Show of Hands - Roots - what a track!

Subject: RE: Show of Hands - Roots - what a track!
From: Robertlouis
Date: 27 Jul 06 - 08:34 AM

I was referring to a few members of our government - all right, I'll name them: Blair and Prescott - who I'd be happy to see the back of. But it's not *because* they happen to be (respectively) Scottish and Welsh, but because I think they've overstayed their welcome. It was a light-hearted remark in passing, indicated by the smiley. Just thought I'd make that clear!

Sorry scrump - Prescott's Welsh? Which part of Wales is Hull in, exactly?

Probably a momentary lapse, but get your own country's geography right and don't try to blame that tosser on the Welsh please.

And don't forget that in the 80s the absence of parliamentary representation for the Tories in Scotland and Wales meant that we had to put up with carpetbaggers from English seats supposedly representing us in cabinet. And the poll tax which the Scots voted against hit them first. Bloody hell, you English have short memories. We've had to put up with the absentee crap for centuries.

Lights blue touchpaper and retires..........

RL

Subject: RE: Show of Hands - Roots - what a track!
From: The Borchester Echo
Date: 27 Jul 06 - 08:40 AM

Prescott was born in North Wales. Like most things in his life, this was probably an accident.

Subject: RE: Show of Hands - Roots - what a track!
From: JamesHenry
Date: 27 Jul 06 - 08:56 AM

We, the English are a mongrel nation. The Romans, Anglo Saxons, Vikings, Normans and a whole plethora of cultural influences have contributed to make us who we are today. Our surnames are generally a clue to where our origins lie. We have, as a race, probably been trying to figure out who we are and what it means to be who we are since the Romans first arrived in what they called Britannia in 54BC.
The Celts would have certainly known who they were but when Caraticus was betrayed, the Druids wiped out on Anglesey and Boudicca was finally defeated in the Midlands, they were subdued and their culture and influence began to wane. The Romans couldn't defeat the Picts so they were contained north of the Roman Wall built by Hadrian in 122 AD.
In 450 AD the Angles and the Saxons arrived and pushed the remaining Celts into Cornwall and Wales and renamed the country Angleland.
Around the year 500AD, legend has it that a brave and fearless soldier called Arthur chased the Saxons from the land but about 50 years later they returned and settled for good, evidenced by place names ending in -ton, -worth and -ley.
In 793AD the Vikings arrived and pillaged Lindisfarne. They settled, were defeated by Alfred at Eddington and the kingdom was split. Alfred ruled Wessex and the Vikings settled in what was called Danelaw. Ethelred lost the whole lot in 1017, Canute regained it and encouraged the spread of Christianity. When he fell off the twig Edward from France, or Edward the Confessor, took the throne.
Harold succeeded him and while he was fighting a Norwgian claimant to the throne at Stamford Bridge, William, Duke of Normandy invaded. Harold got it in the eye at Hastings and the rest as they say is history.
Well perhaps not quite. I'm trying to answer the question put by Lizziecornish, "What does it mean to me to be English" Well I've got this far Lizzie. Perhaps Steve Knightley, yourself or anyone else for that matter could take up the story and we might find out the answer?

Subject: Lyr Add: KINGS AND QUEENS OF ENGLAND (Vic Gammon)
From: The Borchester Echo
Date: 27 Jul 06 - 09:11 AM

Now Charles the Second had eleven bastard children
George the Third went mad
And Edward the Seventh they thought was Jack the Ripper
But Richard the Third weren't as bad as people thought he was
Victoria laid back and thought of England
Charles the First lost his head
Well the best thing about those Kings and Queens of England
Is that most of them are dead....

