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BS: There'll always be an England...
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Subject: There'll always be an England... From: Dave the Gnome Date: 03 Jun 02 - 01:16 PM Just back from a very enjoyable afternoon in Manchester. In the rain of course:-) Saw the Bangladeshi displays; Italian Flag Wavers; West Indian Steel bands; Chinese Dragons - All sorts of stuff. Made me proud to be British! Well half British anyway, with the other bits from Poland and Russia but that's by the way... Really did make me realise how lucky we are to live in an open and tolerant society where people from all lands are welcome and where their culture and music is embraced to form part of the rich and ever changing weave of life. I would like to have seen a bit of Morris dancing and hear a little traditional British music as well but what the hell? I felt it was far more important to make our guests welcome than to score any nationalistic points. Perhaps when the time is right we will see the Morris danced alongside the Dragon or hear the Fate of Matty Groves to a Bhangra rhythm??? Lets hope that the next fifty years will see those dreams come true! Happy golden jubilee weekend from the not particularly royalist but will use any excuse for a good bash Gnome;-) Cheers Dave |
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Subject: RE: BS: There'll always be an England... From: CarolC Date: 03 Jun 02 - 01:22 PM I think the reason you didn't see any Morris over there Dave (tG) is because they're all over here in Shepherdstown (West Virginia, USA) these days dancing in our streets. Glad you had a nice day. |
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Subject: RE: BS: There'll always be an England... From: GUEST,ozmacca Date: 03 Jun 02 - 06:44 PM There'll always be an England....... shame really, innit? I'm reminded of the englishman giving a speech in Edinburgh on patriotism which ended, "I'm proud to say that I was born an englishman, I have lived an englishamn, and I will die an englishman." This was followed by dead silence, before a voice from the auditorium said, "Man, huv ye nae ambeetion?" Never mind, Dave have a nice time at the party anyway - sounds great... while the bloated capitalist sabre-rattling royalist-supporting oppressors of the poor gorge themselves on the blood and sweat of the downtrodden working (or re-deployed) classes.... and have rock concerts in HM the Q's backyard to show that they're really in touch with the masses. Well, they're not in touch with this one, kidder. I dunno, I mean our neighbours always used to complain if we had a couple of friends in to play folk music. But you know what strikes me as being the best bit about all the celebrations you're having? The fact that ordinary people can show tolerance and be happy together - That's the kind of open-mindedness you should be exporting. We need more understanding and fellowship among all the cultures and races... Can't stand prejudice of any kind... Oh, and CaroleC, if you've got a touch of the Morrisses over in the US... do us a favour - and KEEP THEM THERE!!!! |
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Subject: RE: BS: There'll always be an England... From: McGrath of Harlow Date: 03 Jun 02 - 07:14 PM The thing about the English that is engaging is a sense of the ridiculous, and a taste for it. So when you get a crowd singing something like Land of Hope and Glory, waving flags and all, it knows it's absurd, and takes pleasure in the absurdity.
Morris dancing and Royalty are examples of the same characteristic.
The absurdity can be a protection against patriotic display turning ugly. |
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Subject: RE: BS: There'll always be an England... From: Linda Kelly Date: 03 Jun 02 - 07:26 PM well ozmacca , snide comments about the English and then a declaration that you can't stand prejudice -so predictable!-ho hum and each to their own! It was a lovely party- and I'm a non oppressed republican! Best concert I've seen in years -Ozzy Osbourne was a revelation! I embrace the sentiments of Dave the Gnome -may we aspire to be the best most diverse and tolerant nation there is, as either a Kingdom or a Republic -God Save us All!!! |
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Subject: RE: BS: There'll always be an England... From: CarolC Date: 03 Jun 02 - 07:29 PM The thing about the English that is engaging is a sense of the ridiculous, and a taste for it.
*G* I think the Scots have you English beat on that score, McGrath. I'm thinking about something Billy Conolly said on a talk show here in the US a few years back.
He was wearing a pretty ridiculous looking pair of sandals. They were big and black and clunky looking with a huge square silver buckle right in the center of the top of each of them. The host of the show asked him why he was wearing such goofy looking sandals.
