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Subject: RE: Fleetwood & Fishing: Songs of the Trawling Trade From: GUEST,Tamas Date: 04 Sep 23 - 12:26 PM Hi Ross, How was your hip replacement? I hope all is OK. I'd like to ask if there's any update on the CD I enquired about about. Also, if anyone has a spare one, please let me know. I've seen someone mentioned Facebook. Is there a way to keep contact on Facebook? It would be much more convenient. Many tanks, Tamas |
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Subject: RE: Fleetwood & Fishing: Songs of the Trawling Trade From: GUEST,Tamas Date: 04 Sep 23 - 12:26 PM Hi Ross, How was your hip replacement? I hope all is OK. I'd like to ask if there's any update on the CD I enquired about about. Also, if anyone has a spare one, please let me know. I've seen someone mentioned Facebook. Is there a way to keep contact on Facebook? It would be much more convenient. Many tanks, Tamas |
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Subject: RE: Fleetwood & Fishing: Songs of the Trawling Trade From: Charley Noble Date: 10 Jul 23 - 08:41 PM Ross, Thanks for the music updates and good luck with your hip replacement. Are there still singing sessions in Fleetwood? Cheerily, Charlie Ipcar |
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Subject: RE: Fleetwood & Fishing: Songs of the Trawling Trade From: sciencegeek Date: 10 Jul 23 - 11:16 AM looking forward to progress in getting the music preserved and accessible ... all the best and hope the facebook clone issue is resolved |
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Subject: RE: Fleetwood & Fishing: Songs of the Trawling Trade From: GUEST,Tamas Date: 06 Jul 23 - 12:47 PM Hi Ross, Many thanks for your answer. I'd advise to upload the material to a private cloud. This way, you don't have to maintain it, it won't rot or get faulty and can be access anywhere you want to. This is just a suggestion. I'm still looking for the CD as I haven't found it for my neighbour. The CD doesn't have to be perfectly printed or anything like this. If the CD player can play it, that's would be just perfect. Just tell me how to pay for it! :D (postage to Falkirk, Scotland, if that matters) Is there any other communication form apart from this blog chat as it doesn't send me any notification when there's a new message. All the best for your hip replacement! Many thanks! Tamas |
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Subject: RE: Fleetwood & Fishing: Songs of the Trawling Trade From: Ross Campbell Date: 27 Jun 23 - 09:25 PM Sorry for delay in responding. I made some copies of the Final Trawl CDs late last year but was not happy with how they turned out. I have also been unable to access my CD printer which prints direct to the CD surface. Work in progress, but I am down for hip replacement shortly so may not be able to get back to the project for some time. The original CDrs from 2000 may well have succumbed to CD-rot. The type I am using now are supposed to be (!) medical archive quality, so should last longer (100 years claimed!) I took the opportunity last year to back up the computer that holds the Final Trawl and various Red Duster projects to several separate hard drives (they also are subject to decay, drop-out and degradation - the machine itself is twenty-three years old but so far still working). Could do with a volunteer (several decades younger) to take this material on for the future. Ross |
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Subject: RE: Fleetwood & Fishing: Songs of the Trawling Trade From: sciencegeek Date: 07 Jun 23 - 07:35 PM I have the same issue and Ross Campbell is working on replacing mine... I contact him through facebook |
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Subject: RE: Fleetwood & Fishing: Songs of the Trawling Trade From: GUEST Date: 03 Jun 23 - 07:16 AM Hi there, This might be a long shot, but I'm looking for a double CD for a very good friend of mine. He has these CDs for years, but it stopped playing, probably it comes with the age of the disks. The title is 'The final Trawl - 'Live in Fleetwood'. It's in a yellow CD cover with a fishing bot on it. If anyone could point me to the right direction where to buy the CDs or download it, that would be very much appreciated. I'm not sure this site would send me any notifications when I get a reply, so please send me an email if you could help. My email is: sulinat@gmail.com Many thanks, Tamas |
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Subject: RE: Fleetwood & Fishing: Songs of the Trawling Trade From: GUEST,Nick Dow Date: 31 May 23 - 07:26 PM Ron recently lost his wife and is devastated. I haven't seen him for a couple of years but I will be in Fleetwood soon, and hopefully see him around. Apart from his written work, Ron is an excellent pen and ink artist. I remember he took a mere three days to copy a photograph in pen and ink for the cover of a recording. Sheer God-given talent. |
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Subject: RE: Fleetwood & Fishing: Songs of the Trawling Trade From: GUEST,Hayley Date: 15 Oct 19 - 06:48 PM Hi, I’ve just found this site! I know your post was 8 years ago, but do you still have copies of The Last Trawl? I heard Kinbers Men singing (I think) a Ron Baxter song, would love to hear this collection. My email is vixenworks@gmail.com Thank you for a very interesting read! Best wishes, Hayley |
