A Session Diary

I just came across this conversation on Facebook. It’s slightly edited (to remove LOLs etc) and anonymize it slightly, but does this sound at all familiar?

Alexander
At session. Theyre playing coming round the mountain in g. Except for the guitarist next to me who is playing his own tune in a. Joyous

Alex  He doesn’t like ‘coming round the mountain’ then!

Alexander  OMFingG a hobgoblin childs percussion pack has emerged.

Alexander  A man looking remarkably like alan titchmarsh is now playing the bongos

Alexander  Going to drink a beer and see if its any more bearable.

That on my list of: ‘things i’ve sold from Hobgoblin that I know will come back to haunt me’ !! (Cajon’s are at the top)

Alexander Nope. Its house of rising sun variations

Alexander Singing i wanna go home. Haha. Its only ironic for me.

Don It’s a jazz session then….

Alexander More alex than don. Ha. Ooo drowsie mag was the closest thing to a tune. Why am i still here

Houston you are obviously in need of counselling for self abuse!!! more booze is my suggestion, it’ll ease the pain :)

Alexander Quite a nice vesion of spancil hill.. . Although its in Bbmin and a cf box is playing along in amin i swear to god

Alexander He was just biding his time. Gone into knick knack paddy whack

Alexander Cock of the north in d and c at same time. No joke

Alexander New low

Katherine  Why haven’t you left? x

Alexander Endurance test

Alex It’s a ‘Folkie get me out of here’ ..

Mark Grass them up then. Where is this torment? Then we can all be sure to avoid it at all costs and in all weathers.

Don Is the south coast bodd-ran squadron there?

Edward God save us from all goat bashers… X-P

Alexander No the goat whackers are not to be seen.

Alexander Bod squad . . Love it

Mark Couple of polskas in b flat. That tends to shut people up, or provides short term amusement.

Mark And NEVER go to the session in Cloughjordan. A piano player listens to the first note of the first tune, and that’s it. All together now “Humpty dumpty”.

Bronco It wasnt that bad for an english session… And u need to project more on the violin… Thats what i tell my students :-P

Fred I didn’t know you could use facebook in hell, Alex?

I can’t believe how long it’s been since the last post so apologies to any ardent sessiondiary fans who have been deprived of their regular fix! I don’t know how being retired actually gives you less time than when I worked but it does.

Anyway, lots has happened in the world of sessions so it’s worth a foray into the weird and wonderful world of the music session as observed by a humble sessioneer.

Firstly then the regular weekly Irish session which has been the topic of very mixed fortunes over the years. Not only is it still alive but it is reasonably well and sitting up, taking solid food and being cheeky to the nurses. This is due in equal measure to the absolute stalwarts who refuse to give in and the itinerants who are always most welcome. Susanna is back for a visit, Johnny has passed by again and we’ve had a variety of musicians drop in for an odd week. Yes, I know most weeks are odd. A disproportionate number of percussionists but that was OK. Honest, it was. They could keep time and everything. Without counting out loud!

One highlight was a visit by Fred the banjo (Freddie Legon) and his wife – a one time banjo player with Humphrey Littleton among others who enjoyed what we did. We discovered after he’d left that he’d put a pot behind the bar for all the musicians to have a drink on him. What a star! Sadly no longer playing because of Parkinson’s but a legend in his time. The audiences have become somewhat more appreciative of late so maybe things are looking up for the diddly-eye music :-)

Nice to see Ford back with us as well although we’ve lost a couple of regulars recently. Well, not lost, more like misplaced. I’m sure they’ll turn up somewhere.

Absolute scandal that the Hops Festival this year was not in any way shape or form either family or folk friendly. Several people have remarked on it. One or two without using expletives which shows great restraint and an education. No sessions organised at all and precious few folk bands. Wheeler Street got 16:00 on Sunday – great slot guys! If it’s like that again next year, I’m not going.

Still we pitched up where there was allegedly some kind of event (at the Bull – how far out can you get?). It turned out to be a sing-around in the garden. From what I heard it was a finger-in-the-ear, have-you-brought-your-copy-of-the-folk-book-of-penguins. All together now “page 97 – all 23 verses as slow as you can” kind of event so we slipped away before being spotted.

Barbs and I went in the bar, blagged a corner and got the landlords blessing to play. I had to leave after an hour and a half but I heard it grew and grew and was still going 5 hours later. Good on yer!

Broadstairs was ….. well, Broadstairs. Good sessions with Paul Lucas as usual and a couple of nice days. One with Keith Kendrick and Sylvia Needham and the other with Chris Taylor. Usual crowd in the Nelson. What more can be said?

The Tales continues to be an enjoyable if rather bizarre session at times. Where else could you hear a elderly transvestite singing parodies of Irish songs, Oops I did it again sung by a male with a 5-string banjo, Greek bouzouki music on a tenor banjo and somewhere a load of Irish tunes played very well.

Well just a reminder that this weekend is Deal festival and apparently I’m leading a session in the Ship from 2 – 5 on Saturday so if you want to pop in for some tunes, I’d be delighted to see you. It’ll be a mixed, whatever-happens session and I’ll probably lead mostly English. Unless a large Irish contingent turns up of course :-)

Right! Off to the George for the regular weekly Irish.