Jim's Blog 7th April
Jim's Blog 5th May
Jim's Blog 12th May
Jim's Blog 19th May
TRIGG BLOG 2011
Jim's Blog 7th April at the Queen and Railway, St Columb Road.
Since Triggs night off
practice coincided with 'The Folk Trail' visiting our friends at The
Queen & Railway, it felt right that we should pay a return visit too!
When we arrived, there was
no sign of Folk Trailers but we still had a bigger team, a bigger
audience and (much) better weather than our last visit, so it was
time to dance.
Since they introduced it as
'Country Gardens', I was up for the first dance. A Scotsman doing
Morris Dancing to the tune of English Country Garden! Sshhh! Don't
tell anyone. :-)
I stepped out of 'Shepherds
Hey' to take photos of the two teams (what a great turn out
tonight!). Leaving it to the 'experts' it suddenly became clear that
Ian and Rob were doing different dances! OK guys, who was to blame?
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I took number six position for 'Nutting Girl' forgetting that it was going to be a long time 'til I got to breathe again but I made it to the end still grinning. :-)
'Valentine' was nice. Elegant, in fact, if you believe Ian. I don't know about elegant but we enjoyed the dance and I don't think I spotted any mistakes. Good one boys.
I took some photos (and got my breath back!) as the team did their final main dance, 'Wenford Bridge but was soon back up for our 'off dance' 'Bonny Green' with invited audience members joining us.
When we got back inside we were joined by some other 'folkies' and the session got off to a great start. Pretty soon the Folk Trailers did arrive. After walking 20 miles of their journey from Lands End to John 'O'Groats, they'd set up camp at Gnome World (honest! You couldn't make this up!) and arrived with their fiddles, whistles & recorders (of the whistle type and the technical music recording type!) and even a steel mandolin thrown in!
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One of the last to sit down, I found myself in wonderful position to hear the fiddlers all night. Awesome! Thank you.
Trigg had their usual problem finishing the night and there were many 'last ones' before I packed my bass away and Darren & I left to the sound of the whole pub singing 'Put your sweet lips a little closer to the phone . . . '
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All in all, a great prelude to the season!
Thank you Queen & Railway.
Thank you Folk Trailers.
Thank you all the other 'folkies' & the audience who turned out to see us.
Thank you Trigg.
See you all on The Grand Tour on Easter Monday!
Jim. :-)
Yay! What a great night. One
of the best 1st nights of a new season in
my 10 years with Trigg.
Those of us travelling from
England had a round trip of over 100 miles
ahead of us but we made it
to Fraddon in plenty of time. Others were on
the ball too and when we
kicked off outside the Blue Anchor at 8pm we
had two full teams up for
Country Gardens with spare men over. I was
happy then, to take time out
to get my breath back while others got up
to weave in and out of Maid
of the Mill from Bucknell.
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Greensleeves and Sherrifs Ride. Considering stalwarts like Vic, Roger &
Ian were missing, the standard of dancing was actually very high. This
was lucky as we had a good sized audience who came outof the pub to
enjoy our show.
I managed to get some breath and some photos during Valentine. The
dancers were on good form and there were some very fine leaps from all
the team especially Terry and Phil. However none could match Pete Philp
tonight for ability tojust ‘float’ in the air. Just look at the photos.
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Maybe we’ll see more in
some solo jigs this season. How about it Pete?
I was back up for Room for
the Cuckold but it was soon time for us all
to do our ‘off
dance’, Bonny Green with only a couple of volunteers
kidnapped from the audience.
After a song for the
landlord, our convoy headed off to the next gig.
I didn’t remember until
we got closer, that we had been to The Pheasant
at St Newlyn East during our
last season, but it looked very different
tonight. Instead if being
rained into the lounge tonight we had a good
place to dance on the quiet
road in front of the pub.
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with Wenford Bridge before I joined them for Banks of the Dee. I
couldn’t remember how to do Abnals but was spotted and called in to
complete the team. I didn’t remember one of the ‘galleys’ but did
remember to clash sticks as I passed my opposite number! The team then
danced Old Carew, one of our own dances, named after a ward in St
Lawrences Psychiatric Hospital which used to be in Bodmin. I’ve heard
several explanations for the choice of name. One of them may be the truth.
I found myself volunteering for Cuckoos Nest before I’d remembered how
little opportunity it provided for breathing. I survived!