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Subject: RE: Fleetwood & Fishing: Songs of the Trawling Trade From: sciencegeek Date: 16 Sep 17 - 06:58 PM wonderful work you are doing... depending on funding for a trip across the pond, have you considered doing a symposium piece for the Mystic seaport Sea Music Festival held the second weekend of June... gigs around the area would help defray the expense... check with Tom Lewis or Brian Peters since they have performed there. |
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Subject: RE: Fleetwood & Fishing: Songs of the Trawling Trade From: Steve Gardham Date: 15 Sep 17 - 02:46 PM Great news, Ross. We also run free concerts in our Maritime Museum here in Hull. Next one 14th Oct. Our latest album 'A Dead Bod, Songs of the Humber Waterways' is selling really well. |
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Subject: RE: Fleetwood & Fishing: Songs of the Trawling Trade From: Ross Campbell Date: 15 Sep 17 - 02:40 PM As part of what used to be Fylde Folk Festival, we always used to put on events of a maritime interest in the Fleetwood Museum. Dick Gillingham who was one of the original "Final Trawl" crew and is now one of the team of volunteers running the Museum continues the tradition by running themed events in the Museum on the weekend of the festival's successor, the Fleetwood Folk and Blues Festival. This year we presented three events to mark the re-issue of the "Final Trawl" CDs. Dave Pearce and Dick Gillingham gave their "Fish'n'Ships" programme,an excellent selection of slides accompanied by an entertaining mix of narrative, songs and poems. Ron Baxter and Ross Campbell followed with songs and stories from the "Final Trawl" and beyond. Scolds Bridle (Sue Bousfield and Liz Moore) presented their show "We Are the Women Left on the Shore". All three shows were rewarded by full rooms of enthusiastic audiences, and all the CD packs I had prepared disappeared, ensuring that I will be able to keep producing further batches! Ross |
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Subject: RE: Fleetwood & Fishing: Songs of the Trawling Trade From: Steve Gardham Date: 27 Apr 17 - 05:40 PM What a wonderful project, some fine songwriting, fine playing and singing! Many many thanks to Fleetwood Folk Club and all involved. |
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Subject: RE: Fleetwood & Fishing: Songs of the Trawling Trade From: mg Date: 13 Apr 17 - 01:09 PM ross..i am going to send you a pm regarding our almost done cd that is a tribute to codfishers around the world... |
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Subject: RE: Fleetwood & Fishing: Songs of the Trawling Trade From: Ross Campbell Date: 12 Apr 17 - 06:29 PM I presume you mean "Deckie Learner", or "The Bear Island Grounds". I'd guess the tune is a variant of the "Red River Valley" tune, but maybe derived from one or more of the military parodies ("Dying Aviator", "Tale of Benghazi"). I still haven't recovered the words of "Benghazi" that I got from Vicki Lewis who got them from her father (see thread.cfm?threadid=143927 ) Ewen MacColl's "Gresford Disaster" starts off similar but wanders off on the last two lines of each verse. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJhmuUnsXWI
I have just recently reached the point where I can print on CDrs, so I produced a batch for Fleetwood Museum. Please PM me your address and I'll send you a copy. |
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Subject: RE: Fleetwood & Fishing: Songs of the Trawling Trade From: Steve Gardham Date: 12 Apr 17 - 03:32 PM Ross and Ron, Excellent thread. Just read it through and there are many parallels with what we are doing in Hull regarding the trawling industry and its songs. We, Spare Hands, have many of Linda's songs in our repertoire and of course Mike's as well as many we have written ourselves, mostly to trad tunes like yours. Particularly interested in your local version of what we call 'Bury me up at Cape Kanin'. Do your versions go to the more common 'Red River Valley' tune, or the original 1930s 'Bury me not on the Prairie'? I have versions to both tunes. Whilst I was familiar with lots of wartime forces versions we only just came across our trawlerman version painted on the walls of one of our dock offices. We're just about to record our third album, this time waterways songs of the Humber area. |
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Subject: RE: Fleetwood & Fishing: Songs of the Trawling Trade From: Ross Campbell Date: 12 Apr 17 - 12:05 PM Just delivered a new batch of "The FINAL TRAWL" 2-CDr set to Fleetwood Museum in time for Easter weekend re-opening. Charge of the Museum and its contents are in the process of being transferred from Lancashire County Council to Fleetwood Museum Trust. The Museum's former online presence in the form of "Netting the Bay" and the "FLeetwood Online Archive of Trawlers" are no longer accessible. The latter collection of photographs and data, much of it set up for Fleetwood Museum by the late Dave Ryan (onetime organiser of Fleetwood Fok Club along with Mike France) has been subsumed into LCC's Red Rose Collection, accessible by the following link:- https://redrosecollections.lancashire.gov.uk/show-all?t=9&WINID=1492011328684 Ross |
