Regulars to the club will be aware of my fondness for the old fashioned “Classic” style of banjo playing from the Edwardian era. I often use it to punish the audience when not enough floor singers have shown up.

I took advantage of a visit to a client down in South London today to make a pilgrimage to the grave of the greatest classic banjo composer of them all – Joe Morley.

Joe was born in 1887. He started playing in minstrel troupes in the 1890’s before joining the Clifford Essex Pierrots – the first Pierrot act.

He’s best remembered for writing literally hundreds of tunes for the finger-style classical banjo in the early years of the twentieth century. His compositions form the backbone of the classic banjo repertoire to this day.

Joes Resting Place today

Unfortunately Joe never made much money from his compositions and he died penniless in 1937 from a throat condition and was buried in a paupers grave in Streatham Green Cemetery.

In 2001 a group of classic banjo enthusiasts raised enough money to give Joe a proper gravestone and this is what I went to see.

It was a lovely sunny, autumnal lunchtime when I went to have a look. Not being the praying type I wasn’t entirely sure what to do once I actually found the grave. I thought about bringing my banjo and playing a tune or two but wasn’t at all sure that was appropriate!

I found it a bit tricky to find. If you decide to have a look yourself  it’s number 34010-20. The 34010 is the plot number and the 20 is the section of the cemetery. It’s not very clear and took me ages to work it out. Mind you the exercise won’t do me any harm.

Another view of the grave

My pal Andy May reckons I would have done better to track down William Ball’s resting place.

Since I now own his banjo which I use for such unorthodox purposes as accompanying semi-clad, potty mouthed performance poets and lending to the fabulous Hunter Robertson for him to frail the living daylights out of, Andy thinks I could have entertained myself listening to the sound of poor old Bill spinning in his grave!

There’s loads of info about Joe Morley and the Memorial fund here

I also came across the grave of music hall legend Lupino Lane…

Lupino Lane

GREEN DRINKS are starting in Waltham Forest at the Rose and Crown in Walthamstow – spread the word!

It’s the chance to have a relaxing tipple of your choice – alcoholic or non – and get to know your neighbours, network and find out what’s going on in the borough to make it a cooler, greener, more friendly place to live, which is after all, what life should be about.

It will be the 1st and the 15th of every month – come when you can and when you feel like it. Anyway – me and a few mates will be at the Rose and Crown http://www.roseandcrowntheatrepub.webeden.co.uk/ from 8pm on starting from this Thurs 1 Oct.

Wear GREEN if you can and we’ll be able to spot each other.

You can find out more about the idea at www.greendrinks.org

I think this is a great idea – after all as one local boy once said “Fellowship is heaven, and lack of fellowship is hell; fellowship is life, and lack of fellowship is death; and the deeds that ye do upon the earth, it is for fellowship’s sake that ye do them.” ~ William Morris

Really looking forward to Hunter Robertson’s visit to the club on Sunday.

He’s a really fearsome banjo player as this clip illustrates.

Well, the first session of the ‘new term’ is tomorrow, and I promise that we are going to play tunes slowly in the first half. If people start speeding up they will be Suppressed. No new tunes for the tunebook this month I’m afraid. Instead, I offer you a list of some of the tunes that have been either played at our session, or played at Simon Care’s ‘dead easy English tunes’ session at Towersey. Most of these are readily available online.

Common Time tunes (Polkas, Marches, Reels)

Amoco Stomp
Bear Dance
Bobby Shaftoe
Brighton Camp/ The Girl I left Behind Me
Buttered Peas
Dark Girl Dressed in Blue
Donkey Riding
Jack Robinson
Jenny Lind
Jimmy Allen
Lads a Bunchum
La Russe
The Lass of Richmond Hill
Maggie in the Wood
Oh, Joe, the Boat is Going Over
Princess Royal (major version)
Rakes of Mallow
The Rochdale Coconut Dance
Rogue’s March
Roxburgh Castle
Salmon Tails Up the Water
Speed the Plough
Three Around Three
Three Jolly Sheepskins
Tip Top Polka
Tralee Gaol
Uncle Bernard’s Polka
Willafjord
Winster Gallop
Young Collins

Jigs

Black Joak
Cock of the North
Dingle Regatta
New Rigged Ship
Oats and Beans and Barley Grow
Oscar Woods’ Jig (Tiger Smith’s)
Oyster Girl
Plane Tree
Seven Stars

Waltzes/Mazurkas

En Avant Blonde
La Valse de Noel (Bruno Le Tron) (known in England as Bruno’s Waltz or the Metro Waltz)
Michael Turner’s Waltz
Oh Dear, What Can the Matter Be
Rose of Raby
The Man in the Moon

Hornpipes

Kafoozalum
The Keel Row
Lemmy Brazil’s No. 2
Off to California
Soldier’s Joy
Sportsman’s Hornpipe
The Trumpet Hornpipe (Cap’n Pugwash)

Tune Resources

http://www.lewesarmsfolkclub.org/LAFC/Lewesfav.html (The Lewes Favourites, 200 or so tunes with abc)
http://folkmusicnotes.wordpress.com/ (Eclectic choice of tunes with sources, mostly English and French, playable sheet music)
http://www.village-music-project.org.uk/ (rescuing old tune books, abc)
http://www.thesession.org/ (loads of tunes, Irish emphasis, sheet music and abc)
http://www.ceilidhsoc.org/ (Sheffield Ceilidh society, print your own tunebooks or first line cheat-sheets)
http://abcnotation.com/ (What is this abc thing anyway? Links to abc readers for all platforms)

Our friend Roger Huddle is conducting one of his famous walks through the radical history of Walthamstow on behalf of the Antiscrap campaign to protect culture in the borough.

It’s on Sunday 13th September starting at St Jame Street Station at 1pm and Roger says he’ll make sure he finishes in plenty of time to get to the sublime Dana & Susan Robinson at the club that evening!

“Guided by Roger Huddle this walk is unashamedly biased towards the radical, the socialist and arty past of Walthamstow – from Industrial syndicalism to the William Morris Orchestra from the Clarion Cyclists to Art Settlements.
Sunday 13 September start at St James Street Station 1pm
Finish at William Morris Gallery approx 4pm depending on weather and fitness.”

Whoops – scratch this, it’s been cancelled!

My Ceiligh band The Upstreet Irregulars are playing a fund raising barn dance on Saturday September the 12th.

It’s for the Nightingale Community Children’s Hospice and if there’s a more deserving cause than that I don’t know what it is.

It’s at Christ Church House Centre, The Green, Southgate N14 7EG and admission is £15 or £10 for kids.

They seem to be going down the cowboy route but we actually do English and American stuff.

The next in our popular series of Traditional Tune Sessions is this coming Tuesday the 8th of September.

Admission is free and you can find out all about it here http://www.walthamstowfolk.co.uk/sessions.htm

Hope everybody had a great summer.

The club starts up again after our summer break this Sunday (the 6th) with a visit from  Damien Barber & Mike Wilson. Two of the best traditional singers (as well lots of other things) in the country it promises to be a seriously good evening.

As always we’re at the Plough Inn, Wood Street, London E17 and we start at 7:30. Admission is £6.