Christmas Concerts and New Year Party in Sherborne
The season of good cheer is sprinting towards us at a high rate of knots. I can hear the bell for the last lap. (Who's been watching the Olympics then?) The Concerts are on Friday 12th and Saturday 13th of December and the New Year Party on Wednesday 31st. All three events are in The Digby Hall as usual and start at 8p.m.
Tickets will be available from the beginning of October and can be purchased from 'Rules' which is opposite Woolworths in Cheap Street, Sherborne. Alternatively you can buy them from our web shop, send for them via the PO Box or [contact details removed]. Concert tickets are, £7.50 for adults, £6.00 for children and senior citizens. New Year is £12 each. Cheques to 'The Yetties' please.
Bring your own food for the New Year Party. This varies tremendously depending on your needs. I have seen tables literally groaning under the weight of suckling pig etc. We, of course, can't afford such luxuries and so have to wander the tables with our tongues hanging out waiting to be offered the odd crumb.
There is a well-stocked bar so please don't bring your own booze. The bar man gets umpty and starting the New Year with an umpty bar man is not nice. We don't want a short season of good will we want it to last for at least a couple of days into 2009.
If you need a map to find the Digby Hall please don't hesitate to ask
LPs to CD
For some while now friends have been asking if we can put our LPs from the 70s and 80s onto CD. The equipment is now installed and I am endeavouring to master it. I know by most peoples standards this is a simple, if time consuming, task but I'm not a computer whizz kid so patience is needed.
So far I've managed the following:
50 Stone of Loveliness, 1969
Bound for Baltimore, To Hear The Nightingale Sing, The Maypole, The Hunt, Rounding The Horn, Farming Contractor, Outward Bound, Music Medley, The Leaf, The Cornish Nightingale.
All At Sea, 1973
Hornpipe Medley, Spanish Ladies, Fiddler's Green, The Mermaid, The Watchet Sailor, 3 Sea Captains, Aboard The Kangaroo, Can't You Dance The Polka, Ranter's Wharf, Greenland Whale Fisheries, Concertina Medley, Stormalong, The Quaker, The Banks of Newfoundland, The Candlelight Fisherman, Homeward Bound.
Up In Arms, 1974 (with Sherborne Town Band)
Seigfried Line Medley, Old King Cole, Browned Off, Sgt. Major Medley, Colonel Bogey, Bloody Orkney, Hanging On The Old Barbed Wire, Bless 'Em All, Quartermaster's Stores, Position Capabilities Description, Peat Bog Soldiers, Any Complaints?, Guarding The Home Of The Homeguard, D Day Dodgers, Soldiers Ten Commandments, Pack Up Your Troubles Medley.
The Yetties of Yetminster, 1975
Gypsy Rover, Bandy Bertha, One Morning In May, Widecombe Fair, Downfield's Delight, Bread & Fishes, Gentleman Soldier, Monday Morning, Fling It 'Ere Fling It There, The Marrow, Lord Of The Dance, Beau Psaltery, Farming Contractor, Trelawney.
The World Of The Yetties, 1975
Out In The Green Fields, The Nightingale, McCann's Jig/Lilting Fisherman/Drowsy Maggie, The Lark In The Morning, Spanish Ladies, Rigs O'Marlow/Cuckoo's Nest, Can't You Dance The Polka, Lamorna, King Of The Fairies, South Australia, The Mallard, The Banks Of Newfoundland, Dorset Four Hand Reel, Landlord Fill The Flowing Bowl.
The Village Band, 1976 (with Sherborne Town Band)
The Village Band, Compliments Returned, Cigareetes & Whusky, Brigg Fair, Our Sarah, Henry My Son, Parson's Farewell/Linden Lea, Farmer's Boy, Whistling Rufus, Barley Mow, Costa Del Dorset, The January Man, The Jolly Ploughboy, Granny's Old Arm Chair, The Parting Glass.
Up Market, 1977
Barwick Green, Sing Me An Old Fashioned Song, Punch & Judy Man, On Horseback, Shrewsbury Lasses, Old Lamplighter, Have A Drink On Me, Padstow May Song, Seven Golden Daffodils, Life Gets Tee-jus Don't It, Portsmouth, The Roving Kind, On A Beach Down In Dorset, Come Outside (with Toni Arthur).