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Subject: RE: Fleetwood & Fishing: Songs of the Trawling Trade From: Ross Campbell Date: 07 Jan 13 - 03:23 PM In the days when the Knott End Ferry was actually part of the local transport infrastructure rather than an added-on extra mainly to encourage tourism, it would have been common for workers to travel from the Knott-End side to work in the dockside businesses. Alas this regular service disappeared many years ago, and for some of that time the journey between the two involved a lengthy bus journey, or queuing to pay the toll at Shard Bridge, the lowest road crossing of the River Wyre. The bridge is now toll-free, but the bus-trip remains an hour long as against the five-minute trip on the ferry. I am never surprised to hear that some people just don't know what's going on around their community. Fylde Folk Festival has been taking place in Fleetwood for forty years, for longer than that Fleetwood Folk Club has had an on-going weekly presence in various pubs around the town. Despite their well-publicised activities and links with charitable activities such as the local RNLI and the Heritage Trawler "Jacinta" and many other local events, there will still be many people in the town completely unaware of any of these events, still less of the traditional and locally-written material I have recorded in this thread. Our show "It All Comes Out of the Cod End" would have been in performance around the time of your Knott End visit, Musket (2000?) and a CD-R of the songs is still available - some overlap with the Final Trawl show, but a few excellent additions from shows that we did in the intervening years. Must be time I got back to continuing this thread! Musket, I don't suppose you can remember the name of the "local singer" you met in the Bourne Arms? Psst! Wanna buy a pub? http://www.christie.com/en/property/bourne_arms_fleetwood_for_sale_41749 Ross |
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Subject: RE: Fleetwood & Fishing: Songs of the Trawling Trade From: Musket Date: 07 Jan 13 - 12:05 PM I'm rather fascinated by this thread. Just across the Wyre is Knott End and about 12 years ago, I had a girlfriend who lived there and through her I was asked to appear at a charity concert at Knott End WMC. I was asked for a few folk songs as paert of my act (mostly comedy for a mixed audience) and I did MacColl's "North Sea Holes." A local singer lamented in the bar that there didn't seem to be any Fleetwood based songs around to learn! Considering he was a regular in The Bourne Arms, about 300 yds from Fleetwood docks.... |
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Subject: RE: Fleetwood & Fishing: Songs of the Trawling Trade From: Ross Campbell Date: 07 Jan 13 - 09:50 AM Re "Old Dinas":- Just (7th Jan 2013) found tapes of John Byrne's "Your Cheatin' Heart" (6 episodes on VHS) so may be able to recover the recorded version of "Old Faithful Pal o' Mine" eventually (no recorder hooked up at the moment). Ross |
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Subject: RE: Fleetwood & Fishing: Songs of the Trawling Trade From: GUEST,sailor ron Date: 05 Oct 11 - 06:10 AM Re: Ross's post about the treatment trawler hands [and skippers] got from the owners. My late brother Brian [see 'My Brian'] started as a 'brassie' at the age of 15 in 1959, and worked as a 'deckie' until the deep sea trawling trade collapsed. For 18 of those years he worked continually for 'Marrs' yet was still called 'casual labour'. He did in late 2009 get a small amout of 'redundancy payment'. He died on new years eve 2010. |
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Subject: RE: Fleetwood & Fishing: Songs of the Trawling Trade From: Ross Campbell Date: 04 Oct 11 - 04:20 PM Thanks, Nigel. Ross |
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Subject: RE: Fleetwood & Fishing: Songs of the Trawling Trade From: Spleen Cringe Date: 04 Oct 11 - 01:01 PM Why are you Crying, Mam? Lament For The Red Falcon More to follow after tea... |
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Subject: RE: Fleetwood & Fishing: Songs of the Trawling Trade From: Spleen Cringe Date: 04 Oct 11 - 01:00 PM Windy Old Weather Deckie Learner |
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Subject: RE: Fleetwood & Fishing: Songs of the Trawling Trade From: Ross Campbell Date: 04 Oct 11 - 12:52 PM I mentioned that the trawler's crew were regarded as casual labour. Even though many men worked for the same firms year in, year out and had good relations with their employers, there was no entitlement to sick pay, holiday pay, unemployment benefit, redundancy pay or any of the other benefits that come with a permanent position. This went all the way up to the skipper, who could be dropped quick-style if he returned with only a light catch, or hit the market too late with a ship-full of fish that then had to be dumped at rock-bottom prices for fish-meal processing or cat-food. There were always more skippers than ships, and trawler-owners were happy to take advantage of the situation. De-commissioning grants paid owners to take ships out of fishiong as over-capacity became a problem, but there was no corresponding aid for the hundreds of men thrown out of work. It took years of campaigning before such payments became available, but even then claimants had to go through hoops to prove they had worked distant-water twenty-five or thirty years before, with firms that had disappeared long ago. Often payments came too late for the men involved, and were regarded as small recompense by their surviving families. Ross |
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Subject: RE: Fleetwood & Fishing: Songs of the Trawling Trade From: Charley Noble Date: 04 Oct 11 - 12:00 PM Ron- Got to love that gallows humor! Cheerily, Charley Noble |
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Subject: RE: Fleetwood & Fishing: Songs of the Trawling Trade From: Spleen Cringe Date: 04 Oct 11 - 10:18 AM The sound files will be up at Ross's page at Lost Folk Tapes shortly. Will post again when they are done... |
