Black Mountains Lions Close Down

 When I was at Baskerville Hall on Wednesday evening, the large function room on the other side of the bar was all set up for the Black Mountains Lions meeting, with flowers on the tables and display boards illustrating the history of the group.

Sadly, the occasion was the final meeting for the local group.  After over fifty years, they've decided that they can no longer carry on. In that time, they've supported Dial-a-Ride, provided defibrillators, supported the local football club, and supported all sorts of local charities and community groups.

The Clyro group was part of an international body, and the nearest Lions Club appears to be in Hereford, from the map on their website, with eighteen clubs across South and Mid Wales.

Gareth Ratcliffe was there, as County Councillor, to give a speech thanking the group for all their work. 

Fun at Baskerville Hall

 It was the weekly singing session at Baskerville Hall on Wednesday night, and a group of people came over from the Yoga retreat in the barn near the petrol station - so it was an easy walk for them.

One of them was a really good singer, and she joined Rob in the circle - he played guitar while she sang.

The others formed a pretty good backing group, with actions - and got up to dance with Dale and Joe.  Ellie handed out castanets and shakers all round.

Another couple were staying in the hotel, and eventually the woman plucked up courage to sing a folk song as well. 

I was singing songs from the SF Convention, and threw in Star Trekking, which was a hit in the 1980s, and which they all knew! 

13th Anniversary at the Baskie

 It was the 13th Anniversary of the first acoustic Wednesday evening session at Baskerville Hall last night, and a good crowd came to celebrate - some of whom hadn't been for several years!  They all knew each other from other local open mics, though, so there was a lot of very nice collaboration going on, with guitars and harmonicas and, occasionally, Ellie's train whistle!  I went back to some of the very first things I did when I started going (not quite thirteen years ago), so they got the Joyce Grenfell monologue where one of the nursery children gets her finger stuck in the keyhole.

We also got some Elvis for Dale, and Jolene for Joe, with Dale and Joe dancing at the end.

It was an excellent evening, and there were also sausage rolls and chocolates to celebrate. 

Wednesday Nights at Baskerville Hall

 I generally go to the Baskie on Wednesday nights to sing in the acoustic session there - the new picture on the sidebar is me singing one of the filk songs I learned when I went to a Filk Convention in Norwich recently.  Filk is Science Fiction Folk Music - back in the 1970s, when someone was typing out a convention programme (on a manual typewriter!, to be mimeographed) they meant to type "folk" and missed the key - and it's been "filk" ever since.

So all sorts of music are welcome there - this week we had a lady fiddler who we hope will come again.  She mainly plays folk, but was a welcome addition to House of the Rising Sun, which everyone joined in on.

Next week is the 13th anniversary of the session, so we're hoping for a good night.  Starts at about 8pm, goes on to 11pm, and we usually finish with Jolene, which is Joe's favourite song. 

And when we came out at 11pm last night, there was snow everywhere. 

Great Night at the Basky

 Wednesday night is music night at the Basky, and this Wednesday some of the guests at the hotel joined in (or I presume they were guests - they were just visiting the area, anyway).

Marek is from the Czech Republic, and he was singing in Czech, explaining: "This one is about bad weather - this one is about the Czech Robin Hood...."  There were two violins in the mix last night - regular Tom and a visiting lady, and Marek actually had the music scores for them to accompany him on one of his songs!

The visiting lady said she would only join in with harmonies at first, but was persuaded to do a solo spot as well.  Another lady, who usually performs at the Globe, sang one of her own songs and did a couple of duets with Rob.

Ellie contributed to the multi-lingual nature of the evening by singing a song in Africaans.

Another visitor borrowed a guitar (Bob keeps a spare one at the Basky just in case) - he sang one song that he usually sang at his local rugby club (so it was a bit rude!).

There was the usual mix of classic songs - the Elderly Brothers did a couple of numbers (that's Bob, who runs the evening and  Pete in a duet).

I sang some folky stuff (and one SF song).

Bob and Ellie sang one of Dale's favourite songs that is not Elvis - I Shot Your Dog, which is a farmer apologising to his neighbour for shooting his dog by mistake!  

And the evening ended with Dale and Joe dancing to one of Joe's favourite songs, I'm The King of the Swingers. 

Next week, it will be completely different! 

The Return of the Baskervilles

 Last night at the Baskie had a bit of an Australian theme, as an Australian couple were in the audience - and one of them was called John Baskerville!  He was having a holiday there because he was related to the Baskervilles who built the Hall.

There was also plenty of the Beatles, and the usual mix of vintage pop, folk, songs written by the performer, kazoo solos, and more. 

