Local Group Report – Chichester – Thursday 21st February 2019

The worry was that not too many members might arrive on a damp February evening at the Chichester Inn to join us for our monthly meeting, but happily all our stalwart singers and supporters turned up and we had a really good sing! Dave began by saying that, as we don’t have an event on the cards until the summer, we might think about singing songs that we rarely practise or even possibly try out some new songs. So we warmed up by singing Pleasant and Delightful and followed this with a hearty rendition of Drink Old England Dry. We then practised the Coppers’ song O Good Ale which seemed to go down very well. We sang The Saucy Sailor and the beautiful Searching for Lambs, which has to be one of our favourite songs, and then had another go at singing To be a Farmer’s Boy. After an interval to have another drink and socialise, Alan taught us two new rounds. One was a novel way of wishing someone Many Happy Returns in song and the other was a lovely round he had co-written himself called Summer’s Near. It goes like this: “Rambling, rolling Downs in Spring; swallows soar, the harebells ring; soft blows the wind, bright shines the sun; Summer’s near and Winter’s done”. This immediately prompted Stephen to sing us a local song – The Four Seasons of the Year – collected in 1901 by WP Merrick from Henry Hills of Lodsworth. We will definitely look into learning this one. Dave followed this by looking forward to Easter and getting everyone to sing The Pace-Egging Song. Finally to finish off the evening Keith helped us once more to sing Arthur Beckett’s rousing Song of the Sussex Downsman with the correct phrasing and scansion. We really do love this song! All in all it was a very enjoyable evening. Our next group sing will be on Thursday 21st March at 8.00pm at the Chichester Inn in West Street, Chichester. Do join us if you can.