History - BBC's 'Singing Together'

Subject: RE: History - BBC's 'Singing Together'
From: GUEST,John Street
Date: 24 Feb 11 - 12:09 PM

Ah, what pleasant distant memories! I'm 67 now but still fondly recall both Singing Together and Rhythm and Melody. My primary school headmaster distributed to us the booklets accompanying these programmes long before the broadcasts were due and had already taught us the words and music by the time the first broadcast occurred. And it was because the songs still keep going through my head even now that I googled the names of the programmes to see what I could find.

Subject: RE: History - BBC's 'Singing Together'
From: GUEST,Chris Murray
Date: 13 Feb 11 - 06:43 AM

I bought a book of some of the songs a few years ago but can't find it. However, if you go onto Amazon, they seem to have several of the original booklets for sale.

Subject: RE: History - BBC's 'Singing Together'
From: GUEST
Date: 13 Feb 11 - 06:36 AM

"Ian, I don't know who started it, or anything about the stages etc, but do remember William Appleby, whose name appears on the book of songs published under the title of Singing Together and was certainly obtainable three years ago. I've just googled his name, and found out that there is a music centre named after him in Doncaster, and there is information printed about him at www.doncastermusicservice.org.uk/dms.htm (sorry - no matter how many times I've tried I just don't seem to be able to negotiate the blue clicky thing!)

All I recall is fond memories of sitting down at school in the fifties and singing along to the programme. Thanks to you, I'm probably going to be googling for a bit longer tonight!! (:-)"

Yes, I rember William Appleby on the school radio in the 50's so he & the programme must have made quite an impression on me - one of the songs which sticks in the memory was the one about the cook 'with one eye on the pot & the other up the chimney'!

Subject: RE: History - BBC's 'Singing Together'
From: Newnham Croft
Date: 13 Feb 11 - 03:14 AM

I was at primary school in Cambridge in the early 70s and still sing many of the songs today, although many are just fragments and snatches. I remember well the Rain Song and the Zartian one, and Mango Walk which Mr Brooks loved to bash out on the piano, but here are a few verses which may jog memories.
The books tended to have themes. There was a sequence about a violin maker in Naples, one song went

You can just hear a shout
As a boat goes about
And goes off on its glittering way
Oh look at the sun
It's shining all day
Something something buying and selling
For Naples is busy and gay.

Then from the Zartians book there was

Where have you been to Peter
Over the stars by the Milky Way
I caught the moon just waning
At the break of day.

Finaly there was a great one called The Railway Boggart, written in the wake of Beeching, with overtones of 60s activism (Green Man earth spirit awakes from timeless sleep to save branch line) and the ominous chant

They're Closing Down the Bluebell Line . . .

Subject: RE: History - BBC's 'Singing Together'
From: GUEST,Midzone 1
Date: 09 Feb 11 - 06:13 PM

Just managed to get my hands on an old Singing Together broadcast - it's the final request programme from Spring Term 1979 presented by John Amis. The musical delights include:-

Charlie is M'Darling
Sir Eglamore
The Marigold
The Shepherd and His Dog
Water Come a Me Eye
Auld John Bradleum
Chiapenecas

It's on an old reel to reel tape but the quality is excellent as my trusty Tandberg revealed.

Subject: RE: History - BBC's 'Singing Together'
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 31 Jan 11 - 12:55 PM

I mean the hard disk in my brain!

Subject: RE: History - BBC's 'Singing Together'
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 31 Jan 11 - 12:54 PM

I used to 'do' Singing Together with my pupils in Glasgow in the 1970's. We listened to it on the radio, then a couple of days later had a practice. I had to physically wheel a heavy old, out-of-tune piano along the corridor into my classroom with the help of two lads. The teacher next door used to groan, but the pupils adored the songs. I like to think that, as middle-aged adults, they still have them in their heads and developed a liking for folk songs. Just WHAT do the children learn nowadays I wonder?? The songs were traditional, musically very sound and even instructive. Looking at the lists in these postings, I can remember nearly every one, they must be on my hard disk!