Billy said, "TAE PISS OFF PEOPLE AH DON'T LIKE! (I'm pretty sure he meant "piss off" in the US sense ;-) |
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Subject: RE: BS: There'll always be an England... From: greg stephens Date: 03 Jun 02 - 07:42 PM Well for my Jubilee Monday I have (a) helped thelocal scouts and guides finish a float for theNewcastle-under Lyme Carnival..it was a Golden Hind boat on a lorry, with Elizabeth I onboard plus tobacco plants and potatoes(bit of confusion between francis drake and walter Raleigh I think). (b) took out the results of a series of drumming sessions with asylum seekers and locals, as a processional band on the carnival. Nationalities in the band were English, Welsh,Afghan, Iraqi Kurds, Liberia, Nigeria, Kenya. It pissed down We laughed a lot.(c) played a barn dance in the evening in a marquee on a Cheshire farm, owned by the Duchy of Lancaster( an English euphemism for the queen's private property, separate from her official Queenly wealth).played many old English tunes, plus O susanna, Camptown races, redwing, Buona Sera and Isle of Capri. (Not withmy regular band, depping with my partner's mother's band). So, Dave the Gnome, I'll happily subscribe to your sentiment "There'll always be an England". I think my day was a good cross section. Not, I hasten to add, because I'm English. I'm not.I just live here. I love the place. |
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Subject: RE: BS: There'll always be an England... From: greg stephens Date: 03 Jun 02 - 07:47 PM CarolC: not sure if you should accuse McGrath of being English.That surname looks a bit suspicious to me. |
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Subject: RE: BS: There'll always be an England... From: CarolC Date: 03 Jun 02 - 07:55 PM Good point greg. Except my last name is Cunningham, a fine Scots, Scots/Irish name if ever there was one, but I'm a US American with English, Irish, Scottish, French, German, Canadian, and Bermudan ancestry.
McGrath lives in Harlow (England?), I believe, but I've no idea what he considers himself as far as national identity is concerned. It gets pretty confusing, doesn't it?
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Subject: RE: BS: There'll always be an England... From: McGrath of Harlow Date: 03 Jun 02 - 08:03 PM "You English" If I saw myself as English I wouldn't like them half as much.
The Scots? My experience is that they do seem to take themselves a bit seriously, a lot of the time. Better at being dignified without being pompous than the English tend to be. (And that paradoxically enough includes Billy Connolly, who for all the fun and that, strikes me as a fundamentally very serious and dignified man.)
There's no Morris dancing tradition in Scotland, and if there was I think it'd be a very different type of affair.
Of course all these stereotypes are far from telling more than a fraction of the truth, and they change all the time anyway. They don't tell you too much about what people are actually like, they are more about what people would like to be like. The two things overlaps, but they don't coincide. |
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Subject: RE: BS: There'll always be an England... From: CarolC Date: 03 Jun 02 - 08:06 PM *G* So are you going to tell us what you consider yourself, McGrath, or do we have to keep guessing? |
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Subject: RE: BS: There'll always be an England... From: GUEST,ozmacca Date: 03 Jun 02 - 08:22 PM Sorry for what may have seemed to be snide remarks about the English Linda (it just comes naturally) but I think I'm allowed to do that... I mean my mother was one... and she used to vote Scottish Nationalist. Anyway I honestly think it's terrific to see people enjoying themselves and mixing, and it really is great when all sorts of different cultures can work and live and play together. And I heartily agree with McGrath's description of the english being able to play up and appreciate the sense of the ridiculous.... what worries me is that there seems to be more and more people out there who only see the surface and don't realise that the patently absurd is not meant to be taken seriously. Love the idea of a great nation-wide party that brings folk together. Hope everybody had a ball. Just not keen on anything that might offer too much temptation for the lunatic right/left/centre/up/down/outer/inner/fringe/core to start raving about any one country being the best in the world (and ready to "prove" it by abusing anybody who doesn't quite fit the pattern they like). And that goes for whichever country they belong to... even mine... whichever it happens to be. Except Morris...... |
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Subject: RE: BS: There'll always be an England... From: catspaw49 Date: 03 Jun 02 - 08:33 PM Well Dave, you KNOW ol' Spaw's always good for a snide comment about anything so I'm surprised you ahd a good time in Manchester. My fellow American Mark Twain once said that he'd like to live in Manchester because "the transition between Manchester and death would be almost unnoticeable!" Exit--Stage Left Spaw (Glad you enjoyed your old self) |
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Subject: RE: BS: There'll always be an England... From: Rt Revd Sir jOhn from Hull Date: 03 Jun 02 - 08:36 PM I had a Morris Marina once, it was crap.Every time i went over a bump something would fall off! even one of the doors fell off, I went to open the drivers door and it just fell off, I think this was the shittest car i have ever had.john |