Bluegrass

 Wednesday night was the usual acoustic session at the Baskie, with the added pleasure of musicians who were attending the Bluegrass Festival there this weekend.  It was like being dipped in a warm bath of sound from guitars, banjo, fiddle, double bass and ukelele.  Lots of new songs to listen to, and it gave me an excuse to dig out Billy, Don't Be A Hero, which everyone knew.

There was also a musical tribute to George Cooper, who used to be a regular at the Baskie, and who sadly died this week.  Bob played one of his favourite pieces - Pinball Wizard! 

Walking Holidays

 I went into Hereford on Friday, and also waiting for the bus was a lady who I'd seen on Wednesday evening at Baskerville Hall, in the audience for the acoustic music session.  Turns out that she's an Italian-American lady on a walking holiday, and the two younger ladies she was sitting with are also on a walking holiday - they're doing Land's End to John O'Groats, going around 18 miles a day, while she's heading south at a more leisurely 7 or 8 miles a day.  The ladies going north have a support vehicle - one of their husbands is driving a camper van so they have somewhere to stay every night.

The Italian-American woman was worried about what President Trump is doing, especially with ICE rounding up immigrants, but she said that, if the worst came to the worst, she still had family in Italy, so it wouldn't be so bad to leave the US. 

12 Years of Music at Baskerville Hall

 So, a couple of weeks ago I went to a Filk Convention in Norwich - that's Science Fiction folk music - and I had an absolutely awesome time.  So awesome that I've already signed up for next year.

It reminded me that I could have something like that on my doorstep every week.

I used to get a lift to the Basky every Wednesday evening for the acoustic sessions there.  Like the filkers, they operate on the system of going round the circle, with each performer doing one song at a time.

Then Covid happened, and Brian, who was giving me the lifts, stopped going.  

I could have arranged another lift, but I was getting very tired on Wednesday evenings, so I let it slide.

This week happened to be the 12th anniversary of the session starting up there, and since I had so much fun at the convention, I decided to get a lift organised.

It was wonderful.  I was welcomed back with open arms, and thoroughly enjoyed myself.

There were some familiar faces, and some new ones - one lady had brought a harp - and a flute, and a recorder.  Another chap was playing the hammered dulcimer.  There was a lady singing with a guitar - Leonard Cohen songs, and that sort of genre.  I was sitting between Peter and Briar, with Rob and his son Joe across the table with Bob and Ellie.  Several visitors stopped to listen, too - I saw one couple who were staying at the hotel this morning, and they said they'd had a wonderful time.

There was also home made lemon drizzle cake, which was delicious, and Lidl's best fake Ferraro Rocher chocolates.

I've already organised my lift for next week.

Back to the Baskie

 My Young Man was here last week (hence no posting on this blog) and one of the things he really wanted to do while he was here was to go and sing at the Baskie's weekly acoustic session.  He had the words to Ghost Riders in the Sky all printed out ready.

So I got in touch with Bob (who runs the sessions), who got in touch with Ellie (who drives to the Baskie from Hay), and we were all set.

It was such fun to be back!  There isn't an interval with chips any more, and it was a horrible, rainy night, so not many people turned up, but the ones that did sang some familiar songs, and I sang some of my repertoire that I knew back to front and sideways - I didn't want to sing something that I'd lose the tune half way through for my first outing for a while.

This is me, channelling Judith Durham of the Seekers, with We'll Build a World of Our Own.

U3A

 I'm sorry I missed today's U3A talk - it was Denise Darbyshire on The Wonder that was Syria.  A few years ago now, there was a day trip to Oxford organised by the Local History society, where Denise gave us a private viewing of some of the artefacts at the Ashmolean Museum, where she is a curator, and in the afternoon guided us around the exhibition - I forget the title, but it was all about religions re-using the statues and artefacts of the religions that had gone before, and it was totally fascinating.

U3A meet once a month in the Music Room at Baskerville Hall, which is a beautiful space, with coffee served from 10am and lunch from 12.15.  Admission is £5 for members and £7 for non-members.

They have a website at https://u3asites.org.uk/hay/welcome

and they're holding their Christmas Lunch on Tuesday 13th December, also at Baskerville Hall.

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!