Chorus

Singing, Rule Britannia, Britannia waives the rules
Kings, Queens, Jacks and Knaves and Tyrants
Cheats and Fools

Now William the Third was a Protestant and Dutchman
James the First was a Scot
And George the First spoke nothing else but German
What a mixed up, interbred lot
And William the First, was a grasping Norman bastard
Believe me it's no lie
Well, there hasn't been an English King of England
Since Harold got one in the eye

Chorus

Now she was a well-heeled blue-blood Cinderella
Him, Prince Charming with big ears
But he had a thing going with the ugly sister
So it ended all in tears
So arise now you ghosts of old Oliver Cromwell
Brave Harrison and Tom Paine
Would you rid our land of this monstrous carbuncle
And bring sunshine after the reign?

Chorus

(Vic Gammon)

Subject: RE: Show of Hands - Roots - what a track!
From: countrylife
Date: 27 Jul 06 - 09:20 AM

"Things change through peoples' actions, the example that they set and how they treat others, not through a song, no matter how pleasant or controversial it is."

Things will not change..not while people bitch and whine at each other

Subject: RE: Show of Hands - Roots - what a track!
From: countrylife
Date: 27 Jul 06 - 09:28 AM

Actually a play did indeed effect change in law. Someones reference to John Tams reminded me of his song How High The Price?, which in turn was used in the Lee Hall adaptation of the play The Good Hope (JT appeared in the play) The orginal Herman Heijermans 1900 play is based on the true story of a Dutch fishing community whose men were sent to sea in a rotten boat (The Good Hope of the title). It was a campaigning play that led to a change in Dutch law.

Subject: RE: Show of Hands - Roots - what a track!
From: GUEST,Keith
Date: 27 Jul 06 - 09:28 AM

>>Prescott was born in North Wales. Like most things in his life, this was probably an accident.

He was born in Prestatyn, primary schooled in Yorkshire, secondary schooled in Ellesmere Port (Cheshire). He still has family locally. A few years ago now, I turned from the cash machine outside a bank in Chester and said hello to the bloke behind me, who looked very familiar. I thought I knew him from work. As I walked down the street I realised that the reason he looked so familiar was there had been a big picture of the Labour Deputy Leader addressing a party conference in Blackpool on the front of that mornings newspaper! He had obviously dropped in to visit family on his way back to London.

He has been MP for Hull for a long time (I think 1970), hence why people associate him with there.

I wonder if the former lead singer of the Ugly Rumours knows the words to Go Now? I presume Gordon Brown plays that one quite loudly in his Number 11 office with all the windows open, possibly followed up by Steve Knightley's Crooked Man.

Subject: Lyr Add: HOW HIGH THE PRICE (John Tams)
From: countrylife
Date: 27 Jul 06 - 09:35 AM

How High The Price?
(John Tams)


How high the price
How deep the water
That makes widows out of wives
For this is not fish you're eating
This is men's lives...

All clouds the sky
The boats are leaving
One last goodbye
Dark waters call us on
The Northern Sea
Knows well the sound of grieving
How slight the fate
We put our trust upon

Then go we must
No longer can we tarry
The water's wide
Yet we must go and try
And like a bird on a silvery morning
Home to your side we will chance to fly

And the water shines like patent leather
We search for signs upon this lifeless ground
The reckoning sky calls down some heavy weather
We've come for fish, and fish need must be found

Then go we must
No longer can we tarry
The water's wide
Yet we must go and try
And like a bird on a silvery morning
Home to your side we will chance to fly

And we ride the flood and trust to glory
Some planks of wood no thicker than your thumb
It's all that keeps the telling of our story
From being lost or maybe being won

Then go we must
No longer can we tarry
The water's wide
Yet we must go and try
And like a bird on a silvery morning
Home to your side we will chance to fly

All clouds the sky
The boats are leaving
One last goodbye
Dark waters call us on
The Northern Sea
Knows well the sound of grieving
How slight the fate
We put our trust upon

Then go we must
No longer can we tarry
The water's wide
Yet we must go and try
And like a bird on a silvery morning
Home to your side we will chance to fly

Home to your side we will chance to fly

sung by John Tams and Barry Coope

Subject: Lyr Add: MANCHESTER RAMBLER (MacColl, Tams)
From: The Borchester Echo
Date: 27 Jul 06 - 09:53 AM

Well, if we're doing Tams now, here's his rewrite of Ewan MacColl's Manchester Rambler which was quoted from earlier:



I've camped out on Crowden, rambled on Snowdon
Slept by the Wainstones as well.
I've sunbathed on Kinder, been burnt to a cinder
And many's the tale I can tell.
Me rucksack has oft been my pillow
Heather has oft been my bed.
But sooner than part from these mountains I love,
Well I think I would rather be dead.

