Monthly reports from the
year 2004
FEB 2004 - Here we go
again
Yes, as the
daffodils start waving their yellow heads around, the blossom appears magically
on the trees, the lambs start gambolling, (should never have taken them into
Ladbrokes in the first place though), and the manufacturers of hay fever potions
start tingling with anticipation, its time for the talking (b******s) down the
pub to finish and the Morris season to start again.
For BB its always a busy time, and particularly for our team organisers who have
to count how many of the team are fit enough to once again pull on the whites, a
number which gets smaller every year.
Nevertheless the side has so far been able to do one event on Sat 28th Feb, the
annual IVFDF (Inter Varsity Folk Dance Festival). This is essentially a weekend
Folk Festival, held at a different University each year, and this year based at
the splendid University of Exeter. As with other Festivals there are a series of
concerts, displays and workshops, this year based on the main university campus,
a short walk from the centre of Exeter where the Saturday Morris tours took
place. Although a bitterly cold day, with snow in some parts of the country, the
weather was fine and clear when we arrived at the first spot in time for the
days dancing, organised by Exeter's own Great Western Morris. In fact the day's
organisation was rather hit and miss, with our second spot involving a longish
walk to what turned out to be a closed and deserted pub, after which we decided
to retreat to a better looking venue we had passed on the way.
However we had an enjoyable day's dancing, once we had got over the rather poor
start of one of the team members having his car clamped while he stopped for a
minute to look for the rest of us at the first dance spot at the waterside at
Exeter Quayside. To add to the irony, Rob was chatting away to the clamper while
he was doing it, unaware that the unfamiliar looking car being clamped was one
of ours, having been borrowed for the day by our unfortunate member while his
was being serviced. It was even more unfortunate that the aforementioned
unfortunate was unable to dance, having unfortunately pulled a calf muscle at
the preceding evening's stonking ceilidh with the stonking Bismarcks.
At our second spot, we were able to work something of a flanker on our morning
tour leader James, of the curly purple hair, from Newton Bushell. Although we
had not been to a pub at this stage, James had managed to get a tankard of beer
from somewhere, which he made the mistake of putting down in large open space
next to the set he was dancing in. A posse of Bedlams, arranged in the style of
a Rugby rolling maul, was despatched to advance slowly onto and over the
tankard, swap it for a collecting tin, and retreat to the edge of the crowd in
order to down the contents defore advancing again in similar fashion, swapping
it back but leaving it empty and upside down before retreating again. Amazingly
this was witnessed by the entire audience, and all of the other dancers, but not
James. Still, he took it in good heart, especially when we promised to buy him
another pint later, a promise which I'm afraid to say I'm not sure we kept.
Later
spots included an excellent Dance of the Big Goblins outside the cathedral,
after which those of the side who had imbibed some weak lager at lunchtime
wanted to do the rather dangerous (especially after weak lager) Jolly Jockey
Sticks, but were persuaded to do something safer by the more cautious members of
the team, including Malcolm who then proceeded to go somewhat astray in our
'safe' Lucky Pierre. But we finished the day with a cracking spot including
'Fairies' in the Town Centre, and although the day's organisation meant we
didn't get to dance with most of the other teams we had a good time overall.
Those who stayed for the evening enjoyed a very pleasant and relaxed supper in
the Prospect Inn where Lee received a new hairdo courtesy of Malcolm's daughter
Stephanie and her friends before going back to the campus for an excellent
ceilidh with the Committee Band and Nick 'marvellous' Walden calling.
Marvellous.
APR
2004 - Memory lapses
Sunday
25th April was a momentous days for our 2 Roberts - the most important one,
young Berrisford-Smith, got himself christened at St. Johns Church, Hartley
Wintney, while the older one, after acting as godfather, showed a fine example
to his new godson by forgetting parts of his kit for the post christening dance
with BB outside the church. Never mind (old) Rob, with those great legs I think
you got away with it. Meanwhile Jane and Mark had organised a splendid post
christening lunch with entertainment, which everyone present very much
appreciated, and Mark made an excellent speech during which he pointed out that
it was ironic that young Robert would remember nothing of the day organised in
his honour. Don't worry Mark, we've noticed old Robert's memory is going a bit
too actually, in particular halfway through dances.
