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Folk Trains - help please
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Subject: Folk Trains - help please From: Les from Hull Date: 15 Jun 01 - 07:45 AM There's a possibility of Hull to Bridlington folk trains starting in September. Would anyone like to share their experiences of organising the music and/or performing on folk trains? I'm already sorting out any of the stuff that Maggie and I could do that mentions 'train', but I'm rather bothered that we might have to do the Wild Rover. Does anyone get a gig fee for this sort of work? We've been offered free beer, but they don't really know how much we can drink!
Thanks for your help, |
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Subject: RE: Folk Trains - help please From: Murray MacLeod Date: 15 Jun 01 - 07:53 AM Les, where in the "Wild Rover" does it mention "train" ? Must be a Yorkshire variation ..... :-) Murray |
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Subject: RE: Folk Trains - help please From: Les from Hull Date: 15 Jun 01 - 08:02 AM Well it does mention 'now I'm RETURNing'**bg** |
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Subject: RE: Folk Trains - help please From: Murray MacLeod Date: 15 Jun 01 - 08:06 AM Jeez, you're quick ....... Murray |
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Subject: RE: Folk Trains - help please From: catspaw49 Date: 15 Jun 01 - 08:10 AM Well, he takes the train, ya' know? Spaw |
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Subject: RE: Folk Trains - help please From: John J Date: 15 Jun 01 - 08:29 AM Try sending a PM to Bernard, he's performed on the Manchester to Sheffield Folk Train. Cheers, John |
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Subject: RE: Folk Trains - help please From: Midchuck Date: 15 Jun 01 - 08:35 AM Tell us here in the US, where the railroad system has been allowed to go completely to s***, and is beginning to be salvaged, slowly, how a "folk train" works. Is it something we could bring about? Peter. |
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Subject: RE: Folk Trains - help please From: GUEST,Brian Date: 15 Jun 01 - 08:38 AM One verse of Reynardine starts:- "I said "My dear, I am not rake, brought up in Venus TRAIN." Will that do? :-) Brian |
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Subject: RE: Folk Trains - help please From: Les from Hull Date: 15 Jun 01 - 09:41 AM Midchuck - from what I can understand our 'Folk Trains' are ordinary service trains (probably ones that stop often, rather than express or limited) where some folk music entertainment and a real ale bar are provided. There's a stop for a while (with another real ale bar!) and then we go back on the train and do it all again backwards! So it's an enticement from the rail company to get people to use their service, with support from community groups, environmental groups, and Local Authorities, all of whom want to encourage people to use trains. And you get to travel and drink with no fear of the breathalyser. I'm sure that the idea could be encouraged in other countries to help keep open lines that aren't used so much. Les |
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Subject: RE: Folk Trains - help please From: KingBrilliant Date: 15 Jun 01 - 09:50 AM Wow! I'd never heard of these. Sounds amazing. Kris |
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Subject: RE: Folk Trains - help please From: pavane Date: 15 Jun 01 - 09:57 AM Paddy works on the railway? There's loads of stuff if you search for TRAIN, like wreck of the old 97. And what about Ewan McColl's Cannily Cannily? |
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Subject: RE: Folk Trains - help please From: pavane Date: 15 Jun 01 - 09:58 AM Paddy works on the railway? There's loads of stuff if you search for TRAIN, like wreck of the old 97. And what about Ewan McColl's Cannily Cannily? |
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Subject: RE: Folk Trains - help please From: JulieF Date: 15 Jun 01 - 09:59 AM From the experience of Sheffield Fiddle Society playing on the Sheffield train Don't play anything quiet ( unless you have very new rollingstock) Encourage audience participation - even though those just going from A - B look a little startled. Don't play in 3/4 when the train is moving in 4/4 ( although it can be quite funning to watch this) Make sure that you can carry on at a Pub at the end of the line. Dress warmly in winter Enjoy Yourself and all the rest will fall into line. All the best Julie |
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Subject: RE: Folk Trains - help please From: Noreen Date: 15 Jun 01 - 10:38 AM Can't stand t'rain ? (Against my window pane) Seriously, no reason why it has to be themed music, is there? Just whatever works... and don't walk around on a moving train while playing your melodeon, unless you're very well insured! Good luck, and let us know what happens. Noreen |