There's pleasure in dragging the peat bogs, and bragging,
Of all the the fine walks that you know.
There's even a measure of some kind of pleasure,
In wading through ten feet of snow.
Well I've seen the white hare on the heather,
The curlew fly high overhead.
But, sooner than part from these mountains I love,
Well, I think I would rather be dead.

CHORUS

Nothing changes, It all stays the same,
They're selling the moorland for profit and gain.
They've sold all the rivers, bought all the rain,
And you can't go up there, you're disturbing the game.
Cod's roe, caviar, milk stout and champagne,
Gold cards and dole cards but never the twain,
That's the game, that's their game.
Nothing changes, it all stays the same.

So, I'll go where I will over mountain and hill,
And I'll lie where the bracken lies deep.
I belong to these mountains, these clear crystal fountains,
Where the rocks they stand rugged and steep.
Well, I've stood on the edge of the downfall,
Seen all the valleys outspread.
No man has the right to own these mountains I love,
Anymore than the wide ocean bed.

Repeat CHORUS.



Ewan MacColl (rewritten by John Tams)

Subject: RE: Show of Hands - Roots - what a track!
From: JamesHenry
Date: 27 Jul 06 - 09:56 AM

It's a moving song countrylife but I'm struggling to find a connection to this thread, even with reference to post 9:28 above. Could you elucidate please?

Subject: RE: Show of Hands - Roots - what a track!
From: The Borchester Echo
Date: 27 Jul 06 - 10:02 AM

Nothing changes, it all stays the same

Reference Guest: 0647, before you ask.

Subject: RE: Show of Hands - Roots - what a track!
From: countrylife
Date: 27 Jul 06 - 10:27 AM

IT's merely another example of how we see our countries of origin, in this case England, Steve Knightley has his, John Tams has is, another that came to mind is Richard Thompson's The New St. George, Maggie Holland's A Place Called England, the list is endless. Can change be effected through music, I like to think it's a possibility (I'm optimistic that way) but I'm realistic as well, and tend to think the chances, though there, are small. Co-operation between people will effect the change, in the long run, but as I noted in an early posting, that's not likely, not so long as we bitch and whine at each other

Subject: RE: Show of Hands - Roots - what a track!
From: Robertlouis
Date: 27 Jul 06 - 10:52 AM

Scrump

I apologise unreservedly concerning Prescott's birthplace. Doubt if there's a blue plaque on the building though....

Picking up on countrylife's last post, Knightley's view of England as expressed in Roots, and earlier in Country Life and back to songs like Cold Heart of England - at least the man's consistent in his views - may be jaundiced, but it comes across to me as an outsider, albeit one with strong emotional ties to England, as depressingly accurate in too many respects.

It's my flag too and I want it back, indeed!

For what it's worth, Maggie Holland's A Place Called England starts in the same depressing place but ends on a note of glorious optimism - seek it out if you haven't heard it.

Oh, in for a penny, in for a pound. Maybe if you got rid of the royal family.........

Lights blue touchpaper again. Gosh, this is fun!

Subject: RE: Show of Hands - Roots - what a track!
From: Scrump
Date: 27 Jul 06 - 11:00 AM

Robertlouis wrote: Sorry scrump - Prescott's Welsh? Which part of Wales is Hull in, exactly?

Probably a momentary lapse, but get your own country's geography right and don't try to blame that tosser on the Welsh please.

