We had three people perform original songs this week.

• David F doesn’t sing his own material often enough IMO, so it was great to hear Gone Too Long for Returning again. According to my reckoning it’s only the third time he’d sung it at the club.
• Martin B has aired a few of his own recently – this evening’s as Walk Barefoot in the Sand and was particularly good.
• As usual, Dave H’s songs were self-penned. The Little Sardine is a newish one, and was a big success last time he played it The Dog & Badger and was again this evening. The excellent lyrics are below.

THE LITTLE SARDINE

Protesters with banners they shout and they hail
Save the Panda the Tiger and Orca the Whale
Conservation symbol is only a dream
No-one gives a sod for the little Sardine
Silvery shoals we glint in the sun
In formation we look as though we are one
The net has just snagged and come undone
So swim for the hole and let's have some fun
The skipper is swearing and cursing the boat
The propeller has just wrapped itself round a rope
To finish it nicely would be hope upon hope
That a sardine bone gets stuck in his throat

CHORUS

Our cousins and us we all share the same fate
Anchovy, Pilchard, Sardine and White Bait
Rectangular tin with a best before date
Always the starter, not on the main plate
Tomato juice, olive oil, like Sardines we're packed in
Headless, boneless, without any skin
Final humiliation, you just-cannot win
They solder the key to the lid on the tin

CHORUS

Of all the fish that live in the sea
The salmon is king I think you'll agree
Then someone discovered Omega 3
And that put us right back on the top of the tree
Folk clubs the world over you can say without fail
There'll be a bloody song on hunting the whale
Stormy seas, shipwrecks and fighting the gale
Not one Sardine song will ever prevail

CHORUS

Sardine, Anchovy and Pilchard and that
All wonder what kind of sarcastic pratt
Collectively lumped us all up as a sprat
Something you find in some mangy old cat
So high street supermarket, wherever the place
When a conservation box is rammed in your face
Searching for change, not to look mean
Ask how much of this for the little Sardine.

CHORUS

Other highlights of the evening (in round-the-table order) were:

• the always-good Limehouse Lass from Dick
• Mose Allison’s Everybody’s Crying Mercy from Rosie and me
• Song for Ireland from Debbie
• Tony’s song about God arriving for afternoon tea
• Martin’s version of Drifting Blues
• You Win Again (the Jerry Lee Lewis blues-style song, not the Bee Gees one) from Alison, David & Simon, featuring some guitar wizardry from Mr Fenner, taking advantage of the action on a certain Martin guitar

We’re at The Belle Vue next week. Holidays made the attendance a bit sparse last time there, so let’s make a good effort this time!