Lyr Req: Here's the Tender Coming / The Press-Gang

Subject: Geordies help!heres the tender comin'
From: GUEST,Kipling
Date: 02 Nov 02 - 07:34 AM

Hi,
Does anyone know the words and background to a song- which I think I heard the Keelers or another tyneside group sing. Its got a lot of 'Geordie language' in it and I'm not even sure if i've even got the title right, but liked the sound of it when I heard it a long while ago. I think it's called Here's the Tender comin'

Got a feeling it's got a coal connection, but not really sure.
From what I remember some of the song goes like this.

Here's the tender comin, off the (Keel) spar
Here's the tender comin .............
Oh dear Hinny, what shall we (protect?)

Well this could be a tricky one- from my lack of information,I might have to wait till I see one of the keelers to ask them.
Hope someone knows it, or has heard of it
Kipling

Subject: RE: Words and info:here's the tender comin'
From: Gareth
Date: 02 Nov 02 - 07:51 AM

Click Here

Gareth

Subject: Lyr Add: HERE'S THE TENDER COMING (from Roy Palmer
From: Harry Basnett
Date: 02 Nov 02 - 07:56 AM

Hi, Kipling..here goes..

Here's the tender coming, pressing all the men;
Oh, dear Hinnie, what shall we do then?
Here's the tender coming off at Shield's Bar,
Here's the tender coming full of men o' war.

Hide thee, canny Geordie, hide thyself away;
Hide thee till the tender makes for Druids Bay.
If they take thee, Geordie, who's to win our bread?
Me and little Jacky: better off be dead.

Here's the tender coming, stealing of my dear;
Oh, dear, hinny, they'll ship you out of here.
They will ship you foreign, that is what it means;
Here's the tender coming full of red marines.

Hey, bonny lassie, let's go to the Lawe*
See the tender lying, off at shields Bar,
With her colours flying, anchor at the bow,
They took my bonny laddie, best of all the crew.

Here's the tender coming, pressing all the men;
Oh, dear hinny, what shall we do then?
Here's the tender coming, off at sheield's Bar,
Here's the tender coming, full of men o' war.


* Apparently the Lawa is a high vantage point a t Shields.

Hope this helps....I took the words from Roy Palmer's wonderful 'The Valiant Sailor.'

All the best..........Harry Basnett.

Subject: RE: Words and info:here's the tender comin'
From: Harry Basnett
Date: 02 Nov 02 - 08:00 AM

Aha......one more verse in Mr. Palmer's version.....don't you hate typing things out and someone does a clicky?

Subject: RE: Words and info:here's the tender comin'
From: allanwill
Date: 02 Nov 02 - 08:59 AM

Luv' Dave Burland's version of this.

Allan

Subject: RE: Words and info:here's the tender comin'
From: masato sakurai
Date: 02 Nov 02 - 09:08 AM

Sources for the Roy Palmer version above are: "J. Stokoe and S. Reay, Songs and ballads of Northern Enland, n.d. (1899), p. 177. Slightly adapted. Verse 2 added from Terry, Salt sea ballds, and verse 3 from J. Masefield, A sailor's garland, 1906, p. 216."

Subject: RE: Words and info:here's the tender comin'
From: Santa
Date: 02 Nov 02 - 09:34 AM

Not Druids Bay but Druridge Bay, just up the Northumberland coast.

Subject: RE: Words and info:here's the tender comin'
From: Bernard
Date: 02 Nov 02 - 04:26 PM

Yes, Allan - Dave Burland's version is the 'definitive' version as far as I'm concerned! He still sings it (saw him earlier this year), and it's as fresh now as thirty-odd years ago when I first heard him do it!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: and info: here's the tender comin'
From: Glynn
Date: 11 Sep 03 - 08:42 AM

I think you'll find it's Druridge rather than Druids but maybe I'm wrong. Can't find a Druids Bay on the local Ordnance Survey map. Anyway, thanks for the words, a few more than I'd already found which is nice. I've worked out an arrangement that I'm very pleased with!

Subject: Lyr Add: HERE'S THE TENDER COMING (from Armstrong)
From: Roberto
Date: 11 Sep 03 - 12:52 PM

A beautiful recording of this song: Here's the tender coming, Frankie Armstrong, The Valiant Sailor, Songs & Ballads of Nelson's Navy, Topic 12TS232, 1973

Here's the tender coming, pressing all the men;
Oh, dear hinny, what shall we do then?
Here's the tender coming off at Shield's Bar,
Here's the tender coming full of men o' war.