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Subject: RE: BS: There'll always be an England... From: Dave the Gnome Date: 03 Jun 02 - 08:42 PM Yo, Oz, man - I'll be playing concertina for Abram Morris tomorrow. Wanna make something of it..? Hankies at dawn? Bells at 50 paces? LOL - the whole point is, as you thought, the bringing together of all the traditions with no thought of what is right or wrong - just what is happening! Well, apart from Cotswold Morris that is...;-) Cheers
Dave the North West Morris Gnome |
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Subject: RE: BS: There'll always be an England... From: Celtic Soul Date: 03 Jun 02 - 08:51 PM CarolC, there not all just in Sheperdstown, I am afraid to say. This area is lousy with them as well. You spray and spray, but they just keep coming back. I think all the folk styles of dance and music that the countries of origin have gotten sick of wind up over here eventually. How else do you explain Michael Flatley? |
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Subject: RE: BS: There'll always be an England... From: catspaw49 Date: 03 Jun 02 - 09:13 PM Shallow gene pool? Spaw |
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Subject: RE: BS: There'll always be an England... From: GUEST,ozmacca Date: 03 Jun 02 - 09:17 PM Dave, I must regretfully decline your challenge on the grounds that we will remain too far apart... if I have anything to do with it... I have always considered the art (?) of Morris to be an indication of a disarranged and diseased cultural imagination. All of a piece with cricket, which it closely resembles. Both of these, I am sure, were part of a fiendish english plot to take over the world by making other nations too helpless with laughter to resist. Do you remember Doctor Who's enemies, the cybermen? As a child I used to have nightmares in which I was surrounded by these fellers wearing boiler suits and wellies, with plastic buckets and bits of hose-pipe on their heads, all painted silver. They would surround me and then one would clasp the big box article attached to its' chest, pull the sides apart and play the thing like a squeezebox, whereupon all the others would jerkily start to dance around waving chrome plate hankies. The Daleks would be easier to take.... at least they only wanted revenge on the bloke who'd invented stairs..... All of which only goes to show that the best of the english are good at not taking themselves seriously. Now the Scots....... |
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Subject: RE: BS: There'll always be an England... From: CarolC Date: 03 Jun 02 - 09:29 PM There's no explaining Michael Flatly. |
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Subject: RE: BS: There'll always be an England... From: sledge Date: 04 Jun 02 - 04:20 AM Unless of course Flatly is a Cyberman, that would explain the stiff jerky movements and his arms staying by his sides. :-) |
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Subject: RE: BS: There'll always be an England... From: greg stephens Date: 04 Jun 02 - 04:40 AM England needs a Michael Flatley.Is there no American obsessed with his English ancestry prepared to do for Morris what Flatley did for Irish dance? The aesthetcs of the Nuremburg rallies applied to beards and bells would be a joy to behold. |
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Subject: RE: BS: There'll always be an England... From: okthen Date: 04 Jun 02 - 05:11 AM Flatly, there's no explaining Michael. |
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Subject: RE: BS: There'll always be an England... From: gnu Date: 04 Jun 02 - 05:20 AM I didn't watch the whole concert, and I (think I) missed a lot because of what was lost during commercials. However, given the theme of "Fifty Years of Music", I was perplexed at the way things unfolded and I was taken aback a couple of times. To see Annie Lennox sing a gospel tune rather than someting more representative of her own or of Scots kinda peeved me and when The Corrs performed... well, like I said, I didn't watch the whole thing. |
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Subject: RE: BS: There'll always be an England... From: Pete Jennings Date: 04 Jun 02 - 06:07 AM Hey Mac, whadd'ya mean there's no Morris Dancing tradition in Scotland? What about all them bearded blokes who dress up in frilly shirts and skirts and fluffy cod-pieces and ponce about around crossed swords with their arms in the air going whoop, whoop while others blow into sheep's bladders hard enough to make their former owners scream for mercy loud enough so they can be heard from the grave? *BG* Pete |
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Subject: RE: BS: There'll always be an England... From: McGrath of Harlow Date: 04 Jun 02 - 07:27 AM I think you're making the same point as I was, but in a different way Pete. An element of absurdity is at the heart of the Morris tradition. (Which doesn't mean it doesn't have a serious side as well. That has to be there as well.) |
