Rochester Sweeps sessions Mayday Weekend

Subject: Rochester Sweeps sessions Mayday Weekend
From: GUEST,The Barden of England at Work
Date: 25 Apr 05 - 08:26 AM

Here we are again coming up to Rochester Sweeps this coming weekend- 30th April, 1st and 2nd of May, and I will be running the sessions in 'The Gordon Hotel' on Rochester High Street same as last year. So once again we will be right by the Beer Festival - what a blow!! To all those who came last year, I hope to see you again, and I hope to see some new faces too. We will also be doing a session on Friday 29th. April in the evening for any early arrivals. Hope to see many 'catters there.
Cheers - John Barden

Subject: RE: Rochester Sweeps sessions Mayday Weekend
From: JohnB
Date: 25 Apr 05 - 09:09 AM

Sorry won't be there this year, had a great time last year though.
We were the one's who sang Frobisher Bay, then had to run away and dance.
JohnB (Orange Peel Morris, Ontario, Canada)

Subject: RE: Rochester Sweeps sessions Mayday Weekend
From: The Barden of England
Date: 25 Apr 05 - 12:40 PM

refresh

Subject: RE: Rochester Sweeps sessions Mayday Weekend
From: English Jon
Date: 25 Apr 05 - 02:19 PM

I'll try and pop in - am gigging down in kent over the weekend, so will try to stop by!

Hopefully see you at the weekend.
Jon

Subject: RE: Rochester Sweeps sessions Mayday Weekend
From: Don(Wyziwyg)T
Date: 25 Apr 05 - 02:41 PM

Sorry John,

For the first time in six years I can't be there. I'm currently on the sick list, having strained a ligament in my knee, and it wouldn't be too bright to go walking around Rochester.

Hope you have a great time, and I'll doubtless see you at the Greyhound when the Doc signs me off.

Don(hopalong)T.

Subject: RE: Rochester Sweeps sessions Mayday Weekend
From: The Barden of England
Date: 25 Apr 05 - 04:25 PM

Don - Get well soon. Similar to you in that I'm not out tonight as my right knee is playing me up. I hope it's alright for the weekend.

Subject: RE: Rochester Sweeps sessions Mayday Weekend
From: growler
Date: 25 Apr 05 - 05:10 PM

If my Ticker op goes OK, I'll be there, if not, please arrange for R

Subject: RE: Rochester Sweeps sessions Mayday Weekend
From: growler
Date: 25 Apr 05 - 05:13 PM

Sorry pressed the wrong button. Be there if I can, otherwise Richard Bridge, I'm sure, will arrange delivery of the Nelsons Blood

Subject: RE: Rochester Sweeps sessions Mayday Weekend
From: GUEST
Date: 26 Apr 05 - 02:16 AM

Subject: RE: Rochester Sweeps sessions Mayday Weekend
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 26 Apr 05 - 03:11 AM

Don, if you get there early you can park in the back of the hotel, and you will only have to stagger about 20 yards, if that.

John and Don, you missed quite a nice one at the Greyhound last night - welcome non-regulars were two from the Sheppey club (one with a (wait for it)...Zemaitis acoustic (wow, that is rare) - a very fine instrument, and Kim Brett with that rather nice guitar of his built by the bloke whose name escapes me who used to be in Old Bexley and has now moved to Scotland. Gray also sang unaccompanied for the first time in his adult life. It was a war dirge (surprise!) but it was WW1 not WW2 for a change.

I'll go away and find the list of all official sinagrounds and sessions and add it in another post.

