Oceans 11 at the Dog & Badger

22:02

Wednesday Oct 20th saw one of the smallest gatherings of Marlow Bottom Acoustic for a long time. I got there about 8 pm, and was surprised to be the first; it got to about 8:40,and I thought that I'd somehow got the wrong night or the wrong venue, until at last,to my great relief Dave & Norma turned up, followed by Dick. Then Stuart & Delia arrived, followed by Terry, so we had just enough to get started.

I suggested to Dick that rousing chorus songs might not be well supported, so he kicked off with the lovely "Go From My Window", after a "warm up" & tuning session of "Seven Stars; Oyster Girl; The Princess Royal, and Young Collins" led by Dave H.

Delia then sang "Three Sisters", by which time not only Ian, but Dave F, Alison and Simon had swelled our numbers, but that was to be the final total -- 3 couples and 5 solos!! Stuart continued with "The Smugglers Boy", after which Simon, Alison & David ( SAD ??) warmed up with "The Galway Girl"( Arr. Diegan).

The exciting new guitar duo of Dave F and ..er..yours truly, having rehearsed at Chez Roger the previous evening, tried to please with the lilting "Onwards & Upwards" which I struggled with, having forgotten how to play the B part!

Spurred on by someone's oblique reference to winkles (the shellfish), Terry performed the humourous "Winkle Song" which engendered some subsequent ribaldry. Dave sang "Changing Time", Alison "Keep From Singing" and Ian his song about the perils of piracy, "Flying Cloud".

Dick, it having got back to him rather swiftly, sang "I Drew My Ship", followed by Simon's rendition of "Old Brown Hat", which elicited yet more ribaldry. Delia and Stuart concertina-duetted with "The Queen's Birthday" and "Royal Oak", followed by the Fenner Trio performing "Poor Struggler" and "Far From Home", with which latter many of us joined in, to the approval of our "audience" of four diners !

It having got back to Terry, he sang the very topical "October Song", which Ian followed with "Through Moorfields" or "Through More Fields" ( dunno !). At Norma's request, I then led the multitude in "Le Canal En Octobre", again very topical, although still no mention of Nelson (I had forgotten myself, even!).

Back to the new guitar duo; David and I played our arrangement of "Merrily Kiss The Quaker" and "The Gander In The Pratie Hole", which went down rather well, I felt. Dick sang of "Sweet Primroses", Delia tried "Blow The Wind Southerly", although some of us were singing "Breaking Wind Suddenly", but I don't think she noticed! Simon gave us "Widecombe Fair", after which he was joined by Alison and Dave for "Time To Ring Some Changes", leaving Ian to close a surprisingly (given the numbers) pleasant and cosy evening for us and (apparently!) our lovely four-strong audience, with "Nancy Of Yarmouth".

[NB: An addition from me, to Roger's blog:- Apologies from Karen, who was at a colleague's leaving do, and Alan and Rosie who were holidaying in foreign climes. Also, Karen has spoken to Geraldine to find that John is fine but very busy with all his other musical commitments, including making scenery and practising for a televised event which we look forward to watching over the Xmas period. See you all next week at the prince Albert, Karen]

You Might Also Like

0 comments

Subscribe