Fleetwood & Fishing: Songs of the Trawling Trade

Subject: Fleetwood & Fishing: Songs of the Trawling Trade
From: Joe Offer
Date: 12 Apr 11 - 07:20 PM

This will be a PermaThread, edited by Ross Campbell. It will be interesting to see what he comes up with. Feel free to post to this thread, but remember that all messages are subject to editing or deletion.

-Joe Offer-

---

I know this won't be entirely about songs from Ron Baxter, but for now I'm going to crosslink it to the Ron Baxter threads. Here's the introduction from Ross, subject to editing:
Hi, Joe,

I've been meaning to ask about setting up another Permathread for some time. Ideal title:- 'Fleetwood & Fishing: Songs of the Trawling Trade'.

The initial purpose of the 'Fleetwood & Fishing Permathread' would be to represent the body of work that has arisen over the last thirty-odd years in Fleetwood (Lancashire, NW England), from the pens of Ron Baxter (Sailor Ron on Mudcat) and others, connected with the history of Fleetwood's fishing industry, the trawlers, trawlermen and all the supporting land-based trades and businesses that made the town what it was.

Ron's latest estimate is that he has written perhaps fifty songs just on this subject alone. As I keep finding items in forgotten computer files and re-discovering paper files containing things I don't even remember, the total could be far higher.

Ron's first effort was a song called "Lord Middleton", inspired by hearing of an old trawler being dismantled at the breaker's yard. Alan Bell added the tune and a verse, and performed the song with the Taverners for many years. For some time that was Ron's sole claim to song-writing fame. But in the early eighties, when he was running Fleetwood Folk Club, Ron came up with an idea to commemorate the then-disappearing distant-water fishing fleet. Borrowing some songs from the east coast fishing traditions and elsewhere, Ron added a script and a few songs, allocated them amongst the team of singers from the club and set up a fund-raising performance for the local Fleetwood lifeboat. The success of that small show fired up enthusiasm amongst the club members, drawing forth some amazing efforts. Further songs and poems came from Ron, Dick Gillingham and Dave Pearce, with the latter two calling on connections in Fleetwood's fishing community to produce a collection of slides which were used as a back-drop to a much-expanded show entitled "The Final Trawl", by this time featuring almost entirely locally-based material, songs, stories, poems and sketches. Presented in Fleetwood's North Euston Hotel as Fleetwood Folk Club's contribution to the town's series of Maritime England events in 1982, the show got a great reception, with many of the audience still having a direct connection to the events, ships and individuals described. During the couple of years when the club performed the show locally and further afield, the last distant-water trawler did indeed land its final catch at Fleetwood's Fish Dock.

Since then, Ron and a varying team of singers, story-tellers and musicians have presented many themed programmes based on the history of Fleetwood and the industry which once gave the town its character, always with fresh songs from Ron and the others.

Some of these shows were recorded, variously on reel-to-reel tape, cassette tape, video-tape, and latterly direct to computer hard-drive. The 'Final Trawl' was recorded for us by Dave Howard (BBC/Oldham Tinkers) in 1983. When the last cassette sold out, he kindly provided a CD master from the original tapes, re-mastered over two CDs (the show lasted 95 minutes) by the late Dave Ryan, so I still have CD-R copies available for sale. Other shows I still have to do some work on, and the state of the original recordings may mean some re-recording would be necessary before audio versions could be provided.

The range of material could later be extended to include Hull, Grimsby and other places with a similar history. I know many other songs that would fit well with the Fleetwood material. Many fishing families came to Fleetwood with the expansion of the industry from 1900 on, and there were always strong business and family links among the various fishing ports, and much shared experience.

Happy to have the Ron Baxter links, Joe. There will be more in the Merchant Navy Songs Permathread.

I can be contacted directly by PM on Mudcat or by email at rossjcampbell(at)excite.com

Ross

Subject: Lyr Add: LORD MIDDLETON (Baxter/Bell)
From: Ross Campbell
Date: 12 Apr 11 - 09:25 PM

LORD MIDDLETON
(Ron Baxter & Alan Bell)

She lies there in the old scrap-yard - two hundred tons of rust;
She's obsolete and out of date - be broken up she must.
But spare to her a kindly glance, if e'er you're passing by;
For over there in the old scrap-yard, the Lord Middleton must die.

For thirty years she caught the fish and roamed the Arctic seas;
She fought the winds and the terrible ice as she struggled to be free.
But ne'er again will the trawl come in - nor the gulls around her fly;
For over there in the old scrap-yard, the Lord Middleton must die.

She earned her fame in the war-time game of sweeping mines and death;
On the long patrols through the ice and snow, she never paused for breath;
She dodged the steel torpedoes and heard shells whistle by;
Now over there in the old scrap-yard, the Lord Middleton must die.

No more will she pass the Morecambe Light - no more will her siren sound;
No more will her engine pound the night - no more will she be outward bound;
No more will she wander the icy seas, nor her smokestack smear the sky;
For over there in the old scrap-yard, the Lord Middleton must die.


This was Ron's first song-writing attempt. Hearing about an old trawler about to go to the breaker's yard, Ron dug out a bit of its history and put together a few verses. Unable to fit a tune to what he had, he approached Alan Bell (who had already written a number of songs for the Taverners to cover a scarcity of local traditional material) to see if he had any suggestions. Alan added a verse, set a tune and went on to perform the song with the Taverners for many years.

I'm not sure of the date of composition, but it would have to be early '70s. I'll check with Ron and Alan.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMT_Lord_Middleton_%28FY219%29 attributes the song to Alan Bell, but Alan has always credited Ron Baxter as the originator.

The Bosun's Watch - ST Lord Middleton - FD67

Both sites give 1964 as the date the Lord Middleton was scrapped - perhaps the song had a very long gestation period!

Ross

Subject: RE: Fleetwood & Fishing: Songs of the Trawling Trade
From: Charley Noble
Date: 12 Apr 11 - 09:37 PM

A fine launching of this thread.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Fleetwood & Fishing: Songs of the Trawling Trade
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 13 Apr 11 - 04:40 AM

I once heard this sung in a a singaround in Somerset and when I asked the singer if he knew who wrote it, he said as far as he was concerned it was Traditional. I wonder, can some songs be traditional to some & not to others depending on who knows, or for that matter doesn't know, who wrote them? I think, perhaps, Ron might like the idea of people passing his songs off as Traditional...

Subject: RE: Fleetwood & Fishing: Songs of the Trawling Trade
From: Sailor Ron
Date: 13 Apr 11 - 10:38 AM

Lord Middleton was writen in 1967 on board the M.V. Clan Malcolm [my 2nd trip to sea]

Subject: RE: Fleetwood & Fishing: Songs of the Trawling Trade
From: Eric the Viking
Date: 13 Apr 11 - 02:14 PM

Ron. Did you know Albert Shorrock?

Subject: RE: Fleetwood & Fishing: Songs of the Trawling Trade
From: Sailor Ron
Date: 14 Apr 11 - 05:50 AM

Sorry Eric, can't bring him to mind. Was/is he a Fleetwood man?

Subject: RE: Fleetwood & Fishing: Songs of the Trawling Trade
From: Eric the Viking
Date: 16 Apr 11 - 12:40 PM

Yes. he was onshore wireless operator/technician for Wyre trawlers. A grand bloke who died just over a year ago.

Subject: RE: Fleetwood & Fishing: Songs of the Trawling Trade
From: Spleen Cringe
Date: 16 Apr 11 - 04:12 PM

Ross, if you're interested in putting some of the older recordings up at Lost Folk Tapes, PM me or email me at [e-mail]...

Subject: RE: Fleetwood & Fishing: Songs of the Trawling Trade
From: GUEST
Date: 24 Apr 11 - 09:56 AM

Please could you tell me if it's possible to obtain a copy of "The Final Trawl" I had it on audio tape but over the years it has been badly damaged

Subject: RE: Fleetwood & Fishing: Songs of the Trawling Trade
From: Ross Campbell
Date: 24 Apr 11 - 11:12 PM

GUEST, if you sign in to Mudcat (own name or alias, whatever you like as long as nobody else picked the same one!) I can send you a Personal Message (PM) via the PM clicky that you see against poster's names in the thread above, or you can PM me with your address details.

The answer to your question is "yes". I can supply a 2xCD-r version of the Final Trawl which contains the full 95-minute show as you had on the original cassette, or a single-CD-R version containing only the songs (just under 60 minutes).

We originally charged £10 for the double-CD version in a double-CD jewel case, which replaced the cassete version. I am currently asking £3 per CD-r, so £6 for the double-CD, £3 for the Final Trawl Songs. £1 for postage. My email address is rossjcampbell(at)excite.com
[replace (at) with @]

Through the good offices of Spleen Cringe at Lost Folk Tapes, it looks like I should be able to upload audio versions of songs as and when I post them here. I may need to look at other options when I run out of pre-recorded material, or the archive material isn't good enough to use.

Sorry for late reply, I just got back from the Easter Shanty Festival at the Ellesmere Port Boat Museum (a resounding success) - shantys a-plenty, but much, much more. Heard Hissyfit's beautiful arrangements for the first time, lovely songs from Hazel and Linda (whose song "The Luckiest Sailor" was posted on Mudcat almost ten years ago). Hope to include more of Linda Kelly's work here eventually.

Also put faces to the names of Dave and Julie Evardson, first time I've seen and heard them, though Dave's "North Wall" I have heard from various sources before. Again, their material meshes in perfectly with the Fleetwood experience, covering the shore-side trades as well as the trawlermen and I hope to include their songs here as well. A great week-end.

Ross

Subject: RE: Fleetwood & Fishing: Songs of the Trawling Trade
From: GUEST
Date: 25 Apr 11 - 11:17 AM

Really a huge pleasure to meet you and Ron, and a delight to realise that some of my favourite songs are your compositions!. Just let me know if you need further info as happy to oblige. Linda

Subject: RE: Fleetwood & Fishing: Songs of the Trawling Trade
From: Charley Noble
Date: 26 Apr 11 - 08:04 AM

refresh

Subject: RE: Fleetwood & Fishing: Songs of the Trawling Trade
From: Ross Campbell
Date: 27 Apr 11 - 02:03 PM

About time I added a song!