Subject: RE: Rochester Sweeps sessions Mayday Weekend
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 26 Apr 05 - 03:49 AM

Sweeps Sinagrounds and Sessions

Fri Eve -
JB in Gordon (squat)
Bob and Kath, King's Head Poolroom

Sat Lunch
JB in Gordon
Bob and Kath, King's Head Poolroom

Sat Afternoon
Chris Taylor (Irish Diddley), Vic and Bull, Great Expectorations Bar (BG)

Sat Eve
JB in Gordon
Bob and Kath, King's Head Poolroom
Gastove, Good Intent

Sun Lunch
JB in Gordon
Bob and Kath, King's Head Poolroom

Sun Afternoon
Chris Taylor (Irish Diddley), Vic and Bull, Great Expectorations Bar (BG)
"Transatlantic Session" Gordon (not sure if this is participative, stated to be "with SMALL TOWN ROMANCE, FOOLPROOF AND OTHERS" – from 4 pm

Sun Eve
JB in Gordon
Bob and Kath, King's Head Poolroom
Gastove, Good Intent
"Play along session" Vic and Bull

Mon Lunch
JB in Gordon
Bob and Kath, King's Head Poolroom

I have been unable to get a final fix on rumours of a late "club" run by Daz and Man and maybe Derek Moore too up at the school.

Subject: RE: Rochester Sweeps sessions Mayday Weekend
From: Sarah the flute
Date: 26 Apr 05 - 04:12 AM

Here's details of the Bull & Vic session on Sunday afternoon.

sunday session of The compasses fame due on 1st may will convene in the afternoon in the back bar of the Bull & Vic in rochester high street, rather than in the evening at the compasses.
in previous years, people have started assembling around 2pm and the session has run until 5pm - 6pm. it's fairly easy to get to - there is parking behind the council offices in strood (just on the "london" side of the old medway bridge at rochester). you just walk over the bridge, bear right up the high street and the Bull & Vic is on the right, about 200 yards up. you go through the archway in the middle of the building and the back bar is on your left. you do need to be a bit wary of massed morris dancers but most of them stop for a bite to eat at some stage so a lunchtime foray can be reasonably stress-free ...... :-)

Should be good fun!

Sarah

Subject: RE: Rochester Sweeps sessions Mayday Weekend
From: GUEST,The Barden of England at work
Date: 26 Apr 05 - 06:54 AM

Thanks for the info Richard, it shows just how much is going on. Brian & Marion Rodgers of 'No Worries' will be MC's for the evening concert in Rochester Cathedral. None other than Ralph McTell with support by Kellie While. That should be a good one. I suspect there will probably be a Folk Club style 'happening' up at Fort Pitt where the camping is.

Sarah the Flute - If my pooly knee lets me I'll tr and make the Vic & Bull but it all depends on when my session finishes - they do tend to go on much longer thab the 2 1/2 hrs allocated.

John B

Subject: RE: Rochester Sweeps sessions Mayday Weekend
From: Carol
Date: 26 Apr 05 - 09:21 AM

Fabulous weekend for singarounds and a great atmosphere, especially if the sun shines, pity it's too far away now we're in Yorkshire

Subject: RE: Rochester Sweeps sessions Mayday Weekend
From: GUEST
Date: 27 Apr 05 - 08:27 AM

Subject: RE: Rochester Sweeps sessions Mayday Weekend
From: JohnB
Date: 27 Apr 05 - 10:27 AM

Someone please say Hi! to Bob and Kath from JohnB in Canada.
Thanks, JohnB

Subject: RE: Rochester Sweeps sessions Mayday Weekend
From: GUEST,The Barden of England at work
Date: 27 Apr 05 - 10:30 AM

I'll say Hi for you, as another JohnB it should be OK
John Barden

Subject: RE: Rochester Sweeps sessions Mayday Weekend
From: Dave Bryant
Date: 28 Apr 05 - 10:05 AM

Refresh - for the benefit of Yorkshire Yankee who I'm trying to persuade to pop down with a friend who has a London stop-over on Saturday night.

Subject: RE: Rochester Sweeps sessions Mayday Weekend
From: The Barden of England
Date: 28 Apr 05 - 11:39 AM

Now that's a good idea - nip round the M25 from either Heathrow or Gatwick as Saturday shouldn't be too bad on that road. Hope to see you there Dave.

Subject: RE: Rochester Sweeps sessions Mayday Weekend
From: Sarah the flute
Date: 28 Apr 05 - 04:08 PM

Unfortunately sudden but expected family bereavement means I'm not going to make it to Rochester this year (i'll be in Spain!) but hope the sessions go well.