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Subject: RE: Fleetwood & Fishing: Songs of the Trawling Trade From: GUEST,SAILORON Date: 04 Oct 11 - 09:13 AM With reference to 'Deckie Learner' aka 'Bear Island island' I was singing it one night in a session in the Fleetwood Arms when after the verse "...take me back home to Fleetwood For all of my family to see", an extreamly drunken man interupted the flow by singing... "But they didn't take him to Fleetwood T'Skipper dumped him o'er the wall And said ' you lot get working We've still time for another haul" - which put the mockers on the rest of the song! |
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Subject: RE: Fleetwood & Fishing: Songs of the Trawling Trade From: Ross Campbell Date: 03 Oct 11 - 10:27 AM That concludes the material from "The Final Trawl". All the songs (and poems) should eventually be available to listen to online or download. I can still provide a 2xCD-R version of the complete show with Ron Baxter's artwork and Dick Gillingham's original notes from the cassette issue, and additional notes from 2001 (CD issue). PM me for details. I have a few more cassettes to digitise before I can make more sound-files available, but I may be able to scratch up some more lyrics fairly soon. Ross Correction - the artwork (trawler silhouette) was by Dick Gillingham, originally for the poster used to advertise performances of "The Final Trawl". |
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Subject: Lyr Add: THE TRAWLERMAN (Dave Pearce) From: Ross Campbell Date: 02 Oct 11 - 07:12 PM THE TRAWLERMAN Dave Pearce A galleon sailed across his arm, a bluebird said "Love - Mam"; A gold ring twinkled in his ear; he was a trawlerman. All his life he'd been a hunter in the jungle of the sea; But they tied his boat up to the wall and left him on the quay. He was just a boy of 10 years old when first he sailed away; With his grand-dad in a prawning boat to fish in Morecambe Bay. And when the catch was landed to the prawn-house loft it went; Where Fleetwood prawns were picked and cleaned, then throughout all England sent. Time went by and he grew up, to follow the trawling trade; Galley boy on an Iceland ship was the very first trip he made. In the Arctic night and the raging sea, deep in his heart he knew That the brotherhood of fishermen was his a lifetime through. Living hard in the Trawler Town, he followed the fishing way; Three weeks at sea, three days ashore and drinking half his pay. His wife and kids they stayed at home, and the years went rolling on; Till he grew old, the dock gates closed and THE FINAL TRAWL had come. Spoken by Charles Penfold. I have put a tune to this. We used it as a song "Trawlertown" in a show we did about ten years ago, "It All Comes Out of the Cod End". |
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Subject: Lyr Add: FLOWERS OF THE SEA (Ron Baxter) From: Ross Campbell Date: 02 Oct 11 - 06:59 PM FLOWERS OF THE SEA Ron Baxter Tune: Flowers o' the Forest I've seen them sailing, with sirens a-wailing, Down through the channel and out to the bay; But now they're all rotting, on the Dockside propping, The flowers of the seas now doomed to decay. Hunting the fishes, from Iceland to the Minches; North Cape to Greenland and out to Rockall. They've fought in peace and war, all around the hostile shore; Now they've been sold out and down they must fall. I've seen men so full of pride, now with sadness in their eyes Look to the sea, where they cannot go. The Rose Garden's empty, where once there was plenty; They've been defeated by friends and not foes. In fog and in black ice, I have seen men fight for life; I've seen men die in the wild, living gales. But I've seen their sons sign on, following their fathers gone; Now the boats they are tied up and can no longer sail. Their life it has been sold, bartered for Brussels' gold, While Frenchmen and Spaniards fish right to our shore. Will no-one heed the pleading, for a life that lies a-bleeding? The Flowers of the Sea will bloom never more. Sung by Liz Gillingham, Sue Bousfield, Ged Higson and Ross Campbell As more and more fishing grounds were closed, fishing limits extended and annual quotas imposed in British waters, many of Fleetwood's trawlers were sold or tied up and left to rot at the quayside. |
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Subject: Lyr Add: FIGHTING THE COD WAR (Dave Pearce) From: Ross Campbell Date: 02 Oct 11 - 06:48 PM FIGHTING THE COD WAR Dave Pearce Tune: Waltzing Matilda Once a Fleetwood trawlerman set sail for Iceland, Determined to catch some fish for our tea; He didn't have a rifle, a tin hat or a bayonet, He was fighting the Cod War for you and for me. Chorus:- Fighting the Cod War, Fighting the Cod War, Who'll come a'fighting the Cod War with me? Against the gunboats, the Icelandic gunboats, Thumbing their noses at the Royal Navee! Up came the Odin, racing like a thoroughbred Across the trawler's bows, passing ever so near; First it blared a warning, then Odin chopped their fishing gear, Fled into the night, Skipper's curses in his ear. In came the "Andrew", collision course and pink gin; As the trawl warps snapped, lashing out from the sea; No-one got killed, but that was just a lucky chance, Who'd want to be fighting the Cod War with me? Now the Fleetwood trawlerman doesn't go to Iceland; He's drawing the dole and the U.A.B. His ship's gone for scrap, and he'll never get another one, He's the real loser, the Cod War casualty. Sung by Dick Gillingham and Ged Higson Iceland's gradual extension of its territorial waters first reduced and finally eliminated British fishing vessels' access to the fishing grounds around Iceland's continental shelf, many of which had been discovered and developed by Fleetwood trawlermen:- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cod_Wars Dave Pearce, then a journalist with the Fleetwood Chronicle, sailed with a Fleetwood trawler to Icelandic waters during the last Cod War episode. The "Andrew" is a nickname for the Royal Navy. A BBC Four documentary "The History of the Cod Wars" has some fascinating archive material. It can be found on YouTube, Part 1 (of 5) here:- History of the Cod Wars Part 1 (YouTube) Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 |
