Club Night February

An eclectic night as usual with some new faces and old favourites. Alan kicked things off with Those Were the Days (singalong guaranteed!) and then newcomer Rose wowed us with a song whose name I've forgotten but Eamonn and a few others obviously knew it as they joined in on recorder and guitars. Eamonn's collection of recorders, tin whistles and suchlike get bigger every time we see him!

Alisdair takes the prize for the smallest instrument ever played at the Folk Club - a tiny 4-hole harmonica from which he managed to coax a couple of old dance tunes in fine style. The biggest Folk Club instrument was also present, as Steve turned up with his double bass.

It was a big night for the ukuleles too, with newcomer Noeline giving us Enjoy Yourself and Morningtown Ride on her f-hole ukulele. Is there no end to the variation in these little instruments? Danny played one emblazoned with cricket and beer symbols! And Gail gave us Baker Street on her uke, backed by Rick P. on slide guitar.

There were trios and quartets of various combinations, from a woodwind quartet to a string trio (which probably doesn't normally include a guitar but that didn't bother Moira, Nicola and Rick.)

Mark kept us amused with one of his witty original songs, this one about the contrast between Christmas in his native England and here in Australia.

Poetry was also well represented, with Dave giving us Henry Lawson's The Fire at Ross's Farm and The Grog an' Grumble Steeplechase, and Jayne peforming her original How to Play the Ukulele, with help from Mark and Annemarie - true performance poetry!

There was yodelling, 2 cellos, Russian folk songs, Ted's wonderful finger-picking and lots more. We wound up at about 11pm with The Footscray Song from Michael. It's about time someone wrote a song about Newport!