On Thursday the 29th we officially started the season with the traditional
'Bob's Fish and Chip Shop Tour', which as usual only involved dancing at the
Queens Oak at Finchampstead rather than Bob's Fish and Chip shop like the old
team used to do (eh Paul?), though confusingly tour organiser (real) Bob had
fooled some of the side the previous week into thinking it was actually going to
be a tour of Fish and Chip shops by producing a fairly credible looking
itinerary. Should have known better lads, the clue's not in the name. Anyway we
had a traditionally small but appreciative crowd, with the evening enlivened by
an interesting Health and Safety discussion (you had to be there to appreciate
it ....).
MAY / JUNE
2004 - Yorkshire to Dorset via corporate-ness....
On the 8th and 9th of May we were off to the Holmfirth Festival, a splendidly
Northern affair in this traditional old Yorkshire town on the edge of the Peak
District. Despite some incredibly unpromising weather leading up to the weekend,
the weather stayed remarkably kind throughout, except for a torrential downpour
just as the Saturday afternoon procession got going. We did get rather soaked
during it despite trying our 'umbrella shuffle' procession, and had to stop to
shelter at one point, but then the deluge stopped and we caught up with the back
of the procession where we were able to conga along the rest of the way just
behind the very loud and lively percussion ensemble who were supposed to be
ending the procession with style. Instead we ended it without, but we did seem
to get well appreciated nevertheless. Apart from this, we had various spots
around the town over the 2 days, and a 10 minute spot during the Saturday
evening ceilidh with Bedlam, which also seemed to go down well. The in joke of
the weekend seemed to be Lee's alleged lack of height ("stand up when
you're talking to us, Lee .. oh, you are standing up") which you would have
thought correctly would wear rather thin after a short (sorry Lee) while. Still,
never let it be said that Berkshire Bedlam let accuracy or taste get in the way
of milking a not very amusing in the first place proposition. So I hope that'll
be an end to it Lee. Its simply not fair picking on small people like you, not a
tall - sorry, that should say not at all.
The 12th May saw us at the Golden Pot at Eversley, dancing outside where we were
surrounded by May flowers and Mayflowers, whose invite it was. And a splendid
time was had by all.
After that there were no events until the Whitsun weekend, 29th - 31st, where we
were one of the featured teams at the Chippenham Folk Festival, which despite
the gloomy forecasts featured pretty good weather until almost the end. Although
several of the team had been before in other guises, this was the first invite
for BB. Our weekend commitment started on the Saturday with a morning workshop,
where Jameson taught Sucking the Monkey and Old Woman to several interested
attendees and some of the current team. After that it was a posey procession
through town, followed by various dancing spots and then the obligatory BB
team-pizza-before-our-evening-ceilidh-spot, never with hindsight one of our
better plans. The spot was actually during a dance evening at the Town Hall, and
it must be said that we got a surprisingly warm reception for the whole spot,
with some of the audience even appreciating Malcolm's introductory nonsense, the
first time any of the team can remember this happening since he set fire to his
breeches in a desperate but ill fated attempt to get the audience's attention.
The Sunday saw us do more spots around town, and then in the afternoon a
successful session on the Arena stage, which also seemed to go down well, and
Monday featured another workshop (Highland Mary and Mazurka), another
procession, and then more spots around town and at the Rose and Crown. By late
afternoon a light rain was starting to appear, and the audience was starting to
disappear, leaving just ourselves and Witchmen at the Rose and Crown to
entertain each other, and us to finish proceedings with an up and down Fairies
and walk off.
The first Sunday in June (6th) it was off to the Kirtlington Lamb Ale, where a small but
perfectly formed BB team performed creditably at the various venues around the
village. Or at least, it did when we got Jameson and Simon back from the
clutches (and the floral arrangements) of Rumworth, with whom they had performed
on Saturday, and Sue and Bob from Windsor, with whom they still performed
intermittently on Sunday. Our highlight though came towards the end of the day
in the show spot in the school playground. We were the last of the guest teams
to do a show dance before Kirtlington came back on to wrap up proceedings, and
while we waited to come on, doing our little running on the spot thing as you
do, the m/c (Kirtlington's Nigel) caught sight of us and proceeded to
stretch out his intro for us for as long as he could until we got fed up and ran
on anyway. We had chosen to do The Dance of the Big Goblins, for which we got
very good feedback afterwards, despite Nigel who together with another
Kirtlington colleague kept up a mumbled conversation over the P.A. throughout,
audible to all the audience, mainly consisting of somewhat derogatory comments
such as 'haven't they finished yet..?'. Ah well, it all added to the occasion.
