12 singers met for our Monday night gathering at the King’s Head pub, the first for the new evening! Very sadly the enforced change by the pub from Tuesday to another night (with Monday becoming the chosen evening) has meant that Jan, Angela, Amaryllis, Beryl and Chrissie are no longer able to come to the Lewes nights – you will be greatly missed...
It did mean however that a couple of newer or new singers were able to make it, so we’re pleased to have them. And we were welcomed by the barman, which was very good! After a brief hello from Tina we started off the evening by introducing ourselves to each other before singing a mixture of longstanding and newer items in the repertoire.
In the first part we covered “Jim the Carter Lad”, “Birds on the Spray”, “Rosebuds in June”, “Magpie”, “Searching for Lambs”, “Green Grow the Laurel”, “East Sussex Drinking Song”, “Ha’nacker Mill”, and “Oldland Mill“ (briefly trying out the two low and high harmony parts for the latter song}, and more generally thinking ahead to the very welcome promise of Spring, with perhaps singing for some of us at Firle, Stanmer Park and Oldland Mill. We also enjoyed practising Mick Ryan’s “Summer is a-Coming in Again” and although the two final verses are about battle we felt they appeared to be allegorical references about good and evil (as in mummers’ plays) so appropriate for performance overall.
Then time for a welcome break to refill glasses & chat!
After which there were various notices from Tina. Emily will sadly no longer be leading the singing at any events, due to other commitments, and the leading will be shared between Alan, Amaryllis and Tina. The SDFS committee meets every 3 months, and another Lewes representative would be very welcome. A 'Social and Sing' event is being looked into for Highdown Hill in mid May and details will be confirmed later.
We then went on to our final songs: “Fathom the Bowl” and “When Spring Comes In”, followed by the lovely “My Downland Remembered” and “The Oak Tree Song”, and closed with the very evocative songs “Come Stranger, Come Friend” and “Thousands or More”.
A good evening!
Margaret
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