Lyr ADD: Rawtenstall Annual Fair

Subject: Rawtenstall annual fayre
From: GUEST,Peter The Pan
Date: 14 Oct 00 - 03:30 AM

The lyrics for this song are said to be in the lists, but guess what. They've beggered off. Anyone out there who could provide them for me please. It's a song i used to merrily join in with back in the good old days, and I'd love to sing it again.

Cheers

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Rawtenstall annual fayre
From: Zebedee
Date: 14 Oct 00 - 06:32 AM

The lyrics are still in the DT. Try clicking here

Subject: Lyr Add: RAWTENSTALL ANNUAL FAIR
From: Bernard
Date: 14 Oct 00 - 10:22 AM

The 'popular' version isn't complete - the first verse should read:
Down behind the gas works, down in Rawtenstall
Yon's a little town in Lancashire
Last Sat'day neet, me and t'lads
Went to Rawtenstall Annual Fair
There were ice cream, switchbacks
Coconuts and waxworks
Figure eights and roundabouts
There were tripe and onions, fish and chips as well
We jumped on a roundabout and sang like merry 'ell
And if you'll listen for a while the story I will tell
Of the Rawtenstall Annual Fair...

I'm not sure, but I think Lee Nicholson's version (recorded on Topic's 'Deep Lancashire') became the 'standard' simply because it was the first to become popular. I've no idea why it was incomplete, though... maybe someone knows the truth?!!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Rawtenstall annual fayre
From: Martin Graebe
Date: 15 Oct 00 - 09:33 AM

This is another song from the remarkable duo RP Weston and Bert Lee, writers of some wonderful music hall/variety material in the early part of the last century. It's included in Roy Palmer's book 'A Ballad History of England' where you can find the dots. The song was probably published originally by Francis, Day and Hunter since they put out most of Weston and Lee's stuff

Subject: Lyr Add: RAWTENSTALL ANNUAL FAIR
From: Zebedee
Date: 15 Oct 00 - 09:49 AM

Mike Harding's book: Folk Songs of Lancashire, includes a further additional verse:

Roll up! Roll up! See the bearded lady
See the lovely lady dressed in nothin' but her beard
In went the lads and, ee but she were bold
'Cos she'd nothin' but her whiskers on
To keep her from the cold
Well little Ben Brown he bent down
And he tied the lasses' whiskers to the chair
Then he shouted FIRE FIRE!!!
Just to give the lass a scare
She buggered off and left her whiskers hangin' there
And eee! she did look champion when she lost all her hair!
At the Rawtenstall Annual Fair

Harding also notes that the song was recorded "on an old 78 by Randolph Sutton."

Zeb

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Rawtenstall annual fayre
From: Bernard
Date: 15 Oct 00 - 12:57 PM

Phew! I'm just back from the Mudcat UK Gathering (Llanstock)!

Mike had a habit of adding verses to songs, didn't he?! The Oldham Tinkers originally had only two verses when they first recorded 'A Mon Like Thee' (also on Deep Lancashire), and Mike added a third verse about St. Peter and the Pearly Gates.

He also added an extra verse to Marriott Edgar's Three ha'pence a foot:

'Nay lad, th'art wrong,' answered Noah
'There's more to come, I'll be bound
Come on, lad, sell us thi' maple!'
'Bugger off!' answered Sam, and drowned!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Rawtenstall annual fayre
From: Zebedee
Date: 15 Oct 00 - 01:04 PM

Bernard,

Are you saying that Mike Harding wrote the 'additional' verse I quoted?

Zeb

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Rawtenstall annual fayre
From: Bernard
Date: 15 Oct 00 - 01:27 PM

In a word, yes!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Rawtenstall annual fayre
From: Zebedee
Date: 15 Oct 00 - 01:53 PM

Bernard,

I believe you. I will however read my copy of 'Folksongs of Lancashire' somewhat differently now...

Wherever alternative or additional verses turn up, I shall read 'I, Mike Harding, made this up.'

Sad to do that.

Zeb

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Rawtenstall annual fayre
From: Bernard
Date: 15 Oct 00 - 02:06 PM

I'm not sure which, exactly, but I also know that some of Mike's early material was really written for him by Ted Edwards... I may be wrong, but I think 'Napoleon's Retreat from Wigan' was one...

Anyone know the facts? Ted, are you out there? I know you've been very poorly - there were even rumours of your demise, which proved (thankfully) to be inaccurate...