Sarah

Subject: RE: Rochester Sweeps sessions Mayday Weekend
From: YorkshireYankee
Date: 29 Apr 05 - 10:37 AM

Cheers, Dave. It really does look like the kind of thing I adore -- and my friend would enjoy -- but we'll be using public transport rather than driving, and the logistics (i.e. 4-hour round trip to & from Heathrow by train) are a bit daunting (I think the *earliest* we'd get to Rochester would be 9 pm-ish), so I'm afraid we'll have to pass.

I will bear it in mind for next year, though...

Subject: RE: Rochester Sweeps sessions Mayday Weekend
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 01 May 05 - 04:39 AM

The session in the Gordon certainly had taken off thoroughly by yesterday evening - (Sat Eve) with (amongst other good bits) some great harmony work from two bands from Sheffield (I think they said), one called Hecate and the name of the other escapes me just for the moment - 3 female singers, one cellist, and two guitarists, working pretty much as a single unit. Wall of sound. Nearly as loud as Rachel, who was getting complaints of industrial injury to nearby eardrums, in the most melodic way, of course.

JB and PJ competing in the falling down race!

Subject: RE: Rochester Sweeps sessions Mayday Weekend
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 01 May 05 - 07:35 PM

Well lunchtime (to 4 pm) today was nice. But the evening was intolerable - we simply could not hear ourselves over the PA rig in the beer tent.

Bob and Kath's was suffering from a similar problem with PA in the main bar. Les Chiens de Mer were sort of euro-celtique with a full drum kit.

Gastove's "Session" was taking turns at a PA.

The stuff in the beer tent at the Gordon was vagely middle aged American pop and country-pop.

Colin Reece and friends were playing midatlantic/60s pop jigging.

Ted Can't hear Ya bore no realtionship to folk (and also had a full drum kit).

And there was the Bishop Gundulf experience with certain players whose reputation precedes them, the other side of the river.

And the High Street was full of chavs.

Waste of petrol going down, tonight. I suppose I should have paid to go and see Maddy Prior.

Let us hope for tomorrow.

Subject: RE: Rochester Sweeps sessions Mayday Weekend
From: Sarah the flute
Date: 02 May 05 - 04:57 PM

Were the Sheffield band Hegatty by any chance? They are very good - I have a CD. Did anyone go to the Vic & Bull. Wish I'd been there. Hope you all had a good time

Sarah

Subject: RE: Rochester Sweeps sessions Mayday Weekend
From: GUEST,Bugsy
Date: 02 May 05 - 05:01 PM

Did anyone else see the amusing piece from the Festival on BBC2's early evening 'Newsnight' on Monday?

Reporter Michael Crick did straw polls among morris men, audience members etc. as to voting intentions.

Seems 60% of the morris men are sticking with Labour but most of the drinkers in the beer tent are voting Lib. Dem.

All very funny and good publicity for the Festival.

Subject: RE: Rochester Sweeps sessions Mayday Weekend
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 02 May 05 - 05:17 PM

Ah, yes, could have been Hegaty, not Hecate. Drink had been taken at the time...

I gathered today JB had been permitted to use the middle bar in the Gordon, later yesterday evening. Wish he'd texted me!

Lunchtime session today was not bad. Except when the excellent Doug Hudson decided his Bose system in the beer tent needed exercise.

I do think the bands with PA rigs need to show some consideration for other singers/players (and those booked and paid to run singarounds etc) who are not using electricity. They may be the stars, and the rest of us not stars, but a little humility and consideration never hurt anyone.

Subject: RE: Rochester Sweeps sessions Mayday Weekend
From: Jess A
Date: 02 May 05 - 05:32 PM

Hiya,
yep, the sesison in the Gordon on Sat night was good fun if somewhat drowned out by the noise from the band out the back. btw it's Hekety (not Hegaty, but you get points for trying :) plus Crucible who are the main singing contingent. We were all there with Pecsaetan Morris. I'd been lurking on here last week John so it was me who said 'a-ha, are you John Barden?' quite late on on Saturday night.