Subject: RE: History - BBC's 'Singing Together'
From: GUEST,dunelmian
Date: 31 Jan 11 - 10:31 AM

I remember fondly Singing Together at Junior School in the 50s. There was a big, four-legged radio with an aerial which went into the rafters. We had the famous little books and I remember in particular singing 'Polly Oliver' which popped into my head a while ago and which forms one of my repertoire now. Happy days!

Subject: RE: History - BBC's 'Singing Together'
From: GUEST,maud
Date: 31 Jan 11 - 09:56 AM

I know this song very well, if you want me to hum the melody you can e-mail me: [e-mail]

Subject: RE: History - BBC's 'Singing Together'
From: GUEST,Robin Carmody
Date: 18 Jan 11 - 08:46 AM

Sarah Hoare - the Mozart programme you're referring to would be the Time & Tune series 'The Young Mozart' from Summer 1987, one of the last things Douglas Coombes did for the BBC - he left the following year, and the whole ethos and style of schools music programmes changed considerably (and of course didn't last too long after that).

Subject: RE: History - BBC's 'Singing Together'
From: GUEST,Ruth
Date: 31 Dec 10 - 05:59 AM

Herbert Wiseman originated the series and it was first broadcast on September 25th 1939, according to the BBC Sound Archives.

"Listening figures far outstripped those of other school music broadcasts for example in 1941, Autumn Term, 4100 schools were tuning in."
Gordon Cox 2002. Living music in schools 1923-1999 Studies in the History of music education in England. Ashgate Publishing Limited, Adlershot.

Subject: RE: History - BBC's 'Singing Together'
From: GUEST,Recorderer
Date: 12 Dec 10 - 02:15 PM

Hi Ray and Destiny and co,

I have the booklets for Autumn 1980, Spring 1981, Summer 1981 (and Spring 1983 which is after I left primary school - probably from a bookshop.)with some of your songs in. I also have the Rumpelstiltskin Music Workshop booklet from 1978 and 1980. Email me at [e-mail] if you would like more info, scans etc assuming it isn't a copyright issue punishable by death.

Autumn 1980

Farewell to Funery
The Hopak
Reap the Flax
Captain Nipper
Who Did?
Kelly the Pirate
The Friendly Beasts
The Virgin Mary Had a Baby Boy
O Sleep my Pretty Baby
Rise Up, Shepherd
The Gower Wassail

Spring 1981

Song of a Country Girl
Mountain Dancer
The Tortilla Vendor
La Cucuracha
Here Come the Navvies
The Piper o' Dundee
Greek Shepherd Song
Alnwick Football Song
The Mountains I love
The Mountain Skier
Troika

Summer 1981

The Ship that Never Returned
The Fireman's Song
My White Horse
Lewis Bridal Song
The Spinning Wheel
Angelico
The Peanut Vendor
Lisa Lan

Spring 1983

The Tinker's Wedding
Waltzing Matilda
Kalinka
Cockles and Muscles
Swansea Town
The Derby Ram
Oh, 'twas in the broad Atlantic
The Candlelight Fisherman
Island in the Sun
Marianina
My Grandfather's Clock

Rumpelstiltskin

Words R D Ward, music Peter Hutchings

Miller's Song
Echo Song sung by Ethel("Verse One: Locked up in this emptiness all alone, Life's become as grey as these walls of stone. Oh, how unkind my fortune seems! Nothing left to comfort me but my dreams. Verse Two: Just myself for company, only me. Words I speak come back to me constantly. I hear the echoes of each sigh. All alone with me, myself and I.")
Spinning Song
Two-as-One Song
Name-Guessing Song
Interlude
Gloating Song
Wedding March
Let the Bells Ring

I actually found reason to sing some of 'Here Come the Navvies' to my 6th form class of General Studies students during a discussion about migration last week, so you never know when these things will come in handy! What a fantastic legacy for all of us who listened to Singing Together as a starter for folk history and music here and around the world. So glad I didn't return the booklets when my teacher wanted them back - I'm paying back my debt to society many times over now by teaching teenagers and running a recorder club.

Subject: RE: History - BBC's 'Singing Together'
From: GUEST,Xi Hymn
Date: 02 Dec 10 - 05:50 PM

Please, if you do know the tune to The Rain Song, email me at [e-mail]!

