Who's getting excited about Sidmouth?

Subject: Who's getting excited about Sidmouth?
From: Ruth Archer
Date: 15 Jul 07 - 06:09 AM

I surely am. I had the Spooky Men's Chorale at my venue last night, and as they were leaving and calling out, "See you at Sidmouth!" I got a little flutter. Only a few weeks now! It's going to be a lovely one this year, methinks. I have a premonition that August is going to be glorious after all the horrid weather we've had - late summer and all that.

PS: it would be nice if this could stay a positive thread about the festival and what people are looking forward to seeing/doing, rasther than descending into a scrap and/or a sucking-of-gums about past history, as so many previous Sidmouth threads have done. I know I'm being excessively optimistic here, but what the hell.

Subject: RE: Who's getting excited about Sidmouth?
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 15 Jul 07 - 06:12 AM

I am.
G


(Mad Lizzie will be along in a minute, to gush!)

Subject: RE: Who's getting excited about Sidmouth?
From: Ruth Archer
Date: 15 Jul 07 - 06:14 AM

occupational hazard, I'm afraid...

Subject: RE: Who's getting excited about Sidmouth?
From: Ruth Archer
Date: 15 Jul 07 - 06:17 AM

Anything you're particularly looking forward to, G? Apart from meeting me, of course!

:D

Subject: RE: Who's getting excited about Sidmouth?
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 15 Jul 07 - 06:19 AM

No just the general ambience, the beer, and all the venues. The Newt The Bedford, The Anchor, The Volunteer. I could go on.
G.

Subject: RE: Who's getting excited about Sidmouth?
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 15 Jul 07 - 06:32 AM

A sunny Sidmouth, even without the folk festival is a wonderful thought. Its still absolutely pissing down here. I love all those places - Exmouth, Sidmouth, Lyme, Torquay.... I always think those little hotels on the front at at Sidmouth look like the sort of places that an Agatha Christie mystery should unfold, Murder on the Devon Riviera!

Last thursday, I bought a little campervan off e-bay. It was in Ross on Wye and I live near Nottingham, but it looked like a bargain. (Daihatsu, 2 years old, 8 thou on the clock - three and a half grand).

Anyway I've driven automatics for about ten years, so there I was huffing and puffing on the return journey - struggling with a very crotchetty four on the floor (went into reverse a couple of times by mistake!). Round about Droitwich there was a two hour hold up, just sat there dying for pee on the M5.

I'm not sure I can face the M5 again so soon - but it would be great! All the best to those who do make it down there.

Subject: RE: Who's getting excited about Sidmouth?
From: bubblyrat
Date: 15 Jul 07 - 06:36 AM

I am starting a new job tomorrow ( Monday 16th ) , so I am excited about what my new boss is going to say when I ask him for two weeks off almost immediately after I"ve started !! But he"s a lovely man from Perth, WA, ( No, NOT Rolf Harris ! ), and it should be OK. Then , as a great fan of Hoover The Dog, I am excited about seeing them performing with the Belgians -------and getting down to the Bedford every day, of course !!

Subject: RE: Who's getting excited about Sidmouth?
From: Ruth Archer
Date: 15 Jul 07 - 06:41 AM

I was just looking at that concert in the working programme, bubblyrat - looks really good!

I was also delighted to see that someone I used to sing with, and haven't seen in over 10 years, is playing one of the Anchor ceilidhs! Look forward to going to see him in a proper band. :)

Subject: RE: Who's getting excited about Sidmouth?
From: bubblyrat
Date: 15 Jul 07 - 06:46 AM

Weelittledrummer, ----Sidmouth HAS been used for a Christie murder drama. It was the Miss Marple episode about the girl from Australia or New Zealand who was born in the town, and witnessed a murder as a small child-------she goes there on honeymoon, and starts having "flashbacks" in a house she and her new RAF husband have rented. In the story, the town is called " Dilmouth ", but it is VERY recognisably Sidmouth !! I have seen the story a couple of times on TV, and it is quite a good "yarn", actually, starring, among others, that very good actor and comedian ( That Was The Week That Was , Randall & Hopkirk ) , Kenneth Cope.

Subject: RE: Who's getting excited about Sidmouth?
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 15 Jul 07 - 06:57 AM

that would be Sleeping Murder...?

Subject: RE: Who's getting excited about Sidmouth?
From: Dave Earl
Date: 15 Jul 07 - 06:58 AM

I is looking forward to it.