Must say though that the Gordon Hotel (management thereof) were possibly the most unfriendly I've seen - they wouldn't let us shut any doors to keep the band from drowning out the session (noise levels were fine when the intervening doors were shut but the manager and bar staff kept opening them again and got increasingly grumpy about it every time we shut them even though we weren't blocking any access anywhere) and on Sunday they wouldn't give thirsty morris dancers any water either, even though we'd been buying their beer all weekend. Grrr!

Subject: RE: Rochester Sweeps sessions Mayday Weekend
From: GUEST,The Barden of England at work
Date: 03 May 05 - 03:46 AM

Hi Jess A - hope I didn't frighten you too much!

Got to agree that the noise was at times intolerable and I will probably ask if we can use the dining room next year, it will make more sense, but I can't make any promises.

Thank's to Hekety and Crucible for joining in, sounded great, and also special thanks to Richard Bridge, Rachel & gang, Geoff, Norman, John and all you others who turned up to make it a great and fun (and in my case on Saturday - DRUNKEN) weekend.

'Here's a health to the company'

John Barden

Subject: RE: Rochester Sweeps sessions Mayday Weekend
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 03 May 05 - 05:19 AM

I believe the hotel management has a problem with fire regulations (the building looks as if one match might well wipe out several hundred years of history - like the big 1899 hotel (derelict) that went up over the weekend further down the coast (? was it Margate), and apparently the middle and back doors are the fire escapes, so that when the occupancy exceeds so many hundred people (or whatever) they have to be locked open - and PC plod and the bureacrats were checking.

Personally, I think the middle bar in the Gordon is the best for a sinaground during Sweeps.

We need to revive the tradition of the booked guests popping in for a quick song, as used to happen in the Eagle in the good old days - even some of the local amateur names or ex-names did not oblige. For example a number of the Morris singers no-showed, including the old Vulcan's Hammer, Del deLorme whizzed through silently, the musical director might have given us one song (possibly Das Wild Dachshund), Cliff Bayliss didn't, and someone must embarrass Colin Reece by getting him to sing that kids' song he wrote with the chorus (it's about a maiden chained to the train tracks, like in the silent movies) that goes "puff puff puff puff puff puff squelch".

No Worries did their duty (in this respect)- but Sussed did not.

Will and Judith (Fiddlefit) came past with instruments several times - but never stayed even long enough for Jeff and me to get them to join in on "Grandmother's feather bed".

And thanks to Brian Bruce for letting me borrow one of his treasured Taylors for long enough for me to do one song in DAGDAD to save me re-tuning. I know that means I've arrived!

Subject: RE: Rochester Sweeps sessions Mayday Weekend
From: Dave Bryant
Date: 04 May 05 - 10:20 AM

Linda and I were at Gastove's session on Saturday night and although there was a PA, it was by no means compulsory and wasn't set too high. Linda, myslf, and the Gundolph's crowd didn't use it - the accoustics are quite good in that bar. While it was "spots" rather than a singaround, everybody who wanted to do one got on OK. Could have done with a few more people there though.

Subject: RE: Rochester Sweeps sessions Mayday Weekend
From: Dead Horse
Date: 05 May 05 - 05:01 AM

I migrated a bit between the singaround and the cajun/american night on Sunday. I was too knackered to dance and too tired to sing much, but listening was good. Apparently some evil persons took piccies of me asleep that afternoon in armchair outside the gents loo. I have refused to pay the ransom!

Subject: RE: Rochester Sweeps sessions Mayday Weekend
From: GUEST,Colin Reece
Date: 08 May 05 - 07:07 AM

To Richard Bridge. Do remind me (and hopefully embarrass me!)of the song I wrote with the puff puff chorus. I'd be delighted to pop in (and out) of the Eagle to sing it for you any time you like - If only I could remember writing it. Methinks one of us is allowing a little senility to creep in.

Subject: RE: Rochester Sweeps sessions Mayday Weekend
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 20 May 05 - 07:36 AM

Bloody Hell Colin.