The opening song in "The Final Trawl" wasn't one of Ron's, but a traditional song from Sam Larner - "The Smacksman", sung by Dick Gillingham. There's a thread here:- "The Smacksman" with the words and a midi link, and a fourth verse from Chris Amos.

We picked this song to begin the show because smacks were the original means of getting away from the shore to where the fish were in abundance - out in Morecambe Bay or the Irish Sea waters off the Fylde Coast. There are variations of this type of boat all round the British Isles, from Bawleys in the Thames Estuary to Fifies on the east coast of Scotland. The local version is the Lancashire Nobby.

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traditional_fishing_boat :-
"Throughout history, local conditions have led to the development of a wide range of types of fishing boats. The Lancashire nobby was used down the north west coast of England as a shrimp trawler from 1840 until World War II. The bawley and the smack were used in the Thames Estuary and off East Anglia, while trawlers and drifters were use on the east coast. Herring fishing started in the Moray Firth in 1819. The Manx nobby was used as a herring drifter around the Isle of Man, and fifies were used as herring drifters along the east coast of Scotland from the 1850s until well into the 20th century."

From the intro to "The Lancashire Nobby" by Nick Miller (Amberley Publishing, 2009. ISBN 1848684908):-
"Telling the story of the once-ubiquitous Lancashire Nobby, a handsome sailing trawler that was once found in every harbour from West Wales to the West Coast of Scotland. This inshore boat worked as a shrimper in Morecambe bay working from the fishing ports of Barrow, Morcambe, Fleetwood and Heysham. It was also worked on the Lancashire coast and Liverpool bay, operating from Lytham St Annes, Southport and the port of Liverpool. The Nobby also worked from Rhyl and Colwyn Bay on the North Wales coast, through the Menai Strait and down into Cardigan Bay, operating as far South as Cardigan and Fishguard."

"Ploughboy" , built at Crossfield's yard in Arnside, is a typical Morecambe Bay Prawner, currently for sale and looking great. Follow the link (courtesy of the Wayback archive - the original page has disappeared) for a great story, pictures (sadly absent from the archive page) and a poem about her sister ship the Cock o' the North, lost on her maiden voyage.

Ross

Subject: Lyr Add: THE SMACKSMAN (from Sam Larner)
From: Ross Campbell
Date: 27 Apr 11 - 02:03 PM

The Smacksman         (Trad, from Sam Larner)

Once I was a schoolboy,
And I stayed at home with ease;
Now I am a smacksman, and plough the raging seas.
I thought I'd like sea-farin' life,
But very soon I found -
It wasn't all plain sailin' boys - when out on the fishing ground!

Chorus:-
        Coil away the trawl-warp , boys, let's heave on the trawl;
        When we get the fish all in, we'll have another haul;
        Straightway to the capstan - merrily heave her round -
        That's the cry in the middle of the night -
        "Haul the trawl, boys, haul!"

Every night in winter as regular as the clock
We put on our old sou'westers likewise our oilskin frock,
And straightway to the capstan and merrily spin away,
That's the cry in the middle of the night:
"Haul the trawl, boys, haul."

Now when we get our fish on board
We have them all to gut;
We put them all in baskets and down the ice-locker put.
We ice them down, we size them,
We ice them all quite well;
We ice them and keep them safely like an oyster in his shell.



As sung by Dick Gillingham and the chorus in "The Final Trawl", 1982.

And that fourth verse from Chris Amos, which he attributes to Tony Hall:-

When the eight weeks are over
Hard up the tiller goes
Off we set to Yarmouth Pier
With the big gear on her nose
When we get to Yarmouth Town
Those Lassies they'll all say
Here comes our gallent fishing lads
That's been so long away

If eight weeks seems a long time to be out in a small boat, in the North Sea fisheries it was considered more effective to keep on catching once the fish had been found. The catch would be transferred to other boats to be brought to market, the fishermen would only return to shore when they or the gear were worn out.

Ross

Subject: RE: Fleetwood & Fishing: Songs of the Trawling Trade
From: Ross Campbell
Date: 27 Apr 11 - 06:32 PM

As I plan to list the songs from "The Final Trawl" in the order that we used them in the show, the track-list from the CDs can act as an index for what's to come. The split across the two CDs was made at the half-time point in the live performance:-

CD One
The Smacksman (Trad.)
The Fleetwood Fireman (R. Baxter)*
Old Dinas (Coll. by M. Huntington)*
Bobby Nash's Song (Nash)*
Our Cook's Tater Pie (Coll. from R. Smith)
Don't Marry a Lumper (R. Baxter)
Best Stuff i' Lancashire (R. Gillingham)
Two o'clock Artillery (poem - R. Baxter)
Tell Me Skipper (Coll. Mike Waterson)
The Silent Walkabout (R. Baxter)*
Oh, Mr Thompson (R. Baxter)*
The Blue Flamingo (R.Baxter/R.Gillingham)

CD Two
Windy Old Weather (Trad)
Deckie Learner (Coll. R.Baxter/R.Gillingham)
Why Are You Crying, Mam? (R. Baxter)*
Lament for the Red Falcon (poem - R. Baxter)
Pull for the Shore (Moodey and Sankey Coll.)
Old Man Vic (R. Baxter)*
Lord Middleton (R. Baxter/A. Bell)
Up on the Chatsworth Estate (R. Baxter)
The Arctic Grounds (R. Baxter)*
Iceman and Lumper (R. Baxter/R. Campbell)
Three Day Millionaire (Mike Waterson)
My Brian (R. Baxter from an idea by Owen Hand)
Strike Boys, Strike (Trad. arr. Baxter)
Fighting the Cod War (D. Pearce)*
Flowers of the Sea (R. Baxter)*
The Trawlerman (poem - D. Pearce)

(* indicates that a traditional tune was used)

Ross

Subject: RE: Fleetwood & Fishing: Songs of the Trawling Trade
From: Charley Noble
Date: 27 Apr 11 - 10:22 PM

Ross-

Thanks for the preview and the notes.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Fleetwood & Fishing: Songs of the Trawling Trade
From: Joe Offer
Date: 28 Apr 11 - 01:31 AM

I listened to "The Final Trawl" on my weekly trip to Sacramento yesterday, and it made the trip a pleasure. It really gave me a feeling for the life of the fishing industry of Fleetwood.

It's a wonderful recording.

-Joe-

Subject: RE: Fleetwood & Fishing: Songs of the Trawling Trade
From: Ross Campbell
Date: 28 Apr 11 - 09:36 PM

Google Books has "The Gaff Rig Handbook: History, Design, Techniques, Developments" by John Leather. Page 202 (in case the link gets lost!) gets you to

Chapter Eighteen: The Fishing Boats of North West England which gives a good history of the shrimpers, prawners and early trawlers of Fleetwood and the surrounding area.

Ross

Subject: RE: Fleetwood & Fishing: Songs of the Trawling Trade
From: Ross Campbell
Date: 28 Apr 11 - 09:56 PM

Google Books also has "Working boats of Britain: their shape and purpose By Eric McKee" which looks at how different local conditions affect the shapes and usage of boats around the coast of Britain.

Ross

Subject: RE: Fleetwood & Fishing: Songs of the Trawling Trade
From: Spleen Cringe
Date: 08 Jun 11 - 04:49 PM

I've set up a page at Lost Folk Tapes to link into this thread, primarily to put up sound files (and in future possibly images) linking in with Ross's posts here. Subject to any editorial changes Ross may want to make, the text at LFT simply repeats what he's written on Mudcat. To start off, and linking in with Ross's post above, I've put up a sound file of Dick Gillingham singing The Smacksman, taken from the 1983 recording of The Final Trawl.

More to follow as Ross adds to this thread.

Subject: Lyr Add: THE FLEETWOOD FIREMAN (Ron Baxter)
From: Ross Campbell
Date: 09 Jun 11 - 02:00 PM

The Fleetwood Fireman                        
(Ron Baxter)

I am a Fleetwood fireman,
And I work on Hewitt's fleet;
I spend all my time way down below;
There I'm stoking up the fire,
To get the steam up higher,
For without me, the trawler will not go.
I'm stuck down in the stoke-hold,
With coal up to my knees,
Black with the dust from head to toe;
And I'm sweating out my soul,
Just shovelling tons of coal,
But without me the trawler will not go.

Oh the work it is so hard,
I've got muscles on my arms,
That would really make Charles Atlas proud, you know;
I've got coal dust in my blood,
And let it be understood
That without me, the trawler will not go.
And through my working life,
Well I've fired for many ships;
I've worked with Dinas, Sun and Cevic, Iago.
Down below their fires do roar,
From their funnels smoke does pour,
And without me the trawlers will not go.

But my time is running out,
For the rumours I have heard
Say that future trawlers will not run on coal;
Diesel oil is on the way,
And from what I've heard 'em say,
They won't need me to make the trawlers go!

Tune Traditional*

Sung by Ged Higson

RJC

From the era of steam trawlers - these vessels formed the bulk of Fleetwood's trawler fleet for about sixty years, from around 1890 to 1950. Here's a link to FLOAT (Fleetwood Library On-line Archive of Trawlers):-

http://float-trawlers.lancashire.gov.uk/index.php?a=fishingsteamtrawlers

* Been trying to think what that tune is - the nearest I can get is "Living on the Hallelujah Side" from Joseph Spence - but there's got to be a more familiar variant?

Subject: RE: Fleetwood & Fishing: Songs of the Trawling Trade
From: Ross Campbell
Date: 09 Jun 11 - 08:01 PM

Thanks to Nigel for making the Lost Folk Tapes website available for posting sound-links for the songs. Planning to add more this week-end. I could just do all the songs at once, but I'm hoping to add some back-ground info to each as I go along, so bear with me if it takes some time for everything to turn up.

Ross

Subject: Lyr Add: OLD DINAS + OLD FAITHFUL
From: Ross Campbell
Date: 10 Jun 11 - 08:05 AM

Old Dinas

Old Dinas,
We sail the seas together;
Old Dinas,
In any kind of weather;
When your trawling days are over,
And the crew are all in clover;
Through you, old faithful pal o' mine.

Hurry up, old fellow, for the cod sets in tonight;
Hurry up, old fellow, for the hake is there all right.
The Skipper's chasing the crew around;
Another good haul, and we're homeward bound -
Through you, old faithful pal o' mine.