Particularly wanting to see Liza and the Ratcatchers.

When I'm not stewarding in the Box Office I will be in the Middle Bar, Swan garden and maybe the Bedford.

Dave

Subject: RE: Who's getting excited about Sidmouth?
From: Surreysinger
Date: 15 Jul 07 - 07:01 AM

I'm quietly excited at the thought .... looking forward to returning to the Volunteer, meeting up with friends that I haven't seen in over a year or mre in some cases, doing some singing .... having one or two ice creams... no real plans at the moment - apart from the Volunteer and one or two of the "Meet the's...."..... oh, and ecstatic about meeting Ruth, of course [grins] .... bringing the equipment and ingredients for the cinnamon vodka, maybe??

Subject: RE: Who's getting excited about Sidmouth?
From: treewind
Date: 15 Jul 07 - 07:09 AM

I'm looking forward to meeting Ruth Archer too, except I won't know when I have, or even if we've met already...

Anahata

Subject: RE: Who's getting excited about Sidmouth?
From: bubblyrat
Date: 15 Jul 07 - 07:25 AM

Dear Ruth, Actually, I have been getting excited about Sidmouth since I first went----- In 1965 !!! The same year, I think, that Pete Coe went there. Of course, it was very different in those days !!---Lots of Morris dancing along the Esplanade, lots of earnest young men wearing "Donovan " hats with EFDSS badges in them ( Yes, including me ! ).No "Ham", of course---it wasn"t built then, and one of the main " venues was The Forge, long gone but it used to be somewhere around where the swimming pool and car-park are now.The Black Horse seemed to be the main focus in those days, and was always HEAVING with performers and dancers ,spilling out into both roads, every night. And you could go there by TRAIN !! Yes, a real CHOO-CHOO !!And we used to have informal and drunken singarounds on the beach at Jacobs Ladder, complete with huge driftwood fire and exploding pebbles ! Need a"risk assessment " for anything like that today, I fear !! See you in Sidmouth , love, Roger ( Formerly of " Robin & Roger," Sidmouth, Yeovil ,Dorchester,Weymouth, Exmouth and Exeter folk clubs,(among others) , 1964-1966.. xxx

Subject: RE: Who's getting excited about Sidmouth?
From: GUEST
Date: 15 Jul 07 - 07:27 AM

Not me I hate the place

Subject: RE: Who's getting excited about Sidmouth?
From: Dave Earl
Date: 15 Jul 07 - 07:35 AM

That's fine Guest you just stay at home and do whatever it is you do enjoy.

Dave

Subject: RE: Who's getting excited about Sidmouth?
From: Leadfingers
Date: 15 Jul 07 - 07:37 AM

I shall be 'Holding Out' in The Newt most of the time !

Subject: RE: Who's getting excited about Sidmouth?
From: MBSLynne
Date: 15 Jul 07 - 07:39 AM

Mixed feelings this year I'm afraid. Usually by now I'm getting really excited but I will only be able to be there from Thursday to Monday at the beginning and I can't really afford that. There's no Dove to go and sit and chat in! And the Middle Bar Singers wil be upstairs, not in the Middle Bar. Alright, I know it's a better room to sing in and it's the people who make the Middle Bar what it is, not the place, but I'm still a little sad at the change.

However I AM looking forward to seeing all my old (and I use the term advisedly) friends, all the more recent ones, and hopefully the new ones I'll make in the short time I will be there.

If any one wants to meet ME (getting jealous of all the attention Ruth Archer is getting *sulk) come to the Volunteer garden on Friday evening and join the Ashby de la Zouch folk club which I will be running.

I just hope it stops bloody raining!!!!

Love Lynne
ps Sorry Ruth, that wasn't incredibly positive. I AM looking forward to it.

