I have been preoccupied. Firstly with Facebook and secondly with organising my escape plan from Stalag Luft 18. Many of the sessioneers who feature in this diary are also on Facebook and it provides a more immediate kind of communication and response. There are a couple of pages especially for followers of the antics of the sessioneers: Friends of “The George” Irish Session and Fans of the Bear Sessions.

The first of course refers to the fact that the nomadic session / workshop / lament that takes place on a Wednesday evening started off in the excellent George on Stone Street. It was in the middle of nowhere. It was in a dip which flooded every time it thought about raining and when the rest of Kent, even Capel Le Ferne was enjoying a crystal clear evening, Stone Street would be foggy. And still we went every week. East Kent Morris practised in the back on the same night. The Hooden Horse visited at Christmas (well one of them did). Drew served chips and french bread at half time and the real fire roared away with logs of wood. The bar had a jar which said ‘Musician’s Fund’ and every so often, there would be enough in it (donated by a kindly audience) to buy us all a drink. Many musicians of all calibres would congregate there and some of the evenings were truly memorable. There was even a Bank Holiday Celtic Folk Festival held there.

Then it closed.

I remember the evening when we all arrived to find the pub in darkness and standing around in the misty car park deciding what to do. Those of us who were there decided to go to the Hop Pocket in Bossingham where we played the first of our nomadic sessions in their conservatory. After that we roamed East Kent looking to regain that “George” feel without success. We tried the Chequers at Selsted, the Beverley in Canterbury and even the George on Stone Street after it changed hands to the unfriendliest landlord yet encountered. But the spiritual retreat for the music was for a long time at the Well Known Spoonerism. Regular readers will know where that is. And now it is at another George – this time at Molash where we practice safe sets. I hope the crowds return.

The Bear Session started as an Irish Session before the George Session but morphed into an English one by the time I joined it. And that suited me fine. Irish on Wednesday, English on Thursday. And that’s pretty much how it still is today. Back then, the musicians always got a free drink from the landlord. Strangely this session has stayed put firmly through many landlords (although it did move out to the Three Tuns  for a while while waiting for a friendlier tennant who turned out to be the landlord of the Three Tuns). The pub is usually full of all sorts of interesting people, some of them are musicians, some are audience.

So, a little history of the two main sessions that feature in this diary and a Facebook page or two to join if you’ve a mind to.

And the retirement? Well, after a long and mostly enjoyable career mostly in education, I have the chance to stop working but maintain (more or less) the lifestyle to which I have become accustomed thanks to the Universities Pension Scheme. I started as a Secondary Science Teacher and it was at college that I became converted to Folk. It’s a one way conversion – there is no going back. Playing through the Book of English Penguins with  ‘ a yard of German plywood and a capo’ in the common room. Morris teams were springing up (I joined Green Oak and then started Cheswold and later Luton. Yes, Luton) and some great folk clubs put on acts which would now be far too expensive to even comtemplate.

Anyway, working my way through the education system and keeping ahead of the sheer lunacy that trailed behind me (imposed by successive governments I must add) I moved though Further Education to Higher Education. They’ve all been ruined now. There is no academic freedom just commercial gain. Targets and league tables have killed the spirit of education and what little was left has been mopped up by Health and Safety and the ever present risk of litigation.

Thank God for Folk Music!

Alright. It’s been a while, I admit. But things have been happening. It’s quite exciting really as if a new wave of sessioneering has washed over East Kent. I could get into trouble with this analogy. It’s just occurred to me that such a wave would inevitably drop some kind of detritus on the way. If it did, I don’t know where it landed. Honest.

I have a teeny bit of a quandary now (quandrette?) as technically, neither session (Wednesday or Thursday) is a session. Wednesday became an ITM (= Irish Traditional Music) Workshop / Gathering / Practice back at the good old George at Molash (bless them!) and Thursday is different every time (wasn’t that the BBC). Last night for example came close to being a session but other times it is unashamed entertainment and others it is a barn dance practice. Whatever it is, it is usually enjoyable and it has attracted quite a few new players.

Short post I know, but hopefully things are looking up!

Two extremes last week. The regular Irish Session in the Well Known Spoonerism ….. didn’t happen. One of the sessioneers was poorly. They give a lift to another. A third sessioneer was at choir practice and three regulars are hors de combat or disenfranchised by virtue of distance or illness. I do hope this week that we can play some Irish tunes. The session is still too small for a real session with that take-off feeling but what can you do? Maybe the bottom has dropped out of the Irish Session market, or the Riverdance bubble has burst. Paradoxically, English and mixed sessions are springing up all over.  Still, it’s all we’ve got.

Liz Davenport (long story, more later) suggested I could make a lot of noise on my own but somehow, it just isn’t the same.

By contrast, the Thursday session at the Unchained Melody was excellent. Really good. No, really really good. Everone enjoyed it, everyone contributed and two hours flew by. At one point there were 5 fiddles! 

This week will be a St George’s entertainment event with roast beef and possibly wenches and definitely ale and a lot of Merrie England. Huzzar!