I'm well aware where Hull is, thank you very much, and I also knew that the bloated waste of space (not to mention taxpayers' money) they call Prescott, originated not from there, but from Prestatyn, as others have since pointed out.

So far from me having to learn my own country's geography, I think you owe me an apology. Indeed you owe us all an apology on behalf of your country for foisting that sack of lard - by your own admission a "tosser" - on us.

;-)

Subject: RE: Show of Hands - Roots - what a track!
From: Cllr
Date: 27 Jul 06 - 11:03 AM

I think there is an element "here we are left wing so obviously we are in the right" (as it were) Most people know here that i am a conservative activist and the lyrics apeak just as strongly to me with out putting it on a left right axis.

I have in th past as a club organiser booked Show of Hands and Maggie Holland and for a while Robb Johnson was official resident of a club i was running in slough!

Sometimes the "self congratulatory" left wing of the folk scene seemingly want to keep the music to themselves (i dont mean the artists) perhaps this is why some people think MOR is the worst curse you can utter. folk music is for everyone Cllr

Subject: RE: Show of Hands - Roots - what a track!
From: Scrump
Date: 27 Jul 06 - 11:05 AM

Oops, your post hadn't appeared when I did my last one. Apology accepted Robertlouis.

Subject: RE: Show of Hands - Roots - what a track!
From: countrylife
Date: 27 Jul 06 - 11:32 AM

"Most people know here that i am a conservative activist"

Which reminds me of yet another persons "Vision Of Albion" as it were,
Peter Bellamy, and he was a conservative as well...

"Bellamists subscribe to a belief in the absolute purity and oneness of all things Bellamy, and bleat daily incantations in the hope of advancing the day when he will finally return to reign in ever-lasting glory" - Jon Boden

Sorry, couldn't resist!

Subject: RE: Show of Hands - Roots - what a track!
From: Robertlouis
Date: 27 Jul 06 - 11:41 AM

Wrong country Scrump.

I'll take some blame for Blair (although he does come from Embra) and son of the manse Broon fae Fife, but not Prescott.

At the risk of altogether lowering in the tone, does anyone else find it amusing, in light of his recent antics, that he was born in "Prestatyn?"

Oh, please yourselves.

And countess - please head north, where creatures of your type haven't been much in evidence since the 1950s north of the border and it would be a nice wee bit of rarity value.

Needless to say I love Scotland, but hell, I'm glad I don't live there...........

Subject: RE: Show of Hands - Roots - what a track!
From: The Borchester Echo
Date: 27 Jul 06 - 11:43 AM

and he was a conservative as well

Peter Bellamy was no such thing. He was a free thinker who didn't, unusually, misconstrue and misrepresent Rudyard Kipling's concept of patriotism. He had no time for organised politics but was a very fine musician with very high standards of interpretation. I'm a Bellamist too if it involves aspiring to his high standards of accompaniment, harmony and getting the story over to the audience.

Subject: RE: Show of Hands - Roots - what a track!
From: The Borchester Echo
Date: 27 Jul 06 - 11:47 AM

No idea what you mean RL but I must point out that one of my ancestors' skeletons has been found on the cliffs near Scarborough where we have been inhabiting the North Yorkshire Moors for almost a millenium (that can be traced, anyway).

Subject: Lyr Add: SIR RICHARD'S SONG (Kipling, Bellamy)
From: GUEST,Keith
Date: 27 Jul 06 - 11:56 AM

>>Peter Bellamy...was a very fine musician with very high standards of interpretation.

I am indebteded to Paul Downes for introducing me (about 25 years ago)to this Peter Bellamy opus about England's capacity to adsorb people. 1066 and all that indeed.

Sir Richard's Song   

I followed my Duke ere I was a lover, To take from England flef and fee;
But now this game is the other way over-But now England hath taken me!
I had my horse, my shield and banner, And a boy's heart, so whole and free;
But now I sing in another manner-But now England hath taken me!

As for my Father in his tower, Asking news of my ship at sea,
He will remember his own hour-Tell him England hath taken me!

