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FaBclub review 31st May 2009 written by Liz Montgomery Clive greets us on this very sunny and warm late May afternoon with one of his naughty jokes. The pub has fired up the bbq outside too - so we are having an early summer party with cool drinks and good company. To kick off the afternoon, Margaret introduces us to her brand new ukulele banjo - which has a lovely tone. "Keep fit" - well listening to keep fit is the best idea today - it is far too hot for any sort of exercise. Then over to the ukulele proper and into some C&W with "I'll walk the line" More naughty stories from Clive. Then Liz is on with "Last Night I Dreamed (After a Day at Oxford)" which she wrote after a recent visit provoked a bout of nostalgia for student days, followed by W.H. Audens' "The Night Train" Bernard and Maureen play a beautiful traditional lament on concertina and guitar "Portsmouth" and then "College Hornpipe" "Sunflowers" by Steve O'Kane opens Debbie's first contribution to the afternoon - such beautiful lyrics. It always makes me cry. Up beat now with a Joyce Grenfell monologue - "Sing Song Time" - Debbie always some rarities from these collections, real gems, with the terrible Sidney and the lurking spectre of the school inspector or Governor or perhaps just the pianist - Miss Boulting - in the background. Superb! Back to the music - Len claims he is on slightly croaky vocal form - but launches into a full guitar and harmonica version of "Heart of Gold"; and the truly summery "Follow the sun". A little break for refreshments and we are back in action again. Clive provides us with more ribald stories and jokes. JoJo is also suffering from a croaky voice but still performs inimitably. In praise of the weather, a suitably syncopated "Summertime" sounds absolutely fine - and very appropriate for the imminent arrival of June. "Ladies of the Canyon", that lovely Joni Mitchell song, is performed by Helen. Having toyed with the idea of "Ain't no sunshine" - she opts to sing the jolly "Yarmouth Town" as more appropriate for the weather. After the draw with some splendid FabClub prizes, we're on a second turn round: Margaret plays the LS Lowry tribute "Matchstalk Men" and 'Floating Down The River' Liz- reads the traditional "Sumer is icumen in" and her self written - "Do you remember" Bernard and Maureen give us a nice instrumental interlude with "Endearing Young Charms", "Walter Bulwers No 1" and "No 2" and "South Wind" Debbie - reads the sublime "The Committee" - another Joyce Grenfell piece - the committee meeting from hell of the Ladies Chorale, dealing with the difficult issue of an alto singer that cannot sing but who also founded the choir!!! Len - is trying an experiment….rebalancing guitar and voice to help his cold and the result is a very nice version of "Here comes the sun" then a lovely Led Zep number JoJo recites a poignant poem called "Moon Phases" which she has written recently written inspired by seeing the moon during the day. Helen rounds off the afternoon with "Sonny come home" and "Midnight Special" which gets us all singing along. Many thanks to Clive for his great compering and extraordinary collection of non-PC jokes and stories (this week with added contributions from Len!) |