Lewes Local Group Report – Tuesday September 19th 2023

12 of us were at the Kings Head this month, with a good balance of voices and harmonies and including a new singer Rebecca. We looked at some of the songs for the upcoming “Stanmer Apple Day” in Brighton and also other seasonal items, as well as some general ones which fit into any season.

We warmed up with the well-known “Ale Glorious Ale” and “Sussex by the Sea” (trying out Worthing member Amaryllis’s alternative non-militaristic words, which we liked and thought could also be used at some events where appropriate) before revisiting one of our sea songs, “They Won’t Let Us Go To Sea Any More”. 

Next was “Juice-alem”, not a South Downs song but a tongue-in-cheek ditty about English apples agreed for use at Stanmer, before venturing into a suggested new item to try “Now Christmas is Come”, a traditional carol collected by Lucy Broadwood of Rusper from the “Singing Baker of Cuckfield”. This brought the usual mixed reactions to starting Christmas songs in September, and a reminder that this year there will be two separate practices in Worthing for those singing in the seasonal public events, so we needn’t get through all of them in the pub sessions. We were surprised when a man appeared from the main bar, saying he’d been misled – he’d thought he was going to hear folk singing, not this “God bothering”. We were unsure if he was joking, but after a brief chat he went back to the bar, and we didn’t see him again.  The first half wound up with “Bee-Boy’s Song”, another new song “Summer Is A-Coming in Again” and “Gooch’s Beer”.

After drink refills and chat, we continued with another new item “When It’s Christmas Time”, this time a more modern song by Glen Redman of Brighton Morris and Brighton Pub Carols, covering Christian Christmas but also family togetherness, changes in nature, Saturnalia and misrule, so something for everyone there! We revisited “Tommie” (a song about apple scrumping for the Stanmer event), learned a new short round “Banbury Ale” (written by Thomas Ravencroft in 1609) and sang autumn favourites “Fields Lie Silent” and “Lammas Carol” before ending a lovely evening with “Come Stranger Come Friend”.
 

Tina

 

Worthing Local Group Report - Thursday September 7th 2023

A good crowd of 31 singers contributed their voices to a mix of songs for our September session, bridging the seasons and looking ahead to our events in November and December.  

But first - we began by taking a few moments to reflect on the sad news of the death of our good friend and fellow singer Sue. She will be greatly missed by all who knew her, and in his absence our condolences were expressed to her husband David. They were both in our thoughts during the evening as we lifted our voices to Sue in our songs and singing.

Under Emily’s careful leadership we opened with one of SDFS' favourite anthems “On Sussex Hills", before moving on to “One For the Rook", the “Lammas Carol”  and “The Oak Tree” (with the slightly shorter structure of verses and choruses as tried and agreed last month, concluding with repetition of the last line in the final verse).  Emily introduced a ‘song to try’ by Hilaire Belloc, taken from the songs used in the "Broadwood and Belloc" songs project: “Delicate Flower”.  Known and well remembered by those who had learnt it during that project - we sang it through - but in discussion of it afterwards the vote was split on whether or not to take it forward in the SDFS.  Discussion of other possible choices from the ‘B&B ‘ project ensued - including the "Loyal Lover”, known and favoured by many, so we sang that one too.  Likewise the “Turtle Dove”, another favourite, was requested and duly sung after the break.

“All Among the Barley” concluded our songs from summer into autumn - before making a seasonal shift (with groans from some!) towards our repertoire for the 'Festive Season'.  Not everyone had these songs available in their folders, so choice was limited to those best known from memory (or from the few SDFS songbooks available for loan at the session).  “Deck the Halls” broke the festive ice, and resistance subsided, so we pressed on with “Holly Bears a Berry”, the“ Gloucestershire Wassail”, and by popular demand “Sweet Chiming Bells”.  Having used up the time available this evening, reminders were given about the extra sessions planned in October and November for the singers who have volunteered to perform and who will, all too soon, be singing to the public at our festive events.  

We then closed the session in quieter tone and reflective mood with “Life of a Man”, with sadness but also many fond memories of lovely Sue, her friendship and all she brought to the SDFS.  R.I.P. 

An 'Other Song to Try' - now agreed for public performance - "Juice-Alem"

This song was offered a while ago just for fun at our local sessions.  It's been tried and enjoyed a few times and it has now been agreed for limited use at some public performances - if the event has a theme relating to apples!

It will be making an appearance at our October events (see Diary Dates page for details) as the apple harvest is gathered in.

The link below will take you to the lyrics (sung to the tune of "Jerusalem") on our main "Songs and Recordings" Page

Page Link 

A Sunny Day at Amberley Museum

The sun shone, the clouds kept moving on, the visitors arrived - and we sang at Amberley Museum's "Ale and Crafts Fayre" on August Bank Holiday Monday.  Thank you to our hosts for inviting us to sing at the museum for a second time this year, and for their generous hospitality during the day.  

Thank you too to our singers who gave their time to support this event - including Angela who kindly stepped in as our lead for the day (and get well soon to Amaryllis who wasn't well enough to be there with us).  We had a jolly good day and a jolly good sing, and hope all our listeners enjoyed it too!

Chichester Local Group Report - Thursday August 17th 2023

We're very sorry if you came along and found that we weren't there...... too many holidays and other commitments meant we had to cancel this month's session.

But we'll be back at the "Chichester Inn" in full voice and good spirits on Thursday September 21st as usual. 

See you then!

Feedback from Parham's Sussex Day Celebration

With thanks again to our hosts at Parham, here (reproduced from a recent Parham newsletter) are their thanks to us for our contribution to their "Sussex Day" celebration.

A reminder of this year's 'flaming June', and despite the heat the pleasure of singing in such a lovely setting!