This fragment was collected by Mike Huntington (who also sings the song in the Final Trawl) in the Strawberry Gardens pub, Poulton Road, Fleetwood (co-incidentally the new home of Fleetwood Folk Club); his tune follows his anonymous source's rendition. The original song on which Old Dinas is based is "Old Faithful Pal of Mine", a country song adopted as an anthem by supporters of the Hull rugby team. Mike's tune is slightly different from the original, which I later got from Jim Eldon on a rare visit to Fleetwood. "Old Faithful" cropped up in the introductory sequence to John Byrne's BBC TV series "Your Cheatin' Heart", so I'm assuming the song had a fairly wide popularity in the '50s/'60s. If I still have recordings of that, they'll be on Betamax and possibly out of reach.

Original version of "Old Faithful":-

OLD FAITHFUL (HORSE'S PRAYER)
(Michael Carr - Jimmy Kennedy)
« © '46 Shapiro-Bernestein Co, ASCAP »

Old faithful we rode the range together
Old faithful in every kind of weather
When your roundup days are over
There'll be pastures white with clover
For you old faithful pal of mine

Hurry up old fellow cause the moon is yellow tonight
Hurry up old fellow cause the moon is mellow and bright
There's a coyote howlin' to the moon above
So carry me back to the one I love
Hurry up old fellow cause we gotta get home tonight

Old faithful we rode the range together...
For you old faithful pal of mine

And the Carter Family version:-

OLE FAITHFUL

Ole Faithful, we've rode the range together
Ole Faithful, in every kind of weather
When the roundup days are over
There'll be pastures white with clover
For you, Ole Faithful, pal of mine


Hurry up, old fellow
    For the moon is yellow tonight
    Hurry up, old fellow
    For the moon is mellow and bright
    There the coyotes howl at the moon above
    Oh, carry me back to the one I love
    Hurry up, old fellow
    'Cause I got to get home tonight


Ole Faithful, we've rode the range together
Ole Faithful, in every kind of weather
When the roundup days are over
There'll be pastures white with clover
For you, Ole Faithful, pal of mine


And the Hull FC (Rugby League) anthem:-

Old Faithful

Old Faithful we roam the range together,
Old Faithful in any kind of weather,
When the round up days are over,
And the Boulevard's white with clover,
For you old faithful pal of mine.

Giddy up old fella cos the moon is yellow tonight,
Giddy up old fella cos the moon is mellow and bright,
There's a coyote crying at the moon above,
Carry me back to the one I love,
And you old faithful pal of mine.

(The Boulevard is the Rugby Club's ground)


Ross

Just (7th Jan 2013) found tapes of John Byrne's "Your Cheatin' Heart" (6 episodes on VHS) so may be able to recover the recorded version of "Old Faithful Pal o' Mine" eventually (no recorder hooked up at the moment).

Subject: RE: Fleetwood & Fishing: Songs of the Trawling Trade
From: Spleen Cringe
Date: 10 Jun 11 - 09:02 AM

Sound files for The Fleetwood Fireman and Old Dinas at the Fleetwood page of Lost Folk Tapes.

Ross - I'll keep an eye on the thread and add links as and when you put up new posts and I can grab a few spare minutes. You can decide whether to delete my posts and add the links to the relevant posts you've put up or leave them as they are. I have no opinion either way!

Subject: RE: Fleetwood & Fishing: Songs of the Trawling Trade
From: Ross Campbell
Date: 10 Jun 11 - 12:17 PM

Cheers, Nigel. Quite happy to leave things as they are for now. You did the work - you get the credit!
Ross

Subject: Lyr Add: SKIPPER BOBBY NASH'S SONG
From: Ross Campbell
Date: 10 Jun 11 - 10:28 PM

Skipper Bobby Nash's Song

Your Fleetwood skipper's a terrible man,
Gets a huge bag o' 'docks, then drops down to a "Dan".
And then he will tow till his deckies are through,
Then he'll put into dock and get a fresh crew.
When the fish are all gutted and put down below,
You can't go to a dance, you can't go to a show;
For your world is confined to a very small space,
And the fo'c'sle's your only amusement place.

When the miner goes home, and his day's work is done,
He can dress himself up and go out for some fun.
The same with the weaver, with his eight-hour day,
Still he grumbles and growls in his own tin-pot way.
And when for a drink to the galley you go,
The tea's all been supped by those buggers below!
And when to the fo'c'sle you go to turn in,
The lazy old fireman hasn't kept the fire in.

When into your bunk, wet and weary you roll,
Then the skipper sings out, "Now we're going to haul!"
You folks, snug on shore, don't know how hard life can be
For the good-natured deckies 'way out on the sea -
They're gutting and mending from morning till night,
While the dynamo sheds its flickering light;
But for all that they get there, they might as well be
Where the Mountains of Mourne sweep down to the sea.

Tune: The Mountains of Mourne (Carrigdhoun)

The lyrics are taken from the book "Red Charger, A Trip on an Arctic Trawler" by George Goldsmith Carter, Constable, 1950. The book describes a fishing trip to the Arctic Waters on a typical Fleetwood trawler, the "Red Charger" , then owned by the Iago Steam Trawler Company. The words are said to have been written into the trawler's log by Bobby Nash, skipper at the time. If indeed he wrote the words, they display a remarkable sympathy with the hard life of the deckies who worked under extremely arduous conditions and lived in very cramped quarters while on board.

bag o' 'docks - a catch of haddocks
Dan - dan buoy, a temporary marker buoy with a pole for a light or flag for visibility

Ross

Subject: Lyr Add: OUR COOK'S TATER PIE
From: Ross Campbell
Date: 11 Jun 11 - 10:10 PM

Our Cook's Tater Pie

'Twas the crust of our Cook's Tater Pie:
'Twas a crust that no deck-hand would try;
In a fit of hate, they gave it the mate
And he ate it all up in one try!
Well, now he's an angel on high
If he only had wings he could fly
Still, that's what he got
When he ate all the lot
Of the crust of our Cook's Tater Pie!

Collected from former deckhand Bob Smith, Fleetwood

Sung by Dick Gillingham

Subject: Lyr Add: DON'T MARRY A LUMPER (Ron Baxter)
From: Ross Campbell
Date: 11 Jun 11 - 10:27 PM

Don't Marry A Lumper                                
(Ron Baxter)

Don't marry a lumper, never a lumper wed;
For except when you're on your honeymoon,
He'll never take you to bed;
Just when you are ready, for kissing and cuddling so;
He'll put his clogs and oilskins on,
And down to the docks he'll go.

I married a lumper, at least he's not at sea;
Though he works all through the night,
At least his days are free;
But I forgot; he has to sleep, until I shout out "Joe!
It's time to put your oilskins on!" -
And down to the docks he'll go.

My Dad he was a lumper, my Mam gave me advice;
"Don't marry a lumper!" -
Not that my Dad weren't nice!
She said she hardly knew him, there was only me and our Flo;
They'd just have a kiss, on with his kit,
And down to the docks he'd go.

Sung by Liz Gillingham and Sue Bousfield to their tune.

The lumpers were Fleetwood Dock's casual labour force, called in at any hour of the day or night to unload a catch of fish from a newly arrived trawler, or to load a departing ship with fuel, ice and supplies for the trip.

Ross

Subject: Lyr Add: TWO O'CLOCK ARTILLERY (Ron Baxter)
From: Ross Campbell
Date: 11 Jun 11 - 10:46 PM

Two O'Clock Artillery                                
(Ron Baxter)

Two o'clock each morning, hear the cobbles ring;
Clog irons sparking in the dark, hear the voices sing;
"Morning, Harry - Morning, Joe", as they go down to the quay,
Hear the streets re-echo to the "Two O'Clock Artillery".

Two o'clock artillery, off to the docks once more;
Go down to that damn fish-hold, lump that fish ashore;
Frozen fingers, frozen toes, up to your knees in ice,
Oh, to be back home again, in bed 'longside the wife.

Two o'clock artillery, stinking with the fish,
Getting in your gear and hair, and in your heart you wish -
That Vernon's Pools would come, and set you up for life;
Then you could spend each night, in bed, 'longside the wife.

Spoken in the show by Charles Penfold, a thumb-nail sketch of the lumper's life.

Ross

Subject: Lyr Add: BEST STUFF I' LANCASHIRE (Gillingham)
From: Ross Campbell
Date: 12 Jun 11 - 04:41 PM

Best Stuff I' Lancashire                                
(Dick Gillingham)

It's eight o'clock in't morning, clogs on the cobbles ring,
As from the trams and buses down the Sidings Road they cling;
They chatter in the morning mist, last night's stories they all tell,
And there are no girls in Fleetwood like the girls from B.S.L.

Chorus:-
        In a world of ice and boxes, cheerful those girls appear;
        In aprons and their clattering clogs, As they toil and sweat to clear
        Your Fleetwood fish from B.S.L.; "Best Stuff I'Lancashire".

The fish comes from the market, from the boxes ice does spill;
There's haddock, coley, whiting, there's cod and hake and brill;
There's flat-fish, plaice and roker, there's halibut and skate,
And dogfish, called "rock salmon" in London's Billingsgate.

Their knives they flash like lightning, heads and tails they separate;
There's skin and bone and fish'eads, for gulls waiting at the gate;
Prime fish cut into fillets, into boxes packed with ice,
And the phone is always ringing, merchants asking for a price.

Chorus & tune

And lunchtime now it's over, all the girls the boxes shift,
There's nailing lids and labelling, from the benches fish they lift;
There's lorry engines running, and auto trucks as well,
All waiting for the Fleetwood fish that comes from B.S.L.

And now the trucks are loaded and the train does hiss and sway,
And the guard he blows his whistle and the driver pulls away;
Over t'junction, past the Loco, and on its way to Crewe,
To Nottingham and Norwich, to Swindon, Bristol, Looe.

And afternoon it's over, factory floors to sweep and swill;
There's hoses flowing over, kits and boxes standing still,
At B.S.L., near Ash Street, full nine hours they have passed;
And Harry Brown's clog ladies they can say "Goodnight" at last.

Tune & Chorus

Sung by Sue Bousfield and Liz Gillingham to their tune. Lancashire and Cheshire Clog Dancing Champion Sue Bousfield performs the clog dance in the middle.