And we couldn't exactly complain to Nigel since once again he and Katie put on a
terrific spread afterwards at their home nearby. In fact it was such a good
spread we felt a bit guilty about the bagfuls of sugar we emptied into his car's
petrol tank afterwards. Only a bit, though.
Next
up was a somewhat different evening on Tuesday 8th June when we had a paid
corporate event, performing for UIB Ltd insurance brokers at a gala evening they
had organised for overseas clients at the Royal Berkshire Hotel in Ascot. The
idea was to have some very English pre-dinner entertainment (i.e. us), and
fortunately it was a pleasant summery evening so the visitors were able to mill
around on a large outdoor terrace while we performed on nearby on grass. The
audience, although perhaps slightly bemused by the idea of English traditional
dance, nevertheless seemed to enjoy something rather different, particularly a
couple of them who we roped in for 'Coconuts'. Our hosts had also kindly
arranged a room and refreshments for us, where afterwards we were able to enjoy
the sandwiches which John hadn't scoffed and Lee hadn't licked the toppings off
(if you are going to do it, Lee, please don't put them back on the plate
afterwards, there's a good chap, or we'll have to keep going on about your
height again and frankly we're all bored of that, little feller). However after
enjoying the hospitality all too briefly, we shot off to the Fox and Hounds at
Farley Hill to fulfil a long standing engagement with Fleet for the rest of the
evening. With hindsight this may have been rather ambitious on our part, as when
we turned up our dancing was not very good, although we were doing it on some
rather dodgy grass. However Fleet were very forgiving, and at least we were able
to enjoy their dancing which as ever included some interesting features in
several of their dances.
Then Monday 14th Jun saw us back at The Queens Oak, where Jackstraws and
ourselves had invited each other for what turned out to be a very pleasant
evening of Cotswold, with Jackstraws hankies flowing as gracefully and
effortlessly as ever. And we even had a small audience. Alas, though, the days
of foaming jugs of ale brought out after the performance seem to be long gone,
possibly because several teams use the Queens Oak as a dance venue these days.
But no one else with Berkshire in the name .....
On Thursday 25th we were once again at the Red Lion at Avebury for our annual
Thursday dance out around the summer solstice time. This year our friends from
Holt Morris were unable to join us, but instead we enjoyed an excellent
evening's dancing with Thames Valley International, a fine long established
Cotswold team based in London, Ontario, but with members drawn from all over
Canada, North America - and Cornwall. They were in the middle of a week's (morris)
touring of Southern England, dancing with many other good teams, and we were
able to enjoy a good evening's dancing on the newly resurfaced car park (not
quite the same without the added pothole hazards of old). The weather had been
somewhat dubious during the week and the evening was blustery, so the solstice
druids had long gone and we had almost no audience except the ones we brought,
but nevertheless between the 2 teams the car park was soon filled with a hubbub
of noise - mostly the agonised cries of the TVI team undergoing necessary
physiotherapy on the sidelines after a week's non stop dancing. This was also
mixed with the anguished cries of some of BB, since this was the evening of
England's agonising Euro 2004 quarter final against Portugal. In fact once the
dancing had finished we repaired to the New Inn at Winterbourne Monkton, just up
the road, and half of us watched the unsuccessful penalty shoot out on the TV in
the packed main bar while everyone else enjoyed an excellent music and singing
session in the back room, all in a very convivial international atmosphere,
especially when the landlord showed no strong inclination to close the pub.
This event was immediately followed at the weekend by the 312th annual Dorset
Tour, once again centred around Cerne Abbas and the Giants Head camp site where
the tough boys and girls camped, while the less tough but more sensible people
stayed in a variety of B&Bs nearby. The tour started as so often before at
the Smith's Arms in Godmanstone, where normally we are able to dance outside in
the attractive (though small) garden area, but this year the rain was
persistently persistent on arrival, obliging one of the tallest teams in England
to dance inside one of the smallest pubs in England. But it was an enjoyable
start to the weekend, followed by a trip across the rainswept valleys of
Wiltshire to the Shave Cross Inn at Shave Cross for lunch. Those who ignored
Rob's directions and worked out for themselves the optimum route arrived in
reasonable time, while those who didn't, didn't. Never mind, the pub was
excellent, and run by one of Wessex Morris Men and therefore morris friendly. As
the rain was still doing its stuff we danced this time inside the skittle alley
set aside for us, which even at its highest point had a low ceiling, which
sloped away alarmingly on either side, as we found out when doing a hasty or ill
timed galley, as most of the team's galleys are come to think of it. But a good
lunch and bit of dancing later we were ready for the next bit of the afternoon,
an appearance at the Beaminster Festival, with Wessex Morris and the Fabulous
Fezheads. However I may have mentioned the rain, which continued during the
afternoon, and kept Wessex in the pub (not sure they would have come out even if
it had been 30 C degrees), leaving the Fezheads to gather a slightly bedraggled
crowd with their inspired routines and us to continue to try not to let it
disperse. After that some of us returned to the campsite, which had almost
disappeared in the aforementioned mist and rain, where we enjoyed Jerry's
cocktail hour with a Committee Band CD playing through a car window, and all of
a sudden life wasn't too bad. In a break with tradition though, and with safety
in mind, we skipped the walk down from the campsite across the ridge into Cerne
Abbas and opted for cars.
