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Post Whit tour
Well we had a great time, as expected. We didn't get rained on and Sunday especially was a very sunny day.
We arrived at various times on the Friday evening and had a few beers then our musicians played a few tunes. I tried out my MP3 again, but still not got the instructions quite right so nothing was recorded, oh well.
Saturday we started off very well at our first stand, nice big crowd fine weather. It was at this point one of our new men discovered he had left his new baldrick at home. But buoyed with enthusiasm he popped over to the market and bought some ribbon, a needle and cotton, then on the coach trip to the next stand produced a very creditable result, well done.
Lunch time was interesting, we had booked sandwiches and when the two platefulls arrived we paused expecting more to turn up, well they didn't so we polished the few in very quick time and I think the landlord must have heard the mutterings because eventually another platefull arrived. So short sighted these days of high speed communication to be mean on basics.
On the positive side we not bloated so there was no chance for our afternoon performances to be anything other than perfection.
Excellent evening meal, and as we were finishing the concerned landlord said to one of our musicians that the locals we wanting to play on his Melodian, we were relaxed over it and from there a grand evening developed. We did a few dances in the pub, got the locals up and dancing and a great time was had by all.
Sunday had a relaxing start, rather than go to join the local bellringers I had a leisurely walk on the footpaths, making a circular walk of about an hour. We eventually set off for our first stand arriving in time to walk around the village before opening time. Lunchtime brought us to a delightful pub down a very narrow lane and with the bonus of a large audience sitting out in the garden. After a jovial high quality (?) performance we sat down for our pre ordered, Sandwiches, (we are creatures of habit!). The contrast between Sat & Sun had to be seen to be believed, plate after plate arrived, we did manage to get through them all but it was a struggle. Interestingly the cost was lower. So which pub do we talk about as we go among our chosen ways?
Talking of chosen ways, we all do it as a hobby, so during normal working days yep, we too have to work.
Sunday evening saw us back at base where several of us tucked into Roast Beef. This was followed by an excellent song and tune session, which I did successfully record.
Once I have worked out how to do it I will put some of the pictures and tunes onto the blog.
posted on 31.5.06 by John
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The Whit tour
When Whitsun was a public holiday we would go down to Dorset on the Friday night stay in some village hall and dance away the weekend, traveling back on the Monday afternoon.
Well we still do that and we still call it the Whit tour despite our representatives in parliament doing their best to confuse us. But now of course we do it at the oddly named spring bank holiday weekend, how it can still be spring when we welcomed in the summer on mayday is yet another mystery.
This year we will be in border country (Sussex & Hampshire) dodging between the 4x4s and the possible light shower of rain.
It is bound to be great and I will tell you about it come Tuesday, at least any that I remember.
posted on 26.5.06 by John
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Oh to be in England
Well last night (Wednesday) is our normal dancing day, so despite it poring hard, we dutifully turned up at the Red Lion, Shoreham. Fortunately none of the potential audience wanted to get soaked by coming out to watch us, so we kept them company inside and quite near to the bar.
The landlord very generously gave us a free pint even though we didn't do any dancing. So we played a few tunes and sung a few songs.
I have just bought a cheap MP3 recorder off eBay and was keen to try it out. It caused quite a bit of interest as it is so small. Anyway I put it down by the musicians and left it.
This morning I wasted a lot of time sorting out the results and fairly happy with what I got. Will now have to play around with some editing programs to try and get rid of some background noise.
posted on 25.5.06 by John
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Day one
The start of a new venture, recording the everyday activities of a Morris Dancer.
Well it will be interesting to see what happens as time goes by.
posted on 25.5.06 by John
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