Cyril Tawney - Illness

Subject: Cyril Tawney
From: Zany Mouse
Date: 29 Aug 04 - 10:15 AM

I've just heard that Cyril Tawney is in hospital "quite poorly". I have no other details.

Get well soon, Cyril. Positive vibes being sent.

Rhiannon

Subject: RE: Cyril Tawney
From: Rasener
Date: 29 Aug 04 - 10:30 AM

Blimey, I am very sorry to hear that. One of my heroes.

Get well Cyril.

Subject: RE: Cyril Tawney
From: Michael
Date: 29 Aug 04 - 10:33 AM

It was announced at Whitby that he wasn't well, he's usually there.

Mike

Subject: RE: Cyril Tawney
From: GUEST,scooby doo
Date: 29 Aug 04 - 10:55 AM

All the best my friend,get well soon.

Subject: RE: Cyril Tawney
From: Shanghaiceltic
Date: 29 Aug 04 - 07:00 PM

Hope he recovers to sing and write again. I have enjoyed his songs for many years.

Subject: RE: Cyril Tawney
From: GUEST,Boab
Date: 30 Aug 04 - 02:51 AM

Hang in there Cyril! I want MORE memories---so far they're the best---
A real big crowd is rooting for you, Mate.

Subject: RE: Cyril Tawney
From: Gurney
Date: 30 Aug 04 - 06:14 AM

The guy who started me singing.   Get well soon.

Subject: RE: Cyril Tawney
From: Flash Company
Date: 30 Aug 04 - 10:21 AM

Memo to Whoever controls life & death, Keep your hands off. thats ours!

FC

Subject: RE: Cyril Tawney
From: alanabit
Date: 30 Aug 04 - 12:15 PM

Anyone would wish a quick and full recovery to a talented and likeable man - and so do I.

Subject: RE: Cyril Tawney
From: GUEST,skipy
Date: 30 Aug 04 - 02:48 PM

agree with all of the above, get well soon please.
skipy

Subject: RE: Cyril Tawney
From: Lanfranc
Date: 30 Aug 04 - 06:34 PM

Amen to all the above. Hang on in there. Cyril.

Alan

Subject: RE: Cyril Tawney
From: CET
Date: 30 Aug 04 - 07:25 PM

Amen, indeed.

Edmund

Subject: RE: Cyril Tawney
From: Dave Bryant
Date: 31 Aug 04 - 04:48 AM

Sad news indeed, not only a lovely man and singer, but also one of our best songwriters.

Best wishes for a full rcovery.

Subject: RE: Cyril Tawney
From: GUEST,Your second cousin, Tom Egan (Cassie's son)
Date: 31 Aug 04 - 05:51 AM

Dear Cyril,
I, here in Australia, only found out via a friend in the USA that you were not well.

I wish you quick and full return to health.

All the very best to you and yours
Tom Egan (Cassie Moan's son)

Subject: RE: Cyril Tawney
From: GUEST,Gerard Moan
Date: 31 Aug 04 - 06:20 AM

I`ve just heard from my nephew Tom Egan in Australia that you are poorly, Cyril. Here`s hoping you make a full recovery as soon as possible. All the best from your cousin, Gerard Moan, and all the Moan family in Devon.
God bless you and yours, Cyril.
Gerard.

Subject: RE: Cyril Tawney
From: Schantieman
Date: 31 Aug 04 - 10:17 AM

One of the finest singers and songwriters around and one of my major influences. Get back down to Sammy's Bar, Cyril!

Steve

Subject: RE: Cyril Tawney
From: Rasener
Date: 31 Aug 04 - 11:34 AM

What a song.

Subject: RE: Cyril Tawney
From: alanww
Date: 31 Aug 04 - 12:02 PM

I thought that Sammy's Bar had long since been knocked down, Steve! But I am sure he knows that we all wish him well.
So let's hope that he can "dance on down, that walk ashore" again very soon!
Alan

Subject: RE: Cyril Tawney
From: Morticia
Date: 31 Aug 04 - 01:36 PM

hugs to you and to Rosemary.

Subject: RE: Cyril Tawney
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 31 Aug 04 - 02:40 PM

I endorse the good wishes, but could somebody please, please post some proper news to say how the poor bugger is?

Kitty

Subject: RE: Cyril Tawney
From: radriano
Date: 31 Aug 04 - 06:20 PM

Cyril Tawney is a very gracious chap. I wish him the best and a speedy recovery.

Subject: RE: Cyril Tawney
From: Devilmaster
Date: 31 Aug 04 - 07:04 PM

Get well soon, Cyril...

Steve

Subject: RE: Cyril Tawney
From: Hawker
Date: 31 Aug 04 - 07:27 PM

My Husband Just sang Grey Funnel Line in a session here in Devon, after being requested to sing a navy song by an ex-matelot.
Get well Cyril & thanks for some of the best songs written in the 20th century, looking forward to more in the 21st!
Love, kind thoughts & hope to see you at Baring Gould?
Kevin & Lucy Burrow

Subject: RE: Cyril Tawney
From: gnomad
Date: 31 Aug 04 - 08:17 PM

Cyril's Website

No information on his current health I'm afraid, but people may wish to bookmark it for future use. I too hope that he's OK.

