2024 Reports

With it being May, my thoughts drifted away from the reality of the soggy cold spring we have endured, to dreams of forthcoming holidays by the sea. I therefore chose “Sea Songs for the theme of our folk club of May 2nd, 2024. What better way of starting the evening could there be than having the Folk Club Orchestra playing the “Sea Song Medley” in the first spot? I was therefore delighted that enough members of the Orchestra were able and willing to take part and did so after first playing the lovely tunes “Horseshoe Harbour” and “The Windmill”. Although the Orchestra has now been together for over 10 years, it was only the third time it had performed at the Folk Club, and it appeared to be well received by the audience.

After instruments, music stands and players had left the performance area, we were running a bit late, and there were still a further 13 performers to fit into the evening. I therefore felt that it would be a struggle to finish much before 10:30pm. We pressed on with a varied programme of material, the subjects of which mostly had something to do with the sea. It was lovely to welcome to the Folk Club, for the first time, Kim from near Banbury whose singing and guitar playing were beautiful. We hope she will come again.

My other favourite spots were those performed by Sue and Maureen, Peter McDonald, Don Arthurson and Keith Donnelly who finished the evening in magnificent style with a hilarious set which had never been performed before. The whole evening finished about 10:45 and because of Keith, I came away aching with laughter.

The raffle raised £85.50 which, in keeping with the theme of the evening, was donated to the Royal National Lifeboat Institution. Next month, the host is to be Ian Hartland and his theme is "Going Back".

Pete Bones

Who Sang What 

First Half
Folk Club Orchestra: Horseshoe Harbour / The Windmill,Sea Song Medley
Liz and Pete: Six Thousand Miles, Wild Geese
Sue and Maureen: Sailing Home to Mingulay, Dance to Your Daddy
Rik Middleton: Captain's Apprentice, Rolling down to Old Maui
Peter McDonald: Lord Franklin (Les Barker parady), Combing the Spanish Main (Sid Kipper)_
Peter Mason: Make and Break Harbour, The Band Played Waltzing Matilda/The Gift of Years
Daft Dames: The Garden Gnome Song, Breaking Wind Suddenly

Second Half
Folk Club Choir: Follow the Heron. Bridge over Troubled Water
Bob and Anne: Mermaiden,., The Bonny Barque the Bergen
Don Arthurson: All Things are Quite Silent, The Water of Leith
Kim Hobday: Too Close to the Wind, ?
Richard Collier: The Seashore, Across the Sea
Keith Donnelly: International Diplomacy Lunacy, Variation of Teddy Bears Picnic

The theme for the April Folk Club was” Déjà vu” and, as it was, we hadn’t had such an evening like this before. The audience arrived but not many performers did. It transpired that several Harbury regulars had been hit with illness and when combined with other regulars going on holidays for the Easter Week there were only 5 acts to fill the evening’s entertainment. In the end it turned out to be a lovely evening of music, song and laughter which the audience thoroughly enjoyed.

Sue and Maureen commenced proceedings with the Everly Brothers’ “Bye Bye Love” followed by “Hush Little Baby”, a song collected by Cecil Sharp when he was in America. Steve was concerned about the lack of performers so decided to fill some of the time by singing his school song which is in Latin, “Throsailia”.  Peter McDonald had researched the Folk Club archives back to 1995 and was surprised that the theme had never been used before. He went on to sing “Don’t Think Twice It’s Alright” and Tom Paxton’s 1964 song, “Last Thing on my Mind” which Peter himself last sung in 1987.  Debbie was definitely up for the evening’s entertainment and recited two fun poems from her 2012 and 2013 repertoires, firstly “The Coffee Morning” and then the hilarious “Zona Nudista”, based upon her real life experience when on holiday overseas. Don closed the first half with Gretchen Peters’ “It’s Strange But True” and Derek and the Dominoes’ “Layla” – his guitar work was brilliant.  To make it a full Folk Club evening, all of the performers were happy to do another stint in the second half.

Debbie set the standard for the second half when she recited the challenging poem of Les Barker’s, “Déjà vu”. Her diction and timing were eloquent and she had us all laughing. Sue and Maureen sang The Threlfalls’ “April Morning” and John Denver’s “Leaving on an Airplane”. Peter then sang two serious songs, “The Man that I am” which was the subject of child transportation from the 1870’s onwards followed by “Farewell to the Gold” written by Paul Metsers. Don sang “Lowlands of Holland” and then played some superb ragtime guitar music. Steve had held back the star performer Keith Donnelly for the second half and asked him to entertain us for the last 25 minutes of the evening which he certainly did. He did his own version of “Déjà vu”, “Sweet Nightingale Forgets Her Song”, a fantastic medley of about 20 songs singing and playing just the first line and closing with “Ghosts of Love”. In between there was his usual comedic banter and jokes. 

