G'day Ickle Dorritt (et al),

The tune of Ring the Bell Watchman remained popular as a dance tune in Australia long after the American original became irrelevant in Amaerica, after the end of the Civil War. It was parodied around the 1880s for a song about shearing Click go the Shears and that has remained very popular and "typically Australian", and so has been used often in this sort of extravaganza.

Of course, to Australian folk performers, it becomes #1 'potboiler' - avoided at all costs ... but played for the tourists ... even a hundred thousand of them at the Olympic Stadium!

Regards,

Bob Bolton