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Subject: RE: BS: There'll always be an England... From: Bullfrog Jones Date: 04 Jun 02 - 07:55 AM To get back to your original point, Dave, when people moan about refugees I always say that I'd rather live in a country that people are fighting to get INTO rather than out of. Unfortunately I saw the downside of 'Englishness' at the Edgbaston Test Match on Saturday, where a small band of Sri Lankan supporters were subjected to racist abuse from large sections of the crowd and even Heil Hitler salutes from the moron sitting in the seat in front of me. A potentially ugly situation when I made a comment about 'Nazis' was defused by the fact that my 2 brothers and I are all over 6 feet tall and built like brick outhouses, and the fascist's mates showed no inclination to back him up! BJ |
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Subject: RE: BS: There'll always be an England... From: Pete Jennings Date: 04 Jun 02 - 03:33 PM Good for you Bullfrog. We'd be a poorer people without the tolerance Dave talks about and pity the morons who are unable to see past colour and creed. Now if men were of one colour how silly life would be A regimented army to work a factory That produces daily a gift of boredom given free Anti-apartheid is what it's meant to be Bert Jansch 1965 Pete |
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Subject: RE: BS: There'll always be an England... From: GUEST,Bill Kennedy Date: 04 Jun 02 - 03:42 PM seems appropriate to add some music content to this thread
Now to celebrate her fifty years,
The songs went back to '52, |
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Subject: RE: BS: There'll always be an England... From: Dave the Gnome Date: 04 Jun 02 - 04:41 PM I seem to remember there were some Morris dancers in an episode of Dr Who at one time as well. Anybody else remember that or is it my fevered and pickled brain? I think they had been possesed by an evil spirit or some such. Maybe the BBC used to be more true to life in them days! Anyhow - We did the trad English bit today. I sat in the park, wearing half black half white make up, a patchwork coat, a tri-corn hat and playing concertina to passing bored youths... How on earth can you say that that is an indication of a disarranged and diseased cultural imagination Ozmacca? You just can't please some folk. We did not, unfortunately, have enough of the team to dance but we did get a few intersted parties asking about the teapot though. Now your wondering...;-) Cheers DtG
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Subject: RE: BS: There'll always be an England... From: CarolC Date: 04 Jun 02 - 05:01 PM I saw that one, Dave (tG)! There was an evil alien force that was masquerading as a Pagan diety, and the local "White Witch" was fighting it with Morris dancers or something. They even had a piano accordionist who was playing the Morris tunes. It was a really nice accordion. |
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Subject: RE: BS: There'll always be an England... From: CarolC Date: 04 Jun 02 - 05:04 PM "Diety"? Hmmmm... |
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Subject: RE: BS: There'll always be an England... From: artbrooks Date: 04 Jun 02 - 06:58 PM A close examination of some of the Indian (that's "Native American" for those of you who are terminally PC) dances of the US Southwest gives some credence to the theory that among the first European settlers in the Americas were a group of EXTREMELY lost Morris dancers. |
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Subject: RE: BS: There'll always be an England... From: greg stephens Date: 04 Jun 02 - 06:59 PM Dave the Gnome: have sympathy for poor Ozmacca he maybe had some very sad experience with morris dancers at an early age.There are plenty of Mudcatters out there who will be very ready to pray for him and discuss his problems at considerable length,,,join with them and us, hold hands in a circle and just ask the spirit to come down. It will, it must..i can feel it coming now |
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Subject: RE: BS: There'll always be an England... From: artbrooks Date: 04 Jun 02 - 07:19 PM That's rain, Greg. |
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Subject: RE: BS: There'll always be an England... From: GUEST,ozmacca Date: 04 Jun 02 - 07:40 PM Mr Jennings, I take exception to your somewhat degrading description of a fine old Caledonian tradition, born in the mists of antiquity, and which is so evocative of the finer points of a magnificent cultural heritage, dating back as far as last Tuesday, and featuring the memorable acts and lives of such great national heroes as William the Gibson, Mel the Bruce and Liam Roy. These exhibitions of refined and restrained gentility are not in the slightest to be compared with the wild and distressing antics of an unruly mob of drink-crazed, sodden, capering fools, egged on in their unspeakable pagan frenzy by a be-ribboned fool clutching a bladder on a stick and his half-insane crony squeezing the strains (and I use the term advisedly) of some tune calculated to whip the crowd into an orgy of bachanalian magnitude, from a fiendish instrument of torture..... Such agonising scenes are even now being witnessed by innocent natives in the far-flung corners of the once great Empire. In the Americas, and even here in the Antipodean extremities, the diabolical machinations of Morris are being experienced.... Is there no end to your devilish plotting, sirrah? No, sir, in Scotland there is no Morris. It's too Austin-tatious. They can't af-Ford it anyway. That's true, Riley it is. The nicest thing about England and the english is that they can read this sort of twaddle about themselves and laugh. Not so much at it, as at themselves. God forbid that they should ever take to heart what the rest of the world thinks about them, or take themselves too seriously. Oh dear........ I think I'll run away now.. |
