Songs about Hull

Subject: Songs about Hull
From: Abuwood
Date: 02 Jul 01 - 01:14 PM

Can any one help me with songs about Hull? I own one old Chris Rowe & Ian Clark vynyl and can take some general sea songs, esp by John Connelly but don't know where else to look. Not much input here in the West Midlands as far away from the sea as you can get. Also never been to a club in Hull so when we visit mother on OP where should we go?

Subject: RE: Songs about Hull
From: Mr Red
Date: 02 Jul 01 - 01:54 PM

Anything by the Kingston trio?

Subject: RE: Songs about Hull
From: Sorcha
Date: 02 Jul 01 - 02:01 PM

Hull Home Page with a link that says--Music.

Subject: RE: Songs about Hull
From: Rt Revd Sir jOhn from Hull
Date: 02 Jul 01 - 02:04 PM

As far as I know there are know folk "clubs" as such in Hull, although there are plenty of great sessions and singalongs in pubs, the nearest clubs are in Cottingham and Beverley.Cottingham is only about 3 miles away and Bevereley 7,Cottingham Folk Club have a very good website, sorry I cant do that link stuff properly, but hopefully somebody will make a link for you.

Subject: RE: Songs about Hull
From: Roger in Sheffield
Date: 02 Jul 01 - 02:09 PM

click here

Subject: RE: Songs about Hull
From: Linda Kelly
Date: 02 Jul 01 - 02:10 PM

As John said both Beverley and Cottingham have good clubs and Les from Hull has a session in the Kingston on fridays -since he is the expert on all things Hullish I am sure he would be able to sort you out. As for songs Keith Marsden wrote Hessle Road and there is that songs about I couldn't give a bu**er I'm a man which mentions Kirkella which is also in Hull.

Subject: RE: Songs about Hull
From: Rt Revd Sir jOhn from Hull
Date: 02 Jul 01 - 02:10 PM

Thanks Roger!

Subject: RE: Songs about Hull
From: Rt Revd Sir jOhn from Hull
Date: 02 Jul 01 - 02:17 PM

I can definetly reccomend Les in Hulls session in the Kingston, I went there last week for the first time, Les is a good singer and evrybody there is very friendly.

Subject: RE: Songs about Hull
From: Eric the Viking
Date: 02 Jul 01 - 02:20 PM

Try Cobble, he knows lots of stuff about Hull and songs. He sings Hessle road beautifully (if you can call him beautiful!!!)

Subject: RE: Songs about Hull
From: GUEST,Willa
Date: 02 Jul 01 - 02:32 PM

Lament for the Hull trawlers, by Ewan McColl/Frankie Armstrong. Harry Eddom, by Bill Meek; Ickle Dorritt's song, The Luckiest Sailor. Can give you lyrics for the first two if you need them.
Cottingham Folk club's web address is www.Cottingham-Live.co.uk and has excellent links and info about other local clubs. Nellie's address is www.soft.net.uk/10sg/nellies.htm

Subject: RE: Songs about Hull
From: Rt Revd Sir jOhn from Hull
Date: 02 Jul 01 - 02:36 PM

Hello Willa-Are you using KIT or Karoo?
I am wondering how many other people are using KIT.thanks.john

Subject: RE: Songs about Hull
From: GeorgeH
Date: 02 Jul 01 - 02:41 PM

It earns a mention in "Dalesman's Litany".

G.

Subject: RE: Songs about Hull
From: Dorrie
Date: 02 Jul 01 - 02:43 PM

theres a hull/fishing historian called alec gill. I once heard him on the radio talking about hessle road and all tihngs fishing.so look him up and you'll probably get sometihng. hope that helps dorrie xx

p.s john in hull i'm on karoo but i do have kit digital tv

Subject: RE: Songs about Hull
From: bill\sables
Date: 02 Jul 01 - 02:47 PM

I just heard of a session in Hestle Hull on Tuesday nights, anyone got any info

Subject: RE: Songs about Hull
From: Rt Revd Sir jOhn from Hull
Date: 02 Jul 01 - 03:04 PM

Bill Sables-its at The Hase in Hessle (opposite the big church).john

Subject: RE: Songs about Hull
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 02 Jul 01 - 03:33 PM

Jackie and Bridie used to sing a song called The Humber bridge song which sort of fits in with Hull and its surroundings. I can't remember the words in fact I wouldn't mind having them if anyone knows them, the chorus is I believe--

Will they ever bridge the Humber will they ever span it o'er,
is always an exception to the rule.
Is it such a privilege to have a Humber bridge,
do we have to keep on going round by Goole.