---

I found the song in the Spring 1972 issue of Singing Together and e-mailed it to the requester.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: History - BBC's 'Singing Together'
From: GUEST,Sarah Hoare
Date: 18 Nov 10 - 05:26 PM

I definitely remember something with Douglas Coombes and a book about Mozart. Song went
"In Salzburg, Austria one winter's night
Saw a birth by candle light
......."


Chorus
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Oh the world to hear such joy, music of the wonderboy"

Or something like that
That was in the 80s in North Humberside. Happy days!

Subject: RE: History - BBC's 'Singing Together'
From: GUEST,Robin Carmody
Date: 05 Nov 10 - 10:34 PM

Midzone1 upthread - very pleased to hear that clip; how much else (if anything) have you managed to digitise?

Subject: ADD: The Cricket's Wedding
From: GUEST,Murpholly
Date: 26 Oct 10 - 10:45 AM

As a headteacher my father saved copies of most of Singing Together Books which I still possess and so Autumn Term 1959 has The Cricket's Wedding (which was actually Rhythm and Melody Section). Is this the one you are searching

THE CRICKET'S WEDDING

O the cricket weds today, the mosquitto's daughter
Shufling comes the little louse, best man to the bridegroom
Hopping comes the nimble flea for to be the bridesmaid
Animals both great and small come as guests invited

Second fiddler is the stork with the turkey leading
Hornets play the double bass froggy is the flautist
Merrily the monkey jumps dancing to the polka
While that rogue the old screech owl plays upon the bagpipe

And the wolf the butcher man brought six big fat oxen
And not satisfied with that also fifty piglets
Then the goat she capered in cooked a tasty goulash
But before the meal was served lo the cricket vanished

Subject: RE: History - BBC's 'Singing Together'
From: GUEST,Karen
Date: 26 Oct 10 - 05:57 AM

I clearly remember the tune for Antonio, Antonio its Raining its raining again!

Subject: RE: History - BBC's 'Singing Together'
From: GUEST,Jane of 'ull
Date: 09 Oct 10 - 08:40 PM

Yes the ones I remember are from that era too.

I remember the 'Peanuts' song - though we sang a ruder version in the playground!!

Subject: RE: History - BBC's 'Singing Together'
From: GUEST,destiny
Date: 09 Oct 10 - 02:33 PM

Wow what a site, I remember singing together with fond memories. We would listen to it on the radio in class, I was about 8. I would even listen to it at the half terms.
The songs I remember are from 1979 - 81
Peanuts ( or a song about peanuts)may have had a different title
Here come the navvies
Also I remember my older sister singing one called Yellow bird.

Subject: RE: History - BBC's 'Singing Together'
From: puck
Date: 05 Oct 10 - 03:12 PM

I have very fond memories of Singing Together in 1956 onwards 'till I left primary school near Brecon S Wales to go to grammar school. It introduced me to folk music at an impressionable age! THANK GOD!!
P

Subject: RE: History - BBC's 'Singing Together'
From: GUEST,Ray
Date: 05 Oct 10 - 03:08 PM

I was thrilled to discover this thread. These class singing activities were a weekly event when I was a pupil at Willowbank Primary in Glasgow from autumn 77 to summer 81. It is so long ago that I couldn't even remember whether it was a BBC or ITV service. I am specifically searching for books and songs from this period and I would really love to hear these old songs again. In the fog of my memory the following songs stand out...

Rocky Rocky Road
Ling ling and the Chinese Dragon
A Wassail, A Wassail
Here come the Navvies
The Football Song (?)
The Gypsy Rover

I know there is a website mentioned somewhere on theses threads that has what i am looking for but I cannot find it. Could anyone email me with any details at [e-mail] ?
It Seemed like a different world then. Although it was just 30 years ago it seems like 3 million years ago to me. I also found a great DVD set called "Charley Says" which includes loads of public information films from the era. It's also worth looking at wwww.sub-tv.co.uk and www.tv-ark.org.uk if you want to hear the continuation music that was played whilst the onscreen clock ticked towards the next programme. Does anyone remember "Theme from Justine" by Bruno Nicolai or "Bart" by the obscure US band "Ruby"? Happy memories indeed! Cheers Ray

Subject: RE: History - BBC's 'Singing Together'
From: GUEST,Jonah
Date: 05 Oct 10 - 12:45 PM

Does anyone remember an Hungarian folk song on Singing Together It would be about 1959 or 1960 I believe.   What was its title?

