Lyr Req: Touting in Tonbridge

Subject: Lyr Req: Touting in Tonbridge
From: Waddon Pete
Date: 04 May 20 - 08:05 AM

You know how it is. With the lockdown so many things have been tidied and sorted. In my tidying I discovered an old notebook in which I had listed songs to learn. The majority of them were well known to me. I had clearly learned them! However one has escaped my efforts to locate it. I thought it might be a broadside ballad, but it isn't in any of my books here. Knowing how good many Mudcatters are at finding obscure titles I wondered whether anyone could find it. It's called, "Touting in Tonbridge." That would be Tonbridge in Kent, England. Any help gratefully appreciated!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Touting in Tonbridge
From: GUEST,Starship
Date: 04 May 20 - 09:08 AM

Pete, I'm finding nothing on first search. Is there anything else about it you recall? For example, was it a group song, singalong, sing on the chorus song, etc? By chance, do you remember any lyrics from it or any phrases? You mentioned it maybe being a broadside ballad, so was it horse and buggy days? Absolutely anything else about it? Many thanks.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Touting in Tonbridge
From: Waddon Pete
Date: 04 May 20 - 11:01 AM

Embarrassingly all I know definitely is the title! I know at the time I was researching in Cecil Sharp House, so it may have come from there. Many thanks for looking.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Touting in Tonbridge
From: GUEST,Starship
Date: 04 May 20 - 11:07 AM

I shall look further. We'll find it somehow.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Touting in Tonbridge
From: cnd
Date: 04 May 20 - 11:37 AM

I couldn't find anything either. You could try the Tonbridge Folk club, https://tonbridgefolkclub.org/

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Touting in Tonbridge
From: Waddon Pete
Date: 05 May 20 - 07:36 AM

Hmmm....you can see the problem. I must have got it from somewhere! I have emailed the folk club so we'll see if anyone there knows anything. Meanwhile, if anyone else could give a pointer that would be gratefully appreciated!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Touting in Tonbridge
From: Rusty Dobro
Date: 05 May 20 - 02:34 PM

Do keep trying, Peter! I was at school in Tonbridge, but the only musical association I retain is an indelible recollection of the school song ('Jerusalem', of course), and the memory of an evening spent with the late Bo Foakes in the Tonbridge Teen and Twenty Club, a plywood hut on the banks of the Medway, watching the great Duane Eddy, who seemed to be as surprised to be there as we were to see him.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Touting in Tonbridge
From: The Sandman
Date: 06 May 20 - 03:41 AM

Touting in Tonbridge? Allegorically similiar to the rocks of bawn.
Bo Foakes i remember him from tenterden ..a live wire.
Waddon Pete did a fine rendition of ann boleyn, the night AlexCampbell took the dartford folk club by storm in 1974, do you remember that Pete.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Touting in Tonbridge
From: Waddon Pete
Date: 06 May 20 - 07:21 AM

Oh yes, good night! I still sing that song every now and then. You could say I was haunted by it :>}

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Touting in Tonbridge
From: The Sandman
Date: 06 May 20 - 07:25 AM

soory about the thread drift,
but that was the best night i ever had in a folk club
Alex was so funny, people might think this choice odd coming from a singer of trad songs, but whe he was on form he was a superb entertainer

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Touting in Tonbridge
From: Waddon Pete
Date: 10 May 20 - 06:49 AM

I always suspected that this would be a big ask. However, it must be out there somewhere! Any one who is a whizz with searching on the computer?

Thanks