Marlow Bottom Acoustic Club

Nigel is a regular at The Prince Albert and has been at the bar when we’ve been there before. We heard him sing this week – he gave us a fine rendition of Chastity Belt . We hope to hear more in a similar vein on our future visits.

We hadn’t seen John for a while and were pleased to hear a couple of songs from his usual repertoire – Ghost Riders In The Sky and Don’t Slay That Potato. His final number was English Ale which we used to hear occasionally from John Wilson. It’s a fitting song for the Prince Albert, where the Brakspears is always well kept.

Gerry warned us that he’s just discovered Dougie MacLean and that we should expect to hear several of his songs in coming months. He sang two this evening: Rolling Home and Sailing to Australia. At Karen’s request, he finished with his fine version of The Killer’s Human.

Other numbers were:

Dick: Let Union Be, Turkish Men of War, Twas On One April Morning
Karen and Roger: Waltzing For Dreamers (Richard Thompson), Give Yourself To Love (Kate Wolf)
Roger and Richard: Shebag Sheemore
Rosie and me: Valse Eric Rocher, I’ll Fly Away, The Weakness In Me (Joan Armatrading), Am jigs
Me and Richard: My Darling Asleep
Rosie: The Unlaid Maid (Kipper Family)
Richard: Lord Inchquin / Hewlett, Blind May / Humours of Trim (AKA Rolling Waves), My Lady Collins’ Delight / Lusty Gallant
Simon: Lass of Richmond Hill / Prince Albert, Always to Galway, Oranges in Bloom

We’re at The Belle Vue in Wycombe next week and, as usual there, I’ll set up the amp and a couple of mics for those that want to use them.

Another busy night with:-

Some regulars – in order of their first visit to the club (previously known as Wycombe Folk Club) - Dick (1960s), France (1970s), Karen (1970s), Bob (1990s?), Alan and Rosie (2004), Roger (2005 – the year we met him at Dave Newson’s 50th birthday), Simon (2007/8?), Fred (2008), and David and Alison Fenner (unknown - they may well have visited the club when it was in Wycombe as they were performing probably 1980s or earlier – perhaps they could let us know when they first came to the club)

Some occasional visitors – Andy Fowler from Marlow FM Radio, Jacqui Morde from Maine, Richard Lloyd and Andy Hodeg from the other side of High Wycombe,

Some new visitors Chris Knott from Flackwell Heath and Richard Bowkee from Hayes, two old school friends who have recently got together again via the power of the internet.

Not quite sure how to class Terry as he’s becoming a bit of a regular!

As Andy had brought his new recorder we all squashed into the quieter restaurant area away from the handful of customers in the main bar. We look forward to hearing the recordings in due course. And many thanks to Andy for the very kind gifts to thank people for playing for their live radio shows in June this year. Andy told us that they are running a live music festival in Riley's Park, Marlow (behind Waitrose) on Sat 12th September, which will include a variety of music from locals, (including MBAC) and internationally known bands. We hope the radio station's application for a 5 year FM license will be successful.

As usual there was a wonderful eclectic mix of numbers:-

Tunes (with some excellent joining in):-

My Love She’s a Lassie Yet/ Tenpenny Bit (Simon, melodeon)
Kerry Polkas, Some Tunes x 2 (Rosie and Alan, melodeon, concertina & guitar)
Orsa Kyrka (Orsa Church) and Valley of Silence (Fred, whistles)
Jack Robinson (Roger on Harmonica)
Pleraca Fanny Ni Poer (France on harp & Roger on guitar)

Songs in various loose genres

Country – Great Divide (Kate Wolf), Speed of Loneliness (John Prine), I’ve Waited As Long As I Can (Tony Rice), Heavenly Houseboat Blues (by Van Zandt Townes who wrote the wonderful Pancho and Lefty)

Traditional & Modern Folk – Daddy Fox, Unquiet Grave, Singing Bird, Little Sparrow, Little Pot Stove, Pulling Down Song, I Wish I Was in London, Bonny Light Horseman, Carrickfergus, Banks of Sweet Roses

Modern & Almost Modern – Dido’s My Love Has Gone, Donovan’s Intergalactic Laxative, Richard Thompson’s King of Bohemia, Leon Rosselson’s Ant and the Grasshopper, Tom Robinson’s Martin

Golden Oldies – You Go To My Head (Coots, J. Fred; Gillespie, Haven), Delia’s Gone (Bobby Bare), Old Kent Road (Albert Chevalier/Charles Ingle)

Self-penned – You Can’t Stop the Music (Fred), Shoreline (Chris Knott)


Next week we are at The Prince Albert at Frieth, and the first week of August we will be at The Belle Vue in High Wycombe.

We were pleased to see that no-one had brought a karaoke set-up to The Old Ship this week.

I’m writing the blog while watching highlights from the T in The Park festival on the BBC iPlayer and shortly after talking to Rosie, who’s somewhat damp at the Latitude festival. These rock festivals have themed stages, so here’s an account of Wednesday’s session in the rock festival style.