Subject: RE: Cyril Tawney
From: GUEST,Chanteyranger
Date: 31 Aug 04 - 09:38 PM

I hope whatever health problems he's having, they're not too serious, and that he recovers well. An example of his graciousness: I wrote him a few years back, asking what exactky "Chicken on a raft" is. I thought it was fried egg on toast, and another local chantey singer thought it was creamed chicken on toast. Tawney wrote back a letter not only settling the question (it's fried egg on fried bread), but giving a full explanation of why it had to be fried bread and not toast (logistics of making all that toast for large Navy ship crews), and wrote about the meaning of some other lines in the song. This was all done through snail mail (I didn't have a computer then). Just a generous sharing of knowledge with someone he doesn't even know.

Chanteyranger

Subject: RE: Cyril Tawney
From: Paul from Hull
Date: 31 Aug 04 - 09:53 PM

Youre right there, Chanteyranger, I have chatted to Cyril a few times over several years of going to Festivals & its apparent he always makes timed for anyone who wants to ask him a question, or just to say hello.

A great bloke, & a great talent, & I hope he's well soon.

Subject: RE: Cyril Tawney
From: Joybell
Date: 31 Aug 04 - 10:25 PM

I hope he gets better soon too. His songs are very much loved by many of us here even though we've never met him. Joy

Subject: RE: Cyril Tawney
From: Dead Horse
Date: 01 Sep 04 - 05:24 AM

refresh

Subject: RE: Cyril Tawney
From: Dave Bryant
Date: 01 Sep 04 - 09:04 AM

Perhaps we all should send our thoughts and good vibes to Rosemary as well.

Subject: RE: Cyril Tawney
From: GUEST,Den Warrick, Vienna
Date: 01 Sep 04 - 10:41 AM

Get well soon, Cyril. You made me cry the first time I heard you sing the   Oggy Man, in Edinburgh 1963, I think. As a former Merchant Navy engineer, I experience the sentiments expressed in Sally Free and Easy and the Oggy Man many times, but your songs reminded me that I was not alone in my grief. Hang on in there, you're sorely needed in the earthly choir.

Best wishes

Den Warrick

Subject: RE: Cyril Tawney
From: greg stephens
Date: 01 Sep 04 - 11:25 AM

Get well soon Cyril. You're not in the sidings yet.

Subject: RE: Cyril Tawney
From: MikeofNorthumbria
Date: 01 Sep 04 - 12:00 PM

To Cyril: my very best wishes for a speedy recovery.

To everyone else who has expressed their concern for him here: yes, he's a wonderful songmaker and we all owe him. May he keep making songs for a long time yet.

Wassail!

Subject: RE: Cyril Tawney
From: WFDU - Ron Olesko
Date: 01 Sep 04 - 08:58 PM

I received an e-mail from Rosemary Tawney. She asked me to pass this note on to all the Mudcatters.

>Cyril has been in hospital for 2 months. It's rather involved
and it took a long time for the medics to be able to determine what is the underlying cause
of his several problems (no longer just diabetic leg ulcers, but arthritis,
bone infection, debility, nodules). It is myco bacterium (not "micro")
chelonae which is commonly carried in water but rarely enters the body.
Now they know what antibiotic to use, he is progressing, and he is also going to have specialised treatments to boost his immune system.
We've been warned that it may take a long time, but we will get there, and he's receiving very good care and excellent treatment and is in good, positive spirits, helped a great deal by the goodwill that floods in.<

Rosemary also mentioned that Cyril is being transferred to another hospital and that she is going with him and will be away for awhile. As she noted, Cyril is helped by all the postive thoughts and spirit that are being sent his way.

I'm hoping he will come to this side of the pond as soon as he gets better. He is a treasure. Cyril and Rosemary are in our thoughts and prayers.

Ron

Subject: RE: Cyril Tawney
From: Mark Dowding
Date: 02 Sep 04 - 02:57 AM

Sorry to hear of Cyril's illness but good to know that the doctors can treat it. My dad discovered that he served on the same ship as Cyril after reading the back of Cyril's LP, "In Port" but missed him by a month because Cyril had moved on.

Good wishes to both Rosemary and Cyril

Mark

Subject: RE: Cyril Tawney
From: Mark Dowding
Date: 02 Sep 04 - 09:20 AM

Just told my dad about Cyril and he says that they were on the same ship at the same time - HMS Indefatigable in February 1953. He doesn't remember Cyril from that time which isn't surprising as they were in different parts of the ship, but they must have passed each other on board at some time.

Subject: RE: Cyril Tawney
From: Charley Noble
Date: 02 Sep 04 - 09:39 AM

Thanks for the update, Ron.

So many fine songs, and ever so helpful when questioned.

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Cyril Tawney
From: alanabit
Date: 02 Sep 04 - 09:49 AM

There's a funny thing Mark. He and my Dad knew each other at HMS Caledonia, where they did their basic training. Like him, my Dad went on to become a submariner. Are you an ex RHS boy, by any chance?
Goods news about Cyril Tawney that he is responding to treatment. It has cheered me up a bit - and certainly many other people too.