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Subject: RE: BS: There'll always be an England... From: greg stephens Date: 04 Jun 02 - 07:51 PM I think the power of prayer is working. The vitriolic bile of Ozmacca's first posting seems to be mellowing out. Praise the Lord! get those hankies in your hand, boy, and start capering. You know you'll feel better |
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Subject: RE: BS: There'll always be an England... From: GUEST,ozmacca Date: 04 Jun 02 - 07:57 PM Wait.... wait..... I can feel something... Something fine and loving and caring.... Something pure and simple.... Something deep and profound.... I can feel it coming.... Yes, it's coming.... It's descending on me.... It's magnificent... It's the very essence of all those memories of my chiildhood days.... Yes, It's..it's...it's....... atrbrooks was right. |
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Subject: RE: BS: There'll always be an England... From: GUEST,ozmacca Date: 04 Jun 02 - 08:00 PM Hang on a minute..... In among all the other elucidatory drivel, I missed something a few posts back.... TEAPOT? Eh? Dave? |
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Subject: RE: BS: There'll always be an England... From: Dave Bryant Date: 05 Jun 02 - 10:51 AM Artbrooks "the theory that among the first European settlers in the Americas were a group of EXTREMELY lost Morris dancers." I know several morris sides today, who can still get that lost looking for the next stand after a "few" pints. One guy who used to have a craft stall at various folk festivals used to sell what he claimed were fully working, model morris men, made out of china - you filled them up with beer and they fell over. PS Royal Liberty and Shropshire Bedlams - only kidding. |
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Subject: RE: BS: There'll always be an England... From: GUEST,JohnB Date: 05 Jun 02 - 12:26 PM Well to celebrate the "Silver" Jubilee, we left England and came to Canada on the 9th of June 1977. Been here ever since, not really planning to try to top that this time around. It did spawn the very useful phrase "England, good place to come FROM" take it how you like. DTG you used a strange word in relation to Morris Dancing earlier "Cotswold" how does this relate to the tradition? JohnB Dancefore Orange Peel BORDER Morris. |
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Subject: RE: BS: There'll always be an England... From: lady penelope Date: 05 Jun 02 - 03:36 PM " Right Liberty " you mean. I have gotten alcoholically disabled with a few of them on several occasions and I know where of what I speak. All I can say is you haven't seen some of the newer morris sides that are now knocking about. Wolf'shead and Vixen are downright scarey when they're going for it, not a white hankey in sight ( infact they even wear mirror shades when they dance indoors! ) . Wildhunt, in tatters and full masks are just plain 'full on' and just to nail down the 'englishness' of it all last year Prince Albert morris started dancing out and before you ask yes they are a sado / masochistic morris side and they do dance in rubber, studs, pvc etc. and they are named after the piercing. Of course, encompassing all of the above, you have the world famous Hammersmith Morris. Bit of an in joke, sorry. But I did see a morris side dancing on Monday, they were at Slough I think. They were up dancing just before all that "All you need is love" business. Didn't recognise the side though. Anyway, do you think all those teenage boys you see Banghra dancing actually want to be there? Can't you just picture the arguments with their parents - boy wants to wear wannabe hip hop star outfit - mother says "you're putting the sarong on and dancing and that's the end of it! Now where have you put your fans, eh?" I'm sure not all of them hate it, but I bet more than a few were 'pushed' initially. People like those Bullfrog ran into at he cricket match will always exist. It's not the colout of skin that matters to them, it is the fact that here is something not exactly the same as themselves. This is what they can't handle. If we were all beige, people like that would still find things to be bigots about, down to and including your brand of underwear. Personally, I like being a mongral. And if you say you are english, you really can't be anything else. This country has always been busy being invaded, whether in war or peace. It's been going on for thousands of years and I think it's brilliant. I can go for the celtic wildness, the anglofied stiff upper lip, eat chinese food and kebabs, go belly dancing each week, bang my head to the metal bands I like, sing my heart out in choirs and sing - a - rounds, buy my material down a market which has colours from every where, whilst eating the best samosas any where or buy yams and goat curry, go on pagan pride marches and celebrate the spirit of life with people (literally) from all over the world, sing hymns in a church, go to a friend's siekh wedding AND ALL OF THIS WITHOUT EVEN LEAVING LONDON! Yeah, I like being english. And the last couple of days was a good celebration of all of us never mind old Betty. Mind you, she don't 'arf know how to throw a party, eh? TTFN M'Lady P.