Subject: RE: History - BBC's 'Singing Together'
From: GUEST,Ralph Bacon MBE
Date: 27 Sep 10 - 11:11 AM

This thread has confirmed the wide influence of Singing Togethern broadcasts and also the influence of 'Pip' Appleby whose idea it was. It has even brought an apology for the sound of cello practice from Yvonne Jackman my neighbour of years ago.
E mail: rbaconmbe@aol .com for anybody else who remembers me.

Subject: RE: History - BBC's 'Singing Together'
From: GUEST,SRD
Date: 06 Sep 10 - 06:09 PM

My mother was a primary school teacher at various schools in NW Kent including our village school, St Pauls, in Swanley Village. One of the 'extra skills' she bought to the job was the ability to play the piano and accompany the songs in 'Singing Together', to provide the music for 'Music and Movement' and the later equivalents. Somewhere or other I still have some of the booklets (between 1955 and 1971). Those songs, although more than a little edited and bowdlerised, helped fix the idea of folk music in me.
I particularly remember 'Westering Home', 'No John', 'Garden Where the Praties Grow' as well as later stuff; a song about Newfoundland the chorus of which went something like:
'Hip your partner, Sally Thibeau,
Hip your partner Sally Brown,
Fogo, Twillingate, Moreton's Harbour,
All around the circle.'

And my younger siblings still sing
'Oh Dagobert half dachsund, half basset hound
had ears and a stomach that trailed to the ground.
And four legs so short that they did not make sense.
With such legs he'll never see over the fence.'

Subject: RE: History - BBC's 'Singing Together'
From: GUEST,Midzone1
Date: 06 Sep 10 - 03:28 PM

Hi

My search for old recordings of Singing Together continues - especially from the seventies and early eighties. I have many sets of School Radio Broadcasts but would love to get more from Singing Together!

My oldest broadcast is the request programme from Spring Term 1977 - the winning song was Pay Me My Money Down - copy the link below for a sample from the broadcast! The presenter was John Camburn and Soloist Stephen Varcoe.

http://www.sendspace.com/file/jcop0v


If you can help with any broadcasts please email me direct - [e-mail]


Regards


Steve

Subject: RE: History - BBC's 'Singing Together'
From: GUEST,ratsmat
Date: 03 Sep 10 - 07:39 PM

1965 ish?? Zartians.. I remember it as
Calling all Zartians to take a stand
Earthmen invaders approach our Land
Up and Attack to make them draw back
We are all set and our spaceships manned.

Calling all Zartians Out
Calling all Zartians Out

Though we are small we are brave and Strong
Our two Antenna are extra long
We can transmit every thought as we think it
We can transmit every Zartian Song

Subject: RE: History - BBC's 'Singing Together'
From: GUEST,Xi Hymn
Date: 26 Aug 10 - 05:48 AM

Joe, yes, it is the tune to The Rain Song I'm after.

Subject: RE: History - BBC's 'Singing Together'
From: Joe Offer
Date: 26 Aug 10 - 02:43 AM

I would like to actually see some of the Singing Together booklets and hear the BBC productions. Are samples of either available online?
In this thread, Kernow John said he had posted copies of the booklets online, but the link he gave now leads to an unsafe site, so I deleted his link. Anybody have contact with John, so he can lead us to the new home for his stuff? Maybe I saw Johns stuff when he posted it back in 2003, but I'm much older now and can't remember seeing them....

-Joe-

Subject: RE: History - BBC's 'Singing Together'
From: Joe Offer
Date: 25 Aug 10 - 05:54 PM

Which song are you looking for, Xi Hymn? - "The Rain Song"???

-Joe-

Subject: RE: History - BBC's 'Singing Together'
From: GUEST,Xi Hymn
Date: 25 Aug 10 - 04:49 PM

Please email me, [e-mail], if you can sing/hum/whistle it for me!

