Local Group Report – Chichester – Thursday 17th January 2019

Thirteen singers and Stanley the dog made it out in the dark and cold on Thursday night to The Chichester Inn in West Street, Chichester, to enjoy a lively social evening with a few drinks and some very good songs. After the notices about forthcoming events, we set about singing a fine collection of agricultural and horticultural songs in preparation for the Worthing Seed Swap event on Saturday 9th February. We warmed up with Country Life and the Turnip Hoer and then went on to sing Poor Froze-out Gardeners, Oak Ash & Thorn, Brisk Young Ploughboy and the Farmer's Toast. We also sang On Sussex Hills, the Bee Boy’s Song and Sussex by the Sea. After a short interval we aired Rosebuds in June and the Woodcutter’s Song and eventually finished up having a good go at singing two new songs, which Dave introduced to the assembled company, namely the popular In an English Country Garden and Richard Thompson’s rousing We’ll sing Hallelujah at the Turning of the Year. Thank you to everyone who came. Our next sing will be on Thursday 21st February at the Chichester Inn. We hope that lots of you will join us then!

Local Group Report – Lewes – Tuesday 15th January 2019

We had a very good start to the New Year with 16 of us in the lovely beamed and carpeted room upstairs in The John Harvey Tavern. Tina led us through a good balance of songs which we took at a fairly slow pace as we have at least four new members now. As there are over 70 songs in the SDFS repertoire, catching up is hard and thirsty work. We started with The Turmut Hoer and then gave a last airing of Apple Tree Wassail, Sugar Wassail and Wassail, Wassail All Over The Town (Gloucester) continuing with Ale, Glorious Ale, before spending a little longer on our own Caburn Hill with two melodies working well together. The Lark in The Morning, Shepherd of The Downs and Seasons Turn brought us to a break for refills. Then it was back to singing On Sussex Hills, Rolling In The Dew, Searching For Lambs (which is nothing of the sort), Brisk Young Ploughboy, Sussex Wedding Song, Gooches Beer, Run of The Downs, East Sussex Drinking Song, Brighton Camp and Thousands Or More. A very satisfying evening.

Our next Lewes session is on Tuesday 19th February, so do join us if you are over in East Sussex.

Brighton Pub Carols went very well again this year with lots of money raised for several Charities. On their Facebook page you can see and hear what you missed.

Worthing Seed Swap and Spring Fair

Update 3rd February 2019: here is a link to download the programme for this event.

Update 20th January 2019: 15 Singers have now volunteered for the event and I will supply their names to the organiser at the end of January, with any changes in the interim, for free entry at the door. If there are any changes in circumstances please communicate these to me via southdownsfolksingers@gmail.com

Singing will be on the Foyer staircase as before, in between talks. There will be two sets of five songs each at 1.40pm and 2.40pm led by Alan and Dave.

The song sets will be as follows:

Set 1

1. Country Life
2. The Turnip Hoer
3. Poor Froze out Gardeners
4. Oak, Ash & Thorn
5. Brisk Young Ploughboy

Set 2

1. The Farmer's Toast
2. The Bee Boy's Song
3. On Sussex Hills
4. Rosebuds in June
5. The Woodcutter's Song (or) In an English Country Garden

Practice has/will take place at the remaining prior monthly meetings.

John C.

Saturday 9th February 2019, 12:30 – 16:30
Oak Grove College, The Boulevard, Worthing, BN13 1JX

Dear all,

As in previous years, we have been asked to support this event with a 35 minute song set after lunch.

A number of Singers will be attending the all-day Belloc/Broadwood workshop with Emily and Chris Hare at Broadwater, so I need to determine whether we will have enough participants at the Seed Swap before I confirm to Pauline that we will be there.

Alan W has kindly offered to lead the singing instead of Emily and 10 Singers have already signed up for it, so if you can come please let me know asap by email southdownsfolksingers@gmail.com

Many thanks,

John

Wassail At Weald & Downland Living Museum, Saturday 19th January 2019

Emily will be leading a small group of Singers in 'catches' at the Museum  and is awaiting confirmation from Lucy of the exact timing, but it will be in the morning as the Wassail in the orchard adjacent to BayLeaf is in the afternoon.

Provisionally therefore if you wish to join her and the six Singers so far who have volunteered to rendezvous at North Cray in the Market Square at 11.00am, we could add some of our seasonal and wassailing songs to the occasion, and then if you are not too cold, join in during the wassail in the afternoon.

To achieve free entry please email me at southdownsfolksingers@gmail.com if you want to come and I will pass your names onto Emily for this purpose.

Please also wear your SDFS lanyards to also help with identification at the entrance.

John C

Local Group Report – Lewes – Wednesday 19th December 2018

We again met on the Wednesday this month to fit around Brighton Pub Carols rehearsals and performances*.

Nine of our own singers combined with two ex-Navy men and two young women who had probably come out hoping for a quiet drink, but were handed wordsheets and joined in heartily with us.

We sang Country Life, Farmer’s Toast, Fathom The Bowl, Ha’nacker Mill, Hard Times of Old England, Poor Froze-Out Gardeners, Where Stormy Winds Do Blow, Angel Gabriel, Apple Tree Wassailing Song, Christmas Now Is Drawing Near At Hand, Coppers’ Christmas Song, Falmer Carol, Here We Come A-Wassailing, Masters In This Hall, Sugar Wassail, Sussex Mummers’ Carol, Sweet Chiming Bells, Wassail Wassail All Over The Town, While Shepherds Watched (to the folkie tune “Pentonville”), Fields Lie Silent and Pleasant and Delightful, before finishing with Thousands Or More.