One of Fleetwood's many fish processing companies, Brown, Sinclair and Laugharne used the company's initials to create a unique selling slogan, "Best Stuff in Lancashire". Many of the ladies wore clogs to work.

Ross

Subject: Lyr Add: TELL ME SKIPPER
From: Ross Campbell
Date: 12 Jun 11 - 04:45 PM

Tell Me Skipper
(Collected Mike Waterson, tune "Bye Bye Blackbird")

Tell me, Skipper - is it true?
You can't get a crew to sail with you?
Bye-Bye, Skipper!
And tell me Skipper, is it right,
You can't get a crew to sail tonight?
Bye-Bye, Skipper!

Or is it 'cause, when we're on deck a'workin',
You're in between your blankets, bloody shirkin'?
Well, I'll pack my bag, pack my grip;
You won't see me back here next trip;
Skipper, Bye-Bye!

Sung by Mike Huntington

During the 1950s conditions at sea as well as on shore continued to improve, but despite this, there was still friction between skippers and crewmen. Some skippers had such a reputation that they couldn't muster a crew, or if they did, the men signed off the log after just one trip.

Ross

Subject: Lyr Add: SILENT WALKABOUT (Ron Baxter)
From: Ross Campbell
Date: 12 Jun 11 - 04:56 PM

Silent Walkabout                                                
(Ron Baxter)
Tune: Traditional (Our Sarah's Geeten a Chap)


I signed off the "Broadway" - before I got the sack!
I told the ruddy Skipper I wasn't coming back.
Told him he was a bastard, a web-footed one as well -
An' before I'd sail wi' him again, I'd see him roast in hell.

Chorus:-
        Now it's "Any work today, Mister,
        Any work today?
        Don't give us the 'walkabout' -
        Any work today?"

Had a week or two ashore, till my money it had gone,
But when I went down for a ship, I found summat was wrong;
Found that I'd been given the "Silent Walkabout" -
No-one wanted to know me, they wouldn't hear me shout.

Went down to the Labour b'roo, to sign there, on the roll;
"Out of work? But you signed off! I'm sorry, but no dole!"
So I wandered down to Deaduns, to try and cadge a beer;
But the landlord turned and said to me, "Gerrout, no bumming here!"

After fourteen days of trying, then the word it went around;
My walkabout was over, and a berth for me was found -
On a rotten old coal-burner, built in 19-God-knows-when,
So I picked up my "donkey's breakfast", and went trawling once again;

        No more "Any work today, Mister,
        Any work today?
        Don't give us the walkabout,
        Any work today?"

Sung by Mike Huntington.

Fishermen could be punished for any manner of indiscretions by being banned from going to sea and thus prevented from earning a living for weeks on end. This was known as the "silent walkabout". If you fell out with one skipper, you fell out with them all!

Ross

Subject: Lyr Add: OH MR THOMPSON (Ron Baxter)
From: Ross Campbell
Date: 12 Jun 11 - 05:11 PM

Oh Mr Thompson                                        
(Ron Baxter)
Tune: Traditional

Please, Mr Thompson, Dad's home in the morn,
So mi Mam has sent me round to you, to get his suit from pawn;
She says she has no money, can you wait till he's back at sea?
And that if you want a pledge, instead of t'suit, keep me!

Please, Mr Thompson, here's mi Dad's gold watch;
Mi Mam was counting on mi Dad, but the fish he didn't catch.
The rent man he is coming, we're three weeks overdue;
Please, Mr Thompson, won't you give us a bob or two?

Please, Mr Thompson, can you help us out?
The housekeeping brass it is all gone, mi Mam's been on the stout;
The grocer and the coalman won't wait till next payday;
And if mi Dad finds out, well, there'll be hell to pay!

Please Mr Thompson, Dad's gone back to sea,
So Mam has sent his suit again, please give the brass to me;
He'll be back home in a fortnight, but the night before he's due in -
I'll be back with your brass, to get his suit for him.

Sung by Sue Bousfield

Fishermen's wives would get a weekly subvention (an advance on expected wages)from the trawler agents while their husbands were at sea. The pawnshop could also cover a gap in finances, but woe betide the wife if the best suit wasn't hanging up at home when the man of the house returned.

Ross

Subject: Lyr Add: BLUE FLAMINGO (Baxter/Gillingham)
From: Ross Campbell
Date: 12 Jun 11 - 05:59 PM

The Blue Flamingo                        
(Ron Baxter/Dick Gillingham)

Kicked out of the "Gas Tank"; banned from the "Bug",
Fleetwood Arms won't have him, nor any other pub;
Staggered down old Dock Street, one more place to go;
So I went into the place that's called the "Blue Flamingo!"

Chorus:-
        Watered beer and whisky; meths if that's your sup;        
        Fag-ash there it's two feet thick, it's never been swept up!
        VP Wine and Sandeman's, served by a bloke called Joe;
        He's the only sober fellow in the "Blue Flamingo!"

The atmosphere is lurid, with smoke and language too;
Some of the ladies' comments 'ud make your hair turn blue;
And if you try to speak to them, they tell you where to go!
(But that is not so bad a place as the "Blue Flamingo!")

Take a look at the women (if that's what they are!);
Tattoos on each hand and arm, and on their faces scars.
A mate of mine tried to pick one up, she gave him the old heave-ho -
She kicked him in the kneecaps in the "Blue Flamingo!"

All the fellas are ugly, always spoiling for a fight;
Not the sort you'd like to meet on a cold and rainy night!
They look at you, growl at you, their fists to you they show;
If my "DAD" don't get you, me "MAM" sure will,in the "Blue Flamingo!"

Sung by Dick Gillingham and Mike Huntington

The "Gas Tank" is the Gas Workers Club, one of many working men's clubs in the town which offered social and sporting opportunities, entertainment facilities and cheap drinking without the normal pub licensing restrictions. The difficulties of running such operations on a co-operative basis has meant that many have transferred to private hands. The "Bug" is the nickname of the "Prince Arthur" pub on Lord Sreet. Another trawlermen's pub which features in several of Ron Baxter's songs is the "Royal Oak" aka "Deadun's". The explanations of that particular alias are many and various. My friend John Warner of Sydney incorporated as many of these as I could remember for him into a song which I will try to track down and include later on. The "Fleetwood Arms" was known as "The First and Last" because of its proximity to the dock gates - after struggling along for the last few years, it finally closed its doors last year and is currently being converted for use as a dentist's practice and training centre. Many other favourite watering holes for trawlermen have disappeared over the years - the "Broadway", the "Cutty Sark", "Gullivers", the "Ship" and the "Victoria" - which claimed to be Fleetwood's oldest pub, although Ron insists in his sometimes role as pub quizmaster that the oldest licence was held by the Fleetwood Arms, transferred fom another Dock Street hostelry. The notorious "Blue Flamingo" club disappeared many years ago, but there are still a couple of places around that seem to be vying for its reputation!

"DAD" and "MAM" in the last line are the letters tattooed on the knuckles of the fists offered in the previous line.

When I moved to Fleetwood thirty years ago it was said that you could find a place to get a drink at almost any hour of the day or night. (Honest, that's not why I came here!)

Ross

Subject: RE: Fleetwood & Fishing: Songs of the Trawling Trade
From: Spleen Cringe
Date: 12 Jun 11 - 06:06 PM

Skipper Bobby Nash's Song

Our Cook's Tater Pie

Subject: RE: Fleetwood & Fishing: Songs of the Trawling Trade
From: Spleen Cringe
Date: 12 Jun 11 - 06:08 PM

Don't Marry A Lumper

Two O'Clock Artillery

Subject: RE: Fleetwood & Fishing: Songs of the Trawling Trade
From: Spleen Cringe
Date: 12 Jun 11 - 06:11 PM

Best Stuff I' Lancashire

Tell Me Skipper

Subject: RE: Fleetwood & Fishing: Songs of the Trawling Trade
From: Spleen Cringe
Date: 12 Jun 11 - 06:12 PM

Silent Walkabout

Oh Mr Thompson

Subject: RE: Fleetwood & Fishing: Songs of the Trawling Trade
From: Ross Campbell
Date: 12 Jun 11 - 07:02 PM

Thanks, Nigel - not keeping you up , I hope (it's midnight already!)

That was the first half of the show - more tomorrow.

Ross

Subject: RE: Fleetwood & Fishing: Songs of the Trawling Trade
From: Spleen Cringe
Date: 13 Jun 11 - 02:48 AM

The Blue Flamingo

Subject: RE: Fleetwood & Fishing: Songs of the Trawling Trade
From: Ross Campbell
Date: 15 Jun 11 - 10:36 PM

I promised to add more "tomorrow", but my primary laptop has developed possibly terminal problems. All the Final Trawl sound clips are already uploaded to the Lost Folk Tapes site. Lyrics I can recover from a backup drive, but it may take some time to organize that. Apologies in the meantime.

Ross

Subject: RE: Fleetwood & Fishing: Songs of the Trawling Trade
From: Charley Noble
Date: 16 Jun 11 - 08:20 AM

Ross-

You've been very busy!

Thanks so much for posting the lyrics to "The Blue Flamingo." I was having some difficulty, believe it or not, transcribing them.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: Lyr/Chords Add: THE SPECTRAL FISHING FLEET
From: Charley Noble
Date: 16 Jun 11 - 09:17 PM

Here's my own tribute to Fleetwood's derelict fishing fleet and their crews (copy and paste into WORD/TIMES/12 to line up chords):

Words and tune by Charlie Ipcar, © 10/21/10

THE SPECTRAL FISHING FLEET

Am---------------------------G----------Am
By the River Wyre, from years gone by,
---------------------------G
Fleetwood's boats left high an' dry;
Am------------------G---------Am
In the marshlands there they lie –
---------C-----G-------Am
They'll go to sea no more.
Dm--------------Am
Florentine and Our Jo-anne,
-----G---------------C--G-Am
Eu-reka, Clarain an' Ze-gan,
Dm--------------Am
Slowly sinking on the strand –
-----G----------------Am
We call the Tiger's Tail.