The fact that a bridge was built years ago does not affect the history in the song nor change the fact that it's a good song--- Giok

Subject: RE: Songs about Hull
From: Eric the Viking
Date: 02 Jul 01 - 05:44 PM

Cor-Jackie and bridie, havent heard of them in years, got one of their live vinyl albums.

Subject: RE: Songs about Hull
From: GUEST
Date: 02 Jul 01 - 05:55 PM

Giok
that's from the Chris Rowe/Ian Clark album. Bill Meek/John Connolly updated that by writing The Ballad of the Humber Bridge for a YTV documentary 'A Bridge of Size'
John, I use Karoo - it's very slow at times.

Subject: RE: Songs about Hull
From: GUEST,Willa
Date: 02 Jul 01 - 06:00 PM

Sorry, forgot to identify myself in the previous post.

Subject: RE: Songs about Hull
From: Cobble
Date: 02 Jul 01 - 08:38 PM

Tell the truth Eric you've got original wax drum recordings. And guest my wife Mrs C has got the Chris Rowe – Ian Clark album we used to listen to it 20 years ago. Yes and nice to hear from you again Eric have you bought a real guitar yet or are you still using that converted biscuit tin. To finish this short answer my father was an Hessle Roader I come from a fishing family hence I love all of those songs.

Cobble.

Subject: RE: Songs about Hull
From: Cobble
Date: 02 Jul 01 - 08:41 PM

May as well make it a treble.

Cobble.

Subject: RE: Songs about Hull
From: Les from Hull
Date: 03 Jul 01 - 06:40 AM

The song that Ickle Dorritt refers to is 'Three Day Millionaire' by Mike Waterson. Mike also wrote 'Stitch in Time', recorded by Martin Carthy, about an event that happened in Hull although Hull isn't mentioned in the song.

Some of Lal Waterson's songs have had local references - like 'Some Old Salty'. Jim Eldon has also written songs with Hull connections. Didn't Mike Chapman have a song about the 'Polar Bear' (a pub on Spring Bank)?

The two sessions in the area that Maggie and I try not to miss are at the Kingston Hotel in Cumberland Street on Fridays from about 9pm onwards. Make sure you get the right Kingston, there's two others in Hull. And downstairs at Nellies (the White Horse Inn in Hengate) in Beverley there's a very good session on the afternoon of the first Sunday of each month.

If you can give me a date when you're visiting Hull, you can PM me and I'll let you know what's happening at that time. A good time to visit might be 18/19 August when Hull hosts the UK's premier shanty Festival - Sea Fever.

Les

Subject: ADD: Gloria Victoria
From: Abuwood
Date: 03 Jul 01 - 06:45 AM

Thanks guys, Will they ever bridge the Humber is on my Rowe & Clarke lp, along with man who put the halt in haltemprice - I will type it out for you if you need it.
Iwas reminded of this one when I saw the statue in Lancaster

Gloria Victoria
(Rowe & Clark)

If anyone should go to Hull to spend a day or three
You'll find a wondrous city, laid out for all to see,
But its not the parks and gardens that catch the tourist's eye
Not the great big hospital towering to the sky
You'll find a site that 's quite unique and have to stop and stare
Victoria on a toilet in the middle of the square

Victoria Victoria, Gloria Victoria
They loved her well and none can tell just why they had to spoil it
She'd not amused, she's been abused
She overlooks a toilet

King William sits on horseback as he did in days of old
Watching o'er the market place dressed in leaves of gold
And De La Pole puts hand to eye to see that all is clear
To warn us of invasion and see no one steals the pier
But flushed with pride Victoria sits and to the world presents
Her regal chains of office, 5 ladies and 6 gents

Now monuments get moved around with no respect for rank
And when they moved old Wilberforce the poor chap nearly sank
And pity Andrew Marvel cos he must feel a fool
Not content with moving him they sent him back to school
But happy in the knowledge that they'll never move her too
Victoria sits resplendent, She's found her Waterloo

So if we have a statesman who proves that he is great
We put him on a pedestal to hold his last debate
Or if we have a General who really makes the grade
Up he goes on horseback to lead his last parade
The setting that we give them shows the qualities they have
I wonder what Victoria did they stuck her on a Lav

Subject: RE: Songs about Hull
From: Abuwood
Date: 03 Jul 01 - 07:03 AM

Thankyou Les from Hull my email is [e-mail] - praps that is the only way to have a conversation on Mudcat - I am still learning. It was flipping sea fever 1999 that started me into this folk lark, I wanted to make it this year but I think we are dancing at Burntwood. I am not complaining really, we sing with Shellbacks Chorus and have a fab time.