Subject: RE: Cyril Tawney
From: Mark Dowding
Date: 02 Sep 04 - 10:20 AM

Alan
My dad did his National Service in the RN and went no further but spent the rest of his life married to the Sea Cadet Corps (as well as my mother!) My sister did ten years or more in the Sea Cadets ending up as Lt Commander of the Wigan unit (T.S. Sceptre which is affiliated to HMS Sceptre - a Hunter-Killer nuclear powered submarine) taking over where my dad left off although he's still involved at a higher level. My mother, in an effort to see her husband occasionally, joined the Unit as an admin officer. I never had leanings towards life at sea although I did spend a week on T.S. Royalist which is a square rigged sailing ship (brig) owned by the SCC and used as a training ship. I went on board as a civilian instructor and had all the 12-14 year old lads singing shanties all week. They made the rude bits up themselves! They say you taste every meal twice on board ship - it's quite true.
Cheers
Mark

Subject: RE: Cyril Tawney
From: JennyO
Date: 02 Sep 04 - 11:13 AM

I sang Grey Funnel Line tonight at my folk club for Cyril. I've never heard the harmonies in the room sound finer. There was definitely some good energy going his way from Oz!

Subject: RE: Cyril Tawney
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 02 Sep 04 - 05:45 PM

Thanks Ron, for the news! Best wishes to Cyril and Rosemary.

Kitty

Subject: RE: Cyril Tawney
From: GUEST,padgett
Date: 03 Sep 04 - 04:09 AM

really sorry to hear of Cyril's illness and hope that he can make a speedy recovery
All the best to him and Rosemary

Ray Padgett and all at Barnsley Folk Club

Subject: RE: Cyril Tawney
From: CRANKY YANKEE
Date: 03 Sep 04 - 05:53 AM

Of all the British Maritime Folk song writers I think you are the only one that I know of who writes from genuine experience. I truly love your stuff and I sing them when appropriate.

I've actually worked as hired crew(Bo's'n) with extra duty as chantyman on the hermaphrodite brig Black Pearl, SChooner Bill of Rights, the replica of HMS Rose, (I also did the original rigging and trained her first crew) and the schooner Aurora.
From one sailor to another, get well soon.
I'm in physical distress also, and am recovering from colon cancer. I expect to be completely cured. I'm finished with my radiation and chemotherapy and in about a month they'll see if surgery is indicated.
I'm going to be my old self again, YOU DO TOO.

Sincerely

Jody Gibson

Newport, Rhode Island, USA

Subject: RE: Cyril Tawney
From: Fergie
Date: 03 Sep 04 - 09:30 PM

Hi Cyril

At the Góilín Singers Club in Dublin tonight Jerry O'Reilly sang Grey Funnel Line and the harmonies was terrific. Many of the members were singing with thoughts of you in their hearts. Get well soon and come over to Dublin and give us a share of your brilliance
KInd regards for a speedy recovery
Fergus

Subject: RE: Cyril Tawney
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 04 Sep 04 - 03:29 AM

We had a rendering of Sammys Bar at Gainsborough Folk Club last night.
Best wishes.

Subject: RE: Cyril Tawney
From: Keith A of Hertford
Date: 04 Sep 04 - 06:14 AM

I have collected your recordings and books Cyril, and enjoyed them the more because of my family's Naval tradition.
I saw you in the grand old days at the Hoddesdon Folk Club.
I sing unaccompanied, and your songs are just perfect.
Actually Cyril, I could do with a few new ones, so please get better soon.
Fix it in a jiffy,
Keith.

Subject: RE: Cyril Tawney
From: Nerd
Date: 04 Sep 04 - 11:37 PM

I'm with everyone in saying: get better. We'll be waiting to listen to you and sing with you, all over the world, when you've recovered.

Subject: RE: Cyril Tawney
From: GUEST,Scouse
Date: 05 Sep 04 - 05:35 AM

Get well soon Cyril, your songs have stayed with me for years. As Aye, Phil

Subject: RE: Cyril Tawney
From: Hrothgar
Date: 05 Sep 04 - 05:38 AM

Had occasion to ring Cyril about a couple of songs a few years ago. He was very gracious to a total stranger.

Get well soon, Cyril.

Subject: RE: Cyril Tawney
From: GUEST,Pat the Verse
Date: 05 Sep 04 - 06:53 PM

Heard at Goilín club on Friday that you`d been unwell , really hope you are on way to a full recovery . Wonderful singer , excellent songs.

Subject: RE: Cyril Tawney
From: GUEST,NSC George Henderson
Date: 06 Sep 04 - 11:16 AM

Also heard of these health problems at Góilín last Friday. Sang a number of those wonderful songs to myself on the way down to Nenagh from Dublin yesterday. They really helped to shorten my journey and I would like to thank Cyril for his generosity and assistance over the years. Delighted to hear that his condition is treatable. Get well soon.

George Henderson.