A Session Diary

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 day started early with the Festival Band being given the prime slot of 09:30. Alan set up the sound in a way that suited folk / amplified acoustic music very well (he always does) and off we went again and then all too quickly it was over.

So off to the corner cafe for a pot of tea and a bacon bap. It is so posh that they have one girl whose sole job is to stand by the door and ask if you are eating inside or outside. They need another now to fill up the sugar.

Sitting there with George, Shelagh, Judy and Will, listening to the band for whom we vacated the stage – Follia. A lowlands band who are stunningly good.

We watched the Faversham Formation Dancing Team dance along to bourres and we were joined by Chris Taylor & the lovely Jacqui and Martin Long.

And in no time at all, it was time for the lunchtime session. No one there already so we settled in and waited for them to arrive. I must say that it was more subdued than Saturday and more fragmented in a way as though there was less in common.

Nevertheless we went round the changing group and played some tunes and sang some songs. I can’t remember everybody who was there (I should take a register) but apart from Shelagh, Judy, George and myself, there was Chris Care who is always welcome in any session I run. Mike, Ruth and Barbara made a brief appearance, Martin the fiddle and Stephanie the accordian are regulars and unfortunately arrived quite late. It was nice to see Gerry the banjo again and there were two ladies who were there last year. One has a Serpent (instrument) the other has a Spaniel (dog). Someone did ask if she played it (the dog). They, and Gerry and another lady who plays recorder are members of Kits Coty Morris I believe.

Vague memories of a fiddle and singer duo. A chap who sang the Old Dun Cow. And that was pretty much it really.

There will be a session an entertainment tonight in the Bear.
There is an Irish Session on Sunday in the Unicorn at Bekesbourne.

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 ……..