Morris in May

Back in the late 70’s I regularly danced the Morris as part of Bath City Morris, the now sadly defunct University side, who were coached by Tubby Reynolds and occasionally by Roy Dommett CBE who was a good friend of Tubby’s. It’s fair to say that most of us students had little idea of how distinguished a tutor we had in Roy Dommett who was also the UK’s Chief Missile Scientist at the time. We were also extremely lucky to have Tubby the founder of Letterkenny Folk Festival as our Morris tutor and general provider of fun and mischief, in a nice way. Tubby and his wife Betty, who established the first Women’s Morris side as part of Bath City Morris, were wonderfully generous people who had a positive influence on the lives of many young students. Lots of us ended up as married couples, amongst them my wife, Tina, and I.

What’s brought on this bout of nostalgia, I hear you ask?  The answer of course is the proximity of 1^st May, when, following a fine old Morris tradition, many sides up and down the country will be out celebrating the start of summer on May Day. Some sides will be up at the crack of dawn, or even earlier to “dance the sun in”. You may not wish to start a Monday morning quite that early but if you get a chance to see your local side why not go along and support them and perhaps throw a few coins (if you have any these days) in the hat to help slake the thirst of the performers or contribute to whichever worthwhile cause they are collecting for as Morris sides often do. You can find a link to the Morris Ring on the main Unicorn Folk website and they have a long list of Morris sides dancing on May Day.

One of the founder members of the Morris Ring, Letchworth Morris, are out dancing with Bedford Morris on 1^st May and their programme can be found the Dance Diary on the main Unicorn Folk website (under ‘Listings’). Alas, I will be otherwise engaged running a stall, along with other volunteers, at the Royston May Fayre for Creative Royston which runs Royston Arts Festival. Later in the year I will be flagging up details of Royston MusicFest which is part of the festival.

One supporter of the Morris in years gone by is Martin Carthy, who I believe was involved with Bampton Morris at one time, and will be appearing with daughter Eliza at St Andrew’s Church in Hertford on Friday 5^th May. You can find a link to the ticketing details on the main Unicorn Folk website frontpage under ‘Featured Festivals & Concerts’.

Personally, I am looking forward to seeing ‘Tin Giants’ play at Royston Live on Friday May 12th. That is one of many events in May in local clubs which you can find listed in the Unicorn Diary on the main Unicorn Folk website (under ‘Listings’). The festival season got seriously under way this weekend and you can find all the details of upcoming events in the Festival Finder on the front/home page website on the main Unicorn Folk website. That link can also be found under ‘Listings’ along with details of ‘Gigs & Tours’ if you want to find out where concerts are being held by currently touring artists.

Whatever shape your May Day celebrations take, here’s wishing you a wonderful summer.

April Awakenings

At the end of March Chris Wood was due to appear at Royston Live and initially I was disappointed to hear that he had succumbed to Covid and was unable to appear. That feeling quickly disappeared on the night when Thursday’s Band took to the stage and despite the absence of Mark Gamon (get well soon Becky Wears!) played a really enjoyable set. Jeremy Harmer followed up with a fine set of his own compositions and Kelvin Davies and Gary Jones get better every time I see them and finished off an excellent evening of music. Royston Live are back tomorrow evening with The John Ward Trio supported by Steve Christopher, and The Elusive Third, for what I think is likely to be another great evening of music.

If you have already had a look in the Unicorn Diary on the main Unicorn Folk website (under ‘Listings’) you will know that there are some great gigs coming up shortly in our area to celebrate our awakening from Winter’s grasp! If you are nearer North West London than Royston tomorrow night then you might wish to go and see Mandy Woods at Watford Folk Club. Further still, going North-West of London towards the Chilterns, the Berkhamsted Campaign for Real Music are hosting the Urban Folk Quartet also tomorrow night, Friday 14^th April.

Winter Wilson provided a very enjoyable evening’s entertainment at Royston Live in January and you can catch them at St Neots Folk Club on Tuesday 18^th April. On the following day, Wednesday 19^th April, The Stables, Milton Keynes host Maddy Prior and The Carnival Band. The day after that on Thursday 20^th, Pat Crilly and Greg Camburn, who always in my experience provide some cracking songs and tunes, appear at the Acoustic Club Bishop’s Stortford with no less than eight, yes eight support acts.

Later on in the month, Baldock Folk Club is running a St George’s Day Special with the talented Odette Michell + The String Section on Wednesday 26th; Pat Crilly is running consecutive nights on Wednesday 26^th and Thursday 27^th at his Four Rivers Folk Club in Hertford featuring respectively Dave Sutherland and then a Ronnie Lane and the Faces evening, before we come round full circle again to Royston Live on the 28^th with the Charley Foskett Band.

What a great selection of music to check out over the coming fortnight! You can find all the links to the clubs for details of timings and ticket prices in the Unicorn Diary on the main Unicorn Folk website (under ‘Listings’).

If that isn’t enough then the festival season starts in earnest at the end of April and you can find all the details of upcoming events in the Festival Finder on the front/home page of the main Unicorn Folk website (also under ‘Listings’).

Finally, with the May Day celebrations approaching, a reminder that we could do with some more entries for the Dance Diary (also under ‘Listings’) which provides an excellent opportunity for traditional English dance groups and Morris sides to have their activities listed FREE of charge. Surely some sides out there must be doing something to celebrate May Day? So, do please send your programmes to info@unicornfolk.uk and remember to use the appropriate Word or Excel form when doing so – all the details can be found on the main Unicorn Folk website and this link will take you to the Dance Diary page or just look under ‘Events’ on the top menu for Folk & Morris Dance.