Solent Waves
February 2003 Issue 255
Editorial Material

The FASH Committee wishes you all a peaceful and healthy year in 2003. We hope it will be a good year for folk activities. From the list below it certainly augurs well.

Fo’c’sle Folk Club celebrate their 40th anniversary on the 10th May and are hoping that many old friends will come and join in the celebrations at the ‘Anything Goes’ at The Duke of Wellington, Southampton, on 9th May.

The Railway Folk Club in Southsea was started in 1961, so this is their 42nd year. Sooty Broughton has been running the club since 1968, in various venues and is proud of the fact that the club has a guest every Monday.

Nonsuch Folk Club are now settled in their new home at the Bishops Waltham Social Club and have a loyal following for the Sessions and Singarounds.

And whilst on the subject of singers, Rob Mills has had a good response to his first CD ‘Walk On My Boys’. You can hear a sample at http://www.forest-tracks.co.uk. Rob is a fine traditional folk singer, following in the footsteps of his dad, Bob Mills, who made two cassettes many years ago, ‘Songs of a Hampshire Man’ and ‘Let The Room Be Cheerful’. Bob’s singing is also included on two records, ‘Anthology of English Folk Songs’ and ‘Countryside Calling’, and is on the Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia as a sample of an English ballad.

Solent Country Dance Club had a very successful year in 2002, including two Golden Wedding Anniversaries and a Diamond wedding Anniversary. All three couples are still dancing. In 2003 there is another Golden Wedding Anniversary to celebrate, and, the club celebrates its 30th birthday in September. This is a thriving club of committed dancers.

Beaus of the Park had its 25th anniversary in 2002, and every Monday the hall is filled with very keen dancers under the guidance of Pam Stallworthy.

Waterlooville Folk Dance Group celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2002 and is already planning the Summer Party for 2003. There is a very varied caller list, plenty of variety to suit all tastes, and, Stoney Ridge are booked to play twice this year.

Four Marks Folk Band have completed a very successful second year meeting on the 1st and 3rd Mondays of each month. There are about 40 members and people come from far and wide to play under the guidance of Lawrence Storey. In the year ahead the band are playing charity dances for the National Childbirth Trust, Alton Operatic and Dramatic Society, and Oxfam.

And finally, Winchester Morris Men celebrate their 50th birthday this year. I hope we shall hear more of this at a later date.

Make sure you note the FASH workshops at Soberton in your new diary. John Turner and Alison Ellacott are going American on 9th February and Chris Turner and David Roberts present Mr. Playford’s Visits to New England on 2nd March. These should be great sociable events with good dancing. See you there.

NONE IN A BAR

Back in Solent Waves issue 244 Trevor Gilson provided an article on the Licensing Bill, which is likely to affect many folk activities if it is passed in its current form by requiring buildings to have a Public Entertainment Licence before live music can be performed. David and Lynda Sutton, Swagman and Bagman for Arrowhead Morris, have written to the FASH Chairman, Pam Stallworthy, asking if FASH could ask its members to get involved. I print an edited version below.

Dear Pam,

We feel sure you are aware of the Licensing Bill, presently under consideration by parliament. This very far-reaching and damaging bill as it stands is likely to affect all the display teams who belong to FASH as well as all those who do not. Our own workshops at Soberton will certainly be affected, as I suspect it is unlikely the Hall would be licensed in the way the bill would require. The added cost would almost certainly make these enjoyable events impossibly expensive to stage.

The Morris Federation has been urging us to contact our MPs, the Joint Committee on Human Rights and anyone else who might be able to do something about amending the bill. Could I suggest that our committee urge all members of FASH to write to their MPs, the House of Commons Joint Committee on Human Rights and whoever else they think might be worth contacting? Writing to one’s MP is very easy these days, on-line. By going to the Internet web page www.faxyourmp.com, it is possible to determine who your MP is and the website also gives guidelines on how to address him/her. The organisation behind the web page sends an e-mail to you to confirm that you are who you say, and once you have replied to this (a double mouse click), your fax is sent. You should also be contacted after a couple of weeks to see whether your MP has responded!

Another way you could register a protest is to sign a petition. This can also be done electronically by accessing www.PetitionOnline.com/2inabar. I reproduce the petition below.

We, the undersigned, are concerned that the Licensing Bill proposals to make the performance of live music licensable in pubs and clubs, in places where alcohol is served, in churches, synagogues, mosques and other places of worship, in schools and colleges, in community centres and village and parish halls, and in private homes and gardens where private parties and weddings may be held will have an enormously detrimental effect on musicians and live music performances; fears that the raising of money for charities by musicians will be seriously compromised; consider it will seriously impinge on the folk community including folk music and traditional folk activities such as morris dancing, wassailing, etc; believe that the penalties for breaking the law of a six month jail sentence of a £20,000 fine are far too draconian; consider it grossly unfair and inconsistent that live music will not be licensable in Scotland but will be in England and Wales; regret that the Government has decided to replace the anomalous two in a bar rule with a none in a bar rule which will catch all live music performances; believes that the requirement for the provision of entertainment facilities to become licensable which will ensnare music shops, music and dance studios and teachers, represents a totally unacceptable regulatory intrusion into mainstream activities; and calls on the Government to amend the relevant parts of bill in order to remove the iniquities faced by musicians and the music industry as a whole.

