Will Noble used to tell (humourously) of what happened in the Holme Valley when someone died - there'd be a rush to the pub so that singers could be the first to sing a song of the deceased and thus stake their claim on it.

(And I remember Dave Webber telling me that in one of his very early gigs members of the morris side got up one by one and each did one of his songs before he went on! But that was deliberate, so probably doesn't count in terms of this thread).

Mick