After Bodmin Riding we ambled about as the first two dancers stepped up
and started our new ‘off dance’, Saturday Night. We try to surprise the
audience as we slip on two by two, but the biggest surprise was that
we’d started before deciding who the rest of the dancers would be! I
found myself quickly pairing up with Pete. The rest of the team did all
sweep in on the rounds. We clearly still need a bit of practice but a)
it’s the first night! and b) the audience still seemed to enjoy it!
Settling inside, we had a great folk session with Chris, Pat, Mick, Viv
& Lynn strongly representing Trigg while Nigel and several others
represented ‘guests and visitors’.
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One of my favourites was
Miners Life
but Nigel was
‘volunteered’ to sing Lighthouse and his wonderful version
was still playing in my head
as we slipped away and would our way back
to Plymouth.
I managed to pick up a new
season Trigg Programme. Have you got yours yet?
No?
Then I’ll tell you.
Next week we’re at The
Lanivet Inn, near Bodmin at 8pm and into town for
The Borough Arms at 9pm. See
you there!
Jim.
Trigg Blog Thursday 12 May.
On Thursday morning my
Triggmobile had no idea about that evenings challenges, as Bens
intentions to make it to my place from London were shaping up.
We both arrived at my house at the same time and both had 20
minutes to change into Trigg gear, decorate our hats with flowers and
load all our instruments into my little Ford Ka before picking up
Darren. We did it and were soon bouncing over the bridge into
Cornwall with Thee Faction (Bens new band) distorting the radio speakers!
We arrived early at the
Lanivet Inn (in .. erm . . Lanivet!) again (early two weeks in a row
. . it won’t last!) but everyone else seemed to have arrived
early too.
The sun was still out
as we all gathered in the yard with our audience and grabbed our
sticks to dance Balance The Straw (Fieldtown). I hadn’t warmed
up properly so when I stayed up for Nutting Girl, I began to feel the
pain! I was now, however, definitely warmed up!
I joined the crowd inside
and outside the yard to get photographs of Ring O Bells and Old Woman
Tossed Up as well as some of Ben adding his mandolin to our regular
music. The crowd (and Trigger) enjoyed Room for the Cuckold before I
got back up for Brighton Camp. This is a fast and complex stick dance
and errors have often resulted in bloody heads or, at the very least,
really bashed fingers. I knew the part though ad was doing
really well . . until I started chatting! I was lucky Malcolm was
opposite me and just laughed at me until I found my place again.
Roger or Taffy would have had me! Phew! Even more importantly, Ben
didn’t catch my cock up on the video he posted on Facebook and
You Tube later. We danced off to Princess Royal and were soon on our
way to the next performance at The Borough Arms near Bodmin.
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Once we got the beers in, (and some of us got over the shock of paying more than £3 for a glass of Coke!) we assembled up on the car park for some dancing. It was dusk already. The moon was out but the sun gradually went down while we were dancing.
I danced Wenford Bridge and stayed up to dance opposite Ben in Dearest Dickie. Since Ben hasn’t been out with us for several years, Pat, Vic and some of the others were on hand to offer guidance, suggestions (and laughter)! Well done though Ben. After dancing Vandals of Hammerwich, I grabbed my camera again to photograph that very naughty dance, Shepherds Hey. I enjoyed dancing Jug By The Ear but then there were plenty volunteers without me to put up two teams for Nightingale. It all looked very impressive with twelve men, good and true lined up in the falling darkness against the lights of the pub. It was soon time for ‘parachutes’ and we did Headington Off and made our way into the bar.
Indoors, we found a good
spot to settle in for our music. The bemused regulars initially kept
to the other end of the bar but gradually they were looking in and
singing along with us. We’d barely started when we were invited
to get some food from the buffet. Brilliant. Hot pasty and chips.
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The evening started with concertinas, melodeons and accordions playing a medley of Scottish tunes that brought a lump to my throat and transported me back to the working mens clubs in the towns between Edinburgh and Glasgow in the early 1970’s. Lovely, it was!
It was great having Ben in the musician pack again and after treating us to some music on his Appalachian Dulcimer, he settled in and gave us some fine melody and accompaniment on his mandolin. There was a fine selection of songs from around the room including Ians rendition of Spirit in the Sky and Vic singing The Bonny Ship The Diamond supported by the rest of the room.
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Lyn started up another Scottish one, The Mingulay Boat Song. Some of the words didn’t match my recollection (nor it seems a determined Morris!) but I have more faith in Lyns rendition than my forty five year old memory of clutching my ‘Songs of the Isles’ as I warbled in my Edinburgh primary class.
