G'day all,

I remember that, in Australia, during the "Folk Boom" of the '60s and '70s there would always be a specific song that was a very broad hint for the audience to go home! In clubs with a strong English/(or maybe) Scots leaning it would often be Home, Boys, Home!. The more Irish-inclined (possibly showing an Ulster stripe, or two) often ended with Will Ye Go, Lassie, Go? (Really: Wild Mountain Thyme ...?) - and the more southerly of them might come out with The Parting Glass.

I remember hearing one English singer, while out here, sing a song he said was commonly used at the end of folk nights in the north-east - starting:
Here's a health to the company, and to my lass,
Let's drink and be merry, all out of one glass ...".

(This one stuck in my mind because it used the same tune as a song I was singing, I've Been a Wild Boy!, which came from a fine old singer Sally Sloane.)

During my time as Secretary of the Bush Music Club (mid-70s) I never found any song that could magically shift the members at our "Beer & Cheese Nights" ... when I had to get the hall empty and closed by midnight - or pay the Council extra hiring costs!

Regards,

Bob Bolton