After a long time of thinking social networking sites were for very pale adolescents with join-the-dot complexions and a fear of real human contact, I found that Facebook can be a most rewarding place. Not only have I discovered many musicians and friends from around Kent (and hence discovered their names!) I have also found another folky from Derby called … Paul Slater.

I also discovered my old Morris squire and his wife who many of you might know as they tour folk clubs and festivals – Paul and Liz Davenport. Small world.

If anybody would like to join Fans of the Bear Session or Friends of “The George” Irish Session on Facebook, please do!

I will now wait for the proof reader to send me the corrections I need to make.

Interesting times in the snug of the Startled Stoat of late. Some of the stalwarts have been hors de combat for a while another is being trained in far off parts and the weather have all conspired to make the Wednesday night sessions a little irregular and sparsely populated. The few extras that we attracted for a while have drifted off again leaving a core of enthusiasts.

Nevertheless the sessioneers have fought on bravely and played some decent sets of tunes. We completely skipped over St David’s day as we don’t do anything remotely Welsh and we are hurtling headlong into the festival of blondes in black skirts* – probably dyed green for the night.

There’s been Bekesbourne (Sunday) and Molash (Wednesday) and Ospringe (Sunday) and back to Molash (Wednesday) this week and the Spoonerism at Wingham on Sunday coming because although it’s the first Sunday they were expecting us last Sunday but we were where we usually are in the last Sunday which is Ospringe. I hope that’s clear.

By the way, The other venue where we play mixed music – The  Shackled Yak is to regain its leaders this Thursday when they return from Foreign climes. The composition of the session will change at this time back to the normal band of  sessioneers.

*Guinness. Not what you were thinking.

As you know, I usually start these posts off with an historical fact or seasonal aside. It turns out that nothing at all remarkable happened today. So maybe today is remarkable for its unremarkableness. Or so I thought.

Apparently Edward 1st (longshanks) became King today in 1272 and England declared war on Holland in 1780 for the 4th time and gained the East and West Indies as a result. There was pretty much a big argy-bargy at the time with France, America, Spain and Holland. Ah, the stuff of folk songs. All together now, Arran sweaters on and fingers in ears. Edward 1st was not universally loved for it was he who made parliament a permanent institution. And he was unkind to the Scots. More folk songs.

The relaunched, revamped Irish Session has been going very well. There are encouraging signs of growth (no, not like the economy) with some new and different faces. It will take a while for all the hard work to filter through but it is being widely advertised in the local press and on the KentFolk web site and theSession.org site.

The session brings forth an array of recording devices as the start of each session is a gentle run-through of selected sets or tunes and this is ideal for practice. The ensemble plays the same tunes or sets later at normal tempo when the ‘real’ session gets going.

On the subject of recording devices at sessions in general, I have seen a wide variety and tried a few myself. There is the traditional hand held cassette recorder, the something-plugged-in-to-the-ipod, the dictaphone (microcassette and digital), the minidisc recorder and the digital recorder. I’ve also seen a laptop being used. Now with all these devices, the storage medium is not drastically important as far as recording quality goes (give or take), but the microphones are. The other considerations are:

• battery life
• recording time
• portability
• ease of navigation of the recordings
• ease of use

The traditional cassette recorder (Play/Rec FF, REW)  is therefore hard to beat except on ease of navigation of the recordings which is an inherent problem of linear tapes. Sod’s law says the recording you want is at the other end of the tape. They also suffer from not knowing whereabouts in a tape you are, especially if you’ve taken one out, put another in and messed around with the counter reset. Oops, there goes the priceless recording of when you met Willie Taylor and in its place is a bloke who wandered in with a djembe with a vague Irish tune in the background. Don’t mention the wow and flutter or the head alignment. Bear in mind that the Tascam 4 track (on cassette) did more for affordable reasobale quality recording than any other device. Their modern one is digital and that’s the way to go if you have a computer. Stereo, stunningly good noise-free recording etc. etc. Some of them will do 26 hours of recording on 1 AA battery (its true – yamaha and olympus both) while others do about 4 hours and worst of all, only have a rechargeable internal battery! Useless for sessions really.

Now there was much stirring of interest when Beau announced that our old haunt, the Anchor at Wingham, the well known spoonerism was open for business with an Irish landlady and a sound recordist husband. Having been disappointed on previous occasions by going back to old venues (particularly the George on Stone Street), we approached this one with caution. The sessioneers consisdered it in the snug and agreed to try a one-off to test the water. Everything was set. It was a Thursday which meant foregoing the English Mixed Lumpy. And what do you suppose happened next boys and girls? You’re right. It was cancelled. Some story about not sure whether their music licence covered Thursday nights. Why not just say no thanks and be honest? We might try again.

