Quinn

The 'Toe Tapper' for today is 'The Minstrel Boy'. An Irish patriotic song written by Thomas Moore (1779–1852) who set it to the melody of 'The Moreen', an old Irish air. Once again recorded by thousands. The version here is by Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros - used in the movie 'Black Hawk Down'. 'ere - Joe Strummer main man from The Clash ? Yes indeedy. Ahem ahem - I once met Joe - way back in 1975 at a pub gig (Black Swan in Sheffield). He was fronting a band called the '101'ers' and they played a great set - a mix of rock, rockabilly etc etc. With my chums we got talking to Joe after the gig and he was a pleasant guy. Passed round his bottle of whisky - top feller. A year later at the same pub 'The Clash' played their first gig. I wasn't there. Fast forward to December 2002 - I had just landed at 'Swampy' in Bangkok on my way back from Vietnam. Passing a news stand I spotted the 'Bangkok Post' and a single paragraph - 2 inch story announcing 'Joe Strummer Dead'. I was shocked and stunned. ! Gone way too early. !

"Wild Mountain Thyme" (also known as "Purple Heather" and "Will Ye Go, Lassie, Go?") is a Scottish/Irish folk song. Popularised in the late 50's - early 60's by the McPeake family of Belfast who played many of the folk clubs around the UK. It became a sort of tradition in the clubs that everyone would join in this 'singalong' as a closure to the evening. Alternatively it would be 'Leadbelly's "Good Night Irene" - "I'll get you in my dreams" our local folk hero Tony Capstick would insist. ! I never initiated the singalong at the club I ran but would leave it to the final performer to do. However I was once dragged up on stage to join other singers in the finale. This was at a club where I'd played a half hour spot. The club was run by an Irish guy on the Island of Crete - I went back the following week but it had been replaced by a disco. ! Versions of this song run into a cast of thousands - the good, bad and the tedious. I like this version by Bert Jansch - giving a hard edge to it.

"Blackwaterside" - Bert Jansch (Scottish) and Anne Briggs (English). Irish/Scottish Ballad. First heard Anne Briggs sing in 1962 in Nottingham - her home town -at a concert (Centre 42) arranged by the playwright Arnold Wesker. This launched her onto the folk scene in the UK. Always very well received but she never fully committed herself to the whole 'movement'. In fact after about 5 years she more or less disappeared emerging occasionaly - travelling round Ireland and Scotland - also joining up with Andy Irvine and his band 'Sweeneys Men'. Around 1965 when I was running a Folk/Blues Club - I had booked Martin Carthy - who in fact turned up with Dave Swarbrick (later of Fairport Convention) and Anne Briggs. A memorable night. One of the 'perks' of running a club apart from booking the artistes, getting the room ready, organising the musicians - is finding the main turn somewhere to stay (usually someones floor in those days) so the 3 of them all crashed at my place - a small attic flat. Quite a few of Berts recordings of 'Blackwaterside' on You Tube - his superb baroque style of tuning and playing learnt from Davey Graham. The tune emerged years later recorded by a popular 'Beat Combo' but now called 'Black Mountain Side' which they promptly copyrighted. !

Filth !

Just Guessin' probably J Bar - been done before. Never learn !

Not all YouTube vids will copy. Some put a block on them.

The first vid just makes it through the 'Irish Folky Door' as it was recorded in County Clare. Carl Barat (who he you may ask) is the sparring partner of Pete Docherty of the band 'Babyshambles/Libertines'. My chum and ex business partner appears in the film as 'the father' - baldy head and bushy beard. He's appeared in many TV movies usually playing an Irish drunk or corpse - as in 'The Whitechapel Murders' with Dublin standing in for victorian London. We had a Saddlery/Leather workshop in the UK for over 5 years but I had to move on and thanks to that bitch Thatcher got a job back in the print trade. My chum followed his dream and went to live in Ireland - play his banjo and drink Guinness - both of them badly. ! The village where he lives in County Clare is 'Lisdoonvarna' - Famous for it's yearly event of 'Matchmaking' - nothing to do with 'Swan Vestas' - but single people seeking other singles. The town of some 800 people swells to over 40,000 at this event. There used to be a music festival but this was discontinued in 1983 when the event was marred by a riot and the accidental drowning of 8 people. (You coudn't make this up). Anyway back to the music - Christy Moore (him again) wrote a song called ---- "Lisdoonvarna' Phew !

I thought the version of "The Lakes of Pontchartrain" by Brady et al. I posted on page one was the better one ! 55555

Not for the first time I bet !

Cait O'Riordan with The Pogues. Traditional song - despite some people citing The Pogues as originators ! I used to go out with a fat lass who did an excellent version of this. !

Dexy's not the best version of the song I've heard - I was just looking out for something different.

He won't be exploring Sunny's Denim Shorts for a while !

Kevin Rowland - he of the late Dexy's Midnight Runners - warbling 'Curragh of Kildare' - and showing off his 'Donegal Tweeds' ! Not. !

The mind boggles !

Back in the day my town centre local was run by a great bloke called Don(al) - he was London Irish. We regularly had music nights there - very informal. A fairly regular drop in was Luke Kelly - usually when The Dubliners were playing the 'Soup in a Basket' circuit popular in the 60's/70's. Luke would chat and sing and shift the Guinness. Top Feller. !

"From Clare to Here" is a song about the heartache and hardship faced by Irishmen working abroad in the 1960s and 70s. It sums up the plight of Irish immigrants so well that many people assume it’s an Irish song but in fact it was written by the English singer songwriter Ralph McTell. McTell says he heard the phrase while working as a labourer with some Irish friends in the early 60s. There was a conversation about how the lives of Irish people changed when they swapped their family homes in Ireland for cheap lodgings in England. Reflecting on the changes, one of the men said: “Yes, it’s a long way from Clare to here.”

Well well - Seamus O' Grunt - Irish now ! Why was you hanging around with a band named after a Spanish Ladies Headress ? Anyway this bloke Hansard - can't say I've ever heard of him. The song however I know well after running a Folk 'n' Blues Club for 10 years with an Irishman. I did though recognise one of the punters on stage - Paul Brady - excellent singer and guitarist - from the band Planxty. Here's his rendition of 'Arthur McBride. Not only but also another song by Brady - 'The Lakes of Pontchartrain' - not an Irish song but very popular with Irish folkies. This is a version from the seventies. There is a link with these songs ! Bob Dylan. ! Both these songs Bob has belted out. On You Tube there is an interview with Brady and he tells how he was asked to visit Bob (in London) to teach him the pickin' etc of this song (it's in an open 'G' tuning). Brady obliged and went to see Bob and sorted his finger picking out. listen.

You may scoff - but quite often I used to use a 'dip pen' for drawings ! 5555 Think I've seen footage of Gerald Scarfe using one! Ha !

Daybreak. Almost gone. !

Drat - Missed it. I'm not on Face*uck. !

You have a front door ?? !!