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Subject: Lyr Add: STRIKE, BOYS, STRIKE From: Ross Campbell Date: 02 Oct 11 - 05:55 PM STRIKE, BOYS, STRIKE Trad, arranged Ron Baxter Chorus:- Strike, boys, strike for better wages, Strike boys, strike for better pay; Keep on striking at the Docks, Keep your picket at the locks; Stick it out until the owners they give way! In the Dock there is a strike That the owners do not like; The trawlers are all tied up at the quay. They've beaten us before, But they will not any more; For now we are in the "T & G". Chorus (repeated again after the sketch). Sung by the chorus. Dissatisfaction with poor pay and conditions led to a strike in 1974. Only a small improvement followed. With hindsight, many thought they should have held out for de-casualisation. |
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Subject: Lyr Add: MY BRIAN (Ron Baxter) From: Ross Campbell Date: 02 Oct 11 - 05:11 PM MY BRIAN Ron Baxter Tune: Owen Hand (My Donald) My Brian he sails on the sea; Where the wind blows so wild and so free. He follows the fish wherever they roam; Ten months in the year, he's never at home. "No washing upon sailing day"; For if you do that you may wash him away. You know that it's not really true, But still you don't do it in case you may rue. "Catch me and eat me but don't burn my bones". Just think on this saying when he's out on the foam; You're dreading the knock of the Mission man; That look on his face tells you your man's gone. You who gripe on the price of your fish; Think you on the men who still fill up your dish; Think you on the wives and children who wail 'Cause their man's not returning back home from the gale. My Brian he sails on the sea; Where the wind blows so wild and so free. He follows the fish wherever they roam; Ten months in the year, he's never at home. Sung by Sue Bousfield Ron's brother the late Brian Baxter worked on trawlers till a winch-block wrenched from the deck smashed his leg. He continued to go to sea, working on survey vessels for the rest of his career. The song mentions a couple of the superstitions that were commonly observed in fishing communities around the country. |
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Subject: Lyr Add: THREE DAY MILLIONAIRE (Waterson/Baxter) From: Ross Campbell Date: 02 Oct 11 - 04:55 PM THREE-DAY MILLIONAIRE Mike Waterson adapted Ron Baxter Well I left school Friday, and I started work on Saturday; To catch the early tide and be a galley boy's me plan. On the fishing grounds to roam, eighteen hundred miles from home, I couldn't give a bugger, I'm a man! I shall get a Deckie Learning, it's the bonus I'll be earning, And the money it comes in handy for the old "ran dan"! Brylcreem in my hair, "Three Day Millionaire", I couldn't give a bugger, I'm a man! I shall get meself a suit made, to show I'm in the fishing trade, I'll put me "Brothel creepers" on, and I'll slander when I can. All me pots are pint-sized, watch me getting paralyzed To show the other buggers who's a man! And when I get to Skipper, I'll get married, have a nipper, And I'll take the lad to sea wi' me and I'll teach him all I can; Then you'll hear me crow, "I've got a house on Skipper's Row!" And I'll show the bleedin' neighbours who's a man! Then you'll hear me crow "I've got a house on Skipper's Row!" And I'll show the bleedin' neighbours who's a man! Sung by Dick Gillingham and Mike Huntington. The late Mike Waterson graciously allowed us to adapt his song to give it a Fleetwood slant. The sixties saw large sums of money being earned by very young men, some of whom could progress very rapidly from deckie-learner to skipper. Deckhands' minimal wages could be multiplied many times over by the "poundage" bonus which would be due if their ship brought back a good catch and found a favourable market. Top skippers' earnings would regularly exceed that of the Prime Minister or heads of industry. |
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Subject: Lyr Add: ICEMEN AND LUMPERS (Ron Baxter) From: Ross Campbell Date: 02 Oct 11 - 04:31 PM ICEMEN AND LUMPERS Ron Baxter Tune: Ross Campbell There's icemen and lumpers, and smokers and all; There's riggers and porters and makers of trawls; There's drivers and painters and merchants on the quay; Their living relies upon them on the sea. There's boxmakers, winchmen - and Spencer's as well! You know - Isaac Spencer's, that makes all the smell! There's policemen and Customs, who always have to see - What's stowed in the kitbags of them from the sea. There's auctioneers and shipwrights and makers of sails; There's owners and merchants, and old British Rail; There's boilermen and "Cosalt" of Great Grimsby; They all rely on work from the sea. There's filleters and coalmen, and pilots and crew; There's dredgemen and chandlers, and bums - not a few! There's bookies and ladies - Oh! Where would they be? Without all that money that's made from the sea? Sung by Ross Campbell. By the nineteen-twenties, the fishing industry in Fleetwood employed over 9,000 people. For every one that worked at sea, there would be two or three working on shore jobs, building, repairing and preparing ships for sea, processing and selling the fish, and transporting the end product to inland markets. |