Subject: RE: History - BBC's 'Singing Together'
From: GUEST
Date: 21 Aug 10 - 12:26 PM

hello there
Read with interest you knowing William Appleby he was a fantasic example and it a great shame hes not around today. I used to teach music we also listend to his Home Service radio broadcasts to schools in late primary and early secondry. I trined to be a music teacher and I have a whole braodcast still on tape would you like a cassette of it would love to be in contact with you. My email address is [e-mail]

Hope to hear from you

dec

Subject: RE: History - BBC's 'Singing Together'
From: GUEST
Date: 21 Aug 10 - 12:15 PM

HI Ian
read your interest re Willam Appleby Singing Together Luckly I have a braodcast on tape autum term 1967 my last year at school we used to follow his radio programmes and I worked as a music teacher myself if you are keen I can et you have a copy on cassette its worth a listen emial me [e-mail] if interested

Dec

Subject: RE: History - BBC's 'Singing Together'
From: GUEST,Xi Hymn
Date: 18 Aug 10 - 05:54 PM

NO! Simon Breadbin I didn't! I can't tell you how exciting your offer is!!!!!

Subject: RE: History - BBC's 'Singing Together'
From: GUEST,Simon Breadbin
Date: 13 Aug 10 - 06:23 AM

RE: History - BBC's 'Singing Together'

Hey Xi Hymn, did you find your music? I know the tune and often sing it at top volume, to annoy my girlfriend. It was one of my favourite songs at school. I'll happily sing it for you as I'd forgotten the words and your post was very useful.

Subject: RE: History - BBC's 'Singing Together'
From: GUEST
Date: 10 Aug 10 - 09:51 AM

I remember the tune :-)

Subject: RE: History - BBC's 'Singing Together'
From: mikesamwild
Date: 23 Jul 10 - 12:01 PM

My teacher at Birchfields Primary Schhol Manchester, Miss Hedgewick, taught us songs in 1948 when I was about 9. She would reward you with Cherry Lips sweets from a tin if you sang well!
My love of a lot of folk songs stems from her.

She did explain that New York gals was a bit riskier than she taught us , not a prude I think!

Subject: RE: History - BBC's 'Singing Together'
From: GUEST,Yvonne Jackman
Date: 23 Jul 10 - 11:54 AM

I have just found this incredibly nostalgic site. I was a Doncaster school pupil during the fifties and sixties and had the privilege of knowing 'Pip' Appleby personally. He was a great friend of my secondary school Headmistress, Miss Woollett and together they ran a Thursday lunchtime 'Listeners Club' where we heard recordings of the great classics and followed the music on miniature scores. Thanks to 'Pip' I was invited to join the Danensian Singers group and went to Leeds to record Singing Together programmes. He also used us to record hymns for the BBC Daily service for which we were paid the princely sum of £9.... a small fortune to a 16 year old in those days. Pip also encouraged me to play the 'cello'and arranged for me to have free lessons and the loan of an instrument for the remainder of my school days.
I noticed an earlier post from Ralph Bacon MBE - He and his family lived next door to us in Finch Road, so the poor man had to endure the sound of my practising - it must have been excruciating.
I still have my singing together pamplets from the 1950s - I was given them at primary school to use for tunes to play on my recorder.I owe my enduring love of classical music to William Appleby and his involvement with the Doncaster schools music service.

Subject: RE: History - BBC's 'Singing Together'
From: GUEST,Robin Carmody
Date: 07 Jul 10 - 05:43 PM

A bit of both, I think.

Subject: RE: History - BBC's 'Singing Together'
From: GUEST,Ronan
Date: 07 Jul 10 - 08:19 AM

Hi

Wonderful to discover this long-running thread. Strange how so many people have the same kind of memories. The wooden speaker plugged into some kind of socket that ran to the headmasters's office. Two classes squeezed into one classroom, etc.

We grew up in an urban setting in South London and the lyrics were sometimes like a kind of cultural education. Places like Wales, Yorkshire, Scotland were like another universe. I remember things like Men of Harlech and Lisa Llan particularly.

