Morris and Covid-19; Part 2 Morris Dancing for the Socially Isolated

• Morris

Two weeks ago, on the 16th March, when I wrote the first article, in what now is becoming a series, no-one expected that almost immediately all Morris practices, pub nights, day's of dance and festivals would be cancelled until further notice but that is what has happened.  Even more astonishingly most of us are now required to remain in our own homes as part of the social (physical) distancing strategy.  For those of us who are feeling an urge to get back to dancing here is a way of performing the Upton on Seven Stick Dance completely in compliance with social distancing; kindly provided by Keith Graham of Colchester Morris Men.

Following the Government announcement on 16th March the Joint Morris Organisations issued a statement which confirmed that the JMO National Day of Dance planned for 18th April 2020 in Liverpool has been postponed until April 2021 on a date to be decided.

Similarly, Daniel Fox, Squire of Thaxted Morris Men announced  "the not-unexpected decision to cancel this year's Thaxted Morris Weekend due to be held on May 29 to 31.  It is the first cancellation since 1939".

Morris On!

Dave Evans

29th March 2020

Getting a Life

I wrote this article for Living Tradition Magazine in early 2020 - pre-virus. Maybe the prolonged lockdown and cancellation of festivals, folk clubs and related events and the effect this is having on the lives of many folk musicians make my thoughts even more relevant than I had anticipated. (Sorry - you may have to get out a magnfying  glass to read this clearly.)

Tony Hall Concert

• Norfolk

From Dr Badphil
Tony Hall's melodeon playing has long been much revered, and can be heard on Maddy Prior and June Tabor's 'Silly Sisters' album, on Nic Jones's 'Penguin Eggs' album, and on his own recordings: 'Field Vole Music' (1977), 'Mr Universe' (1995), and 'One Man Hand' (2008). Despite his many live performances over the years (not least with the weekly performances of The Vonn Krapp Family Band for around 50 years), there are few videos of Tony playing live. So here is a video of a short set, performed by Tony after the harvest supper at Oulton Church (Norfolk, England) in September 2022: a mixture of instrumental tunes, songs accompanied by melodeon and one unaccompanied song, all being traditional pieces.

Roland Harris recorded and filmed the performance, and Matt Phelps and Rob Moore helped considerably in preparing the way. There is more about the recording on my blog: https://drbadphil.com/tony-hall-man-a... 00:00

SET LIST
Hard Times of Old England (melodeon and vocal) 04:01
The Mist Covered Mountains (melodeon) 09:05
Down in the River to Pray (melodeon and vocal) 13:39
Kean O'Hara and Rip The Calico (melodeon) 17:10
The Farmer's Boy (melodeon and vocal) 22:58
Henry My Son - Green and Yeller (vocal) 26:47
The Flowers of Edinburgh (melodeon) 31:05
Kitty the Handsome Cat (melodeon and vocal)

New Colchester Venue

• Advert

There is a new arts venue at the church St Leonards at-the-Hythe in Colchester which is putting on a range events, including a St George Day celebration on 28th April and folk singer Pete Morton on June 6th.

Folk Songs for Today

from Les Ray

When I wrote my last column, I was eagerly looking forward to one of my highlights of the summer: Cambridge Folk Festival. Well, summer and its festivals have come and gone, so now we’re battening down the hatches in preparation for autumn (and the B-word) and becoming more contemplative.

One highlight of this year’s CFF for me was getting to interview the great Ralph McTell on my radio show broadcast live from the festival site.  In the interview, Ralph - first name terms now of course! - told me about the amazing reaction when he performed ‘Streets of London’ at CFF for the first time back in 1969, 50 years ago this year. As he described it: “I’m often asked about which are the memorable days in your career and I have to say the first Cambridge was for me because, before mobile phones and social media and all that stuff, you didn’t know that people had picked up on your songs or anything, but when I announced ‘Streets of London’, which had just come out on my second album, called ‘Spiral Staircase’, the entire audience sang it all the way through with me and it was a bit emotional for me, I nearly didn’t get through it, and I was quite overwhelmed by the fact, so that’s a landmark for me”.

Fifty years on, it comes as no surprise that the whole audience sang along back then - as they did this year too - because ‘Streets of London’ was a folk song for its time, in other words, a song that connected with and carried forward the folk tradition, telling of events and circumstances affecting ordinary people’s lives.

I’m in the process of putting together a list of songs written in recent years that in my view are - or will become - folk songs for their time. A couple that immediately spring to mind are ‘Hollow Point’ by Chris Wood, which tells of the killing of Jean Charles de Menezes in July 2005, and ‘On Morecambe Bay’ by Kevin Littlewood, about the tragic deaths of the Chinese cockle pickers there in February 2004.

REQUEST
If Mardles readers can you think of other songs that would fit the bill, send email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Les Ray

“Is practice still on tonight – are you going?” - Morris and Covid-19

• Morris

 I would normally be at Morris practice tonight, Monday 16^th March, but instead I’m sitting at home (home working?) writing this.  As you may be aware today was the day that the Government asked us all to practise “social distancing”.  A question; “Is practice still on tonight – are you going?” was raised tonight at 6.05pm and the response to a quick email poll was rapid, which was just as well as a decision was needed well before 8pm, especially as some members cycle 10 miles or more to our practice venue.  The result of the email poll was pretty unanimous and led to some interesting comments and discoveries.

Hey, Guys, Is practice on tonight?

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