Subject: RE: Who's getting excited about Sidmouth?
From: GUEST, Tom Bliss
Date: 15 Jul 07 - 07:40 AM

I'm just reading a huge stack of press cuttings that Graham has sent me as background for my songwriting course. So anyone who fancies trying a song about the Napoli, come along to the Chape St Hall at 9.30am mon to fri. Got 6 gigs too, including with Parky, Maggie B and Jonny and Vix - and I'm billeted in the Bedford, so no doubt the old mandolin will get a bash as well. Se you there. Tom

Subject: RE: Who's getting excited about Sidmouth?
From: The Barden of England
Date: 15 Jul 07 - 08:31 AM

Not long now, and as always looking forward to a week of fun and music, with a few drops of 'Otter' too. I'll be in The Bedford as usual, along with 'The Swan' and some others. Hope to see you all there.
John Barden

Subject: RE: Who's getting excited about Sidmouth?
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 15 Jul 07 - 08:32 AM

Why don't those Mudcatters who will be there on the Friday night, make a point of going to the Volunteer for a Mini Mudgather?
Giok

Subject: RE: Who's getting excited about Sidmouth?
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 15 Jul 07 - 09:03 AM

I've volunteered to help drive the MBS bench as well as singarounds in the Faulkner Bar of the Royal York - but I still expect to be at the Volly for Lynne's Ashby de la Zouch club night on Friday (it's traditional!).

I am so looking forward to the Bedford not being smoky this year (espcially as I'm staying there)!

Kitty

Subject: RE: Who's getting excited about Sidmouth?
From: MBSLynne
Date: 15 Jul 07 - 09:05 AM

Thanks Giok...what a good idea!

Love Lynne

Subject: RE: Who's getting excited about Sidmouth?
From: Ruth Archer
Date: 15 Jul 07 - 09:53 AM

Lynne: looking forward to meeting YOU, as it happens!

bubbly: those are the halcyon days that some of us will only ever know by reading "The First Week in August". Even though I'm pretty much a Sidmouth newcomer, hearing people's lovely memories of Sidmouths past makes you feel like you're part of that long continuum of folks who have attended over more than 50 years - it's quite a legacy.

Anahata: we haven't met, but I reviewed your most recent CD in EDS. So it will be nice to have a chance to say hi!

Surrey: I think the cinnamon vodka workshop would end up causing complete chaos in someone's kitchen. However, copious free samples of the finished product will be on offer - just look out for me carrying a very kitch 1950s-style thermos flask with flamingoes all over it...

Subject: RE: Who's getting excited about Sidmouth?
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 15 Jul 07 - 10:04 AM

Pretty Flamingo

Subject: RE: Who's getting excited about Sidmouth?
From: Dave Earl
Date: 15 Jul 07 - 11:37 AM

Yes Lynne will be at Volly garden on the first Friday (Box Office stewarding notwithstanding)

Couldn't really be anywhere else could we?

Might that event include a "gathering" mini or otherwise.


Dave

Subject: RE: Who's getting excited about Sidmouth?
From: Surreysinger
Date: 15 Jul 07 - 01:09 PM

Sad about the CV workshops ... but always willing to try the finished product - with or without flamingos!!

Damn - can't go to the Friday night thingy, as I'm not arriving until Saturday afternoon after all, thanks to a very kindly offered lift (I was clever enough to get cheap rail tickets to and from Whitby, but completely forgot that I might need to do the same for Sidmouth .... doh!! Hooray for being rescued from paying vast amounts of filthy lucre thanks to my mistake) .... never mind - maybe next year !

Subject: RE: Who's getting excited about Sidmouth?
From: Mrs_Annie
Date: 15 Jul 07 - 03:04 PM

I can't believe it's only 3 weeks away.
Lookng forward to that first pint in the Bedford Saturday lunchtime.
Lots of great music - and hopefully some SUNSHINE!!!

Subject: RE: Who's getting excited about Sidmouth?
From: GUEST,North South Annie
Date: 15 Jul 07 - 06:58 PM

Yes, I'll be there for the week. Hope to see you at Volly Lynne on Friday night. Also intend frequenting Kitty's sessions most am's and Rosies's most pm's and inbetween times in 'upstairs middle bar'. Mine's a pint!

Annie

Subject: RE: Who's getting excited about Sidmouth?
From: Mary Humphreys
Date: 15 Jul 07 - 07:01 PM

Ruth Archer - now we know who you are!
We owe you at least one drink after all the nice things you said about our CD. Please claim it at Sidmouth.
Mary

Subject: RE: Who's getting excited about Sidmouth?
From: Ruth Archer
Date: 15 Jul 07 - 07:11 PM

You owe me nowt, Mary. I said what I said about the CD because it was what I thought. But will be lovely to meet up anyway!

Subject: RE: Who's getting excited about Sidmouth?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 15 Jul 07 - 07:14 PM

I wouldn't normally be going but my in-laws have bought me tickets for Altan for my birthday. If you see a lonesome, ageing, balding, busking harmonica player playing Carolan's Concerto through a little Yamaha battery amp (YES! AMPLIFIED BUSKING!!) it'll be me. Doom Bar's my favourite beer and I rarely drink halves.