Sussex Day Celebrations We would like thank all visitors, stall holders and the South Downs Folk Singers for making our Sussex Day Event such a success back in June. We will be running the event next year on Sunday 16th June, more information will be published in due course.

Singing at "Amberley Museum's Ale and Craft Fayre" - August 28th

The "South Downs Singers" will be making a welcome return visit to Amberley Chalkpits Museum to sing at their "Ale and Crafts Fayre".  We will be singing near the cafe at 11.00am and again at 2.30pm, on Bank Holiday Monday August 28th.  

So if you're looking for a great setting with lots of interesting things to see and do over this holiday weekend - come along and join us there, and enjoy (maybe even join in with) some South Downs songs and singing in celebration of the Day, the Crafts and the Ale!   The sun will of course shine - and all will be merry!

Lewes Local Group Report – Tuesday August 15th 2023

Ten singers came along to the Kings Head this month. We missed those absent due to illness, work or travel difficulties but had an enthusiastic band of equal numbers of men and women keen to enjoy old songs and learn some new ones from those agreed at the recent meeting of the three local group leads.   

We warmed up with “Song of the Sussex Downsman” (the whole thing for a change) followed by “Twanky Dillo” and “Lammas Carol” (written by Alan from our Chichester group). For the upcoming Stanmer Fete, a celebration of the harvest and of apples, we then practised “Tommie” (a jolly tale of an apple scrumping lad, sung to the tune of “Fathom the Bowl”). Next, we revisited “My Downland Remembered” (from the poem by EV Lucas with a tune also by Alan, and he has now added an extra verse which we went through here for the first time). “Lark in the Morning” is an old favourite and we sang the chorus several times while making up individual harmonies as we went along, and it sounded as if there were six different versions which we will work on further in future. We ended the  first half by learning a new song, “All Among the Barley” which we all liked very much, and we paid attention to the contrast between the slower straight metred parts and the faster “skippy” ones. 

During the break, we discussed several upcoming public events and the AGM on 5^th October. Staff ferrying food from the kitchen to the main bar said “Good singing” while passing through, which was welcome. For light relief we took turns to read out the ten best one-line jokes from the Edinburgh Fringe and then voted for our favourite. Our winner was from Ginny Hogan – “Everyone says your 20s are all about finding yourself. If that’s true, your 30s are all about wishing you’d found somebody else” – which we all thought could have come from one of Ray’s poems about the wry side of life. 

Back to serious business we carried on with another song which was new to this group, “The Oak Tree Song” which we also enjoyed (just the beautiful tune tonight, we agreed to look at the harmonies next time). This was followed by the last “new” song for the evening “Juice-Alem” which is not a Sussex song but one written by a Worcestershire wassailer “William Bloke” to the tune of Jerusalem, in praise of good old English apples rather than French pommes. We agreed as group leads to allow this interloper as it's perfect for our Stanmer event. Now on the home straight, we continued with a bunch of old familiars – “Hard Times of Old England”, “Jim the Carter Lad”, and “East Sussex Drinking Song” (with solos on the verses, including one sung by Adrian, who wrote the song for us 10 years ago as a counterpoint to Hilaire Belloc’s better known West Sussex version) before winding up another enjoyable evening with “Parting Song”.

Any potential singers reading will be most welcome at future sessions, just turn up and sing, or get in touch via the blog if you want to chat first! 

Tina

Worthing Local Group Report - Thursday August 3rd

Summer holidays and other distractions slightly reduced our number at the Barn for our August sing.  Welcomes done and notices given, we launched as we often do with “ Country Life”, before discussing and trying various other songs suggested for the pleasure of them and also in preparation for a couple of forthcoming events - the Amberley Museum Ale and Craft event on August 28th, and in October a Harvest Supper evening in Fittleworth.

We continued with “All Among the Barley”, followed by the “Lammas Carol” with particular attention given to ensure the correct sequence of rise and fall in the tune.  “Farmer’s Toast” came next, with encouragement from Emily to be mindful of the words as we sing, to fully express the mood and context of the occasion described.  Next the beautiful new song we’ve been working on, “The Oak Tree”, took some time - to learn the tune of the verses and also the high and low harmonies.  There was some discussion about shortening the length of the song for performance events - by using the chorus at the start then after only the second and fourth verses - and finishing the song with the strong image, and sound, of the last verse.  (Still under debate - and needs consultation with our fellow grousp east and west.)

After the break “Gooches Beer’ got us singing again, before considering "Michaelmas" - but as few had the words to this or knew the song (written by Amaryllis and used for a seasonal event last year), we moved on to an older 'trad' song, the “Brisk Young Ploughboy” instead.  “Ale Glorious Ale” resumed the drinking theme, before  Amaryllis’ revised words for a more rural celebration of Sussex were used for “Sussex by the Sea”.  Then back to another couple of drinking songs - the first, “Fathom the Bowl”, before Emily taught and led us through “Banbury Ale”, a round, in 2 then 3 parts. (All agreed the 3 parts worked well and would be worth a try if there are enough voices available at Amberley on the 28th.)  In softer tones we closed the evening with “My Downland Remembered" now including the additional last but one verse our Alan has added to his song. 

Another enjoyable evening of song and good company - thanks to Emily and all.   See you at the Amberley event on Monday August 28th and or at the Barn again on Septemvber 7th.

(P.S. - For singers keen for more sessions (of song, and maybe beer as well) during August - our Lewes group will be meeting again at their new venue on Tuesday August 15th - but sadly there will be NO  Chichester group session this month (they will resume in September). 

                 

A Song to Try

Here is an alternative, less military, version of "Sussex By the Sea" written by Amaryllis Gunn in celebration of Sussex rural life.

You'll find the lyrics using the link below.

Lyrics