‘Live and love’ as we are taught should allow them to ‘Rise to the top of the sky… fly agelessly … for centuries she’s burned … It’s always the darkest hour before the dawn’. His third song was a Doors cover: Wintertime Love and a really lovely song it was.

Chris was reconnecting with his past and sang a couple of songs that were written pre-Heather where he was looking for ‘Something to Believe’, then ‘Paper Wings’ (4 years before Heather) where he ‘watched her fly away’. His last song was a rocking version of ‘Toast for One’ with support from Heather.

Mike followed with some fancy blues guitar that lead into ‘Come in My Kitchen’ .. ‘it’s going to be rainin’ outdoors, a Robert Johnson song released in 1937. Van Morrison’s ‘Brown Eyed Girl’ (30 years younger, released in 1967) came next and there was audience participation on the Sha La La Las. His final song had him reminiscing about Keith, someone who had come along to a restaurant with a different show-girl every time. The memory took us into a Bread song written by David Gates: ‘Here comes the waiter with a bill on the tray, life can be so hard at times, hard to succeed but easy to fail…’ I didn’t actually get the title. Apologies.

It’s a glum time of year for Heather because of the need to pay taxes… and the weather doesn’t help! (Well the weather has been miserable, stormy and exceedingly wet.) She sang a Lindisfarne’s ‘Wintersong’ about giving a thought for Jesus, the homeless…. When winter comes howling in’. It was sing-along time again with Mary Hopkin’s song from 1968:  ‘Those were the days’ and her final song was the Carole King song made famous by James Taylor: ‘You’ve got a friend’.

Frank plugged into his new effects pedal (which produced a lot of reverb) and sang Dylan’s ‘You’re a Big Girl Now’. With support on three chords by Jason and a bit of tambourine from myself, Frank went into another Dylan song: ‘Shelter from the storm’. This song has many verses, possibly as many as ten, but of course it is a good story with a great number of words. His last song was ‘Walk Away Renee’ released by The Four Tops in 1967.

Emma’s sister visited the club last year and performed a clog dance which has apparently reached half a million views on Face Book. That might be just a few more views than anything else performed at the Six Bell Folk and Blues Club. Accompanying herself on yukele, Emma delivered her spoken song/poem ‘I don’t Believe in Christmas Anymore’ and drew attention to the overt commercialism and that at a time when Peace and Love figure strongly in the Christmas message it appears to have little influence on the many wars going on. She mentioned the Middle East in particular 10 -12 years ago, because then, as now there was suffering bloodshed and war: ‘Children still suffer in Bethlehem … on and on they lie about Christmas’. Listing the current warzones and conflicts around the world she asks ‘How can they believe in Christmas anymore?’ She followed this with her wry poem about weight issues and dieting: ‘When I’ve finished those doughnuts I’ll think about trying’…… I’m a victim of culture, I’m not fat!’. Her final poem of the evening was a bit of ‘baa-humbug’ : ‘Christmas List’. This contained all manner of gifts she might chose to send to irritating people, with concepts including cat-poo cake for the neighbour and a rottweiler as a gift to sort out the mountainous quantity of ingredients for said cake by dealing with the number of cats creating it. As the title suggests, there was a list of delightful gifts for the neighbours. She really had us laughing.

Manus with his baritone guitar delivered his version of ‘Woodstock’ by Joni Mitchell, It was written for piano but worked well with the depth of sound produced by this unusual guitar accompaniment. The mood was more contemplative as he sang ‘The Serenity Prayer’. This prayer was used in the YWCA in the 1930s and became the default prayer of Alcoholics Anonymous in the 1940s: ‘God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference’. It was written by the American Protestant theologian and scholar Reinhold Niebuhr in the early 1930s. It has appeared in many religious/spiritual and secular contexts, and has been used and quoted in many different places by many people for providing comfort and hope. In the 1960s it became widely used on cards and far more widely known. Manus finished the evening with ‘Singing the Blues’ where everything’s wrong and nothing ain’t right without you ….’ A rock and roll song released in 1956 by Tommy Steele.

As usual, we had a very eclectic selection of performers and performances which is the very spirit of the Six Bells Folk and Blues Club as it was established and nurtured by Chris Mansell, sadly no longer with us, but permanently remembered in the legacy of the club and also in the shape of a photograph now hanging on the wall.
Thank you all for coming out on this wild evening, and especially to Jason who, as usual, rocks up and gets everything set up and to Lance for manning the desk for most of the evening.
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See you all soon, Ella