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Subject: Lyr Add: THE ARCTIC GROUNDS (Ron Baxter) From: Ross Campbell Date: 02 Oct 11 - 04:20 PM THE ARCTIC GROUNDS Ron Baxter Tune: Traditional She drove her bows feet under, saw her take it green; Staggered, as that old "grey-beard" smashed through the wheel-house screen; The helmsman knocked down to the ground, the wheel went spinning round - We were lying on our beam-ends, out in the Arctic ground. Chorus:- In that hellish Arctic ground, you freeze before you drown; No, my boy, don't ever go to the hellish Arctic ground. Clawed her way back up again, flooded down below; Half her gear lost overboard, wondered when she'd go. Her bows they swung up to the moon - God, just feel her pound, Swore that she would break in two, sink in the Arctic ground. Her mast made circles round the stars, all covered with the spray; If there is a God above, "Save us now!" we pray! The wind has gone clean off the scale, roaring like a hound; Saw the mizzen torn away, lost in the Arctic ground. Home at last in Fleetwood town, landed in the dock; Saw the owner come on board, he asked what fish we'd got. Lord, you should have seen his face fall when it was found That we had caught just nought at all, from the freezing Arctic ground. Sung by Dick Gillingham and Ged Higson. Fleetwood skippers fished many grounds all across the North Atlantic, from the Grand Banks of Newfoundland, all round the coast of Iceland, up the Norwegian coast and right into the White Sea north of Russia. |
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Subject: Lyr Add: UP ON THE CHATSWORTH ESTATE (Ron Baxter) From: Ross Campbell Date: 02 Oct 11 - 02:51 PM UP ON THE CHATSWORTH ESTATE Ron Baxter Tune: Traditional When you leave school, what will you do? When I leave school, I'll tell you true - I'll marry a deckie and I'll have kids - (two!) Up on the Chatsworth Estate! When you get married, where will you live? I'll live in a flat that the Council will give, To me and my fella, my dog and my kids, Up on the Chatsworth Estate! When you're up there, who will you see? My Mam and my Gran and my sisters three; My brother and all of their families Up on the Chatsworth Estate! When your man's at sea, where will you go? I'll go to Barney's and play Bingo I'll go to the "Cutty" wi' our Sarah and Joe, Up on the Chatsworth Estate! If your man is lost, how will you live? I'll survive for the sake of our kids - I'll bring them up, just like our Mam did, Up on the Chatsworth Estate! Sung by Liz Gillingham and Sue Bousfield. In the fifties and sixties, the local council built hundreds of houses, expanding the Fleetwood footprint by several times, and allowing families to move out of the cramped town centre, where often several generations had been forced to share a home. |
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Subject: RE: Fleetwood & Fishing: Songs of the Trawling Trade From: Ross Campbell Date: 01 Oct 11 - 02:27 PM The next song in the show was "Lord Middleton", already listed above at 12 Apr 2011. Sung by Ged Higson The breaker's yard was the normal end for trawlers that had become obsolete, as successive improvements in design, engines, fishing techniques rendered old vessels too inefficient and expensive to run. Some de-commissioned vessels weren't even worth scrapping. Fleetwood Marsh, just up-river from the Dock Channel which let ships enter the Wyre Dock from the River Wyre, is the graveyard for several ships that reached the end of their working lives just at the wrong time. Some good pictures here, both wooden and steel vessels gradually decaying into the mud:- http://www.fleetwood-fishing-industry.co.uk/fleetwood-wrecks/ We brought Charlie (Charley Noble) and Judy Ipcar down to the marsh when they visited Fleetwood last year. He was impressed enough by the atmospheric remains to produce a song in tribute - listed above. Ross |
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Subject: Lyr Add: OLD MAN VIC (Ron Baxter) From: Ross Campbell Date: 01 Oct 11 - 02:04 PM OLD MAN VIC Ron Baxter Tune: Traditional You can talk about your Bedfords, your Christies and your Gregsons, Your Rawcliffes, Holmes and Spearpoints as well (and all their clan!) They're all Skippers of the best, but the man who beat the rest Was that Superman by name of Vic Buschini. When the fishing it was bad, sir, and you hardly caught a bag, sir, From North Cape to Greenland and beyond (right up the Pole!) Who would get a load of cod? - well, you needn't ask, by God - 'Twas that Superman by name of Vic Buschini. You could follow him around, across the Arctic grounds, And shoot your gear a moment after him (I've got him now!) But when it came to haul, you'd got an empty trawl; Not like that Superman named Vic Buschini. Now one Skipper did find out, one dark and stormy night; How old Man Vic, he always got a catch (and double bags!) For on every cod and hake was stencilled "Do Not Take! - Reserved For That Superman Named Vic Buschini!" And if you'd got a hold of fish, ready to be sold, You'd find you had no market for your fish (Oh not again!) But the bloke in yesterday, made thirteen grand, they say, Yes, that Superman by name of Vic Buschini. You can talk about your Bedfords, your Christies and your Gregsons, Your Rawcliffes, Holmes and Spearpoints as well (and all their clan!) They're all Skippers of the best, but the man who beat the rest Was that Superman by name of Vic Buschini. Was that Superman by name of Vic Buschini. Sung by Dick Gillingham and Mike Huntington "Old Man Vic" Buschini (so called to distinguish him from successive descendants of the same name) founded a Fleetwood dynasty, some of whom still maintain the fishing connection. It wasn't meant to be that way. His parents on the Isle of Man planned a career in music for their son, a talented musician. Fleetwood presented alternative attractions, and Victor Buschini rapidly rose to become a skipper at a very young age. He gained and retained a high reputation in the town, consistently bringing home catches of fish when others were struggling. |