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Subject: RE: Folk Trains - help please From: Patrish(inactive) Date: 15 Jun 01 - 11:04 AM Hi Les, if you can't contact Bernard let me know and I'll get him for you. You should also contact Jim McDonald, he's done a folk train with Wildy and Woody. Best of luck, let us know when your train is due and we'll come and heckle! Patrish xx |
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Subject: RE: Folk Trains - help please From: Les from Hull Date: 15 Jun 01 - 11:52 AM JulieF - I think we can be noisy enough, that's something to bear in mind. The rolling stock on the Scarborough line rattles a bit. We've got another guitar, a fiddle player and an accordion/whistle player to add in to Maggie's and my instruments and voices. We could do noisy tunes and songs travelling and then quieter stuff in the pub. That's good advice. Noreen - I've no intention at all of just doing train songs, but it's nice to acknowledge where you are - besides, I also play blues harmonica and that's all trains! Patrish - Well Jim wouldn't fall over - he's got a good low centre of gravity! If it happens, I'll post details here. Thanks, Les
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Subject: RE: Folk Trains - help please From: GUEST,John Leeder Date: 15 Jun 01 - 01:23 PM There used to be a Folk Festival on Rails in Canada. David Watts, who lived in Edmonton, was interested in folk music and also railway history. He was part of The Colonist Car Society, which owned a couple of historic railway cars (including a sleeping car), and every summer used to attach them behind a freight train running from Edmonton to Fort McMurray and back, on the Northern Alberta Railway trackage. A live-in 24-hour folk festival was held for the three days, including a concert in Fort McMurray. I was booked in 1981, and got my song "Painting Over the N.A.R." out of the experience. (It's on a CD I'm working on at present.) Dave moved away from Edmonton a year or so later, and his successors weren't able to maintain the momentum (familiar story?) and the festival died out. It's an interesting footnote to this discussion, and may give somebody some ideas... |
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Subject: RE: Folk Trains - help please From: Roger in Sheffield Date: 15 Jun 01 - 04:00 PM I found the thread about the Edale Rambler. From one of the links there are pictures of performers on the Sheffield/Edale/Manchester Folk Train. |
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Subject: RE: Folk Trains - help please From: Roughyed Date: 16 Jun 01 - 03:45 AM I've played on the Manchester to Edale folk train several times. Technically it is not the easiest gig in the world. I have ended up singing over a guitar, banjo, melodeon, mandolin and a train with the windows open. You can forget subtleties while you're on the train, save them for the session in the pub. I have to say that they are amongst the most fun gigs I have ever done. Leaving Piccadilly one Christmas with a load of boozed up maniacs who were determined to sing the Fields of Athenrye whatever we were doing, arriving at Edale in the snow, losing visual and aural contact with the rest of the band on the way back, going to the guards van to serenade the (female) guard, watching the faces of ordinary commuters who wonder whether they're hallucinating, you can't buy moments like those. There is a bit of money and they have a whip-round but the money isn't the point. It's the most fun you'll have out of bed. Just take plenty of Vocalzones. If there's anything specific I can help with, let me know. |
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Subject: RE: Folk Trains - help please From: Rt Revd Sir jOhn from Hull Date: 25 Jul 01 - 12:24 PM refresh (Les in Hull is singing on a train next munth) |
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Subject: RE: Folk Trains - help please From: Gareth Date: 25 Jul 01 - 04:27 PM Hmm ! The Wreck of Old 97, Casey Jones, The Ballard of John Axon, - just the thing to welcome you to Railtrack. Gareth |
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Subject: RE: Folk Trains - help please From: McGrath of Harlow Date: 25 Jul 01 - 05:06 PM It'd be much better in the old trains with luggage wagons.
Maybe if Ken Livingstone wins this court battle this week London Underground can get in on the act as well. Especially on the further flung parts of the network, where there normally aren't that many passengers. |
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Subject: RE: Folk Trains - help please From: Gareth Date: 25 Jul 01 - 07:20 PM Irrelevant Fact. did you know that the Buffet Car ( serving Alcohol) was invented by the old Cambrian Railway as a means of circumvent the Welsh licensing laws on Sunday Closing ?