Chorus:

Am------------------------G----------Am
So here's to the lads of Fleetwood town,
-----------------------------G
Here's to their boats of high re-known;
------Am------------------G-------Am
Let's raise a glass for a-nother round,
-------C---------G-----Am
Drink to those glory days!


There they lie an' there they'll stay,
Rusting, rotting, by the Bay,
No one knows what they say
When the sun goes down.
The moon comes up, the sun goes down,
Do you hear a whispering sound?
Or just the tide as it swirls around
The spectral fishing fleet? (CHO)

Through rusted ribs an' planks awry
The windsong hums a lullaby;
Shadows dance beneath the sky –
In the pale moonlight.
The fleet's all in; there's naught to say
But yarn about their glory days,
When they sailed beyond the Bay –
In search of fishing grounds. (CHO)

From the Dogger Banks to Iceland's shore,
They sailed ten thousand miles or more;
They trawled along the ocean floor,
Brought home the silver darlings.
But now the fish they are so few,
There's no work left for boats to do;
They're all laid up, an' lost their crews –
They'll cross the bar no more. (CHO)

Reprise:

Dm--------------Am
Florentine and Our Jo-anne,
-----G---------------C--G-Am
Eu-reka, Clarain an' Ze-gan,
Dm--------------Am
Slowly sinking on the strand –
-----G----------------Am
We call the Tiger's Tail;
-----G----------------Am
We call the Tiger's Tail!

Here's a link to a MP3 sample of how I sing it: click here for MP3 sample!

Thanks again to Ross and Sean for taking me and Judy out to the marsh where the fleet lies abandoned.

Charley Noble

Subject: Lyr Add: WINDY OLD WEATHER
From: Ross Campbell
Date: 30 Sep 11 - 07:23 AM

Windy Old Weather
(Trad)

Then up gets the codfish with his great old head
He jumped on the foredeck to get a cast of lead.

Chorus:-
        Windy old weather, stormy old weather,
        When the wind blows, we'll all pull together.

Then up gets the gurnard with spines on his back;
He jumped on the poop deck to work on the jib deck.

Then up gets the herring the king of the sea;
He says to the Skipper, "Look out to your lee!"

Then up jumps the sprat he's the smallest of all,
He says to the Skipper, "Haul, haul the men's trawl."

Then up jumped the coley, as black as the coal,
He says, come on Skipper, "Ice me down below."

Sung by Dick Gillingham. Not sure where he got this version, it's different from the one in the DT (coll MacColl) and from Bob Robert's (Hapsborough Banks) version.

Subject: Lyr Add: DECKIE LEARNER
From: Ross Campbell
Date: 30 Sep 11 - 08:33 AM

Deckie Learner                                Anon/Ron Baxter

It was there 'neath the Bear Island Island
Where most of the fishing was done.
It was there that a poor deckie learner
Lay down and died under the sun.

They were twenty-one days out of Fleetwood
When the gilsun it gave such a crack;
The rope it did break and the strands they flew out,
And hit that poor lad 'cross the back.

O they lifted his head from the pound-boards,
With the blood from his wounds running red;
They lifted his head to the Skipper,
And these were the last words he said.

"Don't bury me out on the ocean,
Don't bury me out on the sea;
Just take me on ice back to Fleetwood
For all of me family to see".

"And when you get back to dear Fleetwood
And you're drinking your whisky and rum -
Remember the poor deckie learner
Who lay down and died under the sun."

So when they got back to dear Fleetwood
In "Deaduns" they all had a round.
They drank to that poor deckie learner
Who died on the Bear Island ground.

Yes when they got back home to Fleetwood,
In "Deaduns" they all had a "crack".
They drank to that poor deckie learner
Who sailed out but never came back.

Sung by Mike Huntington.

Collected by Ron Baxter and Dick Gillingham from a fisherman (name unknown) in the Strawberry Gardens pub, Poulton Road, Fleetwood.

Vicki Lewis sang a song at the Moorbrook (Preston) session about a year ago which had very similar roots to this song.

"I'll tell you a tale of Benghazi,
Where most of the fighting was done:
And where a poor British Tommy
Lay down and died under the sun."

She had the song from her father, who had heard it during WW2. There are equivalent songs featuring dying airmen, seamen and others, mostly with a similar structure. I thought I had added Vicki's song to the Benghazi thread, but it's not there and I can't find it in my files - possibly lost in my old laptop?

Subject: Lyr Add: WHY ARE YOU CRYING, MA'AM? (Ron Baxter)
From: Ross Campbell
Date: 01 Oct 11 - 10:05 AM

WHY ARE YOU CRYING, MA’AM?
Ron Baxter
Tune: Lord Derwentwater's Farewell

Why are you crying, Mam? That's a thing you never do.
I'll tell me Dad when he comes home, someone's been hurting you.
He's coming home for Christmas, he'll be here in an hour or two,
For Red Falcon will be landing in the morning.

He said he'd buy me a cowboy suit, and then on Boxing Day,
We'll take a tram to Bloomfield Road, to see Stan Matthews play;
Oh, please, Mam, do stop crying, for Dad's only hours away,
For Red Falcon will be landing in the morning

Why did the Mission man come round, with his face so sad and grim?
He's usually so cheerful, now what is wrong with him?
I'll have to ask my father in the morning when he's in,
For Red Falcon will be landing in the morning.

Mam! - Billy has just told me that she's lost with all her crew!
I told him he was lying, so I've run back home to you.
Oh, please Mam, please, Mam, tell me; tell me it isn't true,
And that Red Falcon will be landing in the morning.

His mother goes and embraces him, as they both share their pain;
She's lost her husband, him his Dad, all her comforts are in vain.
He's crying for his father, who he'll never see again,
For Red Falcon never landed in the morning.

Sung by Dick Gillingham

The story of the loss of the Red Falcon was always the most poignant part of "The Final Trawl" show. Even among the cast who had heard it many times before, Dick's rendition of this song never failed to draw an emotional response.

I was ten years old when the tragedy occurred, and living in Scotland, but I can still remember the newspaper coverage that followed, and the appeals that brought responses from all round the country.

More information here:- http://www.lifeinfleetwood.co.uk/2008/02/06/red-falcon/

And here:- http://www.fleetwood-trawlers.info/index.php/2009/01/st-red-falcon-lo4/

Ross

Subject: Lyr Add: LAMENT FOR THE RED FALCON (Ron Baxter)
From: Ross Campbell
Date: 01 Oct 11 - 10:17 AM

LAMENT FOR THE RED FALCON
Ron Baxter

You highlands and you islands
O why won't you say
That you saw my own Red Falcon
A-passing by your way?
For she was a-flying homeward,
Her young ones for to fill;
When in your cruel Minches
My Red Falcon you did kill.

O long will her young ones
From the shore go looking forth;
Ere they see my own Red Falcon,
Come flying from the North.

Oh you saw her and you heard her,
As she cried out as she died;
But you wouldn't even tell me
Where her broken body lies.
You wouldn't even tell me
Where she went beneath the waves;
So I can't cast my flowers
Upon Red Falcon's grave.

Performed as a poem in the show, read by Charles Penfold.
I believe Ron had the tune for "The Bonny Earl of Moray" in mind when he wrote this.

Ross

Subject: Lyr Add: PULL FOR THE SHORE / THE LIFEBOAT (Bliss)
From: Ross Campbell
Date: 01 Oct 11 - 10:54 AM

PULL FOR THE SHORE (THE LIFEBOAT)
P.P. Bliss

Light in the darkness, sailor, day is at hand!
See o'er the foaming billows fair Haven's land.
Drear was the voyage, sailor, now almost o'er;
Safe within the lifeboat, sailor, pull for the shore.

Chorus:-
        Pull for the shore, sailor, pull for the shore!
        Heed not the rolling waves, but bend to the oar;
        Safe in the lifeboat, sailor, cling to self no more;
        Leave the poor old stranded wreck and pull for the shore.

Trust in the life-boat, sailor; all else will fail.
Stronger the surges dash and fiercer the gale,
Heed not the stormy winds, though loudly they roar;
Watch the "bright and morning star," and pull for the shore.

Bright gleams the morning, sailor, uplift the eye;
Clouds and darkness disappearing, glory is nigh;
Safe in the lifeboat, sailor, sing evermore,
"Glory, glory, hallelujah!" Pull for the shore.

Sung by Liz Gillingham and the chorus. Used in the show to mark the importance of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) to all who go to sea, its origins are in the 19th century evangelical movement. "Moody and Sankey" evenings were still a feature of church life when I was growing up in Scotland fifty years ago. The lively tunes and rich metaphorical imagery were in sharp contrast to the usually sober material of the regular church hymnal, and this presumably accounted for their continued popularity.

It's not in the DT, but there's a Mudcat thread thread.cfm?threadid=10721 with the same lyrics listed by Joe Offer.

Ross

Subject: RE: Fleetwood & Fishing: Songs of the Trawling Trade
From: Charley Noble
Date: 01 Oct 11 - 12:34 PM

Ross-

Keep 'em coming.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: Lyr Add: OLD MAN VIC (Ron Baxter)
From: Ross Campbell
Date: 01 Oct 11 - 02:04 PM

OLD MAN VIC
Ron Baxter
Tune: Traditional

You can talk about your Bedfords, your Christies and your Gregsons,
Your Rawcliffes, Holmes and Spearpoints as well (and all their clan!)
They're all Skippers of the best, but the man who beat the rest
Was that Superman by name of Vic Buschini.

When the fishing it was bad, sir, and you hardly caught a bag, sir,
From North Cape to Greenland and beyond (right up the Pole!)
Who would get a load of cod? - well, you needn't ask, by God -
'Twas that Superman by name of Vic Buschini.

You could follow him around, across the Arctic grounds,
And shoot your gear a moment after him (I've got him now!)
But when it came to haul, you'd got an empty trawl;
Not like that Superman named Vic Buschini.

Now one Skipper did find out, one dark and stormy night;
How old Man Vic, he always got a catch (and double bags!)
For on every cod and hake was stencilled "Do Not Take! -
Reserved For That Superman Named Vic Buschini!"

And if you'd got a hold of fish, ready to be sold,
You'd find you had no market for your fish (Oh not again!)
But the bloke in yesterday, made thirteen grand, they say,
Yes, that Superman by name of Vic Buschini.