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Subject: RE: Fleetwood & Fishing: Songs of the Trawling Trade From: Charley Noble Date: 01 Oct 11 - 12:34 PM Ross- Keep 'em coming. Cheerily, Charley Noble |
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Subject: Lyr Add: PULL FOR THE SHORE / THE LIFEBOAT (Bliss) From: Ross Campbell Date: 01 Oct 11 - 10:54 AM PULL FOR THE SHORE (THE LIFEBOAT) P.P. Bliss Light in the darkness, sailor, day is at hand! See o'er the foaming billows fair Haven's land. Drear was the voyage, sailor, now almost o'er; Safe within the lifeboat, sailor, pull for the shore. Chorus:- Pull for the shore, sailor, pull for the shore! Heed not the rolling waves, but bend to the oar; Safe in the lifeboat, sailor, cling to self no more; Leave the poor old stranded wreck and pull for the shore. Trust in the life-boat, sailor; all else will fail. Stronger the surges dash and fiercer the gale, Heed not the stormy winds, though loudly they roar; Watch the "bright and morning star," and pull for the shore. Bright gleams the morning, sailor, uplift the eye; Clouds and darkness disappearing, glory is nigh; Safe in the lifeboat, sailor, sing evermore, "Glory, glory, hallelujah!" Pull for the shore. Sung by Liz Gillingham and the chorus. Used in the show to mark the importance of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) to all who go to sea, its origins are in the 19th century evangelical movement. "Moody and Sankey" evenings were still a feature of church life when I was growing up in Scotland fifty years ago. The lively tunes and rich metaphorical imagery were in sharp contrast to the usually sober material of the regular church hymnal, and this presumably accounted for their continued popularity. It's not in the DT, but there's a Mudcat thread thread.cfm?threadid=10721 with the same lyrics listed by Joe Offer. Ross |
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Subject: Lyr Add: LAMENT FOR THE RED FALCON (Ron Baxter) From: Ross Campbell Date: 01 Oct 11 - 10:17 AM LAMENT FOR THE RED FALCON Ron Baxter You highlands and you islands O why won't you say That you saw my own Red Falcon A-passing by your way? For she was a-flying homeward, Her young ones for to fill; When in your cruel Minches My Red Falcon you did kill. O long will her young ones From the shore go looking forth; Ere they see my own Red Falcon, Come flying from the North. Oh you saw her and you heard her, As she cried out as she died; But you wouldn't even tell me Where her broken body lies. You wouldn't even tell me Where she went beneath the waves; So I can't cast my flowers Upon Red Falcon's grave. Performed as a poem in the show, read by Charles Penfold. I believe Ron had the tune for "The Bonny Earl of Moray" in mind when he wrote this. Ross |
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Subject: Lyr Add: WHY ARE YOU CRYING, MA'AM? (Ron Baxter) From: Ross Campbell Date: 01 Oct 11 - 10:05 AM WHY ARE YOU CRYING, MA’AM? Ron Baxter Tune: Lord Derwentwater's Farewell Why are you crying, Mam? That's a thing you never do. I'll tell me Dad when he comes home, someone's been hurting you. He's coming home for Christmas, he'll be here in an hour or two, For Red Falcon will be landing in the morning. He said he'd buy me a cowboy suit, and then on Boxing Day, We'll take a tram to Bloomfield Road, to see Stan Matthews play; Oh, please, Mam, do stop crying, for Dad's only hours away, For Red Falcon will be landing in the morning Why did the Mission man come round, with his face so sad and grim? He's usually so cheerful, now what is wrong with him? I'll have to ask my father in the morning when he's in, For Red Falcon will be landing in the morning. Mam! - Billy has just told me that she's lost with all her crew! I told him he was lying, so I've run back home to you. Oh, please Mam, please, Mam, tell me; tell me it isn't true, And that Red Falcon will be landing in the morning. His mother goes and embraces him, as they both share their pain; She's lost her husband, him his Dad, all her comforts are in vain. He's crying for his father, who he'll never see again, For Red Falcon never landed in the morning. Sung by Dick Gillingham The story of the loss of the Red Falcon was always the most poignant part of "The Final Trawl" show. Even among the cast who had heard it many times before, Dick's rendition of this song never failed to draw an emotional response. I was ten years old when the tragedy occurred, and living in Scotland, but I can still remember the newspaper coverage that followed, and the appeals that brought responses from all round the country. More information here:- http://www.lifeinfleetwood.co.uk/2008/02/06/red-falcon/ And here:- http://www.fleetwood-trawlers.info/index.php/2009/01/st-red-falcon-lo4/ Ross |
