16th May 2007

I really don't know where the time goes. I hadn't realised how long it had been since the last post until I was reminded out of the blue. Here was I thinking only a few hardened sessioneers here in Kent might find it even remotely interesting to read the Session Diary when I find that there is a following! So at this point I must mention the Northern Banjolin Fan Club and Sharky, who left a post - eager for the next instalment. Well first of all, I want to hear more about the Northern following of course! Are you all sessioneers? Or is it just 1 sessioneer? Where abouts in the North are you? For us it starts at the Medway which means Londoners are Northern. Well we do live nearer to France than London and it's now easier to get to as it's more downhill through the tunnel since the Earthquake.

I am minded of the the fact that Rochester Sweeps has just been and gone, and usually I go over for the Irish Session in the Bull on the Sunday. I didn't go this year, but reflecting on previous years, you do get a lot of Morris Men coming in to shelter. And play. Melodeons. Irish music in a Morris style is something else. It is something else other than Irish music certainly.

Now I am not knocking Morris Men, having been one myself. I started dancing with Green Oak in Doncaster while at college and later started Cheswold Morris and was their Squire for a few years before moving further south. We could have a whole other blog about traditional Morris v 'modern' Morris and whether women dancing Morris is really Morris, but this isn't the place. One of our sessioneers - an Irish Piper - dances with Headcorn and they are a very good side so that's enough about Morris men. Oh, except that since the tunes are in our collective session unconscious, every so often we have to do a medley of Morris tunes at our mixed session. Well, they are good tunes. It's just that there are others as well.

Some of our hardy Mixed Lumpy session members went on an annual pilgrimage to Ypres (Wipers to my Grandfather) over the weekend and I'm dying to hear how they got on. There's always a tale or two - usually involving being asked to 'play a few tunes' somewhere and finding out it's in front of 2,000 people. Still, who needs rehearsals? I think Belgian beer plays a part in all this somewhere too.

Well, the sessions start again tonight with the Irish at the Anchor in Wingham and the Mixed Lumpy tomorrow at the Bear in Faversham. Last weeks' were fairly normal - as near normal as they get anyway. The Irish session possibly reached new heights of surrealism traveling in one conversation from playing with emotion via the three musketeers to after-shave. (Something along the lines of Pathos, Porthos, Aramis, Brut 33). Also a bizarre and extensive wander down the memory lane of British humour - Flanders and Swann, Gilbert and Sullivan and taking in the colonies with Bob Newhart and Tom Lehrer. Yes, it's always an adventure that leaves many a visitor perplexed and bemused. Including us.

There is a French session (none of them are, they just play French music in striped jerseys and big moustaches with strange instruments) on the second Monday of the month at the Half Moon and Seven Stars and the third Monday is a mixed session at Tilmanstone at which some of the French session play. I wish I could go to the French session. I just feel there would be so much to write about. Like playing tunes through 15 times as though it were a Bal Folklorique. Some of them go out as a band - Les Batons. Yes, we have been asked who this chap Les Batons is. Really.

I will endeavour not to leave it so long before the next instalment!

24 April 2007

I'm sure you've all come across the following scenario. Musicians turn up timidly at a session and join in with what they know and are persuaded to start a set and it's all quite low key and doesn't upset the session dynamics. After a while they bring along some 'friends' who turn out to be a band and from there on it becomes a matter of honour for them to play their entire repertoire. If you're lucky, they don't have an extensive one.

Characters you're likely to come across. Apart from plinky, twangy and thumpy who have already featured in this diary there is the one who hears a tune they know and then puts their head down, not looking at any other player nor listening to them (or the leader of the tune) and ploughs on regardless with all the finesse of a locomotive whose brakes have failed. I think this one needs to be labeled 'ostrich' or 'wrecker'. Mind you, I have also witnessed someone starting a set with a familar tune, only to have their set whisked from under their feet by someone forcing the second tune of their set to follow on - to surprised and slightly hurt looks.

I'm sure I've mentioned this before, but why is it that singers who try to accompany tunes (usually on guitar) have no sense of rhythm? I can think of a few notable exceptions but in general they seem to exist in a rhythmic twighlight zone.

And isn't it glorious when a bunch of disparate players get together and it just soars? The Irish session is much better at producing those moments than the mixed lumpy.

Well this week will see the regular Wednesday Irish at the Anchor, Wingham and then the regular Thursday at the Bear at Faversham will be missing 4 of the main musicians who for some unknown reason have swanned off for a week of 'la dolce vita' although knowing who's going, it may be anything but dolce. Sunday sees the regular last-Sunday-of-the-month Irish session at the Anchor in Faversham (not the Last Sunday session for which I was upbraided last time).

Not long now to the first festivals of the season - Rochester and Whitstable and another year has gone by.

Sunday 1st April 2007

A treat tonight apparently. Steafan Hannigan and Saskia Tomkins are hosting a session at the Anchor in Faversham so it promises to be good although how much of a session it will be I don't know.

Sessions are like that - regulars for ages and then suddenly somebody drops in like Chris Taylor, Tim Edey or Brendan Power or these two and takes it all to a new level. The come-down leaves everyone a bit flat for normal sessions but usually with good memories. Maybe it gives a boost indirectly. The same thing happens at sessions that are part of festivals. I think it's to do with the audience being there - it's a big lift. I know we say that we play for the music and it doesn't matter about the audience but a session without an audience is always less fulfilling.

Surprisingly a lot of people seem to be a 'lurking' audience - from the other bar! They say they like the music but won't come in and actually engage.