At the time (in the sixties) I was also buying the Record Song Book which had the lyrics of chart music. I remember experiencing a conflict between the way I sang those songs, and the way we were expected to sing in "Singing Together". I guess there were kind of blue-note slurs in all the pop songs, whereas the "folk" songs as delivered by William Appleby were squarely on the notes.

The folk songs I later came to appreciate are usually spiced with ornamental lead-in notes and jumps (can't remember what to call them - in guitar playing I would call them hammers and pull-offs). The Singing Together style must have been somehow cleaned up or simplified - or was it because they weren't being sung by folk singers as such?

Subject: ADD: The Rain Song (Perry & Coombes)
From: GUEST,Xi Hymn
Date: 30 Jun 10 - 03:32 PM

Ruthie Two Shoes, the words are....

THE RAIN SONG
(John Perry and Douglas Coombes)

On Monday morning he got up.
"It's raining, it's raining again!"
"I can't go to school today," he said
"It's raining, it's raining again!"

Chorus: Antonio! Antonio!
it's raining, it's raining again!"

On Tuesday morning he got up.
"It's raining, it's raining again!"
"I can't play football today," he said.
"It's raining, it's raining again!"

On Wednesday morning he got up.
"It's raining, it's raining again!"
"I can't go shopping today," he said,
"It's raining, it's raining again!"

On Thursday morning he got up.
"It's raining, it's raining again!"
"I can't go swimming today," he said,
"It's raining, it's raining again!"

On Friday morning he got up.
"It's raining, it's raining again!"
"I can't paint the house today," he said,
"It's raining, it's raining again!"

On Saturday morning he got up.
"It's raining, it's raining again!"
"I can't sweep the floor today," he said,
"It's raining, it's raining again!"

On Sunday morning he got up.
"It's raining, it's raining again!"
"I can't cook the dinner today," he said,
"It's raining, it's raining again!"

I have found these lyrics because I'm desperate to rediscover the song but can only recall a fragment of the tune. So if you have the melody or sheet music or a recording of it or knowledge of where I can find them... or even just a willingness to sing/hum it, then please let me know.

---

Note from Joe Offer: This page says the songwriters are John Perry and Douglas Coombes.

Subject: RE: History - BBC's 'Singing Together'
From: GUEST,Midzone
Date: 11 Jun 10 - 09:26 AM

In reply to Robert the Singing Together presenters for those years are talking about are:

Autumn Term 1976 - Johnny Morris
Spring Term 1977 - John Camburn
Summer Term 1978 - John Amis

Subject: RE: History - BBC's 'Singing Together'
From: GUEST,Lynn Breeze
Date: 11 Jun 10 - 08:18 AM

I illustrated a few of the song books for the BBC during the seventies/ eighties. They were great fun to do... simple two colour jobs and I probably still have them in my files somewhere. It's good to hear they may still be going.

Subject: RE: History - BBC's 'Singing Together'
From: GUEST,Robin Carmody
Date: 12 May 10 - 09:16 PM

Gwen/Croaker upthread: I've got the Autumn 1983 pupil's book. The songs were:

Patrick on the Railroad (Ireland, aka "...to work upon the railway")
Tinga Layo (West Indies)
Skye Boat Song (Scotland - obviously!)
The Blue-Tail Fly (USA)
Guy Fawkes (England - a prime example of a song that wouldn't be taken seriously today: best/worst line "that is, he would have used the gas, but solely was prevented, 'cause gas, you know, in James's time, it wasn't then invented")
Sleep my Baby (Wales)
Christmas Day in the Morning (England)
Calypso Carol (Canada)
Song of the Crib (Germany)
Now in Bethlem (Mexico)
Hey Little Bull (Brazil)

Subject: RE: History - BBC's 'Singing Together'
From: GUEST,Ruthie Two Shoes
Date: 03 May 10 - 06:56 AM

Would love to find the words to Antonion, it's raining again ready for our camping holiday this year with the grandchildren - how do I find them?

