December 23, 2023 by Andy Turner - 0 comments

The Bottom of the Punchbowl / The Christmas Baby

This year we’ve been celebrating Magpie Lane’s 30th anniversary. No sooner had we completed our first series of concerts in May 1993 than Tim Healey was suggesting we should put on some Christmas concerts – and in fact there have only been 2 years since then that we haven’t played a Christmas show at the Holywell Music Room in Oxford. However that very first Christmas, my wife and I were expecting our second child any day, so Pete North took my place on stage, and we were in the audience.

I remember that ‘Bottom of the Punchbowl’ was one of the tunes the band played in the Christmas 1993 concert; and, as rehearsals for Christmas 1994 approached, I set myself the task of writing a tune to go with it. ‘The Christmas Baby’ was the result, named for my son Tom who, you might have deduced, will be celebrating his 30th birthday this Christmas.

We’ve been playing these two tunes as a set with Magpie Lane ever since – and when I came to record them a couple of days ago, I realised just how much I rely on playing along to Mat Green’s fiddle on this tune set. So for a better listening experience you might do well to check out the full band recording from our 1995 album Wassail!

In any case, a happy birthday to Tom Turner, and a very merry Christmas to you all.

The Christmas Baby himself – the costume was a gift from Tim and Jo Healey.

The Bottom of the Punchbowl / The Christmas Baby

Played on G/D anglo-concertina

December 21, 2023 by Andy Turner - 0 comments

Midwinter Lights

This tune owes its existence to ‘The Halsway Schottische’, a lovely Eurobal-type tune written by hurdy-gurdy maestro Nigel Eaton. There used to be a website devoted to other people’s recordings of the tune – I seem to remember there were well over a hundred.

And then at some point a bloke called Iain Frisk composed some words to go with the tune, and thus was born ‘The Halsway Carol’ – not a religious Christmas carol, but a secular Midwinter carol. I heard a fabulous performance of this by Julie Murphy and Nigel Eaton and promptly introduced it to the Magpie Lane repertoire. We played it at our Christmas shows for a few years, but we were never really happy with it. If we played it at anything like a danceable speed it was too fast for the singers, and if we played it at a good singable speed it sounded really leaden when we came to the instrumental break. I decided the way round this was to write another tune that we could insert into the arrangement, and thus was born ‘Midwinter Lights’.

I wrote it right at the end of November 2017 – far too late for us to try out that Christmas, as our seasonal gigs started just a couple of weeks later. And to be honest I’m not sure it would have worked anyway. Then in early 2018 we went into the studio to start recording our album The 25th. We recorded a version of ‘The Halsway Carol’ and, once again, we weren’t happy with it. This time, instead of redoing the track we decided that, as Ian put it, we’d found a song that simply refused to respond to the Magpie treatment, and ditched it permanently (although funnily enough I’ve just dug out that recording and it’s really not as bad as we thought at the time).

Fast forward to this year, and I decided I ought to see whether my own composition was any good. And, though I say it myself, it’s kind of OK.

See what you make of it.

Midwinter Lights

Played on C/G anglo-concertina

Two bright lights in a Finnish forest on a midwinter night

Photo copyright Peter Nylund, from his ‘Yeti rides’ blog.

December 17, 2023 by Andy Turner - 0 comments

Old Road

I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned on this blog that, since March 2022, I have been playing for Headington Quarry Morris Dancers. I was asked to stand in for veteran Quarry musician John Graham, who was in hospital at the time, and sadly passed away earlier this year. On Boxing Day the side go on a four-stop tour of Headington Quarry featuring a mummers’ play, handbell ringing, and a rapper dance. Last year was my first Boxing Day outing, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. There are some rather nice photos of the day taken by Tony Gillie on Twitter.

Proceedings commence at the Crown and Thistle in Old Road – a pub which has been closed for many years, I believe, but still a sizeable crowd came out to watch. When I wrote this tune a few days later, on New Year’s Day, ‘Old Road’ suggested itself as a suitable tune name. It would also be a good name for a hymn tune, and from the start I’ve thought that this would work well as a vehicle for a set of lyrics. I envisage something positive and uplifting, assuring us that, despite all the vicissitudes of life, if we stand together and do the right thing, we’ll triumph in the end (i.e. the sort of thing Jim Boyes or John Tams might write). I’m no songwriter myself, but if anyone feels inspired to search out, or compose, a suitable set of words, please get in touch.

In the meantime, I’m enjoying playing it as an instrumental piece. It’s a really simple tune, but somehow I find it quite satisfying to play.

Old Road

Played on C/G anglo-concertina

This year’s Headington Quarry Boxing Day rapper and mumming tour itinerary is:

11.30 The Crown & Thistle

12.20 The Six Bells

1.00 The Chequers

1.40 The Masons Arms

Headington Quarry Morris Dancers perform outside the Crown and Thistle, Boxing Day 2022.

December 4, 2023 by Andy Turner - 0 comments

We are all right at Canterbury

I’ve learned quite a number of tunes from the Kentish Hops pamphlets issued by Bert Simons in the 1970s. Examples previously posted here include ‘An Adventure at Margate’, ‘Dover Pier’, ‘The Duke of Kent’s Waltz’ and ‘The Hop-Pickers’ Feast’. I’d entirely overlooked this one. But then a lockdown recording of the tune by Bill Howarth, Ian Carter and Peter Collinson had me reaching for the collected edition on my bookshelf, and I promptly added it to my repertoire. I think it’s a winner – and, once again, it’s a tune that fits really nicely on the one row melodeon.

The tune was originally printed on page 7 of Rutherford’s Compleat Collection of 200 of the most celebrated Country Dances both Old and New which are now in Vogue… Voll 1st., published in 1756.

We are all right at Canterbury, from Rutherford’s Compleat Collection. Image copyright VWML.

We are all right at Canterbury

Played on four-stop one-row melodeon in C.