Marlow Bottom Acoustic Club

Marlow FM are broadcasting on real FM (rather than just the internet) in the weeks around the Marlow Regatta.

The 'Folk and World' show is 3 hours long in this period, 18:00-21:00 on Saturdays. Andy and Paul intend to feature live music each week. The first show was on the 30th and featured Kerraleigh and Martin, Dick, Fred and Martin, all playing live from the studio at The Two Brewers.

Tune in to 87.8 (if you're in the Marlow area) or visit www.marlowfm.co.uk on the next few Saturdays to hear more of our regulars.

There are only ever a few other people at The Pegasus on a Wednesday. So it proved this week. However, the few people there had come to watch the Champions' League final. Some serious drowning of sorrows was indulged in after Manchester United lost.

We were just about were able to brave the background TV noise with occasional swearing at the referee. It was less tolerable when it turned into a football crowd version of Kumbaya. Needless to say, we'll be careful to avoid The Pegasus on future football evenings.

The antics provoked a few ripostes: Empty Vessels Make The Most Noise from Bob, All Things Are Quite Silent from Dick and Rough Justice from John.

We hadn't seen Patrick for while, so it was good to hear his own songs No Star Hotel, Pat Pong Girl and Road to Mandalay.

Martin's back from university for the summer. He had no trouble being heard over the background noise. His songs were 11am (Incubus), Sugar Rush (Ian Siegal), Love Ballad (Bill Bailey), Into the Flood Again (Alice in Chains).

Just to test whether I can type the special Nordic characters, Fred gave us Bukkehøn Shallingen, Bestefars Gangar Från Bø and (less of a challenge to type) Cam Ye O'er Frae France.

Other songs and tunes were:

Rosie and I: Off To California, Captain Byng/Peg Ryans/Maids of Ardagh, It's Too Late (Carole King), You Go To My Head (recorded definitively in 1938 by Billie Holiday and excruciatingly in 1975 by Bryan Ferry)
Dick: Bring Us a Barrel, Teenage Cremation, Billy Is The Lad
Steve: Across The Great Divide
Delia: Bonny Labouring Boy, Making Rum, Hard Times Come Again No More
Stuart: Old Game Cock, Carrion Crow
Bob: Twisted Fairground (Bob), Just A Little Bowl, Summertime (Gershwin)
Simon: Jenny Lind
John: Sister Josephine (Jake Thackray)

We'll be at The Belle Vue in Wycombe next week. As usual there, I'll set up the amplification and couple of mics.

Wednesday happened to be Steve's birthday. Naturally he was regaled with a rendition of Happy Birthday. Steve himself sang First Came to Caledonia and Black Velvet Band

It was good to welcome Richard to The Old Ship. With his accordion, he gave us Drew My Ship Into The Harbour, Bold Riley and Poor Tom Long. As always, he joined in with everyone's tunes on the whistle.

We had a couple of contrasting John Lennon songs. Gerry sang Julia from The White Album and Rosie sang Crippled Inside from Imagine.

Other songs and tunes were:

Dave: Oyster Girl/Isabella, Northern Lights, Hop Picking Song (a new one) and Civil War
Dick: Bring Us A Barrel, Ben Hall, Let Union Be
Rosie and I: Teahan's Favourite/Maggie In the Woods, Blame It On The Sun (Stevie Wonder), Everybody's Crying Mercy (Mose Allison), Rakes of Kildare/Tenpenny Bit (AKA Am jigs)
Me: Stuart's Hornpipe
Delia: Faraway Town, Sad When The Great Old Ship Went Down, Keep You in Peace 'Til We Meet Again
Stuart: London Town ('Up to the jigs')
Gerry: Love Will Keep Us Alive (popularised by The Eagles), Cathy's Song (Paul Simon)
Simon: Rig-a-jig/Any Jig Will Do, Time To Ring Some Changes
John: Grey Funnel Line, Rare Old Times

We'll be at The Pegasus in Marlow Bottom on Wednesday 27th. There's plenty of space, so do join us.

This was one of those evenings in which the tendency to forget words or lose the tune spread around the room. Nevertheless, we had a fun and convivial evening.

Dick, now one week into his 71st year, wore the much-admired cardigan that Rosie knitted him for this birthday. Rosie tells me that she'd be happy to knit similar cardigans for others if she's provided with the wool and the zip!

Dick sang Let Union Be, Walking Your Bulldog and Bank of Sweet Primroses. Rosie didn't get the chance to sing last week, so she sang Fair Rosamund for Dick this week.

As always, Dave H sang his own songs - this week's offerings were The Albatross and The Age Of Steam. We also had originals from Steve (Island) and Dave F (The Rainbow).

