Hello! I'm back! Is there anybody here?

Anything that doesn't fit anywhere else, and is NON CH related - chat about the weather, or anything else that takes your fancy.

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Re: Hello! I'm back! Is there anybody here?

Post by J.R. »

Ruthie-Baby wrote: Mon May 07, 2018 7:57 pm Who or what is Spoony, dare I ask?
Check HIM out from the registered members list.
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Re: Hello! I'm back! Is there anybody here?

Post by Ruthie-Baby »

I have no idea how to do this. Everything seems to have changed from my last visit...
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Re: Hello! I'm back! Is there anybody here?

Post by Mid A 15 »

' Spoony' is a relic from the seventies, maybe even late sixties, who posts under the pseudonym Spoonbill.

He does have a tendency to be a little mischievous from time to time hence the reference to Barnes Wallis bouncing bombs. However when in serious (ish) mode he is capable of descriptive writing which transports you back 40 years or more.

There are many examples on the forum but his post on the linked thread captures the ambience of Films in Big School back then perfectly.

viewtopic.php?f=18&t=672&hilit=films+big+school
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Re: Hello! I'm back! Is there anybody here?

Post by rockfreak »

Well come on woman. You said the site was rather quiet but you have gone into remission (as cancer patients say). Speak up. Say your piece. What did you think of the royal wedding for instance? Is Spoony to your liking? What is the future for the English boarding school? I think we should be told.
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Re: Hello! I'm back! Is there anybody here?

Post by Ruthie-Baby »

Ha, ok. Royal wedding? No idea mate.
Spoony? I got lost in the thread and never met him.
Future of the British boarding school? Better than the past, I hope.

In other news, I posted my first video of me singing, over on the old Facebook (are we allowed to say that word here?) and it's had nearly 3000 hits. My mind is blown!! It's just me singing a song in a pub!

My eldest child turned 8 last week so we have been out celebrating his birthday. And I feel old. That's my news.
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Re: Hello! I'm back! Is there anybody here?

Post by rockfreak »

There was an ex-boarder called Ruth
Who feared she was long in the tooth.
But her song got the hits
(Or was it her tits?)
She was clearly not losing her youth.
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Re: Hello! I'm back! Is there anybody here?

Post by Ruthie-Baby »

It's all about wearing a good bra. I'm not saying any more.
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Post by Ruthie-Baby »

But thank you for the fantastic poem! :)

And https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_ ... 6630050518 here's the link to the singing... Where you can judge for yourself...
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Re: Hello! I'm back! Is there anybody here?

Post by rockfreak »

I logged on this morning Ruth not quite knowing whether the moderators might have taken my limerick down. They're sometimes a bit touchy. Just clocked your link. You've got a terrific voice. What was the song and whose was it? I've got only a slight knowledge of folk music.
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Re: Hello! I'm back! Is there anybody here?

Post by rockfreak »

I've left a comment on your Facebook video Ruth. Whose song is this? This kind of narrative traditional music was recycled in the last century by singers like Harry Cox. I used to write for the music papers in the 70s and the only folk interview I ever did was with Bob Johnson and Peter Knight of Steeleye Span. Indeed it was they and Fairport who took traditional folk and set it in very inventive electric arrangements. But I understand that traditional folk is intended to be sung straight and without presentational adornment. I was at CH with Leonard Pearcey (Lamb B) who went on to become a musician and folk authority. Can you fill us in a little more about your repertoire?
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Re: Hello! I'm back! Is there anybody here?

Post by Ruthie-Baby »

Thanks Rockfreak, I eventually replied to your comment! Thank you for your kind words. Peter Knight is a bit of a hero of mine...

Almost everything I sing at the moment is traditional English song, so mainly collected by Cecil Sharp, Vaughan Williams and co (many, many others!) around the turn of the last century just at the point where technology meant we could make sound recordings, although a lot was just written down.

There's something pretty amazing about these songs being passed down/around in the oral tradition but at least the work of the collectors meant we have what we have today. I often wonder about the incredible songs "we" once had but got lost. There must have been so many. Anyway, I digress.

I'm not sure there's a built-in "intention" as you put it, to sing traditional music in any particular way. There are trends, just like in anything, and the 1970s folk revival, bands like Steeleye and Fairport Convention, and even earlier people like Dylan and Simon and Garfunkel, did a lot to influence how "we" (both normal people and folkies) think it "should" sound like.

There's a lot of people out there adding beats and all sorts and some of this music sounds fantastic (if you don't know them, look up "The Imagined Village", wow). For me, it's about the song, and I think about the history of it when I sing, all the voices that have worked with that same melody in different ways, whether practising for a polished performance or singing in the kitchen or to get the child to sleep, or whatever.

Mainly I sing unaccompanied because I can't play the guitar for toffee (or indeed for a desperate desire to be able to play the guitar). Maybe one day I'll meet a guitarist who will actually play for me... And mainly I sing traditional songs because I haven't yet worked out how to write my own.
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Re: Hello! I'm back! Is there anybody here?

Post by Ruthie-Baby »

Oops, sorry for the essay! I sang last night (at the same place as those videos were taken) and got a bit emotional, the atmosphere, the musicianship of everyone, the friendliness, that feeling of delivering a blinding performance, it got to me and it must have made me all verbose! Not even sure I answered your question with all those words!! Oh well, if I ever get to make a real recording, I've written most of the sleeve notes now (yeah I don't think sleeve notes are a thing any more, are they?)
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Re: Hello! I'm back! Is there anybody here?

Post by rockfreak »

One of the things that would be useful on some folk albums is a lyric sheet. I don't know whether folk singers inflect in a particular way but I was listening to Eliza Carthy's Anglicana album the other night and I was struggling to follow the words.
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Re: Hello! I'm back! Is there anybody here?

Post by Ruthie-Baby »

The vocabulary is sometimes a bit interesting! Took me years to work out the word in one song (turned out to be "ostler", obvs). Now we have Mudcat to answer these questions.
She's from Hull so it could be the accent!
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Re: Hello! I'm back! Is there anybody here?

Post by sejintenej »

rockfreak wrote: Thu Jun 07, 2018 7:43 pm One of the things that would be useful on some folk albums is a lyric sheet. I don't know whether folk singers inflect in a particular way but I was listening to Eliza Carthy's Anglicana album the other night and I was struggling to follow the words.
I don't know if it is still up but a website from a mid-west university used to have the lyrics for every recorded and sold English language song which included the UK ones. ISTR that in a different trhread they also had a cheat sheet for the music for many; perhaps someone can remember the site name.
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