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Subject: RE: BS: There'll always be an England... From: Pete Jennings Date: 05 Jun 02 - 04:29 PM Hey, Ozmacca, knock it off. I've spilt my bloody drink now! And it was Scotch!! *LOL* Pete
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Subject: RE: BS: There'll always be an England... From: Les from Hull Date: 05 Jun 02 - 04:44 PM Maggie and I and a few of the Kingston regulars played Skipsea (E Yorkshire) in a tent in the rain for the afternoon and in the pub in the dry for the evening. We're very big in Skipsea! (I think we actually outnumber them!) So we never got to see if Ozzy bit the head of a corgi or anything. One thing worries me though - if it rains on Jubillee day, doesn't it rain every day for the next fifty years? |
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Subject: RE: BS: There'll always be an England... From: GUEST Date: 05 Jun 02 - 06:39 PM Pete - Well, lad, you see that's actually the worldy physical effect of the shift in the equilibrium which is the result of incurring the wrath of those mystic powers guiding and driving the universe in its' infinite spiral through the eternal timeless void of the cosmic consciousness.... and it also means you've got to buy another one. Right? So let that be a lesson to you! Les - How would anybody know the difference between the result of that very old folk saying and the normal weather pattern anyway? Dave - ..... TEAPOT???????? C'mon, put me out of my misery, man... Everybody - I'm glad you've all proved yourselves to be everything that the english have always striven for... Somebody earlier said it so much better than I ever could.... What was it now, oh yes... "There's got to be someone worse off than me." |
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Subject: RE: BS: There'll always be an England... From: GUEST,ozmacca Date: 05 Jun 02 - 06:40 PM Yes, that was me.... Didn't press the right button.... How you're expected to work these damn things when they're written in a foreign language I just don't know.... |
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Subject: RE: BS: There'll always be an England... From: tremodt Date: 05 Jun 02 - 08:14 PM There will Always be an England As long as there is a USA |
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Subject: RE: BS: There'll always be an England... From: Hrothgar Date: 06 Jun 02 - 12:00 AM It will probably rain in England every day for the next fifty years, but that's nothing to do with the Jubilee. A lot of it has to do with cricket. |
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Subject: RE: BS: There'll always be an England... From: Pete Jennings Date: 06 Jun 02 - 08:48 AM It's Thursday, two days after Jubilee Day. It was raining yesterday and it's pissing it down today. Only 49 years, 363 days to go... Anybody got any cunning plans? Any Sundancers out there? Will the Teapot help if we say please? Is Les in the outdoor clothing business? Pete |
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Subject: Lyr Add: THERE'LL ALWAYS BE AN ENGLAND From: McGrath of Harlow Date: 06 Jun 02 - 10:27 AM No one's posted the actual words of the ditty. Very much a gladdies-in-the-air type of song. There have been a fair number of fairly caustic parodies written. THERE'LL ALWAYS BE AN ENGLAND Words and music by Ross Parker & Hughie Charles, ©1939.
I give you a toast, ladies and gentlemen.
CHORUS: There'll always be an England while there's a country lane, |
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Subject: RE: BS: There'll always be an England... From: Dave the Gnome Date: 06 Jun 02 - 12:42 PM OK - Teapot. The Abram Morris dance is around a portable maypole which is surmounted by - you've guessed it - A teapot! In the original tradition it was decorated with flowers (and the teapot of course) but also decorated with other baubles donated for the day by the rich people of Abram. Have a look at Here for details. And yes - there realy is a morris dancer called Michael Jackson! Cotswold Morris - Probably the most common form of the morris and the one which springs to most peoples minds. Whites, hankies, bells etc. As opposed to North West Morris, Border Morris, Rapper, Longsword etc. Cheers DtG |
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Subject: RE: BS: There'll always be an England... From: Ringer Date: 06 Jun 02 - 12:53 PM Litchfield? |
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Subject: RE: BS: There'll always be an England... From: Gareth Date: 06 Jun 02 - 02:27 PM If it wasn't for the English, what would the Scots and Irish complain about. Gareth |
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Subject: RE: BS: There'll always be an England... From: McGrath of Harlow Date: 06 Jun 02 - 02:41 PM The Welsh for a start... |
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Subject: RE: BS: There'll always be an England... From: Lonesome EJ Date: 06 Jun 02 - 03:16 PM There'll always be an England as long as there's the rain or old gents on the beach in sweaters, though the weather's hot as Spain Or egg and chips for breakfast with beans and marmelade or Indian grub in a London Pub, or an lukewarm pint in the shade As long as bakery maids wear uniforms and close from 3 to five and you can't get fish til "frying time" to keep your self alive As long as there are doubledeck buses and phone booths built like tanks There'll always be an England (to the confusion of us Yanks) LEJ :>} |
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Subject: RE: BS: There'll always be an England... From: McGrath of Harlow Date: 06 Jun 02 - 04:59 PM But the proper red phoneboxes have mostly gone the way of the 'Oggy Man.
