No Dave, that wasn't it, though it has a lot of round toast :) I think whatever it was, was sung by Dave Webber and Anni Fentiman in the last sing concert in the Arts Centre marquee.

Mo, all this reference to toast is to do with the first line of the last verse of Rolling Home, where it goes :"So pass the bottle round, and let the toast go free". A number of naughty people, myself included, have got into the habit of calling out "Free toast!" after that line, and there are some who don't like us tampering with the song that way, because it spoils it for them. Unfortunately for them, I don't think it's about to go away.

It's very subjective anyway, what people like or don't like about things being done to songs. Rob doesn't like people singing "tra la la" at the end of lines in "Sweet Nightingale". I really don't care myself. There are also songs where people sometimes do actions, which may or may not go down so well with some others - "Swing low, sweet chariot" comes to mind. But you can't please everybody, and you can't really stop those things happening.

It seems that in Australia, where I came from, there are more parodies and funny versions of songs than here. Rob was amazed at the number of parodies he heard while he was there. I think in general, us Aussies are a rather rebellious bunch who like to stir things up - with our strong convict history it's not really too surprising! A lot of Australian folkies are also well towards the left in their political views, and union songs are very popular.

Having said that, there are some songs I would not tamper with. I haven't really noticed a humorous song altering the tone of a singaround all that much either. Ones I've been at lately seem to fluctuate. You only need one person to sing a serious song, and the tone has been altered again. I like the contrasts.

Anyway, enough thread creep - back to Bromyard - they seem to be improving it all the time - I liked the dance displays down at the festival site, the food was good, there seemed to be something for everyone. Altogether we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, and we'll be back next year. So we'll see you over breakfast next year, Mo :)