Singing in the New Year

I don't normally mention the acoustic music sessions at Baskerville Hall, because I go nearly every week and saying that I enjoyed the music would get a bit repetitive (because I always do enjoy the music).
But this week's session was actually on New Year's Day, and we started the year as we mean to go on, with a mix of older popular music, folk, poetry, guitars, autoharp, bagpipes and a variety of percussion. We were in the Music Room, which is a lovely venue.
I'm still keeping my TV Theme of the Week going, mostly by commemorating someone in show business who has died recently - this week I sang Up on the Roof in honour of Kenny Lynch, who was on TV a lot in the 60s and 70s, singing and doing comedy.
There was a new chap who sang a song in Geordie dialect, while being given a critical stare by Brian, who actually grew up in Wallsend - but he said he'd be back with his guitar. There were old favourites like the Asteroid Song from Bob's new album (he brought along a stuffed brontosaurus for it, one of his Christmas presents), and the ultimate Everyone-Join-In song, House of the Rising Sun, as well as Nigel singing Delia and Les Coveney's Bones of Tom Paine. There were new songs, too - I don't think we've ever had Dark Side of the Moon before.
There was also a couple who are about to get married and go off on a honeymoon cruise - she sang a heartbreaking song about horses that were killed at the end of the First World War because they were going to be abandoned while the men were shipped home. He sang less traumatic traditional songs including the Creole girl from Pontchartrain.
The chips at 9pm were very good, as usual, though I had to make do with the Shipyard beer, since the two cask ales (they serve Butty Bach and Wye Valley from the Wye Valley Brewery) had run out.
I'm looking forward to a lot more good music and good company in the New Year.

A Good Night Missed - and A Good Night Enjoyed

"We looked for you at the Baskerville last night," a customer said this afternoon. They've been to Baskerville Hall before, and enjoy the music evenings there.
It seems I missed a really good night - Rob the guitarist was there with his son Joe, who has a learning disability, and the lady I was talking to was pleased to see how Joe was accepted by the other performers - he plays his tambourine or drum, and sometimes dances. She praised the quality of the musicians, too - another guitarist had brought his sons, who accompanied him on guitar and percussion, and there were singers and recorder playing - and one lady, a guest at the hotel, sang in Chinese.

I was watching the sun go down from a field on the edge of Hay, nibbling a kebab from the barbeque, which turned into a little campfire as the evening grew darker, and listening to a pheasant calling from the trees, and the stream babbling nearby. The moon was full, and came up as the sun went down, so it wasn't completely dark.
My sister and her family had come to visit, and we were sitting by their campervan and chatting. When the night got cooler, we moved inside, and it was lovely to catch up with her, and see the holiday photos, and hear how well my nephew is doing in the Scouts (he's about to become a Young Leader).

Now they've headed up to Snowdonia for the Easter weekend - and next week, I'll be back at the Baskie.

Science Fiction at the Baskie!

Bob Evans, who runs the weekly music sessions at Baskerville Hall, discovered that this Wednesday was National Science Fiction Day, posted it on Facebook, and before you knew it, the evening had a theme!

We started with Star Trekkin (across the universe), complete with handouts showing the guitar chords. I think I last sang this at a Star Trek convention in the 1980s (probably along with In the Navy changed to In the Starfleet).
I chose Fireball XL5 as my TV theme of the week, only to discover that guitarist Martin had also chosen it - so he sang it too, with the extra verse that was on the record! There were lots of songs with stars (Starry, Starry Night) and the Moon (Moon River), as well as the usual mix of pop and folk and exotic instruments (David brought his Chinese bawu and Welsh pigborn), and a Noel Coward medley from Susan (Dear Uncle Harry, Bad Times Just Around the Corner and Stately Homes of Old England).
We even got Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star on the squeezebox from Autoharp Simon - which made it sound like a morris dancing tune!
Much fun was had by all, though it was noted that there was a certain lack of Doctor Who related music - I'll have to see what I can do about that :)

Music and Dancing at the Baskie

What a brilliant night!
Thomasin (with trumpet and also playing flute and Irish whistle and singing) came along with the Speedgums (double bass, banjo, ukulele and kazoo), and there was lots of collaboration, people getting up to dance, a massed kazoo chorus, Tom with his piano accordion getting everyone to join in, plus guitars, an autoharp, castanets, a clarinet-type instrument, spoons, melodion, a fiddle and harmonicas. The official session stopped at about 11pm, but the players just carried on!
(photo taken by Bob Evans, and shared on Facebook)

Busy Enjoying Myself

It's too hot to do anything serious, and the first week of the month tends to fill up with interesting things to do.
So on Monday I was round at a friend's house for a poetry evening. We each brought three or four poems on the theme of the Sea (next month's theme is Dogs), and read them in turn. Brian had just picked up a book at random, by someone called Mitchell - and it turned out to have several really good poems about the sea, including a lovely one about the Great Orme at Llandudno. I took along the book I got at one of the events at the Poetry Bookshop, about endangered marine species - they liked the one about the basking shark and the man who fell in love with it. The book is Words the Turtle Taught Me by Susan Richardson. I also found a couple of poems in the local magazine Quirk, both by people I know, one about mermaids diving for pearls of wisdom and the other about dolphin mythology.