" If you ever come to Wales,
"Have you ever saw Gareth |
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Subject: RE: Folk Trains - help please From: Tyke Date: 25 Jul 01 - 09:12 PM Its the Day Rover that you may be asked for Les. I went on the Hudderfield to Sheffield Folk Train once! Very noise and bumpy but cunning ploy to keep regional rail links running off peak. Did notice some of the passengers did the whole trip bit of a night out from the retierment home. I wasn't very funny but they wet themselves anyway! Still you'll know more about that than me being a pensioner yourself. Must go and get my laptop checked I'm sure it keeps bringing up years old Threads. Found one tonight that said that you were only 53 :-) All the very best! Tyke |
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Subject: RE: Folk Trains - help please From: GUEST,Guest -Jim McDonald Date: 26 Jul 01 - 05:44 AM Les - I resemble your remark about falling over !! However I only do it after eleventeen pints. I've done the Folk train twice. Once as a three piece with Wildy on Melodeon and Smiley Dave Young on fiddle which made for some volume and someone told me I can sing quite loud. In fact the last publicity said and I quote 'Jim's powerfull hibernian tones can be put to good effect to drown out the noise of the train !!'.We tried to be clever and play the Sheffield Hornpipe followed by the Manchester hornpipe (as the train goes from Sheff - Manch) on the way out but Wildy was pissed and did them the wrong way round.The second time I did the train with Woody (Dave Wood. You need to contact Gerry Bates who runs the train on behalf of the Hope Valley Rail Partnership and the South Riding Folk Network I think his phone number is 0114 266 9532. Gerry is a train buff as well as a Morris Dancer and all round good egg. Toodlepip Les see you in Warwick Jim |
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Subject: RE: Folk Trains - help please From: sian, west wales Date: 26 Jul 01 - 09:32 AM There's a Welsh song about going down to Aberystwyth on "the excursion train". Very bumpity-bumpity kinda tune. On the admin side of things ... there used to be a jazz train from Carmarthen to Milford Haven - jazz on the way down, then a gig in a pub. And the line from Llanelli to Shrewsbury used to have County & Western evenings between the Ammanford and Llanwrtyd Wells stops. Llanwrtyd was the place where the upgoing and the downcoming trains passed within 5 minutes of each other, so the performers and audience had to jump off one train, cross the platform and load on t' other in 5 minutes. I don't know anyone involved in the C&W, but might find a contact for the jazz, if needed. Also, I've spoken with someone involved in Sustainable Tourism Transport Wales who might have some details re: funding. I'll send you details if it's of use. He says that you should also find out if you're in an area which qualifies for European Structural Funds - there might be relevant categories for this kind of development. Also, check with whichever company holds the rail franchise for the area. Some of the newer franchisees, or old ones desperate to hold on to their contracts, are looking at funding Community Managers to develop new 'product' - ie entertainment trains, et al. I know that one of the companies tendering for the new all-Wales franchise is doing this - particularly on lines designated as 'deep rural' and 'rural. OK - that's all very boring, but it might make the difference between being paid in beer or bank notes! sian |
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Subject: RE: Folk Trains - help please From: GUEST,Guest - Jim McDonald Date: 26 Jul 01 - 10:23 AM Les some further details for you phone number is correct for Gerry 0114 266 9532 e-mail him on gerry@folktrain.f9.co.uk or the web site is http://www.folktrain.f9.co.uk/index.htm. I'm sure Master Bates will give you all the help you require. Toodle-pip Jim. |
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Subject: RE: Folk Trains - help please From: Linda Kelly Date: 26 Jul 01 - 10:29 AM Can you remind me of the date for the folk train Les ? We could always sings the 'It's only taken me eight trains and nine hours from Hull to Coventry and the bacon 7tomato sandwich burnt my tongue this country is washed up Blues' -but I'm not bitter any more. |
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Subject: RE: Folk Trains - help please From: McGrath of Harlow Date: 26 Jul 01 - 12:58 PM I think Moris Dancing on trains probably wouldn't work. A good Rapper side could probably manage it. Though I'd rather not be in the same carriage. It'd be bloody terrifying. |
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Subject: RE: Folk Trains - help please From: Whistle Stop Date: 26 Jul 01 - 01:12 PM I think "Mystery Train" is a natural song for this (Train I ride/Sixteen coaches long etc."). Lots of people know it, you can play it loud and sloppy, add as many verses as you can dream up, and it fits in with the rhythm of the train rumbling down the track. |
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Subject: RE: Folk Trains - help please From: GUEST Date: 30 Jul 01 - 06:01 PM |
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Subject: RE: Folk Trains - help please From: GUEST Date: 31 Jul 01 - 03:44 PM HDM 31st July Railway journey with a difference E Yorkshire: Passengers will be stepping aboard the Hull to Bridlington folk train this weekend for an extravaganza of live music and real ale. Folk musicians Les, Maggie and friends will be entertaining passengers on the first Real Ale train, on the Arriva service, which is due to leave Paragon Station at 8.16pm on Saturday (Aug 4) Anyone wanting to take part in the Real Ale trip - which it is hoped will become a regular event - can just turn up and climb aboard on the evening. Only parties of 10 or more need to book in advance. |
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Subject: RE: Folk Trains - help please From: Bernard Date: 31 Jul 01 - 06:40 PM Click here |
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