Once in Cerne Abbas, the rain had just about lifted enough for us to perform
outside the Royal Oak, where our own blast from the past Mike Lyth was able to
join in one or two dances. Wisely though he stayed clear of Glorisher where due
to a mix of weather conditions, sloping surface, and ineptitude Malcolm only
managed to get halfway up Lee's back during the leapfrogs before bringing the
pair of them crashing down onto the damp tarmac quite spectacularly, with the
unfortunate Lee coming off rather worse, though it did get him out of having to
attempt a reciprocal leap. After staggering through more bits of the repertoire
we dined most pleasantly at the New Inn before retiring to our first class
accommodation or leaky tents .......
The
next day however, Sunday, by complete contrast was bright and sunny. Rob
had arranged a spot at Highcliffe Castle, Christchurch, and this proved
a big success, dancing on the lawns in front of a large outdoor tearoom
and restaurant with a ready made crowd who weren't in any hurry and were
quite happy to appreciate a bit of free entertainment thrown in. We put
together 2 decent spots for them and from a dance point of view this was
definitely the highlight of the weekend. After the dancing finished we
had some photograph posing, armed with our new swords which Lee
particularly wanted to have photographed before they were first clashed
in anger, so to speak. And very bright and shiny they were too.
Following this surfeit of posing, several of the team descended down to
the beach or undertook cliffside walks in the somewhat blustery though
bright and sunny conditions, before dispersing in a Berkshire-wards
direction. We had set ourselves the target for the weekend of doing
every dance in the repertoire, and in the end despite the restrictions
due to the weather on Saturday we managed 28 of the 32 with only 1
repetition, so not bad at all. And overall another great weekend, very
ably organised by Rob for whom the usual big thanks, and making it
difficult to live up to next year. but he always succeeds somehow
.......
JULY 2004
- Another Chance to Flash in Public ....
Only 2 events in July, but it was a month of quality not quantity ...
On the evening of 20 July we were at the Black Horse in Checkendon, with
Eynsham Morris. This was the first time we had danced out with Eynsham
for 9 years, and many of the team remember the rather disastrous evening
we had last time with them, just before Sidmouth 1995, when we acquitted
ourselves very poorly and subsequently wondered whether we ought to skip
the Sidmouth appearance and stay at home with a good book, like 'The
Beginners Guide to Morris Dancing'. This time round however we had a
much better evening, and it was also a pleasure to watch Eynsham go
through their own fine repertoire of dances, all done with great energy
and not a little gusto.
The Black Horse is also an excellent venue, on a very quiet country road
but with a good outdoor dancing area with plenty of seating for the
decent sized audience to watch. However, just after both teams had finished, a
visiting party of Americans arrived, necessitating us both kitting up
again and performing a suitable party piece ('Coconuts' for us, aided
and abetted by one of their party in a kilt. As you do).
Then on the weekend of 24th / 25th July we were at the Warwick Festival,
where we last were 2 years ago. For the first time this season we had a
full complement of dancers and musicians, and the combination of this
together with the good weather, the quality and friendliness of the
other teams we were with, and the general excellence of the Festival
overall, made for a great weekend. During the day on Saturday we
performed at various spots around the main site (once again based at the
Warwick School) and in town, and also took part in the procession using
our recently developed posing skills to the full wherever possible.