On Wednesday I was at Baskerville Hall, commemorating the sad death of Peter Firmin (one of the creators of Bagpuss, Ivor the Engine, Pogle's Wood, the Clangers and Noggin the Nog) by reciting the introduction to Noggin the Nog. There were comic songs (Earwig O, the man in the elephant's bottom), poems and a vaguely American theme to the evening since it was the 4th of July, with "I'm as corny as Kansas in August" and even the Star Spangled Banner. I sang Streets of Laredo.
We were in Moriarty's Bar, which can get a bit over warm in summer weather, but there's a festival of some sort going on at the Hall at the weekend, and they were setting something up in the ballroom. There was a bit of a party going on around the porch (where people could smoke) when we came out, and two of the younger singers and guitarists (just back from University) almost missed their turn to sing because they were out there enjoying the ambience.

And tonight we were sitting overlooking the garden at Kilverts, with the window wide open to catch the breeze, for Stitch and Bitch. We were having such a good time that one of the ladies said we should be live blogging the conversation - and then everyone looked at me!
I successfully de-cluttered a triangular weaving frame with the instruction booklet and all the necessary bits to a lady who thought she'd like to try it. I bought it at Wonderwool a couple of years ago, and didn't really get on with it.
Emanation has kefir on the go, and often has a surplus to get rid of, so she managed to pass some on to another lady in the group. Someone else has been given 6 fleeces, and wanted to know what to do with them, so Tracy and I talked her through the process of cleaning the fleece (very carefully so as not to felt it!) and Tracy gave advice on natural dyeing. She's going to start washing the fleeces this week, and will come round to borrow my carders and a hand spindle so she can try hand spinning soon.
We also talked about the Trump Baby balloon which will be flying over London next week - and some of the awful things happening in the US now; assisted dying; and a community arts project that may or may not get off the ground locally. And one lady brought an enormous ball of pink yarn along which promptly got nicknamed "the uterus".
The Wadsworth 6X went down a treat.

Royal Bedding Day

No, I haven't spelled that wrong!
I was at the Baskie for a brilliant evening of music and laughter last night. The usual Wednesday session was moved to Tuesday because a group had booked the entire hotel for Wednesday, and when we arrived, we saw a big banner over the porch for the Gunfighters' Motorcycle Club! They'd gathered from all over Europe, the UK, and the US. Some of them came to listen to the music, and sang along! According to their website, the group started in the US in 2005, and is made up entirely of active and retired police officers.
At the end of the evening an announcement was made that there would be a special event at the Red Lion in Sennybridge on Saturday, the day of the Royal Wedding. There will be music from 2pm until late, as part of a nation wide campaign called Musicians Against Homelessness.
This is a response to Windsor council wanting to clear homeless people off the streets of Windsor in advance of the Royal Wedding, because they make the place look untidy. The intent was not to help them, but just to get rid of them out of sight.
Musicians Against Homelessness have already raised £100,000 for charities which help the homeless.

Visiting Musician at Baskie

When Brian is out and about, he is always encouraging people he meets to go to the Baskerville Hall acoustic sessions. Maybe one in ten actually take him up on it. On this occasion, though, he was walking Denzel the Staffie down by the river, and stopped to talk to a young man mending his car. While they were chatting a lady with a dog passed by, and he got talking to her as well - and invited her over to the Baskie on Wednesday evening.
She came, with her dog Gwillim, who she bought in Crickhowell (so had to have a Welsh name). Her name was Jane, and she was from Canada.
The evening started slowly, but gradually filled up, with a lot of newcomers, which was nice to see - several people were singing unaccompanied, and there was a lot more folk music in the mix than we sometimes get. We all liked the Barley Mow song, which named all the measurements of liquid from a barrel right down to smaller than a gill (that's an eighth of a pint in pre-decimal measurements), very fast and all in one breath!
Jane from Canada had to borrow a guitar when it was her turn in the circle, and sang some of her own songs, which went down well. She got chatting to some of the other musicians, too - and even bought one of Bob's CDs.
The next morning, Brian looked her up on the Internet, and it turns out that she's a well-known singer songwriter in Canada, Jane Siberry. She'll be in Shrewsbury soon, doing gigs at one of the cafes there, and she's worth looking out for.

The Clyro Press

The Story of Books wants to build a printing press at Baskerville Hall, as part of their printing museum. It's a Dutch press from the 17th century, based on this picture from The Book of Trades by Jan Luyken.
They are looking for volunteer woodworkers to use hand tools to build the press, working with local hardwoods such as beech, oak and ash, and they are also looking for sources of these woods locally. The skill level isn't important - anyone interested can be anything from a skilled craftsperson to someone who wants to learn a skill.
When the press is built, it will be used to print etchings and engravings, and The Story of Books hopes to offer workshops in etching and engraving.
The leader of the project is Roger Gaskell, who recently built a similar press for the Rare Book School in Virginia.
Anyone interested in finding out more should email info@thestoryofbooks.com or visit the Wayzgoose at 20 Castle Street on Saturday 31st March from 10am to 3pm.