All I remember is what I wrote. It was in 4/4 time, and the bar I remember had therefore 8 quavers in it. The first 6 quavers were on the same note, going "puff puff puff puff puff puff", and assuming that that note was an E, then "squelch" completed the bar on a G.

That is based on one hearing of that part of the song, as part of a rambling introduction of a different song, at the "Wish it Was a Brewery" club, when that club was upstairs in the big room at the King's Head, and I used to get there early specially to hear (the now late) Carey Roberts digging songs out of his humungous repertoire - I do wish I could remember his version of "the Shaking of the Sheets" (it's in the digitrad) properly. I reckon it could have been as early as '68, but it might have been as late as '71.

The song you were introducing was that other railway song you wrote, about the ?fireman/stoker? on a "Bloody Great Number 8".

Subject: RE: Rochester Sweeps sessions Mayday Weekend
From: Girl Friday
Date: 20 May 05 - 09:15 AM

Had a great time as usual. As ushame about the singaround in the Gordon. Great being near the beer festival but situation n b g ! Whgat with the through traffic to the toilets and the performance tent. The latter seems to be reserved for loud bands !

Oh, for the returnof your dedicated pub. The Eagle singarounds were magic !

Subject: RE: Rochester Sweeps sessions Mayday Weekend
From: GUEST,Colin Reece
Date: 20 May 05 - 02:11 PM

6 quavers on E with a crochet on G sounds like the chorus to 'I am the Music Man' to me. I'm still none the wiser, except that the other train song you refer to is 'The Turntable Song' by Dave Goulder, and I ain't not done that one for I dunno how long. And as for me giving a rambling introduction------- Me? What are you implying? With reference to your memory going back to listening to Dear Old Carey at The Brewery as early as '68 and maybe as late as '71, The Wish It Was A Brewery didn't open in the Kings Head til September '76 and I don't think Carey moved from London to the Medway Towns til a couple of years or so before that. Anyway enough of these attempts to reminisce they only serve to remind one of how dim the memories become the older one gets. As my old mum said to me when I was a boy ----------------------------------- Damn ---- Can't remember what she said now.

Subject: RE: Rochester Sweeps sessions Mayday Weekend
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 20 May 05 - 06:26 PM

Timing of Music Man is different - the notes on the E are at least syncopated, and perhaps some of them are dotted. And yes, on that occasion, it was a rambling introduction.

I'm not sure I can quite believe the dates you give though (which may well mean you are right). I was a pretty early member of Brewery (and still had the membership card until quite recently). I know I met Jacqui when I was in articles, which I think began in '74, and I'm sure I was going to the Brewery before that. I'm certain that the first few years I went to Cambridge the Brewery used to put a block of tents around the childrens playground and put up a sign above it that said "Main Stage 6", so it had started before that.

PS. If your dear old mum said she was a boy some memories are really getting dim...(BG)

Subject: RE: Rochester Sweeps sessions Mayday Weekend
From: GUEST
Date: 26 May 05 - 03:23 PM

Richard Bridge. Believe me I AM right. I founded the Brewery Folk Club with Bill & Jo Vincent, Eynon & Fran Price, Colin & Gill Sinclaire, Carey Roberts and Paul Carr, and I didn't move to Medway from London until September 1975, so your '74 memory is decidedly dodgy.

Subject: RE: Rochester Sweeps sessions Mayday Weekend
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 27 May 05 - 10:12 AM

Now now, no need (as I seem to remember a politician said) to get snippy. How could I possibly forget (and indeed I had not forgotten) Bill and Jo?

Can you put a date on when the Medway Singers' Club moved from Burham to the Old Ash Tree?

Subject: RE: Rochester Sweeps sessions Mayday Weekend
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 19 Aug 07 - 10:04 AM

I can now put an approximate date with evidence on the starting of "Wish it was a brewwery".

I hav open (and am about to throw away) October/November 1980s Kaasebook, South East Folk Diary. The advert in it for "Wish it was a Brewery" says "Fifth year"