What could well have been a very short night of entertainment due to lack of performers turned into a great evening with everyone giving their all to please the audience who gave lots of positive feedback at the end. All’s well that ends well!!

The raffle raised £50 for TOFS, a charity that supports families whose child is born unable to swallow requiring major surgery to repair the oesophagus.

Next month’s Folk Club will be run by Pete Bones with the theme of “Songs of the Sea”.

Steve Darby

The Harvesters set the theme of “American/American’t” by opening the 446th Folk Club with Ian singing “City of New Orleans” followed by “Deep River Blues”. Martin followed with a Bill Caddick song, “One Hand on the Radio, one on the Wheel”, and then continued with “Rikiti Tikiti Tin”. Rik was next with “Sixteen Tons” and “I Never Thought You Would”. Hugh delivered a poem about Donald Trump and guns entitled “That Man and His Mantras” continuing with a poem called “Slogans”. Bob gave us “Dear Mr. President” and “The Great American Novel” by Larry Norman. Dave Fry performed “Dr. Jazz” and “Georgia” and Peter McDonald closed the first half with a Tom Paxton song, “ I Thought You Were an Arab”, and a Nancy Griffith song about the great depression entitled “Trouble in the Fields”.

The second half was opened by Peter Mason who gave us “Can’t You Dance the Polka” and a lovely song called “Kilkelly, Ireland”. Michael was next with “Send You Back to Your Mama” and “Sugar Cane”. Mat delivered a poem called “Texas” then Dave sang about the Atom Bomb “Made in Tennessee” followed by “The Battle of New Orleans”. Des was next with “As the Alabama Rolled” and then a Gospel song, “Talk About Following Jesus”. Don gave us “Blind Willy McTell” and “Still Crazy After All These Years”. Keith closed the evening with one of my favourites, “Jesus At The Airport”, and “Like a Bat Out Of Hell”.

We had 13 acts entertain us and the raffle raised £50 for Macmillan. The next Folk Club will be hosted by Maureen, Steve and Sue and the theme is “Déjà Vu”.

Sue Hartland

Due to the recent documentary about the Post Office scandal I decided my theme for this month’s Folk Club would be ‘Justice’. In my usual style I donned the outfit of a Crown Court Usher and turned the Village Club into a Court of Law instead. We all took to our feet when ‘Court Rise’ began the proceedings. In Court Number 445 tonight we would go through a list of ‘cases’ going through the justice process. The audience became the ‘Jury’ and they were all sworn in in respect to the Magna Carta. And what a fantastic peer group they turned out to be. Then one by one each case was brought before the court and the following is what was recorded by the stenographer when someone implemented the Freedom of Information Act.

Deborah KC began with ‘Miss Otis Regrets’, as Counsel for the Prosecution, that opened the folk club and, with that, witnesses for the prosecution were called up. Sue and Maureen started with ‘The Deserter’ which was about someone who kept getting caught all the time. Even Prince Albert made a cameo appearance! Their second being ‘Blow the Candles Out’. Was the character in this song innocent or proven guilty? Sue’s guitar playing was fabulous evidence in this case. Then Bob Clucas played a Paul Simon song ‘Against the Law’ where there was some joining in of the chorus from the public gallery! Bob then played a song that he had self-penned that day. This was called ‘Just Isn’t Right’. The Press Bench had fun with that one. Peter Mason sang about a song from crimes committed in Northamptonshire with ‘Too Close to the Wind’ and ‘Oakham Poachers’ where three brothers were either going to be transported or hung together!

Then the court heard evidence from our own Bonnie and Clyde in Dave Carvell who played a Johnny Cash song ‘Folsom Prison Blues’, including the use of his weapon, the harmonica. Then Shirley joined him with ‘In the Jailhouse Now’. Sue Harris sang the ‘Ballad of Bethnal Green’ with more joining in from the public gallery but pleaded clemency with ‘The Hair of the Widow of Brid’. To finish the prosecution, Peter McDonald, a Silk through and through, sang a Jez Lowe song, ‘Back in Durham Jail’, about a young criminal. Then he spoke about the practice of piracy where you record music onto blank cassettes. Luckily this was for his own private use. He did admit to Jez Lowe of this practice and was told by Jez that he was too cheap to buy his albums! Peter finished our first half with ‘One Man Bound’. Peter has made reparations since.

