The Copper Family at Guildford Institute

Just Bill and myself to see the Copper Family, who arrived a little late due to work commitments (but quickly found their way to the bar!) They are one of the few families who still pass on folk-singing from generation to generation, and have done so in the village of Rottingdean since time immemorial. They were one of the first families to have been 'collected' from, and pass on stories of the old days of ploughing with horses, running pubs etc. as well. They are not trained singers and so maybe a bit rough around the edges, but great fun and very interesting to listen to. Long may they multiply and do their best!

Siansa at Farnham Maltings

Went to see Siansa with Bill and Val - Ken was also there, a regular reader of my blog!
Steve Winchester was suporting, and played 5 cool songs to start with, including an Irish song which Siansa thought was terrific :-D
Siansa kicked off with 3 jigs, excellently played, then some traditional songs. I amused myself by trying to pick the best musician of the outfit. It was close, but I picked Peter O'Brien, the bodhran player from Belfast, after effortlessly providing intricate rhythms for a set of Irish polkas. Turns out he was all-Ireland champion! Fantastic. Tim O'Dowd was very good on the pipes and low whistle, but I didn't like his singing voice. Other Tim was very good as well, on pipes and whistles, despite not having rehearsed with the band (they played a few tricks on him - not deliberately though!)
Geoffrey Pollett, the fiddle player, sang a few of his own songs, good ones too. He sounds terribly well-spoken English, sounding very odd in an Irish band! The harp player, Harriet Earis, was excellent - it's a rare thing to hear someone playing the Irish harp round our way.
Dave Henderson, the guitar/mandola player, was also by far the best singer, but only got to sing the one song!
Also, as a surprise, they had a top Irish dancer, Martin, who used to be lead dancer in The Lord Of The Dance (Riverdance's successor). He was truly amazing, lightning on his feet, but wrecked the door on whih he was supposed to have danced and had to hammer the floor instead!
The atmosphere was great at the gig, but at about 10 past 11 the fire alarms went off in the middle of a set of reels and, althogh Darren told us there was no fire, there was no way we could hear the music over the din. Me and Bill decided to call it a night at this point. Felt sorry for the band though.
Val won a folking.com waistcoat on the raffle - I look forward to seeing her wearing it :-D

Guildford Vox

Don't laugh - I have joined a choir!
Yesterday night I went along to Anna Tabbush's Guildford Vox choir taster night (she of Meridian and Tabbush Sisters fame) along wth about 20 other people! First of all we did warm-up exercises - a bit like aerobics, then we did some voice exercises, designed to get us singing effectively. It ws very interesting to learn how to do it properly - learning diaphragm control, the correct way to breathe in, etc. Then Anna taught us some rounds, including Jubilate Deo. Then we had to sort ourselves from low singers to high singers, bass to alto. I ended up as a mezzo-soprano, rightly or wrongly! We sang harmonies to Whim-Away, The Boar's Head Carol, and a Finnish reindeer-calling song, but I kept wanting to sing other people's tunes - very confusing! Anna was very positive and enthusiastic, and danced as she was conducting. Everyone seemed nice and I had a lot of fun, though my lungs were aching afterwards. Will definitely go back next Monday :-)

Weeping Willow?

Was merrily browsing through the board this morning when I heard our neighbour's teenage son and daughter out in the garden. I opened the curtains, and - bloody hell! A huge branch of a willow tree 2 doors down (No. 104) has crashed down - over our garden and both our neighbour's gardens! :o It has wrecked the shed at No. 106, luckily there wasn't anything valuable in there. At No. 104 the shed is bearing a lot of weight but hasn't collapsed yet.
Mike, the guy at 104, has tried phoning tree surgeons and his insurance (Direct Line Insurance), but none of them are open at the weekend!! Surprising really - who are you supposed to contact in an emergency?
Just as well no-one was out there really! That tree is also very near the railway line - again, very luckily there's no trains today due to engineering works.

Folk at the Fall - QE Hall Foyer, London

Bill and I took the train to Waterloo and firstly headed past Festival Hall to Covent Garden - yay! I'll make a shopper of Bill yet. There was a food and drink market going on, as well as the usual crafts in the Apple Market, so we tried some crepes and Moroccan savouries before heading off to the Sir John Soanes museum.
This museum was amazing! It was crammed full of bits of carved stone and marble which Sir John (architect of the House of Lords, anongst other things) had collected. There was everything from Roman gods to an Egyptian sarcophagus - and in the midst a bust of Sir John himself - a la Julius Caesar! There were also quite a few Hogarths, in the cellar the famous Rake's Progress. The house itself has been preserved in all its 18th Century glory.
I went shopping for boots in Neal Street on the way back, and Bill went to the concert. Sadly I missed most of Mawkin, an Essex-based fiddle/melodeon/guitar/bass outfit, who were very good. Gog Magog Molly were around in the intervals to entertain us with their modern take on Cambridgeshire molly-dancing. With their bright costumes and silly hats I at first thought they were clowns!
The Devil's Interval were next, but despite their cool name I found them a bit boring. But then a lot of their songs were a capella which isn't my cup of tea. They did a dirty song at the end though ;-)
Last on were Meridian - Richard Jones (piano-accordion/guitar), Anna Tabbush (fiddle/flute/vocals), and Chris Walshaw (pipes/flute/whistles). They did a superb set, playing 'At the break of day/The Glimmering) which was my favourite. Anna's voice was at it's soaring best, and the sound quality was far better than at Bridgnorth. Chris wowed the audience with his French Pipe skills, playing schottiches and other French dance tunes, a few people quietly danced at the back!
Singing Robb Johnson's 'London Eye' on the train home again to Farnborough.