Some minor issues arose at the start. Brighton & Hove Albion were playing at the Amex with long queues on the A27 and shortages of parking spaces in Lewes, and the upstairs room had a notice that it was reserved for a panto! After a quick check with bar staff it turned out to be an old notice and, although our reservation wasn’t in the 2026 diary, the room was free so we could go ahead.
Eight of us made it this month - five men and three women so a balance of voices. There were only two apologies for illness and sickness so here’s hoping some of the others will reappear in February. The third Monday is the so-called “Blue Monday”, supposedly the most depressing day of the year, but it’s a good reason to get out for some refreshment of body, mind and soul with a good sing and chat!
We started with the setlist for Brighton Unitarian Church on Friday February 6th where the programme contains songs of reflection, winter and wassailing, and we spent some time practising harmonies for most of them. As nobody had any particular issues or preferences, we tackled them in alphabetical order.
In the first half of the evening, we sang “All Things are Quite Silent”(a woman singing about her sailor husband being press-ganged into war); “Apple Tree Wassail”; “Brave Eleven” (a shipwreck off Worthing); “Hard Times of Old England” (military returners struggling to find employment); “Here We Come A-Wassailing”; “Home Lads Home”(remembering men and horses lost in WW1); “Life of a Man” (our natural life span); and “My Downland Remembered” (a poem set to music by Alan Wheeler from our Chichester group, concerning his ancestor who was transported to Australia for the theft of wheat).
During the break we discussed invitations to sing at three events in the summer, all in our Eastern part of Sussex. Two are new: Newhaven Fort on July 11th and “These Hills” a beer and folklore festival at Glynde Place on August 8th. The other is a return to Alfriston Clergy House where we have enjoyed singing twice in the past. This will be part of a year of events to mark the 130thanniversary of the National Trust acquiring the property (their first) and they open from Easter to August. Singers present tonight liked the sound of all three events, so we await firmer information.
We continued with “Parting Song” (does what it says on the tin, although not yet the end of the evening); “Poor Froze-Out Gardeners” (broadsheet ballad of workers laid off in winter and resorting to begging, which contains one of my very favourite lines about sowing little cabbages with a dibble and a line and always makes me smile despite the sad subject); “Sugar (Sussex) Wassail” (with its jaunty tune based partly on “God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlemen”); “Where Stormy Winds do Blow” (shepherds on the frosty and snowy Downs looking forward to the warmth of the ale house).
Having got through the Unitarian set list, singers chose favourites from the general list, and we did “Ale Glorious Ale” and “Magpie” (David Dodds’ tale of the “devil’s bird” of local folklore) before finishing with the ever popular Copper Family song “Thousands or More”. Sorry to Rosie as we ran out of time and her choice of “Seasons Turn” will be fitted in next month.
Our next session will be on Monday February 16th. We will be continuing with cold season songs but also starting to include some spring ones too, so a good time for regular members to venture out and for any new singers to come along for the first time. Email us if you want to know more or just turn up on the night with your voice and your enthusiasm!
Tina
