Local Group Report – Easebourne Thursday 17th November 2016

Six brave souls braved the wind, rain and wilds of Selham to sing at The Three Moles on 17th November: Stephen, Carol, Peter, Dermot, Debbie, Gordon and Julie. We did our best with the Christmas songs for the WDOAM event despite trying to sing the words of one song to the tune of another (we got it right in the end!). Gordon had written a song especially for The Three Moles, called of course The Three Moles, which we sang to the delight of our patrons and the recording of which is now doing the rounds on Facebook. We finished off the evening with a rendition of some of our favourites including The Turnip Hoer and Pleasant & Delightful. We'll be at The Chichester Inn, 38 West Street, Chichester, PO19 1QP on 15th December.

Local Group Report – Lewes Tuesday 15th November 2016

We thought we might be depleted because of rehearsals for the Brighton Pub Carols, but Judith and Jacqui joined us for their first visits and hopefully will become regular participants. Tina led us through the set list for WDOAM which at least eight of us will be attending on Sunday 27th. Tina helped us with the various harmonies and we even managed a credible rendition of the round at the end of The Sussex Mummers Carol. The only song that really didn’t warrant practice was We Wish You a Merry Christmas and so we finished with Thousands or More, instead.

WDOAM 'Christmas Market' Sunday 27th November 2016

Again a packed event with over 120 stalls, so if the weather is reasonable it's worth making a day of it.

As always Sunday is the busiest with the whole of the overflow car park filled out to West Dean College by 1pm on a good day.

If you arrive early (by 10.30am) you may be able to park in the permanent parking area, or nearer to the entrance booths, and avoid being in the long traffic queues around the site. Use the dedicated 'Friends' / stall holders queue for quick entrance by showing your pass.

We have two sets, at 1.00-1.30pm on the decking outside the Gridshell building and 3.15-4.00pm at the Music Tent in the Market Square, with Emily leading us.

Dress for cold variable weather and wear stout shoes, but please don whatever festive headgear you want for the occasion.

I will be at the practice at Worthing on the 23rd with the remaining Singers' free passes for those of you who have already booked but not collected them.

If you are one of the above Singers, and in the interim you have discovered another commitment and cannot come to the Market, please email southdownsfolksingers@gmail.com so that I can reallocate the remaining passes to those Singers still on the reserve list on the 23rd.

John C.

Song sets below are subject to revision at the rehearsal on 23rd November.

First Set:

1. Sweet Chiming Bells
2. Righteous Joseph
3. The Holly and the Ivy
4. The Moon Shone Bright
5. Deck the Hall
6. The Falmer Carol
7. The Holly Bears a Berry
8. The Coppers' Christmas Song
9. While Shepherds Watched

Second Set:

1. The Holly and the Ivy
2. Hark the Herald Angels
3. The Sussex Carol
4. The Falmer Carol
5. The Holly Bears a Berry
6. Masters in this Hall
7. Wassail, Wassail!
8. Sweet Chiming Bells
9. We Wish You a Merry Christmas

Local Group Report – Beechwood Wednesday 2nd November 2016

The gathered throng at this month’s Beechwood put their voices together to sing through the songs most likely to be used at the Weald and Downland Museum’s Christmas Market event later this month. From last year’s set the two Holly carols and Wassail were aired, also the Sussex Mummers Song including a pleasing three times ‘round’ on the last refrain. The Moon Shone Bright was tried with the gents joining in throughout, singing softly alongside the ladies. We then worked on While Shepherds Watched with the harmony parts, the Coppers’ Christmas Song and also Hark the Herald after agreeing with the Selham group’s recommendation to trim it by not repeating the refrain. Christmas Drawing Near was discussed, but the majority present did not favour singing it – so the minority await another opportunity to give it a try! An in-house ‘flashmob’ struck up with Sweet Chiming Bells to resume proceedings after our thirst-quenching break and later the Sussex Carol closed the session on an uplifting note. And there’s the promise of more... at the Extra Session booked at the Beechwood for 23rd November!

Finding Lyrics For Our Songs

Most of our songs are listed on the Lyrics and Recordings page (there's a link to this in the menu across the top of each page), however some of our newer songs are not listed there. So how do you find these?

• You can use the search box at the top of the column on the left to search this website for a particular song.
• Lyrics and recordings for our newer songs appear in a post on the News page as they are released and you can use the New Songs link in the menu at the top of the page (this is a recent addition) to see all of these posts. You may need to scroll down to the bottom of the page and click the 'Older posts' link to see more of them.

Remember that most website browsers allow you to search for text within a web page. On a desktop computer or laptop you can type control+F on a Windows PC, or command+F on a Mac, and enter the text you would like to search for on the page. You will need to investigate for yourself how to do this on other portable devices.

Eventually – time permitting! – our new songs will all be listed on the Lyrics and Recordings page along with the older songs. If anybody would like the job of building an index to all of our songs on this website, please make yourself known!