On the Dining Stage (most of us squeezed around the table by the window, but Sheila overflowed into the dining area):

• Sheila: Kipling’s If (to her own tune), Beating of My Own Heart and Pete Scott’s Eddy’s Dead

On the ‘Flying Solo’ Stage, we had:

• Dick: Innocent Hare, Let Union Be, Fatal Glass of Beer,
• Ian: Jim Jones to Botany Bay, Three Jolly Rogues Together, Died of Silicosis
• Delia: Sweet Polly Oliver

On the ‘Pull and Push Stage were:

• Stuart and Delia: The Queen’s Birthday as a concertina duet - quiet an achievement so soon after taking up the instrument
• Stuart: Edinburgh Lass/Penny on the Water on concertina
  
• Rosie and me: O’Carolan’s Dream on concertina, Silver Spear/Sally Gardens on melodeon
  
• Simon: Princess Royal, Shepherd’s Hey on melodeon
  
• Roger: Upton Stick Dance on harmonica (more suck and blow than pull and push)

On the ‘Songs of the Singer-Song-writers’ Stage:

• Rosie and me: Angie Baby (Helen Reddy), Blame It On The Sun (Steve Wonder), So Far Away (Carol King) – these were all left over from our gig at the brewery on Tuesday when it poured with rain. Martin’s set was going down so well with the 30 people who’d invaded the stage (i.e. gazebo) to avoid the rain, that we let him carry on.
• Gerry: Shower the People (James Taylor), Galway to Gracelands (Richard Thompson) – the latter also left over from Tuesday
• Bob: Nothing Happened Here (Bob – in very good company)

On the ‘Songs from the folk-singers’ Stage:

• Bob: Loving Hannah, Maddy Groves
• Karen and Roger: Cloghinne Winds, When I’m Gone
• Simon: Year Turns Round Again (John Tams)

On the Rock Star stage:

• Martin: Stranger Thing Have Happened (Foo Fighters), Message in a Bottle (The Police), Daddy Don’t Live in New Year City No More (Steely Dan) - Karen's request for Rikki Don't Lose That Number is held over for another week before Martin's return to Derby

We’re at The Pegasus in Marlow Bottom next week. Andy and Paul from Marlow FM will be there, perhaps with the station’s new MP3 recorder. So bring your Sunday Best material!

We were very pleased to hear that Rebellion raised over £19,500 for the Scanappeal. Thankyou to all those from Marlow Bottom Acoustic Club who helped, practised and performed on the Saturday.

Alan and Rosie were away in Oregon, Steve and Jennifer were getting ready for their holiday, some other regulars were busy with other things, but 9 of us managed to entertain ourselves and some customers at The Prince Albert.

We were pleased to see Bob after his operation and glad to hear that his playing was as good as ever. We were also pleased to welcome Ian Pedley who has visited the club in the past but has now moved nearer us, so we hope to see more of him in the future. We were expecting someone called Robert Brown from Ipswich who had phoned the pub and said he would be arriving a little late, but he didn't appear and we hope all is well with him.

Apart from singing and some banter we enjoyed eating some Mint Cake that Alan had donated to the raffle - sorry Alan! Delia drew the raffle and therefore, as predicted, also won the raffle. She choose a CD - Leige and Leaf by Fairport Convention.

Dick started the evening with a tribute to Johnny Collins who he had known since the 1960s and who died a few days ago, by singing a song he had learnt from Johnny - Let Union Be.

We had several other unaccompanied songs:- Trubshaw's Bold Hussair, (a Staffordshire song which is where Ian came from), Go from My window, Messing About on the River, Ratcliffe Highway, Saying Goodbye to the Sea,, John's Ghost Riders parody answer phone message, Teenage Cremation, A Pint of Old Peculiar, I Like to Rise, Tobacco is An Indian Weed, Newlyn Town, and Wild Rover to the tune of Ghost Rider's in the Sky.

Accompanied songs were:- Dougie MacLean's Sailing to Australia and This Love Will Carry, Walk on the Sea (written by a Lindisfarne member), John Mitchel, Waltzing's For Dreamers, Fire and Rain, No Words (Bob's own), Human (The Killers), The Farmer (another of Bob's songs), and Follow the Heron Home.

Tunes / instrumentals were:- Delia and Stuart's concertina duet The Queen's Birthday (a Playford tune), The Upton Stick Dance (Roger's harmonica), and Killing Me Softly (Gerry's guitar).

Next Wednesday we're at The Old Ship at Cadmore End. Get there early for a seat!

Wednesday 1st July 2009

Seven of us went to Hammersmith Apollo to see Steely Dan which left the club somewhat depleted, but luckily Steve, Gerry, Terry, Dave, Brin, and Dick played and sang at The Belle Vue. We believe there was some rehearsing for the Brewery Open Weekend which some of us were playing at on the Saturday, and everyone had a good time.

Saturday 4th July 2009

The Brewery Open Day went very well, despite Alan and Rosie being in Oregon - Martin stepped into the breach and did a good job setting up the PA. Steve, Roger and Karen opened the afternoon, followed by Fred, Dick, Martin, and Gerry. David, Simon, and Alison finished off the afternoon, and were then persuaded by Karen to sing Bucks Free Press which went down very well. There were a lot of people there, it was very noisy, but the sun shone and everyone seemed to be having a good time. We hope they raised the £10,000 they were aiming for for the local Scan Appeal. Thank you Rebellion Brewery for all your hard work - a very busy weekend for some of us and for the brewery.