The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #169898 Message #4173954
Posted By: GeoffLawes
06-Jun-23 - 11:04 AM
Thread Name: Any June Songs?
Subject: RE: Any June Songs?
MACK’REL UP THE WALL Now it’s fishing fever times People run with rod and line It’s out of May and into June There’s mack’rel up the wall A curious song about the annual mackerel run that used to occur in Plymouth, UK. It is part of local oral history that each summer large mackerel shoals arrived in the nearby coves. Someone would shout, “Mackerel up the wall”. Once the alarm was raised, all the townspeople would rush out of their houses and down to the water’s edge where whole families would fish for their supper. The supply was so plentiful, you were able to fish with just ‘sticks, string and old bent pins’ Lyrics on Singing Histories: Plymouth from EFDSS https://media.efdss.org/resourcebank/docs/EFDSS_Education_RecentProjects_SingingHistoriesPlymouth.pdf I tried to find a recording of the song on-line but had no luck. ??