Subject: RE: Songs about Hull
From: Skipjack K8
Date: 03 Jul 01 - 10:30 AM

You'll know our good friend Noreen, then, Abu.

Bill, the Hessle session is bang where john from hull says it is, good man himself. It is held fortnightly, and is on tonight. Several Sloopers go over for it now (I went last time) but we still have the Sloop session every week in Barton.

Abu, if you can stump up the extortionate Humber Bridge Toll (£2.40 each blathering way) and you're at a loose end on a Tuesday night, PM me for directions. Barton is on the south bank of the Humber, tight by the bridge.

Skipjack

Subject: RE: Songs about Hull
From: Noreen
Date: 03 Jul 01 - 10:45 AM

Hi Skippy! Yes, indeed we met up in Liverpool at the Mersey Shanty festival, and will be singing together again at Cleckheaton this weekend (you be there, Mr. jack?)

Cue for a Shellbacks thread, Alison... over to you... :0)

Noreen

Subject: RE: Songs about Hull
From: Les from Hull
Date: 03 Jul 01 - 10:56 AM

I've not been to the Hessle session yet, Skipjack. Could you give us some sort of description of what sort of session it is?

Incidentally, the Kingston session is both tunes and songs. The songs are often accompanied and the tunes are often Irish, but there's no rules for that sort of thing.

Knowing 'catters sense of humour and seeing the name of this thread I was looking for suggestions like 'Bat out of Hull', 'We're Hedon for the last round-up', 'Poor old Rueben Bransholme,' and 'You're Humberlievable!'

Cheers, Les

Subject: RE: Songs about Hull
From: Abuwood
Date: 03 Jul 01 - 11:10 AM

Hull Hell and Halifax so the poets tell are very much alike in shape and size - they've got it right in one way cos Hull is flat as hell - on a clear day.......?

Subject: RE: Songs about Hull
From: Skipjack K8
Date: 03 Jul 01 - 11:20 AM

Sadly for me, Noreen, I will be bouncing round the lower North Sea in a Stella for the weekend, and not with who you might think, either.

Hope you go enjoy the roar of the crowd.

Enjoy

Skipjack

Subject: RE: Songs about Hull
From: Skipjack K8
Date: 03 Jul 01 - 11:27 AM

Les, the Hessle session I went to was a tune only affair, and I treated the massed crowds to my two weeks experience as a fiddle player! Apart from me, the musicianship was excellent.

I like the sound of your Kingston session, as our Sloop session is a 'no rules' come-all-ye. I have promised john I will raft up with him at your Friday session soon, but the next few Fridays are taken up with weddings, birthdays and seaborne hedonism.

Skipjack

Subject: RE: Songs about Hull
From: GUEST
Date: 03 Jul 01 - 01:33 PM

Abuwood
i have heard a song on that theme, chorus from Hull and Halifax and Hell , good Lord deliver me.
I think that was a reference to the harsh regime in the workhouses of those towns.
Cobble, is your name a reference to the fishing cobbles?

Subject: RE: Songs about Hull
From: Cobble
Date: 03 Jul 01 - 02:02 PM

Abuwood you got it first go but the catch is the fishing cobble, is spelt coble its just that I like it with two B's.

All the best, hope to meet you soon Cobble.

Subject: RE: Songs about Hull
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 03 Jul 01 - 06:04 PM

The story I heard about The Dalesman;s Litany chorus of "from Hull and Halifax and hell good Lord Deliver me" was based on the fact that the magistrates in those three towns were particularly heavy handed when it came to sentencing people who commited minor crimes, rewarding thieves with the gallows, and poachers with transportation. Rgds Jock

Subject: RE: Songs about Hull
From: IanC
Date: 04 Jul 01 - 04:11 AM

Jock

I think it was more to do with the way the vagrancy laws were interpreted.

Cheers!
Ian

Subject: RE: Songs about Hull
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 04 Jul 01 - 03:43 PM

The vagrancy laws were passed after the Napoleonic Wars to prevent ex soldiers wandering the countryside stealing and begging. So if this song predates the act of parliament then you are probably right. To me history and the dates thereof are as much of a mystery as the laws of, and the reason for, football. So Which came first I don't know-- Jock

Subject: RE: Songs about Hull
From: Susanne (skw)
Date: 04 Jul 01 - 05:36 PM

Late as usual, but for some reason I couldn't post the last two days. Still, I don't think anyone has mentioned Harvey Andrews' 'Boothferry Bridge' - written, he claims, "for all those who get homesick for Hull (because they need all the help we can give them".
Greetings to all the German Mudcat Gatherers on this thread, plus George who wasn't able to come. I'm off to Germany's biggest folk festival now, so bye till Sunday!