As for my Mother in her bower, That rules my Father so cunningly,
She will remember a maiden's power-Tell her England hath taken me!

As for my Brother in Rouen City, A nimble and naughty page is he,
But he will come to suffer and pity--Tell him England hath taken me!

As for my little Sister waiting In the pleasant orchards of Normandie,
Tell her youth is the time for mating-Tell her England hath taken me!

As for my comrades in camp and highway, That lift their eyebrows scornfully,
Tell them their way is not my way-Tell them England hath taken me!

Kings and Princes and Barons famed, Knights and Captains in your degree,
Hear me a little before I am blamed-Seeing England hath taken me!

Howso great man's strength be reckoned, There are two things he canriot flee.
Love is the first, and Death is the second-And Love in England hath taken me!

(Lyrics: Rudyard Kipling/ Arrang.: Peter Bellamy)

Subject: RE: Show of Hands - Roots - what a track!
From: The Borchester Echo
Date: 27 Jul 06 - 12:08 PM

Well, actually it's about love in another land transcending patriotic alliegance to a homeland, but since this must be why my ancestors never made it back to Normandy either, I'll go along with it. And it's a lovely tune.

Subject: RE: Show of Hands - Roots - what a track!
From: JamesHenry
Date: 27 Jul 06 - 12:22 PM

Mine never made it back to Norway.

Subject: RE: Show of Hands - Roots - what a track!
From: Robertlouis
Date: 27 Jul 06 - 12:34 PM

**No idea what you mean RL but I must point out that one of my ancestors' skeletons has been found on the cliffs near Scarborough where we have been inhabiting the North Yorkshire Moors for almost a millenium (that can be traced, anyway).**

There are not too many Tories in Scotland, ma'am. However, if you hail from North Yorkshire, that's splendid. My late uncle was harbourmaster at Whitby for many years and it's a part of the country I know and love well.

And I'm pure Scots for 300 years back until a little bit of Swedish intervened.

Subject: RE: Show of Hands - Roots - what a track!
From: The Borchester Echo
Date: 27 Jul 06 - 12:43 PM

Still don't know what you mean. You're not calling me a Tory are you? I think it was my great-grandfather's brother who also was a Whitby harbourmaster. After Henry VIII nicked all their ill-gotten land they had to work, you see.

Subject: RE: Show of Hands - Roots - what a track!
From: countrylife
Date: 27 Jul 06 - 12:51 PM

"and he was a conservative as well"
"Peter Bellamy was no such thing"

Three easily verifable sources state that, and I quote "Peter was that rare creature, the right-wing folk singer."

Subject: RE: Show of Hands - Roots - what a track!
From: The Borchester Echo
Date: 27 Jul 06 - 12:57 PM

It's not all that rare (ask the Cllr) but Elmer P Bleaty, who I first met in 1965, wasn't one of them.

Subject: RE: Show of Hands - Roots - what a track!
From: countrylife
Date: 27 Jul 06 - 01:01 PM

"Bellamists subscribe to a belief in the absolute purity and oneness of all things Bellamy, and bleat daily incantations in the hope of advancing the day when he will finally return to reign in ever-lasting glory" - Jon Boden

I checked Jon Boden's site...he was joking when he said this....he has a sense of humour at least

Subject: RE: Show of Hands - Roots - what a track!
From: countrylife
Date: 27 Jul 06 - 01:04 PM

Elmer P. Bleaty

In case anyone was was wondering....Bellamy had a distinctive singing style. At a Whitby folk festival sometime in the 1980s an anagram competition came up with "Elmer P Bleaty" for Peter Bellamy, a humorous comment on the slightly nasal vibrato of his voice.

Subject: RE: Show of Hands - Roots - what a track!
From: Robertlouis
Date: 27 Jul 06 - 01:07 PM

Perhaps I'm being simplistic but doesn't "conservative activist" morph quite easily into "Tory" or has local factionalism on the right now gone that final step?

