A Session Diary

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!

Well here we are again. 3 days to Midsummer. In the middle of the festival season. Lots of gigs and events going on. As I sit here listening to Home-to-tea Girl by Roaring Jelly (now Omega 3) I am reflecting on the fortunes of the sessions. Catch them if you can by the way, they’re a fantastically silly and entertaining outfit. Omega 3 that is.

I don’t know if it’s the weather or what but the Irish session is rising phoenix-like from the rather grim times earlier. A lot of it due to hard work by sessioneers like Six-String-Shelagh and some of it is due to great good fortune and Facebook. Whatever the reason it is a real pleasure to see 10 or more playing at the George and more people coming to listen as well.

Not Strictly Session (A BBC Commission I wonder?) but I felt it was worth mentioning. I was invited to join Watershed for a barn dance last Saturday as one of their irregulars and I was most taken with the location and venue. Normally, the prospect of a barn dance in an actual barn fills the band with horror. Visions of a frayed 13 amp cable looping in from somewhere, freezing wind whistling in through the slats in the side, some kind of surface which is guaranteed to create a hovering miasma of what can be best described as recycled organic matter which not only obscures the dancers but also coats the equipment in a dust which Iceland would be proud of. I have heard tell that it’s still inside some mixing desks after 12 years or more – impossible to shift.

However, this was a lambing shed in the wilds of the Weald and it was a beautiful evening. The kind of place where sat navs give up and the road has grass down the middle and you pray you don’t meet a tractor. The shed had only 3 sides being open to a field which sloped gently down before rising again to some trees beyond which was the village with a lazily smoking chimney. The shed had a straw floor and bales for seats. It shouldn’t have been good but it was. It was somehow a complete feeling of continuance with the past. Being so rural and near midsummer (bonfires were prepared and lit at midnight) with communities celebrating with drink and food and dance  it was just magic. Real magic.

Of course if it had been raining it would have been different …..

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!

For some time now, as followers of this little blog will know, I have been bemoaning the dwindling attendance at Irish Traditional Music Sessions and pondering on innovative ways of getting more players in.

We have now, very sadly decided to cancel the Wednesday night Irish session as it never makes critical mass, so never really becomes a session. The same is true of one of the Sunday Irish sessions as well – the Ship at Ospringe will probably be cancelled too.

I suspect that it’s a law of diminishing returns which started when the session began its nomadic wander in the wilderness after the George on Stone Street closed. When a session is large and vibrant, it attracts more players both good and beginners. The beginners can hide better and learn, and the good ones are glad to be part of a ‘good’ session. As the numbers decrease, musicians are lost from both ends of the spectrum. The beginners have nowhere to hide, feel intimidated and go away. The good ones feel they are keeping it going or that it just isn’t ‘good’ any more – doesn’t have the buzz of a large session, and are less motivated to come out and play.

Before you know it, you’re down to a few dedicated players who try not to let the music die. In the end it ‘s probably kinder to put it out of its misery. 

The nomadic ways haven’t helped but the smoking ban and change of ownership of many pubs have taken their toll. The recent change of venue may have been a move too far. 

Thank you to all those who supported the Irish Session over the years at whichever session  you pitched up in – Wednesday or Sunday (George Stone Street, Hop Pocket Bossingham, Chequers Selstead, Geeorge Stone Street (2)Rose and Crown Stelling Minnis, Anchor Wingham, George Molash, Anchor Wingham (2)Shipwrights Oare Creek, Compasses Crundale, Anchor Faversham, Prince Albert Deal, Sportsman Dover, Olde Beverlie Canterbury, Chequers Challock and I’m sure there are some I’ve forgotten).

Well here we are safely on the other side of St Patrick’s night. It’s a bit like the proverbial bus. Some years there are none and then the next year two come along at once.

That’s what happened this year. Both the regular sessions held a St Patrick’s night ‘do’. Both with Irish Stew (yes, fill in the joke to which this is part of the punchline. All together now…). So it was a traditional Irish night at the Startled Stoat – and the last for it hath movéd – back to the Unfortunate Spoonerism in Ingham where it hath been these two weeks since. Not entirely sure that this was a good move as we’ve now lost John the flute as well as Ian the piper (while he’s studying) and Andy the banjo (hopefully only temporarily – get well soon and come back playing!).

The session in the Well Intent (or Shackled Yak) was a different beast. More Irish music than I imagined coutesy of Chris, Graham, Shelagh, Barbara, George and myself (sorry if I missed anyone) and accompanied by the other regulars. More songs this time too which is fine for a Paddy’s night entertainment. 

Well, numbers are still low at the Irish session whether it be the regular Wednesday evening or one of the two Sunday slots (2nd Sunday Unicorn at Bekesbourne, last Sunday Ship at Ospringe) but it keeps going defiantly.

If anybody is interested, for a bit of social fun, there is a facebook page – Fans of the Bear Sessions. Please join and say hi. Add a photo, tune, comment – whatever.