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Subject: Lyr Add: DECKIE LEARNER From: Ross Campbell Date: 30 Sep 11 - 08:33 AM Deckie Learner Anon/Ron Baxter It was there 'neath the Bear Island Island Where most of the fishing was done. It was there that a poor deckie learner Lay down and died under the sun. They were twenty-one days out of Fleetwood When the gilsun it gave such a crack; The rope it did break and the strands they flew out, And hit that poor lad 'cross the back. O they lifted his head from the pound-boards, With the blood from his wounds running red; They lifted his head to the Skipper, And these were the last words he said. "Don't bury me out on the ocean, Don't bury me out on the sea; Just take me on ice back to Fleetwood For all of me family to see". "And when you get back to dear Fleetwood And you're drinking your whisky and rum - Remember the poor deckie learner Who lay down and died under the sun." So when they got back to dear Fleetwood In "Deaduns" they all had a round. They drank to that poor deckie learner Who died on the Bear Island ground. Yes when they got back home to Fleetwood, In "Deaduns" they all had a "crack". They drank to that poor deckie learner Who sailed out but never came back. Sung by Mike Huntington. Collected by Ron Baxter and Dick Gillingham from a fisherman (name unknown) in the Strawberry Gardens pub, Poulton Road, Fleetwood. Vicki Lewis sang a song at the Moorbrook (Preston) session about a year ago which had very similar roots to this song. "I'll tell you a tale of Benghazi, Where most of the fighting was done: And where a poor British Tommy Lay down and died under the sun." She had the song from her father, who had heard it during WW2. There are equivalent songs featuring dying airmen, seamen and others, mostly with a similar structure. I thought I had added Vicki's song to the Benghazi thread, but it's not there and I can't find it in my files - possibly lost in my old laptop? |
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Subject: Lyr Add: WINDY OLD WEATHER From: Ross Campbell Date: 30 Sep 11 - 07:23 AM Windy Old Weather (Trad) Then up gets the codfish with his great old head He jumped on the foredeck to get a cast of lead. Chorus:- Windy old weather, stormy old weather, When the wind blows, we'll all pull together. Then up gets the gurnard with spines on his back; He jumped on the poop deck to work on the jib deck. Then up gets the herring the king of the sea; He says to the Skipper, "Look out to your lee!" Then up jumps the sprat he's the smallest of all, He says to the Skipper, "Haul, haul the men's trawl." Then up jumped the coley, as black as the coal, He says, come on Skipper, "Ice me down below." Sung by Dick Gillingham. Not sure where he got this version, it's different from the one in the DT (coll MacColl) and from Bob Robert's (Hapsborough Banks) version. |
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Subject: Lyr/Chords Add: THE SPECTRAL FISHING FLEET From: Charley Noble Date: 16 Jun 11 - 09:17 PM Here's my own tribute to Fleetwood's derelict fishing fleet and their crews (copy and paste into WORD/TIMES/12 to line up chords): Words and tune by Charlie Ipcar, © 10/21/10 THE SPECTRAL FISHING FLEET Am---------------------------G----------Am By the River Wyre, from years gone by, ---------------------------G Fleetwood's boats left high an' dry; Am------------------G---------Am In the marshlands there they lie – ---------C-----G-------Am They'll go to sea no more. Dm--------------Am Florentine and Our Jo-anne, -----G---------------C--G-Am Eu-reka, Clarain an' Ze-gan, Dm--------------Am Slowly sinking on the strand – -----G----------------Am We call the Tiger's Tail. Chorus: Am------------------------G----------Am So here's to the lads of Fleetwood town, -----------------------------G Here's to their boats of high re-known; ------Am------------------G-------Am Let's raise a glass for a-nother round, -------C---------G-----Am Drink to those glory days! There they lie an' there they'll stay, Rusting, rotting, by the Bay, No one knows what they say When the sun goes down. The moon comes up, the sun goes down, Do you hear a whispering sound? Or just the tide as it swirls around The spectral fishing fleet? (CHO) Through rusted ribs an' planks awry The windsong hums a lullaby; Shadows dance beneath the sky – In the pale moonlight. The fleet's all in; there's naught to say But yarn about their glory days, When they sailed beyond the Bay – In search of fishing grounds. (CHO) From the Dogger Banks to Iceland's shore, They sailed ten thousand miles or more; They trawled along the ocean floor, Brought home the silver darlings. But now the fish they are so few, There's no work left for boats to do; They're all laid up, an' lost their crews – They'll cross the bar no more. (CHO) Reprise: Dm--------------Am Florentine and Our Jo-anne, -----G---------------C--G-Am Eu-reka, Clarain an' Ze-gan, Dm--------------Am Slowly sinking on the strand – -----G----------------Am We call the Tiger's Tail; -----G----------------Am We call the Tiger's Tail! Here's a link to a MP3 sample of how I sing it: click here for MP3 sample! Thanks again to Ross and Sean for taking me and Judy out to the marsh where the fleet lies abandoned. Charley Noble |
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Subject: RE: Fleetwood & Fishing: Songs of the Trawling Trade From: Charley Noble Date: 16 Jun 11 - 08:20 AM Ross- You've been very busy! Thanks so much for posting the lyrics to "The Blue Flamingo." I was having some difficulty, believe it or not, transcribing them. Cheerily, Charley Noble |
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Subject: RE: Fleetwood & Fishing: Songs of the Trawling Trade From: Ross Campbell Date: 15 Jun 11 - 10:36 PM I promised to add more "tomorrow", but my primary laptop has developed possibly terminal problems. All the Final Trawl sound clips are already uploaded to the Lost Folk Tapes site. Lyrics I can recover from a backup drive, but it may take some time to organize that. Apologies in the meantime. Ross |
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