After this it was back to the campsite and BB's camping enclave for a
(now traditional) BB campsite takeaway pizza - very good, but perhaps
just a tad too much hot n'spicy. And with hindsight, stuffing ourselves
full of pizza is probably not the best preparation for our subsequent
ceilidh spot during the excellent Whapweasel ceilidh in the Guy Nelson
Hall - however, our spot did seem to be extremely well received. We
opened with Wheel of Fortune (dressed in normal kit), and then did the
Big Goblins stick dance, followed by Go and Enlist from Jameson and
Simon, and then the Matachins sword dance, by which time we had all
changed into sword kit i.e. flouncy shirt, white breeches, dark blue
socks and black shoes. This was also the kit Jameson and Simon did their
double jig in, which got them several whoos before they started (helped,
it must be said, by a completely disproportionate amount of over the
top, posey swaggering when they appeared). Anyway, this was the first
time this year we had performed our sword dance in public, and also the
first time out for our new swords, which it must be said glinted and
flashed beautifully throughout (we do love flashing in public). During practice the previous Thursday
we had noted how there was a tendency for the blades to work loose
during the dance, and had all tightened our nuts accordingly. However on the
final 'Cavalier' chorus, almost at the end of the dance, Lee's nuts
finally gave way and his blade flew off rather alarmingly towards the
audience. For a fleeting moment there was a question of whether our £5
million public liability insurance would be adequate for decapitation
but fortunately the blade slid along the floor harmlessly, though it
certainly got a nice oooh from the audience. Anyway, overall the spot
went very well, benefiting also from great musical accompaniment from
Sue, Jane and Bob, and we got some excellent feedback afterwards, not
just for the sword dance but for the way the whole set had worked.
Sunday saw us back in town in the Market Square and at the Zetland Arms
before a final set back at the main site where we trotted out Little
Fairies to finish what had been another excellent weekend. Roll on our
next Warwick invitation!
LATE
SUMMER 2004
- More gin, anyone?......
BB made only token appearances at the wonderful 50th Sidmouth
International Festival in the first week of August, although several of
the team were there in other guises, notably Jameson who cemented his
well deserved reputation as King Tart by dancing with Rumworth, Seven
Champions, and the Rose Moresk, as well as displaying last years winning
double jig with Simon at the start of this year's jig competition -
nominally as Berkshire Bedlam, but wearing our sword dance kit with
frilly shirts so they could strut around quite a lot after coming on.
Strictly speaking the full BB kit only appeared once during the week
when Malcolm carried the leading banner in the final night's torchlight
procession wearing it - alongside young Bob, cunningly disguised as a
girl in Windsor kit.
The only team event in August came on Sat 21st when we were invited
by Millers Gin to take part in a promotional event in the form of a
village fete, on the village green in Lurgashall, West Sussex. The event
was aimed at their trade partners and customers, but was also freely
available to locals to join in. Apart from a number of village fete type
stalls, they had a jazz band and (of course) morris dancers. The weather
was perfect, and it was a very pleasant afternoon, improved steadily as
the afternoon wore on by the free availability of copious quantities of Miller's (London Dry) gin, served
stylishly with ice and a slice of lime, or even more stylishly with
other mixers, or just more gin. Many of the stalls featured either full
sized or miniature gin bottles as prizes, including the huge lucky dip
box into which Jerry was later seen disappearing head first in search of
even more gin, though why he needed any more at that stage is open to
question. Despite the gin we did manage to perform and also do a
demonstration version of Coconuts which 4 teams of volunteers had to
repeat for an internal competition. At the end of the afternoon Jerry
persuaded the organisers to let the team have a case of gin to sample in
the privacy of our own homes, and let me assure anyone reading this that
Miller's is a truly excellent gin, and we're not just saying this
because we want to be invited again next year, though that's certainly a
factor (isn't it Jerry and Lee).
Two weeks later, on Sat 4 September, we were at the Wallingford
Bunkfest,
a weekend festival now in its third year and getting bigger and better
each year. Another beautiful day of weather (did we mention elsewhere on
this website it never rains on Berkshire Bedlam?) and an excellent
Morris programme, well organised around the town, and with a good mix of
teams taking part, as well as all the features you might expect to see
at bigger festivals. We enjoyed some good spots, culminating in an
upbeat performance in the covered concert / display area on the main
site. And then later in the afternoon at Jameson's insistence we got to go on a
train
ride on the Cholsey and Wallingford railway, aptly named as the journey
was from Wallingford to Cholsey - and back. Sadly the train was not
pulled by a true revival (steam) engine, which was off elsewhere being
revived again, and it was also notable for its lack of speed and lack of
ventilation. But it was actually a jolly good little outing, and we got
to perform Mazurka at Cholsey, inches away from the platform edge where
proper trains were passing through. Lee and Jameson also got to perform
Rosa on the train on the way home, and then Jameson got a few engine
numbers to add to his collection. Later still in the afternoon a few
Bedlams repaired to Sue's abode a couple of miles away near Shillingford
for tea and an astonishing amount of tinned pineapple chunks with evap
milk in her peaceful garden, as you do. A
perfect day out really.....