You can talk about your Bedfords, your Christies and your Gregsons,
Your Rawcliffes, Holmes and Spearpoints as well (and all their clan!)
They're all Skippers of the best, but the man who beat the rest
Was that Superman by name of Vic Buschini.
        Was that Superman by name of Vic Buschini.

Sung by Dick Gillingham and Mike Huntington

"Old Man Vic" Buschini (so called to distinguish him from successive descendants of the same name) founded a Fleetwood dynasty, some of whom still maintain the fishing connection. It wasn't meant to be that way. His parents on the Isle of Man planned a career in music for their son, a talented musician. Fleetwood presented alternative attractions, and Victor Buschini rapidly rose to become a skipper at a very young age. He gained and retained a high reputation in the town, consistently bringing home catches of fish when others were struggling.

Subject: RE: Fleetwood & Fishing: Songs of the Trawling Trade
From: Ross Campbell
Date: 01 Oct 11 - 02:27 PM

The next song in the show was "Lord Middleton", already listed above at 12 Apr 2011.

Sung by Ged Higson

The breaker's yard was the normal end for trawlers that had become obsolete, as successive improvements in design, engines, fishing techniques rendered old vessels too inefficient and expensive to run.

Some de-commissioned vessels weren't even worth scrapping. Fleetwood Marsh, just up-river from the Dock Channel which let ships enter the Wyre Dock from the River Wyre, is the graveyard for several ships that reached the end of their working lives just at the wrong time.

Some good pictures here, both wooden and steel vessels gradually decaying into the mud:-
http://www.fleetwood-fishing-industry.co.uk/fleetwood-wrecks/

We brought Charlie (Charley Noble) and Judy Ipcar down to the marsh when they visited Fleetwood last year. He was impressed enough by the atmospheric remains to produce a song in tribute - listed above.

Ross

Subject: Lyr Add: UP ON THE CHATSWORTH ESTATE (Ron Baxter)
From: Ross Campbell
Date: 02 Oct 11 - 02:51 PM

UP ON THE CHATSWORTH ESTATE
Ron Baxter
Tune: Traditional

When you leave school, what will you do?
When I leave school, I'll tell you true -
I'll marry a deckie and I'll have kids - (two!)
Up on the Chatsworth Estate!

When you get married, where will you live?
I'll live in a flat that the Council will give,
To me and my fella, my dog and my kids,
Up on the Chatsworth Estate!

When you're up there, who will you see?
My Mam and my Gran and my sisters three;
My brother and all of their families
Up on the Chatsworth Estate!

When your man's at sea, where will you go?
I'll go to Barney's and play Bingo
I'll go to the "Cutty" wi' our Sarah and Joe,
Up on the Chatsworth Estate!

If your man is lost, how will you live?
I'll survive for the sake of our kids -
I'll bring them up, just like our Mam did,
Up on the Chatsworth Estate!

Sung by Liz Gillingham and Sue Bousfield.

In the fifties and sixties, the local council built hundreds of houses, expanding the Fleetwood footprint by several times, and allowing families to move out of the cramped town centre, where often several generations had been forced to share a home.

Subject: Lyr Add: THE ARCTIC GROUNDS (Ron Baxter)
From: Ross Campbell
Date: 02 Oct 11 - 04:20 PM

THE ARCTIC GROUNDS
Ron Baxter
Tune: Traditional

She drove her bows feet under, saw her take it green;
Staggered, as that old "grey-beard" smashed through the wheel-house screen;
The helmsman knocked down to the ground, the wheel went spinning round -
We were lying on our beam-ends, out in the Arctic ground.

Chorus:-
        In that hellish Arctic ground, you freeze before you drown;
        No, my boy, don't ever go to the hellish Arctic ground.

Clawed her way back up again, flooded down below;
Half her gear lost overboard, wondered when she'd go.
Her bows they swung up to the moon - God, just feel her pound,
Swore that she would break in two, sink in the Arctic ground.

Her mast made circles round the stars, all covered with the spray;
If there is a God above, "Save us now!" we pray!
The wind has gone clean off the scale, roaring like a hound;
Saw the mizzen torn away, lost in the Arctic ground.

Home at last in Fleetwood town, landed in the dock;
Saw the owner come on board, he asked what fish we'd got.
Lord, you should have seen his face fall when it was found
That we had caught just nought at all, from the freezing Arctic ground.

Sung by Dick Gillingham and Ged Higson.

Fleetwood skippers fished many grounds all across the North Atlantic, from the Grand Banks of Newfoundland, all round the coast of Iceland, up the Norwegian coast and right into the White Sea north of Russia.

Subject: Lyr Add: ICEMEN AND LUMPERS (Ron Baxter)
From: Ross Campbell
Date: 02 Oct 11 - 04:31 PM

ICEMEN AND LUMPERS
Ron Baxter
Tune: Ross Campbell

There's icemen and lumpers, and smokers and all;
There's riggers and porters and makers of trawls;
There's drivers and painters and merchants on the quay;
Their living relies upon them on the sea.

There's boxmakers, winchmen - and Spencer's as well!
You know - Isaac Spencer's, that makes all the smell!
There's policemen and Customs, who always have to see -
What's stowed in the kitbags of them from the sea.

There's auctioneers and shipwrights and makers of sails;
There's owners and merchants, and old British Rail;
There's boilermen and "Cosalt" of Great Grimsby;
They all rely on work from the sea.

There's filleters and coalmen, and pilots and crew;
There's dredgemen and chandlers, and bums - not a few!
There's bookies and ladies - Oh! Where would they be?
Without all that money that's made from the sea?

Sung by Ross Campbell.

By the nineteen-twenties, the fishing industry in Fleetwood employed over 9,000 people. For every one that worked at sea, there would be two or three working on shore jobs, building, repairing and preparing ships for sea, processing and selling the fish, and transporting the end product to inland markets.

Subject: Lyr Add: THREE DAY MILLIONAIRE (Waterson/Baxter)
From: Ross Campbell
Date: 02 Oct 11 - 04:55 PM

THREE-DAY MILLIONAIRE
Mike Waterson
adapted Ron Baxter

Well I left school Friday, and I started work on Saturday;
To catch the early tide and be a galley boy's me plan.
On the fishing grounds to roam, eighteen hundred miles from home,
I couldn't give a bugger, I'm a man!

I shall get a Deckie Learning, it's the bonus I'll be earning,
And the money it comes in handy for the old "ran dan"!
Brylcreem in my hair, "Three Day Millionaire",
I couldn't give a bugger, I'm a man!

I shall get meself a suit made, to show I'm in the fishing trade,
I'll put me "Brothel creepers" on, and I'll slander when I can.
All me pots are pint-sized, watch me getting paralyzed
To show the other buggers who's a man!

And when I get to Skipper, I'll get married, have a nipper,
And I'll take the lad to sea wi' me and I'll teach him all I can;
Then you'll hear me crow, "I've got a house on Skipper's Row!"
And I'll show the bleedin' neighbours who's a man!

Then you'll hear me crow "I've got a house on Skipper's Row!"
And I'll show the bleedin' neighbours who's a man!

Sung by Dick Gillingham and Mike Huntington.

The late Mike Waterson graciously allowed us to adapt his song to give it a Fleetwood slant.

The sixties saw large sums of money being earned by very young men, some of whom could progress very rapidly from deckie-learner to skipper. Deckhands' minimal wages could be multiplied many times over by the "poundage" bonus which would be due if their ship brought back a good catch and found a favourable market. Top skippers' earnings would regularly exceed that of the Prime Minister or heads of industry.

Subject: Lyr Add: MY BRIAN (Ron Baxter)
From: Ross Campbell
Date: 02 Oct 11 - 05:11 PM

MY BRIAN
Ron Baxter
Tune: Owen Hand (My Donald)

My Brian he sails on the sea;
Where the wind blows so wild and so free.
He follows the fish wherever they roam;
Ten months in the year, he's never at home.

"No washing upon sailing day";
For if you do that you may wash him away.
You know that it's not really true,
But still you don't do it in case you may rue.

"Catch me and eat me but don't burn my bones".
Just think on this saying when he's out on the foam;
You're dreading the knock of the Mission man;
That look on his face tells you your man's gone.

You who gripe on the price of your fish;
Think you on the men who still fill up your dish;
Think you on the wives and children who wail
'Cause their man's not returning back home from the gale.

My Brian he sails on the sea;
Where the wind blows so wild and so free.
He follows the fish wherever they roam;
Ten months in the year, he's never at home.

Sung by Sue Bousfield

Ron's brother the late Brian Baxter worked on trawlers till a winch-block wrenched from the deck smashed his leg. He continued to go to sea, working on survey vessels for the rest of his career.

The song mentions a couple of the superstitions that were commonly observed in fishing communities around the country.

Subject: Lyr Add: STRIKE, BOYS, STRIKE
From: Ross Campbell
Date: 02 Oct 11 - 05:55 PM

STRIKE, BOYS, STRIKE
Trad, arranged Ron Baxter

Chorus:-
        Strike, boys, strike for better wages,
        Strike boys, strike for better pay;
        Keep on striking at the Docks,
        Keep your picket at the locks;
        Stick it out until the owners they give way!

In the Dock there is a strike
That the owners do not like;
The trawlers are all tied up at the quay.
They've beaten us before,
But they will not any more;
For now we are in the "T & G".

Chorus (repeated again after the sketch).

Sung by the chorus.

Dissatisfaction with poor pay and conditions led to a strike in 1974. Only a small improvement followed. With hindsight, many thought they should have held out for de-casualisation.

Subject: Lyr Add: FIGHTING THE COD WAR (Dave Pearce)
From: Ross Campbell
Date: 02 Oct 11 - 06:48 PM

FIGHTING THE COD WAR
Dave Pearce
Tune: Waltzing Matilda

Once a Fleetwood trawlerman set sail for Iceland,
Determined to catch some fish for our tea;
He didn't have a rifle, a tin hat or a bayonet,
He was fighting the Cod War for you and for me.

Chorus:-
        Fighting the Cod War, Fighting the Cod War,
        Who'll come a'fighting the Cod War with me?
        Against the gunboats, the Icelandic gunboats,
        Thumbing their noses at the Royal Navee!

Up came the Odin, racing like a thoroughbred
Across the trawler's bows, passing ever so near;
First it blared a warning, then Odin chopped their fishing gear,
Fled into the night, Skipper's curses in his ear.