Ben was honoured by being allowed to choose how to end the evening and knew immediately that he wanted to hear Viv singing. I love her doing My Young Man and she consented as long as she could also do her own choice. The Scottish theme for the evening was brought to a close with our final song, Will You Go Lassie Go, written by Robert Tannahil, a contemporary of Robert Burns.
“Oh the summertime is coming
And the trees are sweetly blooming
And the wild mountain Thyme
Grows around the blooming heather
Will ye go lassie go? . . . “
It was time to go.
Thanks Trigg Morris for another brilliant night out.
See you all next week at Latchley Village and at the Cross House Inn at Metherill.
The Plymouth Maids will be there too so it’ll be another belter of an evening!
Jim.
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Jim's Blog 19th
May at Latchley
Village & The Cross House Inn Metherell
(In conjunction with The Plymouth Maids)
Trigg Blog 19 May 2011.
Thursday always seems a good
day for stealing flowers!
I ‘borrowed’ half
a dozen pink roses on my way to work this morning. I nearly left them
in the staff room at work but by six thirty they were in my hat with
geraniums and a huge clematis from my own garden. Sorted!
We made it to Latchley on
time. Unusually for Trigg, there was NO PUB!
Latchley is one of our
‘dry’ venues this year. We realised a few years ago that we
were missing some great villages simply because they didn’t have
a pub. Since we are sponsored by Skinners Brewery, we get in the
habit of taking our own beer to these villages, but we are constantly
blown away by the reception the villagers give is. Latchley was no
exception. It didn’t matter that their FIVE pubs were long gone,
a veritable garden party was under way on their raised village green.
I squeezed through the happy crowd to find tables laden with food,
plenty to drink and a bunch of Morris Dancers tying their bells on.
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We were also joined tonight by The Plymouth Maids. They dance Clog Morris, which is from the North of England and different to Triggs Cotswold Morris style but we always have a belter of a night out together. We decided to alternate dances and Trigg soon kicked the show off with the Bucknell dance, Room for the Cuckold. It was time for me to get up and dance.
I took some photo’s during Valentine and caught the guys doing their usual levitation trick again. Well done Darren too. As I photographed the team dancing under our sponsors ‘Skinners’ banner, I also caught Ian, up in the audience, sampling some more Skinners Beer. Well done Ian!
With a great crowd looking down onto them, the Plymouth Maids got up to do some dances too. Their gentle dances provide a wonderful contrast to the men in Trigg but they have just as much fun as us.
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With Trigg dancing Abnals and Brannel, the audience were being entertained with many more dances than usual but seemed to be loving it. After a few more from Plymouth Maids, we did Maid of the Mill and Bodmin Riding before both teams invited members of the audience to join us for our final dance, Bonny Green Garters.
We fuelled up again, (thank you Latchley), bade our farewells and headed off in convoy to the Cross House Inn. The last time we were there, I travelled in the dark and rain with Metherell conspicuous only by its absence from my sat nav! This time was easy and we had loads of room to dance in the fading light of the large car park.
Trigg started with Saturday night and I wondered how it would work at the beginning instead of an off dance. I got ready to slip on in the second pair with Ian, but we were so subtle that Pete Philp panicked and started trying to assemble new team members! I thought it worked brilliantly to get the dancers on the stage and as we all whirled into the rounds at the end we had the small audiences complete attention. I can’t wait to try it somewhere busier in peak season! Once again the teams alternated, but Trigg still did Country Gardens, Sheriffs Ride, Greensleeves, Duke of Grafton and Wenford Bridge. No-one broke a stick during the later this time. I reckon I had the only ‘ringer’ last week. Ouch.
The Plymouth Maids formed us all into a circle as we performed one of their off dances together and we all headed into the pub for our singsong. Only a few Maids remained. The Cross House had laid on a wonderful spread and kept the jugs of ale coming all night. Never mind. All the more for us!
We had a few singers missing in Pete M, Mick, Chris & Lyn but had a great singsong never the less with wonderful contributions from Maid- Rose (Drink to the Laddies), Maid-mate Mike and local folkie Ben leading us with
‘Put your wine into glasses
Put your cider in an old tin can
Pour John Barleycorn in a nut brown bowl
Shall prove the strongest man.’
Once again Viv stood out with tremendous voice tonight and Ian shocked the locals. Thank you everyone for a great night.
See you all at Lanreath and Lerryn next Thursday.
Jim.