Then it was time for the Counsel for the Defence and ‘Good Evening’ Des produced the Black Cap and this caused shock from the public gallery. He performed an amazing monologue about the Gun Powder Plot and the torture of Guy Fawkes. Some people have said that he was the only man ever to enter the Houses of Parliament with the most honest of intentions! His monologue was called ‘The Judgement’ and he finished with ‘Rolling Back the Welfare State’.

Pete and Liz Bones sang a song by Graham and Eileen Pratt called ‘Doll Thy Ale’ all about drinking excessive quantities of ale and not a breathalyser in sight from the Traffic Police! Then a beautifully executed bit of cutthroat defence was brought before the court with Liz singing ‘Lady Policeman’ by herself! The Harvesters sang one of my favourites ‘A Long Black Veil’ where the lead character was innocent but pleaded guilty for love. Then they sang ‘The Stranger’ about where the pineapples grow. I hope this is all that they are growing! Pete Grassby sang ‘Alice Brand’ where justice is done at the end. Then with his squeezebox he sang ‘The Lakes of the Pontchartrain’.

Then Deborah KC summed up the prosecution case by reciting her poem ‘The Meeting’ which covered most aspects of Employment Law and its breaches. It was enough to make a CEO uncomfortable with accepting bonuses and other financial renumerations! Peter McDonald summed up the defence with a John McCutcheon song, ‘Red Corvette’.

Then we had the Judge summing up all the evidence of the night’s performances to the Jury. It was here they were told that the raffle raised £75 for Victim Support and that next month’s Folk Club will be hosted by Sue Hartland and her theme will be ‘American & American’t’!

Debbie Ellis

The theme for the 444th session of Harbury Folk Club on January 4th was ‘Thanksgiving’ because I liked the idea of songs of gratitude.  As usual, the performers rose to the occasion and used their skill (and imagination) to present relevant songs in an evening of contrasts – of both musical styles and emotions.

I started the evening with ‘The Prickly Bush’, a traditional song where the subject is appealing to anyone who can save him from the gallows (by bribing the hangman).  Pete Grassby followed me with the song ‘Appleby Fair’ about the annual horse fair in Cumbria, followed by his own topical song, ‘Beating the Covid down’.  Our only female duo, Sue and Maureen, were up next with ‘Avila’, a song that describes a longing for peace in a town that has endured hardship and trauma, and then ‘Serving Girl’s Holiday’ with its gratitude for a break from lowly work.  Rik sang one of my favourite Tom Paxton songs, ‘Outward Bound’, and then Graham Nash’s ‘Our House’, reflecting the songwriter’s brief relationship with Joni Mitchell.  Dave went to town with ‘Thank you’ songs – firstly Ray Davies’ ‘Days’ and then the Scaffold’s ‘Thank you very much’.  Peter Mason finished the first half with a touching Eric Bogle song, ‘Rosie’, and then the magnificent ‘January Man’ which he sings so well.

The Folk Club Choir started the second half with a reprise of two songs that they had sung at Harbury’s Christmas Eve Carol Service – ‘When a Child is Born’ and ‘Lyngham’ (one of many rustic settings of ‘While Shepherds Watched’).  My second song was Steve Knightley’s ‘Tall Ships’ which expresses gratitude for ships deliberately wrecked on the rocks (by disabling lighthouses) so that their cargoes could be plundered by those in desperate poverty.  I was joined by Margaret who read verses from ‘The Wrecker’s Prayer’, interspersed in the song.  Pete & Liz joined the ‘Thank you’ competition with ‘Thanks a Lot, God’, an amusing, but sincere, ‘hymn’ from the Kipper Family, then followed with the famous ‘Amazing Grace’.  Des sang a traditional carol, ‘We Be Wise Men Three’, and then a powerful song called ‘Go Home’ by Angeline Morrison, dedicated to “all the people who ever have been made to feel unwelcome in the place they call home”.  Our resident poet, Debbie, read one of her own poems, ‘Inner Light’, then sang George Gershwin’s classic ‘Summertime’.  Michael advised us to stay single with ‘Bachelor’s Hall’ and then gave us one of his own songs, ‘So much of him and each other’, dedicated to his late brother.  Then we were ready for something a little lighter and The Harvesters obliged with their two songs to finish the evening – Ian Tyson’s ‘Someday Soon’ and ‘Handle with Care’ by the Travelling Wilburys.

The charity raffle raised a magnificent £72 for Cancer Research UK.  The next Folk Club will be at 8pm on February 1st, in the Village Club as usual, when Debbie will be the host and her theme will be ‘Justice’.

Peter McDonald