In came the "Andrew", collision course and pink gin;
As the trawl warps snapped, lashing out from the sea;
No-one got killed, but that was just a lucky chance,
Who'd want to be fighting the Cod War with me?

Now the Fleetwood trawlerman doesn't go to Iceland;
He's drawing the dole and the U.A.B.
His ship's gone for scrap, and he'll never get another one,
He's the real loser, the Cod War casualty.

Sung by Dick Gillingham and Ged Higson

Iceland's gradual extension of its territorial waters first reduced and finally eliminated British fishing vessels' access to the fishing grounds around Iceland's continental shelf, many of which had been discovered and developed by Fleetwood trawlermen:-

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cod_Wars

Dave Pearce, then a journalist with the Fleetwood Chronicle, sailed with a Fleetwood trawler to Icelandic waters during the last Cod War episode.

The "Andrew" is a nickname for the Royal Navy.

A BBC Four documentary "The History of the Cod Wars" has some fascinating archive material. It can be found on YouTube, Part 1 (of 5) here:-

History of the Cod Wars Part 1 (YouTube)

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Subject: Lyr Add: FLOWERS OF THE SEA (Ron Baxter)
From: Ross Campbell
Date: 02 Oct 11 - 06:59 PM

FLOWERS OF THE SEA
Ron Baxter
Tune: Flowers o' the Forest

I've seen them sailing, with sirens a-wailing,
Down through the channel and out to the bay;
But now they're all rotting, on the Dockside propping,
The flowers of the seas now doomed to decay.

Hunting the fishes, from Iceland to the Minches;
North Cape to Greenland and out to Rockall.
They've fought in peace and war, all around the hostile shore;
Now they've been sold out and down they must fall.

I've seen men so full of pride, now with sadness in their eyes
Look to the sea, where they cannot go.
The Rose Garden's empty, where once there was plenty;
They've been defeated by friends and not foes.

In fog and in black ice, I have seen men fight for life;
I've seen men die in the wild, living gales.
But I've seen their sons sign on, following their fathers gone;
Now the boats they are tied up and can no longer sail.

Their life it has been sold, bartered for Brussels' gold,
While Frenchmen and Spaniards fish right to our shore.
Will no-one heed the pleading, for a life that lies a-bleeding?
The Flowers of the Sea will bloom never more.

Sung by Liz Gillingham, Sue Bousfield, Ged Higson and Ross Campbell

As more and more fishing grounds were closed, fishing limits extended and annual quotas imposed in British waters, many of Fleetwood's trawlers were sold or tied up and left to rot at the quayside.

Subject: Lyr Add: THE TRAWLERMAN (Dave Pearce)
From: Ross Campbell
Date: 02 Oct 11 - 07:12 PM

THE TRAWLERMAN
Dave Pearce

A galleon sailed across his arm, a bluebird said "Love - Mam";
A gold ring twinkled in his ear; he was a trawlerman.
All his life he'd been a hunter in the jungle of the sea;
But they tied his boat up to the wall and left him on the quay.

He was just a boy of 10 years old when first he sailed away;
With his grand-dad in a prawning boat to fish in Morecambe Bay.
And when the catch was landed to the prawn-house loft it went;
Where Fleetwood prawns were picked and cleaned, then throughout all England sent.

Time went by and he grew up, to follow the trawling trade;
Galley boy on an Iceland ship was the very first trip he made.
In the Arctic night and the raging sea, deep in his heart he knew
That the brotherhood of fishermen was his a lifetime through.

Living hard in the Trawler Town, he followed the fishing way;
Three weeks at sea, three days ashore and drinking half his pay.
His wife and kids they stayed at home, and the years went rolling on;
Till he grew old, the dock gates closed and THE FINAL TRAWL had come.

Spoken by Charles Penfold.

I have put a tune to this. We used it as a song "Trawlertown" in a show we did about ten years ago, "It All Comes Out of the Cod End".

Subject: RE: Fleetwood & Fishing: Songs of the Trawling Trade
From: Ross Campbell
Date: 03 Oct 11 - 10:27 AM

That concludes the material from "The Final Trawl".

All the songs (and poems) should eventually be available to listen to online or download.

I can still provide a 2xCD-R version of the complete show with Ron Baxter's artwork and Dick Gillingham's original notes from the cassette issue, and additional notes from 2001 (CD issue). PM me for details.

I have a few more cassettes to digitise before I can make more sound-files available, but I may be able to scratch up some more lyrics fairly soon.

Ross

Correction - the artwork (trawler silhouette) was by Dick Gillingham, originally for the poster used to advertise performances of "The Final Trawl".

Subject: RE: Fleetwood & Fishing: Songs of the Trawling Trade
From: GUEST,SAILORON
Date: 04 Oct 11 - 09:13 AM

With reference to 'Deckie Learner' aka 'Bear Island island' I was singing it one night in a session in the Fleetwood Arms when after the verse "...take me back home to Fleetwood For all of my family to see", an extreamly drunken man interupted the flow by singing...

"But they didn't take him to Fleetwood
T'Skipper dumped him o'er the wall
And said ' you lot get working
We've still time for another haul"

- which put the mockers on the rest of the song!

Subject: RE: Fleetwood & Fishing: Songs of the Trawling Trade
From: Spleen Cringe
Date: 04 Oct 11 - 10:18 AM

The sound files will be up at Ross's page at Lost Folk Tapes shortly. Will post again when they are done...

Subject: RE: Fleetwood & Fishing: Songs of the Trawling Trade
From: Charley Noble
Date: 04 Oct 11 - 12:00 PM

Ron-

Got to love that gallows humor!

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Fleetwood & Fishing: Songs of the Trawling Trade
From: Ross Campbell
Date: 04 Oct 11 - 12:52 PM

I mentioned that the trawler's crew were regarded as casual labour. Even though many men worked for the same firms year in, year out and had good relations with their employers, there was no entitlement to sick pay, holiday pay, unemployment benefit, redundancy pay or any of the other benefits that come with a permanent position.

This went all the way up to the skipper, who could be dropped quick-style if he returned with only a light catch, or hit the market too late with a ship-full of fish that then had to be dumped at rock-bottom prices for fish-meal processing or cat-food. There were always more skippers than ships, and trawler-owners were happy to take advantage of the situation.

De-commissioning grants paid owners to take ships out of fishiong as over-capacity became a problem, but there was no corresponding aid for the hundreds of men thrown out of work. It took years of campaigning before such payments became available, but even then claimants had to go through hoops to prove they had worked distant-water twenty-five or thirty years before, with firms that had disappeared long ago. Often payments came too late for the men involved, and were regarded as small recompense by their surviving families.

Ross

Subject: RE: Fleetwood & Fishing: Songs of the Trawling Trade
From: Spleen Cringe
Date: 04 Oct 11 - 01:00 PM

Windy Old Weather

Deckie Learner

Subject: RE: Fleetwood & Fishing: Songs of the Trawling Trade
From: Spleen Cringe
Date: 04 Oct 11 - 01:01 PM

Why are you Crying, Mam?

Lament For The Red Falcon

More to follow after tea...

Subject: RE: Fleetwood & Fishing: Songs of the Trawling Trade
From: Ross Campbell
Date: 04 Oct 11 - 04:20 PM

Thanks, Nigel.

Ross

Subject: RE: Fleetwood & Fishing: Songs of the Trawling Trade
From: GUEST,sailor ron
Date: 05 Oct 11 - 06:10 AM

Re: Ross's post about the treatment trawler hands [and skippers] got from the owners. My late brother Brian [see 'My Brian'] started as a 'brassie' at the age of 15 in 1959, and worked as a 'deckie' until the deep sea trawling trade collapsed. For 18 of those years he worked continually for 'Marrs' yet was still called 'casual labour'.
He did in late 2009 get a small amout of 'redundancy payment'. He died on new years eve 2010.

Subject: RE: Fleetwood & Fishing: Songs of the Trawling Trade
From: Ross Campbell
Date: 07 Jan 13 - 09:50 AM

Re "Old Dinas":-

Just (7th Jan 2013) found tapes of John Byrne's "Your Cheatin' Heart" (6 episodes on VHS) so may be able to recover the recorded version of "Old Faithful Pal o' Mine" eventually (no recorder hooked up at the moment).

Ross

Subject: RE: Fleetwood & Fishing: Songs of the Trawling Trade
From: Musket
Date: 07 Jan 13 - 12:05 PM

I'm rather fascinated by this thread.

Just across the Wyre is Knott End and about 12 years ago, I had a girlfriend who lived there and through her I was asked to appear at a charity concert at Knott End WMC. I was asked for a few folk songs as paert of my act (mostly comedy for a mixed audience) and I did MacColl's "North Sea Holes." A local singer lamented in the bar that there didn't seem to be any Fleetwood based songs around to learn! Considering he was a regular in The Bourne Arms, about 300 yds from Fleetwood docks....

Subject: RE: Fleetwood & Fishing: Songs of the Trawling Trade
From: Ross Campbell
Date: 07 Jan 13 - 03:23 PM

In the days when the Knott End Ferry was actually part of the local transport infrastructure rather than an added-on extra mainly to encourage tourism, it would have been common for workers to travel from the Knott-End side to work in the dockside businesses. Alas this regular service disappeared many years ago, and for some of that time the journey between the two involved a lengthy bus journey, or queuing to pay the toll at Shard Bridge, the lowest road crossing of the River Wyre. The bridge is now toll-free, but the bus-trip remains an hour long as against the five-minute trip on the ferry.

I am never surprised to hear that some people just don't know what's going on around their community. Fylde Folk Festival has been taking place in Fleetwood for forty years, for longer than that Fleetwood Folk Club has had an on-going weekly presence in various pubs around the town. Despite their well-publicised activities and links with charitable activities such as the local RNLI and the Heritage Trawler "Jacinta" and many other local events, there will still be many people in the town completely unaware of any of these events, still less of the traditional and locally-written material I have recorded in this thread.

Our show "It All Comes Out of the Cod End" would have been in performance around the time of your Knott End visit, Musket (2000?) and a CD-R of the songs is still available - some overlap with the Final Trawl show, but a few excellent additions from shows that we did in the intervening years. Must be time I got back to continuing this thread!