The Sound of Cricket, 1984 (with John Arlott)
Cricket On The Village Green, John Small, Hambledon/Stonewall Jack, The Old Cricketer/I Keeps It There Or There About, The Flower Bowler, The High Catch, The Master/A Tickle Of Me Spinnin' Finger, Four Jolly Bowlers, Harold Gimblett's Hundred, Somerset/Beefy's Army.
These can be purchased at £6 each (including post & packing) from the PO Box. If your favourite is not on the list please let us know. I will be adding to it gradually so your choice can be next on the list.
Doing the Dorset Dirt
This 50 kilometre off road cycle ride is on the 14th of September. I am getting some practice miles in and hoping that the old legs haven't deteriorated too much since last year. The weather has just turned for the better so hopefully we won't have to fit floats to the bikes.
I am trying to raise money to develop the Kennedy/Grant Library at Halsway Manor Folk Centre. We have thousands of books, CDs and LPs, which need some TLC and a new home. The collection is of great value to those who want to study the traditions and folk-lore of Britain. We have such a wonderful, vibrant mix of songs, tunes and dances which were handed down from generation to generation and it's brilliant that there is such a place as Halsway where they are still appreciated and performed.
So far the kitty stand at over £670 or £335 per leg. Thank you very much for your generosity. Think of me at 10a.m. on the 14th at the Top of Town Car Park in Dorchester. There I will be, with friends Bob and Robert and son Ben and about 100 others wondering if the gorse bush I fell into 2 years ago is still waiting for me. Bonny
DVDs 'Dorset At War' and 'Yesterdays Country Village'
1st Take Productions from Bristol have produced a DVD which you might be interested in. It's called 'Dorset at War' .
I found it fascinating. You are bound to come across bits of 2nd World War concrete if you wander the hills of Dorset long enough but I didn't realise how important our county was in the scheme of things until I watched this 85 minute film. It costs £14.95 plus P & P.
I have been involved in another of their productions 'Yesterday's Country Village' . We did some filming at Pitman's Leaze, between Sherborne and Thornford, the cottage where I was born and lived for the first four years of my life. I'm sure our life style was not much different from most people who lived in the countryside but it does seem rather primitive now. Water from the well and no electricity. This will be available from the end of September and it will be the same price at 'Dorset at War'. Bonny
Yetminster Comes to Yeovil
On Saturday 17th of January, 2009 Yetminster, in the form of The Yetties and Yetminster Irish Dancers, venture into Yeovil to perform at The Octagon Theatre. This is a special one-off show and if you haven't seen the Yetminster youngsters dance then you really ought to come along. It's brilliant that the village still has a dancing tradition that gives the children from the area a chance to travel just as a certain Yetminster & Ryme Intrinseca Junior Folk Dance Display Team did all those years ago.
The Octagon Box Office No. is [contact details removed].
Last Night
I'm sat in front of the computer this morning tapping away with my eyes propped open. We were quite late home last night. I got to bed at roughly 3p.m. after a booking at Moreton In The Marsh. The occasion was the annual gathering of The British BMW owners club (that's motorbikes, not cars). It was an excellent concert, the audience all joined in with gusto and the whole night was very satisfying. This got me contemplating, over my first cup of tea, on the variety of work we have been doing in the last couple of months. The concert for The Thomas Hardy Conference at The Corn Exchange in Dorchester. The day at The Gillingham & Shaftesbury Show (in the Rare Breeds tent naturally). The Ceilidh for the Kettering Twinning Association, which entailed playing and calling dances for about 60 Germans and 100 Brits. A concert at Kimmeridge Bay for The Dorset Wild Life Trust in a howling gale. I believe it was the sight of three gorgeous young girls in the front row singing and swaying to the music that kept us going as the rain poured down. Five days at Halsway Manor Folk Centre giving lectures, doing concerts and playing and singing the night away. Not bad for three old codgers from the country!
Bonny