I don't know about you, but tunes have a way of bubbling up from the subconscious to the conscious for me from time to time. A few weeks ago, for no reason whatever, a tune I used to sing at primary school in the early '50s rose to the surface in just such a manner. I knew it then as "The Oak And The Ash", but it's more usual title these days is "The North Country Maid".

I was playing it (as an instrumental) last night at the Charlwood village singaround - always an occasion of great fun and good music - and asked if anyone else had spent the last hour of a Friday afternoon singing at primary school. Back came a chorus of responses - the National Song Book! - and out came a flood of tune titles that we remembered singing: "Sweet Lass Of Richmond Hill", "The Minstrel Boy" (one of my pet hates), "Oh No, John" and many, many others.

There was a new National Song Book - the "Red Book" - which was published in 1958, but my memories are earlier than that, so it must have been the original 1905/1906 publications which us kids all sang from. Anyway, I found a PDF on the US Internet Archive site this morning and downloaded it, just out of curiosity!

I wonder if singing those songs at school all those years ago had any subliminal influence on our chosen path in music...