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Subject: RE: BS: There'll always be an England... From: Les from Hull Date: 06 Jun 02 - 05:40 PM Red phoneboxes? You've got RED phoneboxes? |
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Subject: RE: BS: There'll always be an England... From: Paul from Hull Date: 06 Jun 02 - 06:20 PM Yep.... & allegedly, the places with RED ones allegedly have glass in the windows too, Les.... |
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Subject: RE: BS: There'll always be an England... From: GUEST,ozmacca Date: 06 Jun 02 - 06:28 PM Ummm, Dave, thanks for the teapot explanation and link, but all I got was a photo of a bunch of ice-cream vendors running round waiting for Albert and Harold Steptoe to finish with the outdoor urinal. Is this another strange and disturbing English tradition which I wot not of?... Or even of which I wot not? |
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Subject: RE: BS: There'll always be an England... From: Linda Kelly Date: 06 Jun 02 - 06:31 PM look-don't draw attention to the telephone boxes -the next thing they will be swarming over the borders and into the city and they won't be our little secret anymore!!! P.S. |
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Subject: RE: BS: There'll always be an England... From: Linda Kelly Date: 06 Jun 02 - 06:40 PM Sorry there is not any P.S.! |
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Subject: RE: BS: There'll always be an England... From: GUEST,ozmacca Date: 06 Jun 02 - 06:46 PM Too late! - Red phone-boxes (some even complete with glass!) have been disappearing from their habitat in the UK to crop up down in the Antipodes, heavily disguised as miniature greenhouses, alongside such monuments to good taste as the concrete kangaroo and other garden kitsch. |
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Subject: RE: BS: There'll always be an England... From: McGrath of Harlow Date: 06 Jun 02 - 08:26 PM Not many of them left now - but the ones that are tend be have been classified as listed buildings, so they should be safe. Here is a site with some pictures and stuff. |
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Subject: RE: BS: There'll always be an England... From: McGrath of Harlow Date: 06 Jun 02 - 08:29 PM And here are some pictures of some of them in their natural habitat. |
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Subject: RE: BS: There'll always be an England... From: GUEST,ozmacca Date: 06 Jun 02 - 08:34 PM Aye, and nine o' them in the photies are in Scotland...... And them an introdueced species forbye. |
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Subject: RE: BS: There'll always be an England... From: Malcolm Douglas Date: 06 Jun 02 - 08:41 PM They're probably breeding them to be shot for fun and profit. |
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Subject: RE: BS: There'll always be an England... From: GUEST,ozmacca Date: 06 Jun 02 - 08:53 PM Aye! So a' they damned sassenach absentee landords wi' their yuppie yodellin' yankee hingers-on can traipse ower the hallowed heather highland hills o' my hairy ancestors.... Wi' their Volvos and range-Rovers an' green wellies, banging away day an' nicht. Aye, an' firin' guns tae! Mutter, grumble, damt bluidy cheek....... |
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Subject: RE: BS: There'll always be an England... From: Malcolm Douglas Date: 06 Jun 02 - 09:15 PM The majority of absentee landlords nowadays are from rather further away than England (as are the majority of the gunmen) as I'm sure you know. Still, I'd be interested to know how the beaters get up a covey of phone boxes; it would be a sight, I think. |
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Subject: RE: BS: There'll always be an England... From: artbrooks Date: 06 Jun 02 - 09:44 PM Speaking from the states, where the species is spreading all the time, I'm suggest beginning a series of calls from telephone soliciters (soliciter means people selling stuff to us, rather than lawyers) trying to sell cellular telephones. That should be enough to have the telephone boxes running for the hills! |
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Subject: RE: BS: There'll always be an England... From: GUEST,ozmacca Date: 06 Jun 02 - 09:48 PM Malcolm, I believe one traditional method required the beater to approach them from downwind, while facing the other way, pretending that there is no-one you need to call up. Otherwise, if they think they may be the possible target of a hunter, they jam their door shut and hide in the long bracken. Another recommended practice is for the hunter to make contact with the quarry himself, and to tackle the beast with his bare hands. It is possible to approach the prey without alarming it by reading aloud from an outdated but intact copy of the white pages. This is actually a form of bait, and would appear to be their favourite food, as fragments are usually found in the intestinal space of many after they have been gutted. There is an interesting school of thought which holds that they will actually come when called, responding to the sound made by rattling coins together. Older mature specimens will respond to the sound made by four copper pennies. The Society for the Protection of Phone Boxes and Associated Public Conveniences lists many methods of confounding the so-called sportsman who still insists on pursuing this cruel blood-sport. Unfortunately, a thriving trade in the stuffed carcasses of victims of these depradations seems to be supported by anm export industry greedy for foreign money. It is to be hoped that patronage by prominent members of the Royal Family may bring an end to this dreadful destruction of one of our last indigenous wild species. |