Anyway, as a result I did get to go to the English Mixed Lumpy which is the Bear and it was a normal session going round the assembled musicians who wanted to play. Event of the evening must be Barbara and friends teaching some Romainians the Gay Gordons while the rest of us played Cock of the North (ABAB ad nauseum). There was a bit of Mazurking going on and there would have been some Bourée-ing if any of us could have come up with a Bourée. There were some faces there not normally seen when it isn’t a session, but a good smattering of the regulars as well. Songs were included and I hope a good time was had by all.

The main topic of the moment is of course the fascinating discussion taking place about the future course of the Wednesday night Irish session. There have been some wonderful insights into why people don’t come and some very helpful suggestions to swell the session to beyond critical mass.

I can’t wait to see what happens on Wednesday now that this much interest has been generated and the promise of some new faces (well, new to Wednesday night anyway). I have met a lot of sessioneers in other sessions who would love the Irish Session if they came. What puts them off? I don’t know – see the discussion.

On a cheery note, last Thursday at the Bothered Badger, one of the sessioneers was a certain Gordon Newton whom some of you will know or have heard of for it is he who started many of our festivals (sweeps, hops etc). It was a great pleasure playing some English tunes with him and his very enjoyable melodeon style.

So, notwithstanding the spectacular omission of the publication of the time of the regular lunchtime session (have I mentioned this before?), we somehow manged to agree that lunchtime was 12 – 2. On both days it was clear that a session had not been running ‘All Day’. If anybody had turned up for a session they obviously found the back bar devoid of musicians and went away muttering ‘what all day session?’. Quel surprise.

As it was an open session, it was only fair to let anything happen as long as it didn’t frighten the horses or make the ladies swoon. That meant mainly tunes and a nice mixture of English and Irish and a few songs thrown in as well.

Both days were relatively well supported and had appreciative audiences. There were certainly enough musicians to make a jolly noise and as usual, it was a go-round-the-group session, giving everybody a chance if they wanted it. Only one person ignored this protocol during the entire proceedings of both days. Everyone else was polite and realised the democracy fought for so bitterly in the famous *Session Wars of the 1960s was a valuable commodity.

So, on Saturday, Pete and Eric were already installed (one half or possibly two thirds of the Iffy Band) when the core posse arrived (Shelagh, Judy and myself). It transpired that the celebrated Iffy band had ceased some three years ago when Eric suffered a heart attack and had a triple bypass. So it was good to see him back playing again. Pete’s banjo and bouzouki had even more stickers on. Quite a few local regulars joined us – Gunther and Gerta, Ian the piper, Colin the concertina, Chris the fiddle, Ray the whistle, Dave (Twizz), and I’m sure many more who I can’t bring to mind. A few guests from Morris sides. The 2 pm concert lured several away so it wound down formally about then and probably carried on with a few stalwarts after I left. I went for lunch.

I didn’t spot any worriers of any kind really. No cutlery, djembes, bodhrans, string basses or any other potential criminal acts.

* The Session Wars were fought between the Amalgamated Folk Club Union (Singers Chapter) and the Allied Brigade of Sessioneers fighting for the bitterly contested and highly prized floor-spot. It led to many barricades being erected in the upstairs rooms of pubs and in some cases, trenches being dug to the surprise of those in the snug below. The armistice was signed in 1970 at a historic ceremony of reconciliation after each side agreed to let the other live. This ended the ethnic cleansing of balladeers by highly trained squads of banjo players and the sabotage by provisional singers of many reed instruments using expanding builder’s foam or in one spectacular instance, old gelignite. The armistice agreement basically says:

1. Keep to separate venues as far as possible
2. Musicians play music
3. Singers sing
4. Musicians can also sing
5. Tables in upstairs pub rooms shall be screwed to the floor
6. Anyone singing anything with more than 9 verses or playing a tune more than 6 times through is fair game.

Of course, the cold war still rumbles on ……..

A Bank Holiday weekend, Hoorah!

I’m glad to say that the madness of Broadstairs is behind us. As one of the sessioneers put it, Broadstairs showed every indication that it remembered that it was on Thanet, and then reverted to type

I’m also glad to say that the Irish Session on Wednesday was swelled by guests and although the music veered a little East and North of Ireland sometimes, it was a jolly good evening. Joining the regular crew or ‘team’ as we now say at work (please somebody shoot the management gurus) were members of Rude Albert from Ashford Chris-the-KGB-staff-car {K=Kernow and his wife (I’m sorry I don’t know her name) and Mick-the-plumber. Altogether there were 12 of us and it really made a noticeable difference having a large number of musicians round the session table. Some cracking reels were played, which we kind of take for granted as normal session fare but you realise when you have guests how playing together every week for 12 years gives the session a very tight and polished feel.

The audience, which is normally composed of locals, was a large contingent of vintage bikers (yes, both bikes and riders were vintage) who seemed to like what we did. We liked their bikes too and drooled a little over the AJS, the BSA and the Royal Oilfield. There were some foreign ones there too. They don’t count.

By contrast, Thursday was back to normal. Although there were several guest sessioneers or semi-regulars, the evening was not one of those where others were invited to play which is a shame

Sunday is an Irish Session at Ospringe and you have Bank Holiday Monday to recover!