Subject: RE: Who's getting excited about Sidmouth?
From: GUEST,martin ellison
Date: 15 Jul 07 - 07:54 PM

Well it turns out that we're on holiday very close to Sidders on that very week and I'll be visiting the town on at least one day to attend a celebration. Looking forward to it - I couldn't stay away in my formative years. No ticket but I may just squeeze into a session somewhere.
Martin

Subject: RE: Who's getting excited about Sidmouth?
From: BanjoRay
Date: 15 Jul 07 - 08:07 PM

Well I'll be mostly in the Bedford right hand bar playing a lot of banjo and maybe a little fiddle all week, till friday morning, when I get off to the Foaotmad Summer Camp at Sacrewell Farm, Peterborough. Tough job, but somebody's got to do it.
Ray

Subject: RE: Who's getting excited about Sidmouth?
From: GUEST,Ralphie
Date: 16 Jul 07 - 02:02 AM

Hello Mr Ellison.
Will be there from Sat to Thurs.
When not being gainfully employed with my new Beat Combo, Housewives Choice, I will probably be mostly found in the Radway.

(Apart from Weds lunchtime, when we are the pit orchestra in the Volunteer, though how we are going to squeeze in the Sousa and the Tuba, has yet to be arranged!!)

Hopefully see you on what is laughingly called the beach at some point.
Regards Ralphie

Subject: RE: Who's getting excited about Sidmouth?
From: Morticia
Date: 16 Jul 07 - 03:49 AM

Will miss the mudgather sadly as we aren't coming down until the Saturday but will be hanging around the Anchor, The Swan, The Bedford and of course, the Doom,Gloom and Despondency session.Hope to see lots of you over the week...I mean lots of separate people, not lots of any particular bit of any one person...I mean... oh heck, see you there.

Subject: RE: Who's getting excited about Sidmouth?
From: GUEST,Brian Peters
Date: 16 Jul 07 - 06:36 AM

Ballad fans have every reason to get excited about Sidmouth. In response to public demand at a ballad workshop I gave last year, there will be a daily ballad session (Sunday - Friday) at 3pm in Jack's Bar, hosted by Sheila Miller and Moira Craig, with occasional help from me.

Then on Thursday morning in the Bedford I will be presenting a performance of ballads from Child's collection, which I can promise will include death by stabbing, drowning, hanging and burning, the odd amputation, harsh retribution, jealousy, surrogate parenthood and all the usual wailing and grieving. On a more positive note, though, there will be plenty of heroism, derring-do, true love and (I hope) a few laughs, as well as a surprising number of happy endings.

Be there.

Subject: RE: Who's getting excited about Sidmouth?
From: MikeofNorthumbria
Date: 16 Jul 07 - 07:21 AM

Hi Folks!

Excited? - well, yes and no. I won't make it down to Glorious Devon this year, and will greatly miss seeing all the friends who'll be there enjoying the unique experience that is Sidmouth Folk Week. If any old acquaintances are asking why, the answer is that in mid-August Hexham Morris will be dancing for England at a folklore festival in The Azores. (Apparently it can rain there too - but the rain is generally a bit warmer.)

Have a great Sidmouth 2007 everybody - hope to see you there another year.

Wassail!

Subject: RE: Who's getting excited about Sidmouth?
From: trayton
Date: 16 Jul 07 - 07:26 AM

I will be there along with moira. I can almost feel the bar under my elbow at the Volunteer.
Ralphie, tut tut, transgressing the unwritten rule indeed
malc

Subject: RE: Who's getting excited about Sidmouth?
From: MBSLynne
Date: 16 Jul 07 - 08:16 AM

Where's Jack's bar?

Love Lynne

Subject: RE: Who's getting excited about Sidmouth?
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 16 Jul 07 - 08:18 AM

Jack drinks anywhere everywhere, and anything.
G.

Subject: RE: Who's getting excited about Sidmouth?
From: Cats at Work
Date: 16 Jul 07 - 08:53 AM

Yes and no. Jon is coming down all week but I shall just pop down for a day or evening midweek. I can't miss the Lifeboat night in the Anchor. I can't get my head around not being in the middle bar after having been there for so many years! Yes I know all the arguments but it's still not the middle bar is it? The 'upstairs in a private room at the Anchor singers' doesn't have the same ring to it somehow. As for the rest of the festival looking down the guest list this time hasn't fired me with enthusiasm ~ don't know why. I quite fancy the ballad session though, so might drive over especially for that.