Subject: Lyr Add: AT RAWTENSTALL FAIR (Weston & Lee)
From: GUEST
Date: 01 Feb 06 - 08:15 AM

I've just recorded the Randolph Sutton version on my new CD "Travelling Tales". I was going to do the "popular" version but found that Bernard Wrigley had just done it on his new CD - "God's Own County" so I had a look on th' internet for Randolph Sutton's version and found a website that puts old 78's onto CD after a bit of a clean up - Randolph Sutton has a CD of his own including a song called - "At Rawtestall Fair" The tune is different and so are the words but it's the same song. There is also a song by Weston and Lee called "At Zummerset Fair" (1917) which I haven't tracked down yet apart from finding that the British Library have a copy of the sheet music but they want a small fortune for sending me a copy! I'll have to send someone in there to have a look.

Here are the words to "At Rawtenstall Fair"

"At Rawtenstall Fair" by R.P. Weston and Bert Lee
(written sometime before 1932 - recorded by Randolph Sutton in 1932)


Just behind the gasworks down in Rawtenstall
That's a little town in Lancashire
They'd some fun up there, ee they did an all
Last Friday week they had a fair up theer
They had coconuts swings and figure eights
Switchback robots and a roundabout
Eeh and everyone said what gradely fun
When the lads and lasses heard the showman shout

Walk up walk up come and see the fat girl
Forty stone of loveliness and every bit her own
Oh what a picture with the accent on the pig
Farmers with their walking sticks were giving her a dig
But the gradely lassie didn't say that her chassis
Had been blown up with gas I do declare
She really looked lovely until a silly clown
Stuck a pin in her said the showman with a frown
All hands to the pump lass, the vessel's going down
At the Rawtenstall Annual Fair

Walk up walk up see the house of mystery
Ladies pay a tanner and be tickled in the dark
In went the women saying ee but this is cheap
Showman pulled the lever and they all fell in a heap
Through a hole they shot and when they got to the bottom
There were frills and flounces everywhere
The girls started screaming it caused a lot of strife
I never saw so many legs and stockings in my life
I saw some funny things I'd only seen upon the wife
At the Rawtenstall Annual Fair

Walk up walk up come and see the mermaid
All her life alive and half a woman half a fish
In went the fellers just to see it wasn't swank
Little Johnny Higgins poured some whiskey in the tank
Well she got so frisky when she swam in the whiskey
The first time that she came up for air
She bumped in the audience and gave her tail a swish
Her tail tumbled off and she really looked delish
She shouted what do you fancy a bit of meat or a bit of fish
At the Rawtenstall Annual Fair

Walk up walk up come and get your money's worth
See the tattooed lady with the pictures on her skin
In went the fellows and they all began to cheer
For on her skin were painted all the towns of Lancashire
On her form so pretty she had Manchester City
With the town hall stuck up in the square
She'd Bolton and Bacup and Ashton-under-Lyne
The coalpits at Wigan I thought were very fine
But they all started singing 'Daddy, Don't go down the mine'
At the Rawtenstall Annual Fair

The last verse can be heard here http://www.musichallcds.com/var1_page.htm
Click on the Gramophone to open the wav file


Now here's the mystery - when did this turn into the song we've known as a collective since 1968?

Cheers
Mark
www.markdowding.co.uk

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Rawtenstall annual fayre
From: GUEST,Mark Dowding (at work)
Date: 01 Feb 06 - 09:24 AM

The above was me - at work - didn't have cookie enabled - Doh

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Rawtenstall annual fayre
From: Mark Dowding
Date: 01 Feb 06 - 12:37 PM

By the way, the version of the song in Roy Palmer's "The Ballad History of England" is the Lea Nicholson version from "Deep Lancashire" not the original,

Cheers
Mark

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Rawtenstall annual fayre
From: Anglo
Date: 02 Feb 06 - 11:13 AM

I learned it around 1964 when I was a student at Manchester University. I think it was a singer named Mick Taylor, who played guitar and sang with his wife on the local scene (I may be wrong about the name). They had a few humorous songs, some local, but that's the one I remember avidly scribbling down the words of. The lyrics as I learned them are at www.goldenhindmusic.com with the lyrics to GHM-107 Twiddlum Twaddlum.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Rawtenstall annual fayre
From: GUEST,DB
Date: 03 Feb 06 - 05:14 AM

Couldn't help but notice the spelling 'fayre' in the title of this thread. I may be wrong but I suspect that 'fayre' is a word made up by w...kers in marketing and has little to do with 'fairs' of the Rawtenstall Annual Variety.
I associate the word 'fayre' with menus eg. 'Olde Worlde Country Fayre'. This almost always turns out to be inedible, microwaved rubbish that gets served up in certain pubs (that you never go back to!).