There was a sequence of American songs. Steve Earle's My Old Friend the Blues from Rosie and me, Jesse Colin Young's Darkness Darkness from Alison (apparently, during the Vietnam War this was considered an "anthem" to the soldiers for it described what they felt while in the jungles), Red Clay Halo from Dave F and Across the Great Divide from Steve.

This week's left-field contributions were The Verve's The Drugs Don't Work from Gerry and the theme song from Ring Of Bright Water from Dave F. This was sung on the film soundtrack by Val Doonican, who probably doesn't get classified as 'left-field' or alongside The Verve very often. Maybe he'd like to add one of Rosie's cardigans to his collection.

Other songs and tunes were:

Rosie and I: White Petticoat / Out On The Ocean, If Love Is a Red Dress, Mazurkas
Me: Lord Inchquin
Alison and David: Up And Down The Valley, Long Time Travelling
Steve: Sweet Music
Dave H: Speed The Plough, Blue Eyed Stranger
Delia: None But Angels Touch You, Where Ravens Feed
Stuart: Eastpark Side on the concertina, Tavistock Goosey Fair
Gerry: John Denver's Sunshine On My Shoulders
Simon: I Have Been A Rambling, Shepherd's Hey (preceded by a song mentioning the tune)
John: a parody by Richard Littlejohn of Times They Are A Changing on the theme of MPs expenses

Dick very sensibly realised we would be celebrating and he dressed accordingly! However, he had no idea that so many people would be there and was absolutely bowled over by the occasion. After welcoming some of his family and some friends he hadn’t seen for a few months, Dick started off the evening with one of his wonderful chorus songs. This was followed by the inimitable Pearl O’Neal, singing the wonderful parody “She Weighs 16 Stone”. We had some great tunes led by Dave Coates and it was wonderful to hear Martin’s fiddle again. Den and Pete did some great choruses and Craig gave us some great blues guitar. I wasn’t taking notes and was rather occupied so can’t remember what everyone else sang exactly!

We returned to Dick several times during the evening for more of his wonderful songs and had to tell him to sing Bring Us A Barrel so we could bring out his birthday cake – when you see the photos you’ll understand why – it did make Dick smile! Many thanks indeed to Den for providing the barrel cake.

The singing continued while people began to munch the sandwiches, pork pies, drumsticks and crispy things. I hope most people managed to have some of the food - it went down well as we had some very favourable comments and were left with next to nothing.

Dick then opened his presents and cards. Some more rousing choruses followed. I think everyone would agree we had a fantastic evening of singing and playing and it was wonderful for Dick to have so many friends come along. Thankyou everyone who came and made it a special evening.

Apologies for those people whose names I’m not sure of but he attendees were (going round the room order, approximately):

Dick
Karen and Roger
Glen Johnston
Kitty Vernon
Helen Akitt
Jim
Pat and Craig
Alan and Rosie
Clive & partner
Stuart and Delia
Micca
Malcolm Austen
Linda and Ken
Steve and Jennifer
Hilary
Dave and Norma
Brain and Jacqui
Martin
Terry
Chris and Dave Coates
Den and Pete
Tony and Pearl O’Neil
Judith Inman
Simon
Alison and David Fenner
Richard
Fred & Josie & Jenny
Melodeon Roger and wife
Chris and Pearl Evans
Stuart Walker
John Crosby
Johnny Seabrook
Dick’s nephew and neice, and 2 others
Pete?

More photos can be seen at: http://picasaweb.google.com/MarlowBottom.AcousticClub/DickS70thBirthday?feat=directlink

Some of the songs were:-

Sweet Thames Flow Softly
Mary Ellen Carter
Micca’s parody of I Like To Rise
Rolling Down The River
Ready For The Storm
An Old Man Came Courtin’ Me
Have You Got Any News of the Iceberg
As Long As You’re Able to Wind Up Me Clock
Union Miners
Cock A Doodle Doo

Dick Frost has been a stalwart of the club since it started as Wycombe Folk Club in 1965. We couldn't let the Wednesday of the week containing his 70th birthday pass without marking it somehow.

We've arranged to be at The Pegasus, which is the biggest of our venues, and hope that plenty of people from the folk world who know Dick will join us for the evening.

Karen has negotiated a special price for the beer (usually over £3 here), arranged a cake and will organise some nibbles. We'll run the evening pretty much as usual, with everyone getting a chance to sing or play. But (apart from Dick) we may not get many turns each. We usually advertise a start time of 8:30, but don't start properly until significantly after that. We really will attempt to start promptly this week, so please arrive early.

Naturally, you'll be very welcome even if you don't know Dick.

PS Dick doesn't know about this, and is unlikely to come across this web site! It would be nice for it to be a surprise.