Subject: RE: Who's getting excited about Sidmouth?
From: Kev The Clogs
Date: 16 Jul 07 - 09:16 AM

Yep, I'll be there - been counting the days for ages. My Morris lot don't go to Sidmouth, so I go on my own and tart for whoever will put up with me (mainly Herbascious Border!!). Will be doing some singing and drinking in all of the popular watering holes. Stewarding this year (for the first time - this will hopefully keep me fom spending SHED LOADS of money as I usually do - well, it might just shift the time frames that I spend it in!!)- in the Manor Pavillion.

So, safe trip down there, and looking forward to seeing many of you that I recognise by sight (and where I've seen you) but not necessarily by name!! So say hello to me please

Cheers

Kev

Subject: RE: Who's getting excited about Sidmouth?
From: Surreysinger
Date: 16 Jul 07 - 09:28 AM

Brian - "I can promise will include death by stabbing, drowning, hanging and burning, the odd amputation, harsh retribution, jealousy, surrogate parenthood and all the usual wailing and grieving."

All in the one ballad??? I SO want to learn that one,please - sounds just my sort of thing. (Who needs happy endings??) Glad to hear that the ballad sessions are definitely on the menu... that should fill in a few afternoon gaps for me!

As to that new Beat Combo, Ralphie, glad to note that Pierce isn't bringing the drum kit**,otherwise there'd be no room in the Volunteer for anybody else other than Housewives' Choice and possibly Malcolm at the bar [grins]

** or is he ???

Subject: RE: Who's getting excited about Sidmouth?
From: DG&D Dave
Date: 16 Jul 07 - 09:44 AM

Gutted not to be there, for the first time in 28 years.
Work and, probably more importantly, the demise of the Dove are the cause of my abscence.

I am happy that I am leaving the Doom, Gloom and Despondency session in safe hands.

Fiona and I will definately be at Bromyard and will try to make Grove and Fylde this year (and the AMBS reunion and Chippenham next year). So, hopefully we'll see some of the Sidders crowd about.

Love to All.

Dave.
"Broken hearted I will wander, broken hearted I'll remain..."

Subject: RE: Who's getting excited about Sidmouth?
From: Dave Earl
Date: 16 Jul 07 - 09:49 AM

"Where's Jack's bar?"

Yes indeed.

Curious drinkers need to know.

Thought I knew all the watering holes in Sidmouth but I've never come across or fallen out of a Jack's Bar.

I do of course know the Jack that Giok refers to but he is far too indiscriminate to claim any single bar as his own.

Dave

Subject: RE: Who's getting excited about Sidmouth?
From: fiddler
Date: 16 Jul 07 - 09:57 AM

Well I'll be there too!

Yet again!

This year I intend to leave the ham - sometimes - and see some festival - it sounds good!

Andy

Subject: RE: Who's getting excited about Sidmouth?
From: BanjoRay
Date: 16 Jul 07 - 09:58 AM

Of course, crowded sessions will be much easier to get into this year - you just wait for a musician to go outside for a smoke, then steal his seat! Can't wait...
Ray

Subject: RE: Who's getting excited about Sidmouth?
From: GUEST,Brian Peters
Date: 16 Jul 07 - 10:07 AM

"death by stabbing, drowning, hanging and burning, the odd amputation, harsh retribution, jealousy, surrogate parenthood and all the usual wailing and grieving." .....All in the one ballad??? I SO want to learn that one,please.

You'd normally expect to get five or six of those per ballad as a matter of course, but I'm struggling to think of one including both amputations and surrogate parenthood. Then again a certain amount of creative tampering is generally considered acceptable when deaing with the Child oeuvre, so it's not impossible I might have contrived something by August 9th.

I don't know where Jack's Bar is either. They haven't sent me the venue map yet, only the schedule.

Subject: RE: Who's getting excited about Sidmouth?
From: MBSLynne
Date: 16 Jul 07 - 10:19 AM

Nope. In 25 years I've never come across Jack's bar either and I thought I'd been in every drinking place in Sidmouth including some that are no longer there.

As for the famous Jack, he's probably been there. In fact maybe it wasn't called Jack's Bar until then?


Love Lynne