If you don’t have web access, then I suggest you photocopy this page and post it to your MP stating your interest in folk, and your concern about the detrimental effect the bill will have on those that enjoy folk activities.

CHRISTMAS COMPETITION

Last month’s competition set you the task of devising some alternate words for a couple of ‘list’ songs - ‘The Twelve Days of Christmas’, and ‘Green Grow the Rushes-O’. The first two are from Frank Newbold, the third from Dennis Wheeler and Joan Nash sent in a version from her Australian pen friend. Thanks to all who contributed.

On the twelfth day of Christmas my true love went to see,
Twelve Mummers Mumming,
Eleven Singers Humming,
Ten Tankards Brimming,
Nine Ladies Swinging,
Eight Mollymen Stomping,
Seven Dancers Circling,
Six Morrismen Leaping,
Five Bells and Rings,
Four Calling Jigs,
Three Drenched Friends,
Two Mirthful Loves,
And the Morris drinking Freshly Brewed Tea.

I’ll sing you twelve-o, the Green Man’s in the Bushes-o.
What is your twelve-o?
Twelve for the Twelve Fine Throstles,
Eleven for th’Eleven that’s Four and Seven and
Ten for the Ten Romancers.
Nine for the Nine Kite Flyers.
Eight for the Beer Containers.
Seven for the Seven Bars all Run Dry and
Six for the Six Loud Squawkers.
Five for the Cymbals We Adore and
Four for the Midnight Wakers.
Three, Three the Jivers.
Two, Two the Silly Billy Boys, dressed in Jeans and T-shirts-o.
One is One and all alone and evermore shall be so!

On the twelfth day of Christmas the caller called to me,
Star left and right,
Grimstock hey,
Gypsy your partner,
Nine ladies dancing,
Figure eight through twos,
Allemande corner,
Grand chain around,
Do si do
Circle to the right,
Left arm turn,
Right pass through,
And honour your partner!

On the twelfth day of Christmas my true love sent to me,
Twelve Shearers Shearing,
Eleven Sportsmen Running,
Ten Roos A-Leaping,
Nine Emus Eating,
Eight Lifeguards Saving,
Seven Kookas Laughing,
Six Opals Gleaming,
Five Platypus,
Four Koalas,
Three Surfboards,
Two Parakeets,
And a Possum up a Gum Tree.

And for interest’s sake, I reproduce the following extract, which I came across in a recent edition of The Spectator. It is taken from ‘George Lyttelton’s Cornmonplace Book’, edited by James Ramsden (Stone Trough Books, The Old Rectory, Settrington, York, YO17 SNF, Tel 01904 670323 Fax: 01944 768465; £15; pp. 161, ISBN 095295348X).

One: God.
Two: the Lillywhite boys were Christ and John the Baptist.
Three: the arrivals were the three wise men, not ‘the rivals’ as often sung.
Four: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
Five: the symbols at your door, was the five-pointed pentacle on the door at the Passover, or symbols on the stone, i.e. crosses on the altar-stone, the five wounds of Christ.
Six: proud waters (not walkers), the six good water-pots at Cana.
Seven: stars, i.e. star-angels of seven churches of the Apocalypse.
Eight: bold rangers were the eight human beings saved in the Ark.
Nine: bright singers, not shiners, the nine choirs of angels.
Ten: Commandments.
Eleven: apostles without Judas.
Twelve: apostles with Judas.

EDITORIAL

Two items of sad news to impart. Laurie Griffiths, founder member and lead player in Spike Island Band for over twenty years, was tragically killed by a car whilst walking near his home on Saturday 23rd November 2002. Laurie’s funeral was on 30th December and a folk-music evening was held in his memory on 10th January at The Prince Consort. And as I was finalising Solent Waves this month, I learnt that Len Duffner had died after a short illness. Funeral arrangements are on the front page. I am sure that you would wish to join me in sending condolences to their families.

On the club front, I’ve learnt that the Southampton Celtic Music Club (run by Peter Chegwyn) is no more and that the Hampshire Jane Austen Dancers now meet on the 1st and 3rd Wednesdays (not 2nd & 4th). And all tickets for the Yetties concert at the Village Folk Club on 1st February have now been sold.

Lastly, and most importantly, please read the section ‘None in a Bar’ and act on it. Although I included an article on the likely effects of the Licensing Bill a year ago, the problem has continued to fester and looks to becoming a major headache for folkies as well as other musicians. I have already signed the petition electronically and will shortly be contacting my MP. I urge you all to do the same.