Thursday, April 30, 2009

Around the World with Havering Folk Club

Last night at Havering Folk Club we were treated to songs and tunes from many different countries, which is not unusual by any means. In the past we've had songs from Russia, New Zealand, Argentina and Scandinavia to name but a few places I can recall.

So having finished the evening the week before, I got to kick off proceedings this week and decided to play one intrumental - Andy Roberts Narrow Boats followed by a song in French by Maxime le Forestier from the 1970s which I've played once before:

San Francisco



The theme of foreign language and world tunes continued with Peter Waters singing some opera songs in Italian, some Spanish guitar tunes from Smolowik gigs and reels from the Orkneys and something from Sweden.

Thursday, April 23, 2009

St Georges Day at Havering Folk Club

St Georges Day



St George is the patron saint of England who probably only ever existed in legend but since the pub chain owners decided to try and extend the increased sales seen during St Patrick's Day to other similarly themed events St George and his flag have seen quite a bit more attention in recent years.

Havering Folk Club



Havering Folk Club likes to celebrate these sort of regional calendar events too, hence mentions of St Pirans day last month although I don't recall making much fuss of St David but then what can you do.

So the Golden Lion pub in Romford where Havering Folk Club meets every Wednesday at eight had an enormous number of England flags up yesterday even though St Georges Day is actually today and the new landlord is Irish.

I've been enjoying playing my Chinese Lute or Ruan recently so I decided to take that instrument along for the second time. I'd been asked about it as well. I didn't really want to do an instrumental and I only know one or two songs but didn't let that deter me. Three chords is enough for thousands of folk songs!

Truro Agricultural Show



I've sung the Truro Agericultural song before, twice in fact but not on the Chinese lute so that's a late inclusion for St Piran's day on the day before St George's. I think I even managed to get all the right animals in the right order too.

When an Old Cricketer Leaves the Crease



When an Old Cricketer Leaves the Crease is a famous single by Roy Harper, the greatest Living Englishman. The Stormcock list decided that Roy Harper could wear that title , previously occupied by Vivian Stanshall before he died in a bizarre smoking in bed accident. Anyway I thought When an Old Cricketer sounded quite good with the underplayed gentle Ruan string melody in place of the usual twangy guitar sound.


Goodnight Irene



After the break there was just enough time for a few people to do a third song and my turn was squeezed in right at the end so I had little choice but to play Goodnight Irene Irene Goodnight - making the chords up as I went along but who cares at that time of night?

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Havering Folk Club Open Night

Another Open Night session last night at Havering Folk Club and I played quite late on in the proceedings but refrained from singing in French as I am want to do after a few pints.

Instead I previewed a rediscovered old song of mine for which the chords had been lost but now they are found. The song is called "Now that I'm Living Here" and here is the 1980 version on Last.fm:

Now That I'm Living Here - Andy Roberts or maybe it's just called Living Here

Then there was a repeat of Bob Dylan's 'Mozambique" from the Desire album. Here the video from the previous time I played that one.





Saturday, April 11, 2009

Rest Week

Well, after the build up to Andy Roberts night at Havering Folk Club and then the event itself last week, I felt it best to have a week off and be able to go along and enjoy a quiet evening without even thinking about what I might play. So that made a change. The idea of turning up without singing seemed to baffle some of the other regulars :-)

I was pleasantly surprised that the DVD of last week produced by Peter Walters was ready for my collection and I've watched most of it in order to see which songs might be good enough to extract and put up on youTube.


Thursday, April 02, 2009

Setlist 1st April Andy Roberts Night - Havering Folk Club

Here's the final setlist of songs that ended up included in the performance last night at Havering Folk Club:

Setlist Part One

All songs by Andy Roberts

1) Time for the music
2) Shifting Sands
3) Cormorants / London Bridge
4) The Wreckers Prayer
5) Sitting On Top Of The World
6) Onions
7) Blue
8) Gernika

Break.

Setlist Part Two

1) Memphis Tennessee - Chuck Berry
2) Down Drinking at the Bar - Loudon Wainwright
3) The Same Old Rock - Roy Harper
4) Mondura Dam - Andy Roberts
5) Wrecked Again - Michael Chapman
6) Captain Coulston - Trad arr Steeleye Span, Andy Roberts
7 Goodnight Irene - Trad, Leadbelly
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