Subject: RE: Songs about Hull
From: Abuwood
Date: 05 Jul 01 - 02:05 AM

Was Harvey Andrews a Birmingham man Susanne - (thinking of the Mrs Ackroyd Hallelulia Chorus?) I would like to get hold of that song - I really miis the fish dock smells and the fog horns!(honest).

Subject: RE: Songs about Hull
From: Linda Kelly
Date: 05 Jul 01 - 03:21 AM

I thought Harvey Andrews went to Bablake School or Henry VIII in Coventry and that there was a midlands connection.

Subject: RE: Songs about Hull
From: nutty
Date: 05 Jul 01 - 05:33 AM

A search of broadsides in the Bodleian Library has unearthed a motley collection of songs :-

THE MERCHANTMAN'S SON

BONNY SCOTCH LADDIE>

HULL IS A WONDERFUL TOWN

THE HUMBERSIDE>

Subject: RE: Songs about Hull
From: Noreen
Date: 05 Jul 01 - 05:42 AM

Must be about time for a revival of Oh Hull is a Wonderful Town-o... volunteers? (with a derry-derry down) :0)

Noreen

Subject: RE: Songs about Hull
From: Les from Hull
Date: 05 Jul 01 - 05:51 AM

I could do that, Norrie!

The Bonnie Scotch Laddie (Bonnets so Blue) is a Morris Tune isn't it?

Subject: RE: Songs about Hull
From: Noreen
Date: 05 Jul 01 - 06:01 AM

Now, Les, you're the very chap I had in mind!

Subject: RE: Songs about Hull
From: Joy Bennett
Date: 05 Jul 01 - 09:16 AM

Abuwood -- I have been singing Hessle Road for awhile -- if you can put your hands on a copy of "Picking Sooty Blackberries" (songs of Keith Marsden) it's in there. If not , I will be happy to get you a copy -- just let me know. It's really a great song about the decline of the fishing trade. I sang it at the Mystic Sea Music Festival last month and it went over extremely well. It really struck me.

Joy

Subject: RE: Songs about Hull
From: Abuwood
Date: 05 Jul 01 - 01:19 PM

Subject: RE: Songs about Hull
From: Abuwood
Date: 05 Jul 01 - 01:19 PM

Subject: RE: Songs about Hull
From: nutty
Date: 05 Jul 01 - 01:45 PM

Lost for words?????

Subject: RE: Songs about Hull
From: GUEST,Willa
Date: 05 Jul 01 - 02:24 PM

Thanks, Nutty; I've never heard any of these - pleased to see that one of them gives Hull its correct title of Kingston upon Hull. i hate the way our current City leaders have re-branded it as hull (the lower case h is intentional!)

Subject: RE: Songs about Hull
From: GUEST,harvey andrews
Date: 05 Jul 01 - 07:10 PM

Yes, I'm a Brummie. No, I didn't go to school in Coventry..I went to College to train as a teacher. "Boothferry Bridge" is often taken as proving I came from Hull. The truth is I was driving to a gig there musing on the fact that Americans had such evocative names in their songs ie Witchita..and I was on the road to places like Wigan that could never be used in the same context of romantic travelling song without eliciting English audience laughter.(sorry Wiganite mudcatters) Then I went over this bridge and the name hit me..as well as the secret,..you need vowels. Boooothfeeeeryyyy..sings well..bridges are symbols of travel, of leaving and returning..and I began to compose a song that's still in the repertoire, and requested, 30 years later. Only problem is it's a rusty old swing bridge not The Golden Gate!!!

Subject: RE: Songs about Hull
From: Geoff the Duck
Date: 06 Jul 01 - 11:41 AM

An item in today's News mentions that a Leather Flying Jacket, belonging to pioneer aviator,Amy Johnson, has just been returned to her native Hull. It was the one she wore prior to her final flight, and had been left at the shop of the tailor who made the Jacket she wore on that flight.
I had previously not been aware of her place of birth, so was interested to find this out.
Taking that as a starting point, I suppuse you could include Amy Johnson, she flew in an aeroplane etc.... to the tune of Daisy, Daisy.
Quack!

Subject: RE: Songs about Hull
From: Cobble
Date: 06 Jul 01 - 08:21 PM

Harvey Boothferry Bridge may be old but its not rusty, it's a nice coat of Humberside blue. It was in fact given a major overhaul a few short years back. I cross it about eight times a week, but I never (oh the shame) knew there was a song about it.

Cobble.