Hide thee, canny Geordie, hide thyself away;
Hide thee till the tender makes for Druids Bay.
If they take thee, Geordie, who's to win our bread?
Me and little Jacky: better off be dead.

Here's the tender coming, stealing of my dear;
Oh, dear hinny, they'll ship you out of here.
They will ship you foreign, that is what it means;
Here's the tender coming full of red marines.

Hey, bonny lassie, let's go to the Lawe
See the tender lying, off at Shield's Bar,
With her colours flying, anchor at the bow,
They took my bonny laddie, best of all the crew.

Here's the tender coming, pressing all the men;
Oh, dear hinny, what shall we do then?
Here's the tender coming, off at Shield's Bar,
Here's the tender coming, full of men o' war.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: and info: here's the tender comin'
From: georgeward
Date: 11 Sep 03 - 01:05 PM

Query about the fourth verse that Harry gives above: It makes little sense to me that the tender would be lying off the bar, all colors flying. I'm sure Harry and Roy Palmer both transcribed it faithfully from their respective sources, but I wonder if the verse didn't originally describe watching the frigate at anchor off the bar?

I recorded this on my All Our Brave Tars album (avail. at Folk Legacy for those interested in the era) and liked the result enough to put it down as track one.

But Dave Burland's my favorite rendition too.    -GW

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: and info: here's the tender comin'
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 11 Sep 03 - 01:35 PM

Apart from the sources already mentioned, a fragment appears in Songs from the Manuscript Collection of John Bell (Dave Harker, ed., Surtees Society, 1985, p.6), with the comment that it was "probably current in the mid-1790s". Tune and one verse also appear in Bruce and Stokoe, Northumbrian Minstrelsy, 1882, p.126.

The text above from Frankie Armstrong's record is identical to Roy Palmer's collation already posted; she learned it from Palmer's book.

Number 3174 in the Roud Folk Song Index.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: and info: here's the tender comin'
From: Santa
Date: 11 Sep 03 - 02:45 PM

Surely it should be the frigate that sails to Druridge Bay - the tender, being only a simple rowing boat, will only be travelling to the frigate waiting off Shields Bar.

I've heard this from the High Level Ranters, and no doubt other North-eastern performers over the years. I think that Roy Palmer has slightly confused the words, and the folk process has taken over....

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: and info: here's the tender comin'
From: Folkiedave
Date: 11 Sep 03 - 03:25 PM

There is a bit of a problem with the not Druids but Druridge Bay. The latter is a pretty bleak spot even now and I cannot think it would be any less bleak in 1790 or whenever. Why would a press-gang frigate want to go there?

http://www.graeme-peacock.com/f_photos/f-03.htm

Dave
www.collectorsfolk.co.uk

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: and info: here's the tender comin'
From: GUEST,Santa
Date: 12 Sep 03 - 04:00 AM

The ways of their Lords of Admiralty are not transparent to us lesser folk.

Or: I dunno. Possibly the fleet (whichever one it was) was using Druridge Bay as a rendezvous point, from which it had detached the frigate(s?) to go round up some likely lads from the nearest convenient port(s?)? Alternatively, the songwriter is using it as an alternative to simply sailing North.

Just to clarify one point where I wasn't precise enough: I have heard the song sung with the frigate (not the tender) going to Druridge Bay. I wasn't just arguing that it made much more sense that way (though it does).

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: and info: here's the tender comin'
From: GUEST,Santa
Date: 12 Sep 03 - 04:03 AM

PS. I've also heard it sung as

"Hide 'til the frigate sails at break of day"

which avoids the geography problem altogether.

Might have been "wait" not "hide" in that line.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: and info: here's the tender comin'
From: Santa
Date: 13 Sep 03 - 06:28 AM

OK, tranferring to higher authority...

The High Level Ranters "Ranting Lads" Topic 12TS297 recorded 1975/76. This predates the Palmer source, I think?

