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.