BTW, for everyone who blithely says that the Scots MPs should be disenfranchised from voting on English matters and that Scotland can have its independence, possibly with Wales gaining the same freedom, just consider the likely outcome of that process at the English domestic level - permanent conservative hegemony in England.

Step back from the brink, folks.

And I still think Roots is a good, catchy, commercial, if all too obviously polemical song. I much prefer Steve when he's being subtle and indirect. Still, it has got us talking, hasn't it?

Subject: RE: Show of Hands - Roots - what a track!
From: The Borchester Echo
Date: 27 Jul 06 - 01:08 PM

Obviously the big scraping one is joking. But at least he didn't jump to ill-thought-out conclusions about the politics of his musical hero.

Subject: RE: Show of Hands - Roots - what a track!
From: countrylife
Date: 27 Jul 06 - 01:09 PM

"I think it was my great-grandfather's brother who also was a Whitby harbourmaster"

Good God!!! Wasn't Steve Knightley's great grandfather the harbour master at Southampton........?

Just asking.....;-P

Subject: RE: Show of Hands - Roots - what a track!
From: countrylife
Date: 27 Jul 06 - 01:12 PM

Not ill thought merely based on what I've read from various sources..ultimately it makes no difference one way or the other...Peter Bellamy simply was an incredible singer, and lest people forget a great composer...witness The Transports...

Subject: RE: Show of Hands - Roots - what a track!
From: countrylife
Date: 27 Jul 06 - 01:13 PM

and yes I have my YT recordings on vinyl...

Subject: RE: Show of Hands - Roots - what a track!
From: GUEST,Jon
Date: 27 Jul 06 - 01:15 PM

"What does it mean to me to be English"

Well it means little to me. It gives me a team to support (unless as withe the Football world cup, the media ram it down my throat) in sport but, it means I might know what box to tick on a form, etc but little else. I'm not particulary proud over our history with our neighbouring countries or with our empire building...

I'm not sure whether living in Wales a lot of my life has helped me consider myself largely "unrooted" or not. I have on occasions thought it has but the more I think about it, it probably made little difference.

Ulimately I'm me, in some ways pretty much a loner, and this me is not really a creature that has a great need for any form of "group identity".

There are issues in the "roots" song that mean something to me, but really they aren't specifically English issues anyway. I've known loosing a session in Wales to a Reggae night, another as it became a pub trying to cash in on trade moving towards a late night disco, the "American pie" type requests are familiar, you can play tunes such as Ty Coch Caerdydd to have people think they must be Irish because the dance tradition, at least in the Llanduno area is not as well known as say singing Calon Lan, etc.

Largely much is just an effect of commercialism and our consumer driven world, something no nation is immune to.

Fortunately, I know where to find what I want to find with music.

Subject: RE: Show of Hands - Roots - what a track!
From: The Borchester Echo
Date: 27 Jul 06 - 01:22 PM

Didn't really mean that your conclusions were ill-thought-out; I was merely criticising your readiness to accept what you'd read in these 'various sources' (I know who they are . . . ). Having spent over two decades arguing with PB, I can say that his mind could not be readily categorised and that his arguments were always intense and convincing. And that he often didn't mean what he was saying at all but just arguing for the sake of it. He loved to do that . . . as I did and do.

Fantastic blues guitarist too. He used to accompany Bob Copper . . .

Subject: RE: Show of Hands - Roots - what a track!
From: Lizzie Cornish
Date: 27 Jul 06 - 01:29 PM

From Diane:

"And that he often didn't mean what he was saying at all but just arguing for the sake of it. He loved to do that . . . as I did and do."

Gosh, does that mean that you *really* love me then countess?

(splutter!)

;0)

Subject: RE: Show of Hands - Roots - what a track!
From: The Borchester Echo
Date: 27 Jul 06 - 01:41 PM

No LC, I don't argue with you. As someone else says, your utterances are lacking in cojones so where would be the point? I just try and correct some of your more outrageously inane outpourings and limit the damage. A bit like following a horse around with a shovel and bucket, really.