We weren’t trying for a record, but with no harmonies to learn this month and no completely new songs the time just flew past and before we knew it we had sung 22!

Back to the usual third Tuesday from now, so next session will be Tuesday 15th January. All old, new or returning singers welcome, see you there!

* See the Brighton Pub Carols Facebook page for details and if you want to join in the fun there next year, carols and pubs are a tremendously enjoyable combination! Rehearsals are every Tuesday in November and then five performances at four different pubs and the Hanover Community Centre on Tuesdays or weekends during December.

Local Group Report – Lewes – Wednesday 21st November 2018

It was a nippy night in Lewes (changed to the Wednesday to accommodate Brighton Pub Carols rehearsals on the Tuesday), although not quite as cold as the previous night when there had been a brief flurry of snow in Brighton.

Despite weather (and competing demands of other musical commitments) 10 singers gathered at the John Harvey Tavern, coming from as far afield as Horsham and Bexhill, with the men outnumbering the women on this occasion.

Some singers had already sung at the Hove U3A event that afternoon, so their voices were nicely warmed up for the evening.

We tackled a variety of songs across several topics:

• Drinking songs – Drink Me Brave Boys, Farmer’s Toast, West Sussex Drinking Song.
• Cold/melancholy songs – Ha’nacker Mill, Hard Times Of Old England, Life Of A Man, Magpie, Woodcutter’s Song.
• Christmas and wassailing – Apple Tree Wassailing Song, Christmas Now Is Drawing Near at Hand, Here We Come A-Wassailing, Masters In This Hall, Moon Shone Bright, Sugar Wassail.
• A couple of new songs – Lark In The Morning, Song of the Sussex Downsman.
• Some old general favourites – Country Life, Old Adam, Three Maidens.

We ended the planned session with East Sussex Drinking Song, remembering how this was written by Adrian (with an additional verse by Alan) as a contrast to Belloc’s West Sussex Drinking Song which we had already sung. This led to a discussion around one day expanding to have SDFS sessions at the far ends of the Downs in Hampshire and towards Eastbourne…

Tina and Jo also led the group in a rendition of What You Do With What You’ve Got in memory of Roy Bailey, the renowned folk singer, activist and professor of sociology who had died the previous day and will be much missed.

Local Group Report – Worthing – Wednesday 2nd January 2019

Unfortunately Emily was unable to join us for our first session of 2019, but she was included in our toast to wish one and all a very Happy New Year. Our evening was filled with a pleasing mixture of requests from the SDFS repertoire interspersed with some occasional others offered for our interest and entertainment. We managed 21 songs in total as well as time for chat, refreshments and a few notices (including a reminder about the SDFS “Winter Revels” social on 2nd Feb). Many of the songs we sang together related to the winter but a few enabled us to look towards warmer times in spring and summer. We began with a selection of wassails: Sugar Wassail, Here We Come a-Wassailing and the Gloucestershire Wassail. From the SDFS favourites we sang The Fields Lie Silent, Where Stormy Winds do Blow, The Woodcutter’s Song, The Magpie, The Lark in the Morning, Brisk Young Ploughboy, Farmer’s Toast and Country Life. The songs shared with us were Remember the Poor,The Poor Ditching Boy, Snow Drift and Icy Cold from Brian; Jackie Frost and The New Year Will Rise Up Again from Dave and Monksgate from Alan. Steve A led those of us who knew it through most of the verses of Valiants All, and reprised his role as captain of The Mermaid ably assisted by Steve W, Keith and Dave with everyone else joining in the chorus. We finished off with Rolling Home before thanking all contributors for making it an entertaining evening and a good start to 2019 – we’re only sorry Emily couldn’t have been there too. See you in February!

Local Group Report – Chichester – Thursday 20th December 2018

We turned our last sing of the year at the Chichester Inn into a jolly Christmas Party when 14 singers came along armed with poems and songs to recite or sing. We lit candles on the tables and Sue G asked Nick the landlord to provide some crisps, nuts and mincepies for us to nibble in the interval. After a rendering of the Boar’s Head Carol we went around the circle inviting everyone to do their party piece or request a carol. So we sang many of our favourite songs: Sweet Chiming Bells, Sugar Wassail, the Holly and the Ivy, Pentonville, Masters in this Hall, Hark the Herald Angels, the Sussex Carol, the Holly bears a Berry, and the Coppers Christmas Song to name but a few. Stephen A recited John Masefield’s London Town with its message of getting back to the countryside: “London Town of all towns I'm glad to leave behind!” Gordon gave us a lovely Christmas poem he had written, which reminded us of the real messages we get from Christmas cards. There was a hilarious “Christmas Health & Safety Announcement” from Alwyn, who also read us Robert Frost’s beautiful poem Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening. Keith, accompanying himself on guitar, got us all singing I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas and later sang Ring on, Christmas Bells. Sue and Dave sang two songs about the cold: Little Jack Frost and Old Jacky Frost is Knocking at your Door. Geraldine requested Bob Dylan’s Must be Santa but we couldn’t oblige, so we sang Shane MacGowan’s Fairytale Of New York instead! Finally we had a go at Shepherds Arise and parted singing We wish you a merry Christmas.

It was a most enjoyable evening. Thanks to everyone for their excellent contributions. We’ll meet again on Thursday 17th January 2019 at the Chichester Inn. Hope to see lots of you there!