Rain didn't quite stop play. Flooding on the Kielder road and possible flooding between Carlisle, Brampton or Hawick and Newcastleton made some journeys dicey. The intrepid duo, Phil and Angus, from just south of The Wall navigated the back way from Greenhead. Robbie joined us for a couple of soldiering songs and there followed an evening of congenial company (for us anyway), grand songs and tunes and snippets of folksong lore and biology (otters, rampaging dragon flies, caddis fly larvae) washed down with Peter's finest ale.
David was armed with three sets of pipes; English small, French and Swedish, almost equalling the number of the company present, and with a couple of guitars and a silent bodhran we were ready for anything.
Angus produced a fine variety songs from Tyneside and further afield, ranging from Johnny Handle's Danny's (about a famous club) and Alex Glasgow's 'When I was a Little Lad,' to, 'I'm Glad i'm Working Down Below' by John M. Garrett who wrote a book on British Music Hall songs. Angus also sang, 'Flowers,' as sung by Iain Mackintosh and a medley of 'The Waters of Tyne' and 'Weel May the Keel Row' and 'Roses from the Wrong Man' by Christine Lavin' and also, Harvey Andrews' 'First you lose the Rhyming.' Good songs sung in fine voice and accompanied on guitar.
Phil, reminded by Angus, gave us another Alex Glasgow, 'Hard Times at the Mill.' He was prompted by Robbie's interest in soldiering songs to sing, 'Jock McGraw o' the Forty-Twa' from the singing of Robin Hall and Jimmy McGregor of the 'White Heather Club,' on the BBC, fondly remembered from childhood and 'The Galliards.' He also gave us 'Lord Huntley' as sung Bob Axford and Rosemary Hardman and finished with Ewan McVicar's 'All the Tunes in the World' - a fitting last song. All smashin', as they say over the border.
Robbie's were both collected by his current favourite, Strawhead, 'The Recruiting Officer' or 'The Merry Volunteers' (depending on your point of view), the Queen Anne version and 'The cannons are roaring,' an English Civil War song.
In between tunes David sang 'The Fellows that Follow the Plough' and Eliza tried out 'Get up and Bar the Door' to the tune of 'The Quaker's Wife' with Ewan McColl's refrain and offered a Tyneside, 'Dol-li-a,' a round, 'Rose, Rose, Rose Rose' and in honour of Burn's Night just past, 'Dainty Davie,' the bawdy version which the lads didn't think particularly ribald at all. I have seen the odd other verse, not necessarily Burns' which might have raised an eyebrow.
David's tunes were on French G pipes, 'Mundess,' on English small pipes, 'Last Night I Lay wi' Jacky in me Arms' and 'Apprentice Lads of Alnwick' - not the same ones as those who used to frequent the 'Birdcage' of former fame and glory. On sackpipa, 'Liten Lek' and 'Pols Fr Roros' and, finally, on French pipes an Andro which is a 'turn' dance or circle dance where the joined hands also circle one way then reverse or turn.
Though we were few David and I certainly enjoyed the night. I hope our friends did, too. Eliza