Subject: RE: Show of Hands - Roots - what a track!
From: Lizzie Cornish
Date: 27 Jul 06 - 01:51 PM

Excuse moi....being of Spanish Ancestory, that is a very rude Spanish word! Don't you know any proper English *at all*......

Subject: RE: Show of Hands - Roots - what a track!
From: countrylife
Date: 27 Jul 06 - 02:00 PM

Fantastic blues guitarist too. He used to accompany Bob Copper . . .
and I just discovered courtesey of Karl Dallas' remembrance,
PB was an Elvis Presley fan as well...what a man! (PB not Elvis Presley)

Subject: RE: Show of Hands - Roots - what a track!
From: Jeri
Date: 27 Jul 06 - 02:17 PM

This is one band I don't want to hear about or from, if only because the name will always remind me of this thread.

Subject: RE: Show of Hands - Roots - what a track!
From: Lizzie Cornish
Date: 27 Jul 06 - 02:21 PM

That's a great shame Jeri, this thread is incredibly interesting. Each to their own though.

Not sure how we drifted from Show of Hands to Peter Bellamy, but...all threads weave into beautiful tapestries eventually...so here's a good site about Peter:

http://thetransports.tripod.com/

Subject: RE: Show of Hands - Roots - what a track!
From: GUEST,Jon
Date: 27 Jul 06 - 02:22 PM

This is one band I don't want to hear about or from, if only because the name will always remind me of this thread.

You have yet to see a proper SOH thread, Jeri.

Subject: RE: Show of Hands - Roots - what a track!
From: Jeri
Date: 27 Jul 06 - 03:53 PM

You have a point there, Jon, but I don't know how long one would survive.

I had the pleasure of hearing Peter Bellamy and meeting him briefly. I enjoyed his vocal style and he was responsible for the fist song I learned on purpose, even if I've never sung it in front of witnesses Wish he'd hung around longer.

Subject: RE: Show of Hands - Roots - what a track!
From: Lizzie Cornish
Date: 27 Jul 06 - 04:14 PM

Oh Jeri...you'd survive and have a smile on your face! And not only that...but you'd be 'hooked in' in no time! Jon can never resist a SoH thread! ;0)

You can hear dozens of their songs right here:

https://www.showofhands.co.uk/merchandisev2/songbook/songbook.html

Subject: RE: Show of Hands - Roots - what a track!
From: GUEST,Jon
Date: 27 Jul 06 - 04:23 PM

I've resisted a few, Lizzie, although not as many as I wish I had. I haven't minded this one BTW - overall, rather more attempt at discussion than some past ones elsewhere.

I know Jeri well enough to know she would not find any fun at all in a "proper SOH" thread, particulary if they became routine.

Subject: RE: Show of Hands - Roots - what a track!
From: GUEST,Jon
Date: 27 Jul 06 - 04:28 PM

Oh well, I seem to have got the 200.

Time for me to go and do something else now. Alby folk club tonight - only 10 minutes down the road, will see if I can do a bit of playing or singing instead of talking here. Not sure my nerves are up to it though...

Subject: RE: Show of Hands - Roots - what a track!
From: GUEST,Robertlouis
Date: 28 Jul 06 - 05:46 AM

Right everyone.

Behave for the next three days please. I'm off to the Cambridge Folk Festival where I will be seeing lots of wonderful acts and will also be performing.

But my own songs - no SoH covers, or Peter Bellamy for that matter.

Subject: RE: Show of Hands - Roots - what a track!
From: JamesHenry
Date: 28 Jul 06 - 06:25 AM

All the best RL. Knock 'em dead.

Subject: RE: Show of Hands - Roots - what a track!
From: Lizzie Cornish
Date: 29 Jul 06 - 11:22 AM

This.....is England!

The Albion Chronicles:
http://thealbionchronicles.tripod.com/id1.html

Lizzie :0)