The true Norfolk tradition (woo-woo)
The Wednesday acoustic sessions at the Nelson seem to get madder and madder. This week I rolled up to find an Executive Decision had been taken (because someone had brought along a US-loco woo-woo whistle) to have a theme, viz: "Trains". Result: instead of Joyce Grenfell and Anne Briggs, I ended up singing Leadbelly and Frank Crumit.
As we went around the room things took a distinctly North American turn - there doesn't seem to be the romantic element about British railways to inspire songwriters, with the famous exception of Paul Simon's "Homeward Bound", which, tradition has it, was composed on Runcorn Station. "Romney Hythe & Dymchurch" simply doesn't have the same ring as "Canadian Pacific", does it? So the chaps with the guitars came up with lots of stuff about love and loss and loneliness and headin' on down the track and leavin' your baby behind - they were very keen on this in the seventies, I recall, it was always him going and her staying, it never seemed to occur to them while they were wallowing in pleasurable guilt by their lonely campfire that she'd just changed the sheets and put the "Vacancy" sign out again. Coming fundamentally from the English tradition in its broadest sense, I could only think of Flanders & Swann's exquisite "Slow Train" and you don't do that with ten minutes notice, full as it is of place names. Apart from that I know two songs with a railroad man in. One is "Careless Love" and the other one isn't, so off the cuff I did "Black Girl", which followed on nicely from Ron's Frankie Laine song about a girl in the woods - two points to me in the mental Tennis Elbow Foot game, for getting woods and trains in one song.
It wasn't all trains; there was a very nice song about bringing in the May, something ineffably silly with a ukelele, Keith played a couple of Morris tunes and Andrea sang "Surabaya Johnny", introducing Theme Two, The General Unsatisfactoriness of Men. We all belted out "Cigareets and Whusky and Wild Wild Women" then from the depths of memory I dredged "Frankie and Johnny" (encore deux points). I don't normally sing songs without preparation but there is something about this session, everyone is very welcoming and knowing that anything goes, you can just relax, inhibitions vanish and some ace performances result. It is in fact in the true spirit of the Norfolk tradition.
Anyway, Mr. Kiwi is gracing the River Gardens at Thorpe this Sunday evening with his band plus his "rolling roadshow" of Nelson regulars, including me and Jimmur, provided we can work out where to get off the bus. It's a long time since I went along that road in the dark. I wonder if the phantom shade of the legendary Mac's Caff will reappear in the twilight? Ah, those greasy chip butties and slightly curdled frothy coffee, served under lurid neon lights, the perfect sequel to an LCR gig. The winner was the one who got furthest back towards campus before throwing up. Nowadays they have a burger/ice-cream van parked right outside the door. Young people today, don't know they're born!
P.S. Oh dear. Didn't check buses. Missed the River Gardens - never mind - there's another skiffle night at the Nelson this Friday. I might even have made the little chap his spiffy new waistcoat by then (Jimmur, I mean, not Kiwi ....)