"Hide 'til the frigate meks for Druridge Bay"

meks = makes

The sources are quoted as The Northumbrian Minstrelsy 1882 and Terry's Salt Sea Ballads 1931.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: and info: here's the tender comin'
From: GUEST,MCP
Date: 13 Sep 03 - 06:44 AM

"The High Level Ranters "Ranting Lads" Topic 12TS297 recorded 1975/76. This predates the Palmer source, I think"

Not really. The Valiant Sailor itself was published in 1973. And as for The Ranters' sources, The Minstrelsy as noted above, provides only one verse (verse 1 in the version given by Harry above plus the tune), and Masato has already indicated that Terry's Sea Salt Ballads was the source for Palmer's verse 2 above (containing Druids Bay).

I don't have all the Palmer sources, but he is a well-respected publisher of songs and what he gives you is almost certainly what was in the original sources, even if he has collated the versions. The question of whether the original sources were in some sense correct or not is a different matter.

Mick

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: and info: here's the tender comin'
From: GUEST,MCP
Date: 13 Sep 03 - 06:56 AM

I should have added that Stokoe published tune + 2 verses in his Songs Of Northern England (1893), the 1st verse as in The Minstrelsy and the 2nd essentially verse 4 of Harry's above ("..let's go to the Lawe" - Harry's version has removed dialect versions of a few words).

Mick

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: and info: here's the tender comin'
From: GUEST,Mrs Miggins
Date: 02 Jul 10 - 07:36 PM

I believe the meaning of the name Druridge Bay is actually Druids Bay. Explains why you cant find the place on the map :-)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: and info: here's the tender comin'
From: GUEST,Betsy
Date: 02 Jul 10 - 08:03 PM

Not withstanding the great versions by Dave Burland etc - the Doonan Family do a superb job on this one.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: and info: here's the tender comin'
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 02 Jul 10 - 08:07 PM

Druridge Bay is a long coastal bay in Northumberland, extending from Amble (North) to Cresswell (South), seven miles of sand shore. It was thought of as a possible landing place for the Germans in WW2, defences are still there. Fishing boats work out of Amble. The harbour was extended in the 1830s.
Cresswell Tower at the other end was built in the 14th c.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: and info: here's the tender comin'
From: Dave Ruch
Date: 02 Jul 10 - 11:57 PM

George Ward does this song beautifully, as referenced above.

Subject: Lyr Add: HERE'S THE TENDER COMING
From: GUEST,Suibhne Astray
Date: 03 Jul 10 - 02:59 AM

Druridge Bay is real enough & well known to Northumbrian folks & folkies as the proposed sight of a nuclear power station - we might still shiver at the prospect yet! Go to Widdrington and head east...

Druridge Bay

Otherwise, I love HTTC, and sing it myself, but I leave out the Little Jackie verse as it invariably makes me want to throw up. Thus:

Here's the tender coming, pressing all the men;
Oh, canny hinny, what shall we do then?
Here's the tender coming off at Shield's Bar,
Here's the tender coming full of men o' war.

They always come at night, they never come at day,
They always come at night to steel your lad away
Here's the tender coming full of red marines,
Here's the tender coming you know what it means.

Hide thee canny Geordie, hide thyself away;
Wait until the tender leaves for Druridge Bay.
They would press ye far and send ye off to sea,
Here's the tender coming, yiou know it means

Hey, me bonny lass, let's go to the law
See the tender lying off at Shield's Bar,
With her colours flying, anchor at the bow,
Pressed your bonny lad, the best of all the crew.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: and info: here's the tender comin'
From: *#1 PEASANT*
Date: 03 Jul 10 - 08:51 AM

For a moody soulful version see the Unthanks latest cd

Subject: Tune Add: HERE'S THE TENDER COMING
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 08 Jul 10 - 12:51 PM

The tune and one verse, called HERE'S THE TENDER COMING, are shown in The Music of the Waters By Laura Alexandrine Smith (London: Kegan Paul, Trench & Co., 1888), page 113.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Here's the Tender Coming / The Press-Gang
From: GUEST,The Drift Cafe
Date: 27 Sep 18 - 08:58 AM

Druridge Bay was original known as Druids Bay... draw your own conclusions.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Here's the Tender Coming / The Press-Gang
From: GUEST,jim bainbridge
Date: 27 Sep 18 - 11:07 AM

One of the best collections of NE songs (including this song) is on a CD by Norman & Betty McDonald- just good straightforward tuneful, sincere singing from this Geordie couple.

If you want moody and soulful versions, you've been told where to look....