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Subject: RE: BS: There'll always be an England... From: Dave Bryant Date: 07 Jun 02 - 04:32 AM In Kingston-upon-Thames we have a whole queue of red phone boxes falling over - I'll try |
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Subject: RE: BS: There'll always be an England... From: ozmacca Date: 07 Jun 02 - 05:36 AM Ah, the actibvities perpetrated in the name of tradition in England never cease to amaze me. As I sit to type this, a report on our national Aussie TV describes an activity in the Cotswolds (I think) regarding the rolling of a cheese down a hill. Is this morris under a different name? |
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Subject: RE: BS: There'll always be an England... From: Micca Date: 07 Jun 02 - 08:58 AM While on the subject of Morris dancing I heard someone (?dont remember who?) sing a song possibly at the Yorkshire gathering, (CRS courtesy of Lots of Scrumpy Jack at £1 an(English)Pint!!!!) the chorus went- " Waving Handkerchies, Waving Handkerchies Big fat men with Bells on Waving Handkerchies" the tune was " Bringing in the sheaves" anyone have the rest of the words? |
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Subject: RE: BS: There'll always be an England... From: Dave the Gnome Date: 07 Jun 02 - 09:38 AM Have you not sussed it yet??? You don't use beaters to bring the phone boxes out of the wild. You use...
Wait for it...
Morris dancers!!! |
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Subject: RE: BS: There'll always be an England... From: Malcolm Douglas Date: 07 Jun 02 - 09:44 AM Cheese-rolling still goes on at Cooper's Hill, Brockworth, and at Randwick near Stroud (both in Gloucestershire) so far as I know; formerly it seems to have been more widespread. There's an account of an occasion at Uffington (Berkshire) in Thomas Hughes' book The Scouring of the White Horse (1859). It's a pretty dangerous activity by all accounts. |
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Subject: RE: BS: There'll always be an England... From: McGrath of Harlow Date: 07 Jun 02 - 10:01 AM Cheese rolling - it'd be a great Olympics sport, and no crazier than some of the ones they've got. |
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Subject: RE: BS: There'll always be an England... From: Les from Hull Date: 07 Jun 02 - 10:34 AM Oh to be in England, now that morris dancers are rolling telephone boxes down hills! |
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Subject: RE: BS: There'll always be an England... From: Micca Date: 07 Jun 02 - 11:38 AM Les, It is not fitting for you folks in the "land of anaemic phone boxes" to make snide remarks about our "glorious red boxes", I once spent ages in Hull looking for a public phone with no sucess.. because the boxes were the "wrong" colour!!! |
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Subject: RE: BS: There'll always be an England... From: Dave Wynn Date: 07 Jun 02 - 11:38 AM I have just read this thread. I followed it all the way to the second posting then lost my brain on a silly roll of the dice. Ending with rolling Red phone boxes down hills. Please let it be me that is sane coz the alternative is that I have joined a community of complete nutters. Spot |
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Subject: RE: BS: There'll always be an England... From: Penny S. Date: 07 Jun 02 - 06:26 PM A local publican had a very nasty fall (he wuz tripped, clearly in the video) on his second run(?) down the hill. He went head over heels, landing, after flying through the air, on his shoulders (pointing uphill), just keeping his head out of the way, then going over again, from which he got up and sort of ran to the bottom of the hill. He has any number of stitches in his head, and the cheese from his first race. It is astonishing that he was back in the pub pulling pints later. Cotswold Oolitic Limestone is hard, and lumpy, doesn't make nice smooth slopes like the Chalk. They'll be trying to ban it again.. Penny |
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Subject: RE: BS: There'll always be an England... From: McGrath of Harlow Date: 07 Jun 02 - 09:05 PM I have joined a community of complete nutters.
Got it in one... |
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Subject: RE: BS: There'll always be an England... From: Eric the Viking Date: 08 Jun 02 - 07:05 PM The best night of TV was when they had the sex pistols on, God save the Queen!!!! |
