Use it or lose it!

Liverpool Anglican Cathedral (photo Ruaraidh Gillies)

The usual scribe, as known in advance, was away vacationizing, but regrettably far more seats than his were left empty. The club has been surviving in recent weeks on the strength of holiday-making visitors. This week that supply dried up, and may well remain dry till next summer. If the club is to remain viable we need more regulars.

Where else in Bristol on a Friday night can you be treated for free to:

John Conolly’s pastiche of The Roast Beef of Old England depicting Grumpy Old Men (Richard);

A monologue based on Carson Robison’s Texas Dan (Phil);

A beautifully sung traditional ballad – Barbara Allen (Lesley - Roud 54, Child 84);

Kisses Sweeter Than Wine. (I leave it to the Usual Scribe to decide whether he thinks Colin’s version would be best illustrated in Pete Seeger, Jimmie Rodgers, Frankie Vaughan or Mary Travers) [Ed - I plumped for The Weavers, so partly Pete Seeger, since this is the original. According to Wikipedia, Pete Seeger wrote "Now, who should one credit on this song? The Irish, certainly. Sam Kennedy, who taught it to us. Lead Belly, for adding rhythm and blues chords. Me, for two new words for the refrain. Lee, who wrote seven verses. Fred and Ronnie, for paring them down to five. I know the song publisher, The Richmond Organization, cares. I guess folks whom TRO allows to reprint the song, (like Sing Out!, the publisher of this book) care about this too."];

An agricultural song from a Singing Postman – Following the Binder Round (Derek);

The fastest ever performance of the well-known parody of Harry Woods’ Side by Side – due to Mike’s perceived need to finish it before Maggie got back in the room;

And for no extra charge, the world famous Dragon Club Workshops on Abstruse Subjects, which in this case included a seemingly endless discussion on which professional guest singers MCs found it most difficult to say anything nice about in their introductions, and the name of the actor who played Chief Superintendent Lockhart in No Hiding Place. (The latter resulted from Phil’s singing of the Negro Spiritual There’s No Hiding Place Down Here.) The correct answer to this one is Raymond Francis. If you want to know the answer to the first – well, you should have come!

By way of topic, Mike made an ex cathedra pronouncement that 1st Sept. was the beginning of autumn and proceeded to sing All Among The Barley (Roud 1283) and The Jolly Ploughboy, followed by Richard with the Coppers’ So Cheerfully Round (The Season Round - Roud 169); and since Derek was engaged in singing his way through Volume II of the Fred Jordan Songbook, he inevitably threw in John Barleycorn (Roud 164).

And so, with Colin singing the 83rd verse of In My Liverpool Home (Peter McGovern) and Derek affirming that the number of spare cathedrals in Liverpool is actually two, things drew to a close.

The weather is declining, the nights drawing in, and Richard has started singing Sospan Fach. Can the Rugby season be far away? Soon the New Inn fireplace will be blazing brightly, awaiting only another banjo player for fuel. Please be there!

Here's a selection of songs sung during this session.

(Number of people present - 7, of whom 6 performed)