Musket, I don't suppose you can remember the name of the "local singer" you met in the Bourne Arms?
Psst! Wanna buy a pub?
http://www.christie.com/en/property/bourne_arms_fleetwood_for_sale_41749

Ross

Subject: RE: Fleetwood & Fishing: Songs of the Trawling Trade
From: Ross Campbell
Date: 12 Apr 17 - 12:05 PM

Just delivered a new batch of "The FINAL TRAWL" 2-CDr set to Fleetwood Museum in time for Easter weekend re-opening.

Charge of the Museum and its contents are in the process of being transferred from Lancashire County Council to Fleetwood Museum Trust.

The Museum's former online presence in the form of "Netting the Bay" and the "FLeetwood Online Archive of Trawlers" are no longer accessible. The latter collection of photographs and data, much of it set up for Fleetwood Museum by the late Dave Ryan (onetime organiser of Fleetwood Fok Club along with Mike France) has been subsumed into LCC's Red Rose Collection, accessible by the following link:-

https://redrosecollections.lancashire.gov.uk/show-all?t=9&WINID=1492011328684

Ross

Subject: RE: Fleetwood & Fishing: Songs of the Trawling Trade
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 12 Apr 17 - 03:32 PM

Ross and Ron,
Excellent thread. Just read it through and there are many parallels with what we are doing in Hull regarding the trawling industry and its songs. We, Spare Hands, have many of Linda's songs in our repertoire and of course Mike's as well as many we have written ourselves, mostly to trad tunes like yours.

Particularly interested in your local version of what we call 'Bury me up at Cape Kanin'. Do your versions go to the more common 'Red River Valley' tune, or the original 1930s 'Bury me not on the Prairie'? I have versions to both tunes. Whilst I was familiar with lots of wartime forces versions we only just came across our trawlerman version painted on the walls of one of our dock offices.

We're just about to record our third album, this time waterways songs of the Humber area.

Subject: RE: Fleetwood & Fishing: Songs of the Trawling Trade
From: Ross Campbell
Date: 12 Apr 17 - 06:29 PM

I presume you mean "Deckie Learner", or "The Bear Island Grounds". I'd guess the tune is a variant of the "Red River Valley" tune, but maybe derived from one or more of the military parodies ("Dying Aviator", "Tale of Benghazi"). I still haven't recovered the words of "Benghazi" that I got from Vicki Lewis who got them from her father (see thread.cfm?threadid=143927 )

Ewen MacColl's "Gresford Disaster" starts off similar but wanders off on the last two lines of each verse.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJhmuUnsXWI

I have just recently reached the point where I can print on CDrs, so I produced a batch for Fleetwood Museum. Please PM me your address and I'll send you a copy.

I always intended to expand this thread beyond the basic Final Trawl content. Over the years we have probably generated about twice as much again in terms of poems and song lyrics, and now that I have got the re-issue of the Final Trawl in progress, I hope to review the other recorded material we have, to see how much is listenable. Apropos of that, I am aware that all the sound-links once provided by Nigel Spencer's LostFolkTapes site are long gone, and i will look at putting material up on SoundCloud or YouTube eventually.

Ross

Subject: RE: Fleetwood & Fishing: Songs of the Trawling Trade
From: mg
Date: 13 Apr 17 - 01:09 PM

ross..i am going to send you a pm regarding our almost done cd that is a tribute to codfishers around the world...

Subject: RE: Fleetwood & Fishing: Songs of the Trawling Trade
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 27 Apr 17 - 05:40 PM

What a wonderful project, some fine songwriting, fine playing and singing! Many many thanks to Fleetwood Folk Club and all involved.

Subject: RE: Fleetwood & Fishing: Songs of the Trawling Trade
From: Ross Campbell
Date: 15 Sep 17 - 02:40 PM

As part of what used to be Fylde Folk Festival, we always used to put on events of a maritime interest in the Fleetwood Museum.
Dick Gillingham who was one of the original "Final Trawl" crew and is now one of the team of volunteers running the Museum continues the tradition by running themed events in the Museum on the weekend of the festival's successor, the Fleetwood Folk and Blues Festival.
This year we presented three events to mark the re-issue of the "Final Trawl" CDs. Dave Pearce and Dick Gillingham gave their "Fish'n'Ships" programme,an excellent selection of slides accompanied by an entertaining mix of narrative, songs and poems. Ron Baxter and Ross Campbell followed with songs and stories from the "Final Trawl" and beyond. Scolds Bridle (Sue Bousfield and Liz Moore) presented their show "We Are the Women Left on the Shore".
All three shows were rewarded by full rooms of enthusiastic audiences, and all the CD packs I had prepared disappeared, ensuring that I will be able to keep producing further batches!
Ross

Subject: RE: Fleetwood & Fishing: Songs of the Trawling Trade
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 15 Sep 17 - 02:46 PM

Great news, Ross. We also run free concerts in our Maritime Museum here in Hull. Next one 14th Oct. Our latest album 'A Dead Bod, Songs of the Humber Waterways' is selling really well.

Subject: RE: Fleetwood & Fishing: Songs of the Trawling Trade
From: sciencegeek
Date: 16 Sep 17 - 06:58 PM

wonderful work you are doing... depending on funding for a trip across the pond, have you considered doing a symposium piece for the Mystic seaport Sea Music Festival held the second weekend of June... gigs around the area would help defray the expense... check with Tom Lewis or Brian Peters since they have performed there.

Subject: RE: Fleetwood & Fishing: Songs of the Trawling Trade
From: GUEST,Hayley
Date: 15 Oct 19 - 06:48 PM

Hi, I’ve just found this site! I know your post was 8 years ago, but do you still have copies of The Last Trawl? I heard Kinbers Men singing (I think) a Ron Baxter song, would love to hear this collection. My email is [e-mail]
Thank you for a very interesting read!
Best wishes, Hayley

Subject: RE: Fleetwood & Fishing: Songs of the Trawling Trade
From: GUEST,Nick Dow
Date: 31 May 23 - 07:26 PM

Ron recently lost his wife and is devastated. I haven't seen him for a couple of years but I will be in Fleetwood soon, and hopefully see him around. Apart from his written work, Ron is an excellent pen and ink artist. I remember he took a mere three days to copy a photograph in pen and ink for the cover of a recording. Sheer God-given talent.

Subject: RE: Fleetwood & Fishing: Songs of the Trawling Trade
From: GUEST
Date: 03 Jun 23 - 07:16 AM

Hi there,


This might be a long shot, but I'm looking for a double CD for a very good friend of mine. He has these CDs for years, but it stopped playing, probably it comes with the age of the disks. The title is 'The final Trawl - 'Live in Fleetwood'. It's in a yellow CD cover with a fishing bot on it.

If anyone could point me to the right direction where to buy the CDs or download it, that would be very much appreciated.

I'm not sure this site would send me any notifications when I get a reply, so please send me an email if you could help. My email is: [e-mail]


Many thanks,
Tamas

Subject: RE: Fleetwood & Fishing: Songs of the Trawling Trade
From: sciencegeek
Date: 07 Jun 23 - 07:35 PM

I have the same issue and Ross Campbell is working on replacing mine... I contact him through facebook

Subject: RE: Fleetwood & Fishing: Songs of the Trawling Trade
From: Ross Campbell
Date: 27 Jun 23 - 09:25 PM

Sorry for delay in responding. I made some copies of the Final Trawl CDs late last year but was not happy with how they turned out. I have also been unable to access my CD printer which prints direct to the CD surface. Work in progress, but I am down for hip replacement shortly so may not be able to get back to the project for some time.
The original CDrs from 2000 may well have succumbed to CD-rot. The type I am using now are supposed to be (!) medical archive quality, so should last longer (100 years claimed!)
I took the opportunity last year to back up the computer that holds the Final Trawl and various Red Duster projects to several separate hard drives (they also are subject to decay, drop-out and degradation - the machine itself is twenty-three years old but so far still working).
Could do with a volunteer (several decades younger) to take this material on for the future.

Ross

Subject: RE: Fleetwood & Fishing: Songs of the Trawling Trade
From: GUEST,Tamas
Date: 06 Jul 23 - 12:47 PM

Hi Ross,


Many thanks for your answer. I'd advise to upload the material to a private cloud. This way, you don't have to maintain it, it won't rot or get faulty and can be access anywhere you want to. This is just a suggestion.

I'm still looking for the CD as I haven't found it for my neighbour. The CD doesn't have to be perfectly printed or anything like this. If the CD player can play it, that's would be just perfect. Just tell me how to pay for it! :D (postage to Falkirk, Scotland, if that matters)

Is there any other communication form apart from this blog chat as it doesn't send me any notification when there's a new message.

All the best for your hip replacement!


Many thanks!
Tamas

Subject: RE: Fleetwood & Fishing: Songs of the Trawling Trade
From: sciencegeek
Date: 10 Jul 23 - 11:16 AM

looking forward to progress in getting the music preserved and accessible ... all the best and hope the facebook clone issue is resolved

Subject: RE: Fleetwood & Fishing: Songs of the Trawling Trade
From: Charley Noble
Date: 10 Jul 23 - 08:41 PM

Ross,

Thanks for the music updates and good luck with your hip replacement.

Are there still singing sessions in Fleetwood?

Cheerily,
Charlie Ipcar

Subject: RE: Fleetwood & Fishing: Songs of the Trawling Trade
From: GUEST,Tamas
Date: 04 Sep 23 - 12:26 PM

Hi Ross,


How was your hip replacement? I hope all is OK.
I'd like to ask if there's any update on the CD I enquired about about.
Also, if anyone has a spare one, please let me know.

I've seen someone mentioned Facebook. Is there a way to keep contact on Facebook? It would be much more convenient.


Many tanks,
Tamas

Subject: RE: Fleetwood & Fishing: Songs of the Trawling Trade
From: GUEST,Tamas
Date: 04 Sep 23 - 12:26 PM

Hi Ross,


How was your hip replacement? I hope all is OK.
I'd like to ask if there's any update on the CD I enquired about about.
Also, if anyone has a spare one, please let me know.

I've seen someone mentioned Facebook. Is there a way to keep contact on Facebook? It would be much more convenient.


Many tanks,
Tamas