And Another Post on the Misc. Page ....

A rather belated post - offering a link to a podcast from the Findon Valley Wassail held on January 4th, where a few of us sang and our own Alan W was interviewed - do have a look and a listen!  

A New Post has landed on the Miscellaneous Page

With Spring just around the corner - booking has now started for a "Wassail" concert planned for December!  Check our Misc. Page for more details.....

Chichester Local Group Report - Thursday February 20th 2025

15 singers came along to a corner of the Chichester Inn for the February gathering and managed to hold their own with a good singing practice despite a joyful young party at the neighbouring tables!

Alan started the evening with a reading from “A Dictionary of the Sussex Dialect” by W E Parish (1875), describing the singing of folk songs by Sussex folk and the local songs in non-too complimentary terms.  It was generally agreed that the SDFS must do it’s best to disprove these comments.  

"Hal and Tow" was the first song tried, starting with a chorus, using the more recently added first verse and with helpful clapping at the appropriate points and a view that this should be sung reasonably briskly for best effect.  "Bee Boys" followed with advice from Dave G that a smile whilst singing the word “bees”, helped keep everyone in tune and together.  Harmonies were a feature of the next song – "Rambling Comber" which should in the end comprise three parts but in this instance the tune plus a base harmony showed great promise.  "Turmut Hoer" sung with gusto, led on to Dave G performing a very lovely version of Graeme Miles song "Dark December" (n.b. not on the SDFS Blog), with guitar accompaniment.  The group quickly learned the chorus and added their voices to good effect.  Everyone agreed that this would make a great contrast to the unaccompanied songs planned for the Chichester Fringe event.  The first half of the evening finished with an especially shortened version of "Farmer’s Toast" which had been specially adapted to fit in with the Fringe event programme.  It was also decided to repeat the last line to give a good finish.

After a well-earned break, the second half opened with "Lammas Carol" plus some interesting bits of background to Lammas.  The ladies in the group then attempted "Ladies Go Dancing" with a helpful reduction in starting note to A the second time around.  The men aided and abetted with a “hum” in the usual places.  A 'through the year' version of "Summer Is a-Coming in Again" came next, followed by male and female alternate singing in "Searching for Lambs".  A lusty rendition of "One for the Rook" completed the evening's planned programme and was followed by requests, comprising; "Rose Buds in June", "When Spring Comes In" and finally the old favourite finishing song, "Rolling Home".  

That plus a rather cheeky birthday song from Les in celebration of Alan’s forthcoming birthday, provided a good rounding off to a busy and enjoyable evening of singing in Chichester.

Anne S

Worthing Local Group Report - Thursday February 6th 2025

Our February session got off to a lively start as Emily launched us with some of the songs from our original song books - and encouraged that we sing these without reference to the lyric sheets in everyone's folders (with some allowance for singers not with us back in the day who may be less familiar with what had been learned then by ear).  Most were in any case known to us all from more recent use and, with paper prompts or without, we sang our way through them with gusto - "Country Life", "Sussex Hills", and "Ale Glorious Ale" - all produced a rich sound and set us up well for more.  

The "Bee Boys Song" and "One for the Rook" followed, before Alan suggested we continue focus on the changing seasons and the promise of spring and summer ahead - so next came "When Spring Comes In", "Searching for Lambs" and "Summer is A'Comin' in Again".  Before the break Emily reminded us a spring time round Alan had brought to us - "The Summer is Near"(which is on the rounds and catches page of the SDFS Blog) - known to some by its first line Rambling Rolling Downs.   

Our second half began with Alan and Emily revisiting a song still fairly new to us, "The Rambling Comber" - with Alan guiding a small group to learn the low harmony part.  High harmonies were also tried a little - and all parts deserve more attention at future sessions to perfect this lovely song.  More harmonies accompanied the "Oak Tree Song" which enriched an already beautiful song.  more requests followed with "My Downland Remembered", "Green Grows the Laurels" and last but not least, back to another old favourite (again without relying on our word sheets!) - "Fathom the Bowl".

Thanks to everyone - and see you at our next Barn session on March 6th. 

Lewes Local Group Report - Monday January 20th 2025 (with update from Monday December 16th 2024)

As our regular pub venue was unavailable for our last session of the year in December, eleven singers were instead hosted by Mac and Margaret at their home in Saltdean. We took turns in choosing from the “cold weather and winter” collection with nineteen carols, wassailing and other seasonal songs being sung, in between much convivial conversation and enjoyment of the very welcome mince pies and chocolates kindly provided on the house. Many thanks again to M&M for a lovely evening.

 

On the other side of the festive season, ten singers reassembled in January back at our upstairs room at the Lewes Arms. Despite it being Blue Monday, reportedly the most depressing day of the year in the Northern hemisphere, and this year also having Donald Trump’s return inauguration to cap it off (!), we were all in good spirits and shared cheerful greetings. There was a slight blip when the pub didn’t have our booking carried forward in the new diary so that we needed to wait for some diners, together with a couple of chess players who had spilled over from the club meeting downstairs, to finish up before we could start our singing. One of the chess players expressed an interest though and said she may return for a future session.

 

As in the December session, with no particular gig on the immediate horizon I went round the room for everyone to choose their favourites from the Christmas, wassail, winter and general songs. Since we have a couple of recently joined singers who are knowledgeable about music in general but relatively new to the folk scene, we spent some time, during introductions at the start  and also between songs, talking in detail about the history of SDFS and about the songs, song collectors and folk as a genre, along with some personal anecdotes and memories about the songs and previous events, and ideas for future events*.

 

In the first part of the evening, we sang “Here We Come a-Wassailing”, “Home Lads Home”, “Wassail the Silver Apple”,  “East Sussex Drinking Song”**, “The Magpie”, “Where Stormy Winds do Blow”,  “The Woodcutter’s Song”, “One for the Rook”, “The Boar’s Head Carol”, “Hard Times of Old England” and “Sugar (Sussex) Wassail”.

 

After a slightly prolonged break due to the queue at the downstairs bar, we kicked off again. To get round the circle twice we agreed to sing a bit beyond our usual finishing time and got through the following: “Parting Song”, “The Turnip/Turmut Hoer”, “Hares on the Mountain”, “Seasons Turn”, “The Oak Tree Song”, “Fields Lie Silent” and “Life of a Man”.

 

I then had the final choice of “Thousands or More” before we set off home at 10:15p.m. Another lovely evening with good company and good singing.

 

From next month we will begin looking ahead to spring and beyond and I will send out suggested songs in advance of the February, March and April sessions. 

 

Tina

 

*Fi and Rosie have suggested the possibility of singing at an apple pressing event at Wallands Primary School in Lewes in October and will obtain more information.

 

**One of our newer singers James works for a Lewes Brewery, and pointed out that there are now three, rather than one (Harvey’s of course) as in the original song which was written by our own Adrian Figgess in 2013 as a counterpoint to Hilaire Belloc’s “West Sussex Drinking Song”. Adrian was present this evening and agreed this change to his lyrics in verse 2: “They once had nine breweries – SIX more than they’ve got now!”(instead of eight more).

 

 

Farmer's Toast - A Shortened Version

Alan has offered a shortened version of Farmer's Toast, the lyrics of which you can find on the Main Page using this Link