Subject: RE: History - BBC's 'Singing Together'
From: GUEST,Robert
Date: 24 Apr 10 - 06:54 AM

I can remember the Singing Together broadcasts in the 1970s. I was at Castlehill Primary School in Bearsden and we got Singing Together from P5 through to P7. The songbooks that accompanied the broadcasts were always beautifully illustrated. The broadcasts were entertaining although I wasn't too keen on the old ballads. I think it's fair to say that the words "fair maid" and "love" occurred in a Singing Together broadcast like the word "minister" in an episode of Yes Minister. At the end of each series there was a vote on the most popular songs that had featured in that series. The winners of the vote were always bouncy upbeat non-romantic songs like Pay Me My Money Down and The Banana Boat Song. The teacher I had in P7, a woman who seemed to think kids should only like the things that elderly ladies in the 1970s liked, complained about the ballads being at the bottom of the poll or not included at all. She had no empathy with kids. On the subject of the vote, can you tell me the name of the presenter. I know one was Johnny Morris but who was the other one? If I can speak freely, he was a bit of a drip. The week before the results of the vote, he finished the programme by saying "Next week we're going to find out the results of your votes. Oh I can hardly wait". When the programme with the vote was broadcast he started with the words "At last the great day has arrived!". My words to him, 35 years on, are "Get a life". He was on another schools radio programme, the title of which I can't remember, and he said "You know, at school people used to call me "Rosie, Rosebud" and there's nothing really rosy about me at all". But it's fair to say he sounded a bit camp. Anyway, part of my not too fondly remembered years at Castlehill Primary but Singing Together was a good programme which definitely did stimulate my interest in music.

Subject: RE: History - BBC's 'Singing Together'
From: GUEST,Alban
Date: 22 Apr 10 - 07:35 PM

Ive just seen that somone is selling Singing Together, Time & Tune, Music Workshop, Music Makers & Music time pamphlets and Teachers Notes on ebay, they look a bargain!!!!

Alban

Subject: RE: History - BBC's 'Singing Together'
From: Weasel
Date: 21 Apr 10 - 06:21 PM

It's certainly true that the kids don't "casually pick up" the things we picked up, but they're not thick! - they pick up different things.

I don't suppose we picked up the things our grandparents thought were essential.

I'm always impressed by how important children's tv programmes are to us and to them - how can they live without having known The Woodentops? - but to them, Postman Pat is just as wonderful, the Clangers are as vital to their history as Rag Tag and Bobtail or Bill and Ben were to ours.

I remember singing "For she is the flower of Killarny" from "Singing Together" when I was about 9 years old, most of us were in love with her in fact, well, with the pen drawing of the Irish beauty that headed the page, and we all identified with Black Sir Harry and that last knight who declared, "my bride, my queen, thou must with me" in "the Red the Green and the Yellow". The kids would laugh at such songs now, just at their grandchildren will laugh at their songs.

We can try to pass on to our children the things we think are important, but the tradition is, and should be, a living one that grows.

Subject: RE: History - BBC's 'Singing Together'
From: Edthefolkie
Date: 21 Apr 10 - 05:27 PM

On a point of information Borchester, the words of "Silent Worship" appear to have been written by Sir Arthur Somervell but were certainly set to his adaptation of the aria by Handel.

I knew the song from primary school and the BBC, and I bet Barry Dransfield did too - I was so blown away by his rendering on "Unruly" a couple of years ago that I did a bit of Googling and found at least some of the song's origins. Obviously the lyric is meant to evoke the 18th century but to me it's redolent of the 1890s/early 1900s - I can imagine Walter Crane or Arthur Rackham illustrating it.

It's very true, as several people said, that unfortunately children don't casually acquire gems like these any more - I believe it was called education wasn't it?

Subject: RE: History - BBC's 'Singing Together'
From: GUEST,Robert
Date: 21 Apr 10 - 03:13 PM

I've just noticed that someone is selling Singing Together / Time & Tune, Music Workshop, Music Time pamphlets and teachers notes on e-bay.

Subject: RE: History - BBC's 'Singing Together'
From: GUEST,Cath
Date: 15 Mar 10 - 06:56 PM

@drivers, @rosiet Great to track down others who remember the Zartians! From 1965ish??

Calling all Zartians to take a stand
Earthmen invaders approach our land
Come and attack and make them draw back
We are all set and our spaceships manned

[I'd forgotten this last line...]

And from the same time - I used to love singing 'Streets of Laredo' - I always thought it was most sad...

Cath