Subject: Lyr Add: RAWTENSTALL ANNUAL FAIR
From: Flash Company
Date: 03 Feb 06 - 06:34 AM

I remember in the late '60s a singer called (I think) Dave Jones from Liverpool who used to invite three girls out of the audience to assist him by playing the parts of the showgirls.
Words as I recall were:-

Down behind the gasworks,down in Rawtenstall,
That's a little toown in Lancashire (Da-da-da)
Last Saturday night, me an' all the lads,
Ee by gum we had some right good cheer,
There ewas Icecreams and Switchbacks,
Coconuts and waxworks,
Figure eights and Roundabouts,
Weren't we all excited whe we heard the showman shout

Roll up, roll up, come and see the fat girl,
Half a ton of loveliness and every inch her own!
Boy, she was a big-un, wi' the accent on the big,
And all the lads wi' walking sticks kept giving her a dig,
She were a great big lassie, we didn't know her chassis,
Was pumped up with air I do declare (Da-da-da)
Everything was going well ,'til some silly clown,
Pricked her with a pin, and said the showman with a frown,
'All hands to the pumps, lads, me vessel's going down'
At the Rawtenstall annual fair (Da-da-da)

Roll up, roll up, See the house of mystery,
Ladies pay a tanner to get tickled in the dark,
In went the lads, just to have a peep,
Someone jerked a lever and they landed in a heap,
Down it shot 'em, right to the bottom,
Frills and bows were everwhere to see (Da-da-da)
There was screaming, yelling, everything was rife,
I seed a lot of things i'd never seen in all me life,
I seed a lot of things I've never seen upon the wife
At the Rawtenstall annual fair (Da-da-da)

Roll up, roll up, come and see the Mermaid,
See the lovely lady half a woman, half a fish,
In went the lads, and just for a prank,
Little Johnny Higgins put some brandy in the tank,
She got randy, swimming in the brandy,
Then she put a show on, I declare (Da-da-da)
She dived to the bottom, she gave her tail a swish,
The tail fell off, she really looked delish,
She said 'Which do you fancy lads, a bit of meat, or fish?'
At the Rawtenstall annual fair (Da-da-da)

Roll up, roll up, see the Tattooed Lady,
See the lovely lady with the pictures on her skin,
in went the lads, we all gave a cheer,
'Cos tattooed on her body were the towns of Lancashire,
There was Oswaldtwistle, Manchester city,
With a picture of the town hall in the square (Da-da-da)
There was Bury, Oldham, Ashton under Lyne,
The coal tips up at Blackburn were looking mighty fine,
Then someone shouted 'DADDY!, Don't go down the mine.'
At the Rawtenstall annual fair (Da-da-da-daaaa)

FC

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Rawtenstall annual fayre
From: Snuffy
Date: 03 Feb 06 - 09:08 AM

What prat fist decided it would be a good idea to put all those (Da-da-da)s into an otherwise excellent song? Lee Nic didn't have 'em on Deep Lancs

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Rawtenstall annual fayre
From: JohnB
Date: 03 Feb 06 - 09:20 AM

Mike Harding used to do the song in the mid sixties, with the Dah Dah Dah chorus. Which is how I learned it.
JohnB

Subject: Lyr Add: DON'T GO DOWN IN THE MINE, DAD
From: Mark Dowding
Date: 21 Sep 07 - 06:23 PM

Refreshing this thread to go with the current thread.
Since recording the Randolph Sutton version I found out that my father's mother knew Randolph Sutton - they were both from the Bristol area. She also knew Charlie Clapham of the duo Clapham and Dwyer and I have a photo of him in my Grandmother's collection.

Still haven't found when it was written by Lee and Weston but the line "Daddy, don't go down the mine" was from a popular song of the same name written in 1910

DON'T GO DOWN IN THE MINE, DAD
(ROBERT DONELLY/WILL GEDDES) (1910)

A miner was leaving his home for his work,
When he heard his little child scream;
He went to his bedside, his little white face,
"Oh, Daddy, I've had such a dream;
I dreamt that I saw the pit all afire,
And men struggled hard for their lives;
The scene it then changed, and the top of the mine
Was surrounded by sweethearts and wives."

CHORUS: "Don't go down in the mine, Dad,
Dreams very often come true;
Daddy, you know it would break my heart
If anything happened to you;
Just go and tell my dream to your mates,
And as true as the stars that shine,
Something is going to happen today,
Dear Daddy, don't go down the mine!"

The miner, a man with a heart good and kind,
Stood by the side of his son;
He said, "It's my living, I can't stay away,
For duty, my lad, must be done."
The little one look'd up, and sadly he said,
"Oh, please stay today with me, Dad!"
But as the brave miner went forth, to his work,
He heard this appeal from his lad:

CHORUS

Whilst waiting his turn with the mates to descend,
He could not banish his fears,
He return'd home again to his wife and his child,
Those words seem'd to ring through his ears,
And, ere the day ended, the pit was on fire,
When a score of brave men lost their lives;
He thank'd God above for the dream his child had,
As once more the little one cries:

CHORUS

Cheers
Mark