St George’s Day at The Old Ship 23 April 2008-04-28

In attendence: Alan, Rosie, Dick (in lovely scarlet cravat), Karen, Dave, Norma, Steve, Jennifer, Roger R, Stuart, Delia, Sally, Richard, Jackie, John.

A dozen of us enjoyed a fabulous meal of mostly traditional English food, and puddings – mostly sticky date pudding. Richard thought we’d “never sing after that pudding”, but we proved him wrong! After the opening tune of Oyster Girl, Dick launched us into Drink Old England Dry followed by Greensleeves led by Ricjard, and River Days led by Steve, all enabling stirring choruses which some of the other diners in the restaurant area joined in with. This set the English tone for the evening which continued with fabulous renditions of songs connected with England:

Songs (singer, and author where known, in brackets), which you will see were mostly well-chosen for St George’s Day, ranging from traditional English to contemporary songs on English themes:

Sir Francis Drake (Stuart & Delia)
The British Grenadiers (Delia)
New England (Rosie, Billy Bragg)
Land of Hope and Glory (John)
Old Kent Road (Richard)
Limehouse Lass (Dick)
Northern Geordie England (Dave, Dave Heath)
Cornish Lads (karen & Steve, Jon Heslop)
The Crusades – all about flying the flag of St George (Dave, Dave Heath)
Jerusalem (John)
Geordie (Karen)
Blue Muslin (Stuary and Delia, Rev Baring Gold)
Lovely Joan (Rosie & Alan)
Bring Us A Barrel (Dick)
A-Roving (Roger)
The Blacksmith (Karen & Steve)
Lovely Nancy Untippled (Roger, a parody of Fiddlers Green)
Watercress Girl (Rosie & Alan)
Country Life (Steve)
Witches Promise (Rosie & Alan, Jethro Tull)
Five Pounds (Steve, Les Sullivan)
Smoking & Drinking (Dave, Dave Heath)

Poem:
English Teeth (Richard, Spike Milligan) (very fitting, thankyou Richard)

Tunes:
Three Around Three
Off She Goes
Sportsman’s Hornpipe
Plymouth, Outward Bound

I may have missed the odd song or tune so apologies to anyone I missed out.

Next week we are at TJ O’Reilly’s, where at least we have room for more people.

Dick has told us it is “Devil’s Night” as it is the May New Year the following Day. Roger R will be at Forty Green at 5:30 am the following morning, dancing with the Morris Men followed by a cooked breakfast. Karen will be singing her song about the Devil and his wicked way with a lady or two (bold Deacon), so any other songs on the Devil would be most welcome.