At some point, I apparently suggested that it would be a challenge to play Steely Dan sings on the melodeon. So, this evening, David and Simon rose to that challenge to bring us two: My Old School and Pretzel Logic. Not content with that, we also heard The Travelling Wilburys’ Tweeter and The Monkey Man (by Bob Dylan). Unsurprisingly, Simon needed several lyric sheets for this 10-verse song. They also played The Moll In The Wad to balance the ancient and modern somewhat.

We also had something of a Trade Union theme. Dave started this with his own song, Tolpuddle Men. Ian followed with Tommy Armstrong’s Durham Lockout and Andrews Harvey’s ‘Unaccompanied’, reflecting back on the Jarrow march.

Welcome back to Jim, who was apparently something of a regular before heading off on a boating adventure. He sang Toot Toot, a parody of Beep Beep (his horn went beep beep beep). Jim’s version refers to canal boats! He also played a set of tunes, including Marie’s Wedding, on the mandolin.

We also heard:

• Dick: Dido Bendigo, Man In The Moon
• Dave: Oyster Girl / Isabella, the latter being Dave’s own tune named after his and Norma’s granddaughter
• Steve: River Days
• Steve, Karen and me: Pony On A Boat
• Alan and Richard: Valse Eric Rocher
• Karen and Roger: Waltzing For Dreamers, Follow The Heron Home, Here in California
• Karen, Roger and Steve: Oh Cumberland
• Richard: Siobhan Loclan / Melancholy Martin on the low whistle and the music hall song Polly Perkins of Paddington Green
• Bob: The Cuckoo She’s Pretty Bird and Jukebox As She Turned, both on bouzouki

Thanks to Roger, who was also assuming he’d be blogging this week and who donated his notes for the first part of the evening. Apologies for the lateness of this post. I’d hoped to get it done before heading off for a week in Cyprus. Clearly it would have been better if Roger had handled it!