Baskerville Hall 7th Anniversary Session

Wednesday nights at the Baskie are always a lot of fun, and it all started seven years ago. In that time, we've met in Moriarty's Bar, the ballroom and, most recently, in the Music Room, which is a beautiful setting. Bob Evans, who runs the evening, has been working out statistics, and he thinks that sixteen thousand songs have been sung (some of them more than once!).
He started the evening with an old favourite, The Fighting Temeraire, in honour of the picture on the new £20 note, and later in the evening, we all sang along to Too Many Guitars, as Bob was debuting his new guitar.
It was nice to see Phil and Pam Brown back after a long absence, singing about Satanic black foxes and lonely glow worms. Pam was also giving out leaflets for an evening with Les Barker at Moccas Village Hall, on 14th March.
A group of four performers came for the first time, including Catherine Hughes who does a lot of singing around Hay, sometimes in Welsh. They raised the tone with harmonic madrigals, Gilbert and Sullivan, and a song in Bulgarian about a Macedonian young man, watching the young ladies in his village.
I chose songs on the theme of the number seven, including one which I'd only ever heard before when my little sister learned it at school, about a handsome butcher - and the madrigal singers knew it! My other choices came from Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, and a song about the seven victims of the Challenger Space Shuttle disaster, which is surprisingly jolly considering the subject matter.
A member of the audience was moved to get up and sing a country and western song, and when his turn came round again he chose Fiddlers' Green, which we knew because a regular who wasn't there last night sings it - so Rob could join in on guitar, and I sang along with the chorus.
Ellie and Bob duetted with Summer Wine, and Ellie gave advice to the madrigal singers about finding harmonising music from South Africa, such as Ladysmith Black Mambazo.
It was a great night - and I hope I'll still be there in another seven years!