A Session Diary

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.

Alright! It’s been a month I know but I’ve been busy …… being retired. You have no idea how busy your life can get if you’re in that nice cossetted world of gainful employment.

Strangely, not everyone saw the ‘Old George’ through the same rose tinted beer glasses as I (I refer readers to the previous post). I had of course forgotten about the odd Morris men who strayed in and the sometimes large number of instrument worriers who joined in. But I didn’t mind that. I didn’t mind the snare drum. There was a camaraderie and a sense of belonging that was lost. Still, the sound and quality of music has definitely continued to improve from those humble beginnings.

Whilst musing on the future of the Mixed Lumpy Session that is currently assailing the Thursday night topers at the Bear, I was struck by two thoughts. One, that it’s rare to have two thoughts … oh, alright, three thoughts. The second was ‘Where do I or don’t I want to play?’ and third, ‘What do I or don’t I want to play?’

The choice of venue is important. Although a wide-ish range of accommodation is tolerable (one must suffer a little for ones art), cold upstairs function rooms with no bar and no audience is definitely out. We don’t ask much we sessioneers but it is infinitely preferable to go to a place that wants you to play rather than tolerates you playing.

As for what –  in an ideal world, I would like a nice English music session to complement the Irish. OK. It can be a little mixed and eclectic. I’m rather fond of some Swedish, Finnish, Norwegian, French, Scottish, Shetland American and Welsh tunes (not to mention other places – like Spain. Damn. I said I wouldn’t mention it). Many tunes from these places and a few Irish too have passed into the corpus of ‘English’. Is that controversial? But for a session it must have No Songs. Not that I dislike songs or singers, I’d just like a session for musicians.

Are session leaders important? The Irish session functions quite well without one and the English session – well it’s complicated. But generally it does have one. I don’t think it would work very well without one but a lot depends on the players.

Time for tea and then out to the ‘New George’ (which began in the reign of Henry VIII I believe!).

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.