And then to the last summer event, our by now traditional evening out on
Tues 7 Sept with Basingclog and Hook Eagle at the Plough, Little London.
This pub has the distinction of always being a good 15 minutes further
away than you think it is going to be, no matter where you start from,
but when we eventually assembled a bare 6, they put on some kit and
performed some of the highlights of the repertoire for the last time of
the 2004 summer season. At this time of the year, most of the evening
dancing is in the dark, as are most of the team throughout. Still we
kept going until the traditional sandwiches appeared at the end of the
evening, perhaps marking the point at which the team can relax their
strict athletes summer diet and get stuck into the body bulk building
autumnal lard and chips butties. Yummy.
But as always the team has its landmark Bunfight ceilidh evening to come
at the end of November, and they are sure that this year's spot, when
they think of it, will be on a par with previous efforts. Will it be? -
the only way to find out is to be there....
YEAR END
2004
- The men in white show their opposite side ......
The Autumn brought our usual beginners & improvers course, and we
were pleased to welcome some new and old faces for the 4 sessions. Ably
led by Jerry, the course covered several dances in the repertoire and
finished up teaching the Sword Dance although on Health and Safety
grounds this was done with sticks, which did somewhat belie the dance's
name come to think about it. But when the course had finished, the usual
annual question was on everyone's mind - what (spot) shall we do at the
Bunfight?
After a false start down a gymnastic track, inspiration was duly
provided when Jameson discovered a video clip of a short routine stuffed
away behind the pantomime camel he keeps in his bedroom (don't ask)
which we proceeded to use as the basis for the dance we eventually did
at the Bunfight.
Ah!...the Bunfight. For many years this has been a highlight of the
Berkshire Bedlam calendar, although a drop in numbers attending in 2003
had made us question its future - however the 2004 event on Sat 27
November was very well attended and was one of the best ever. The
overall theme was 'Schooldays', a simple and relatively unambiguous
theme this year, though we liked lots of the various interpretations
which turned up on the night. 'Phungus' as usual were the band for the
evening, and played exceptionally well all night; our normal caller Hugh
Crabtree couldn't make it but his replacement for the evening Nikki
Hampson also did a great job, and between them the band and caller (also
suitably schoolishly attired) had the dance floor filled throughout. It
was great to see so many people up and dancing, including this year a
good contingent of younger people who we hope will want to go to other
ceilidhs having seen how much fun they can be with a good band and
caller. But the spots are also an important part of the Bunfight and
this year we had 3. First up was BB pretending they were schoolboys who
had forgotten their P.E. kit and so had to do their dance (the Mazurka)
in 'vest and pants' - basically an excuse for the boys to get their kit
off as usual, though the vest and pants attire was actually relatively
tasteful. The second spot had Windsor Morris's 'Sisters of Murphy' Irish
Dance, introduced by Cherry in full nun's attire, and with musical
accompaniment from Andy Richards ('Sister Andrea') on pipe and tabor.
The 'girls' doing it (including our own Bob, confusingly cross dressing
again) certainly looked the part with green attire, black tights, and
long wigs (they were wigs, weren't they girls?) and the dance was going
very well, arms clenched tightly at their sides, until the 'Michael
Flatley' type character, which turned out to be a rather hermaphrodite
Jerry in fetching skirt and ginger wig, came on towards the end and
attempted, not terribly successfully, to do the same stepping. But
anyway, great fun, and the spot went down very well. This was
immediately followed by the Irish bingo raffle, splendidly MC'd by Paul
with no apparent traces of self-consciousness in his Britney schoolgirl
outfit - reasonably convincing except for the hairy bare midriff Paul.
The third spot of the evening was BB again, with a carefully
choreographed 'Men in Black' routine to a fast moving backing track.
Despite the odd slip (it had definitely gone better in final practice!)
this also went down very well with the enthusiastic audience, who had
been helped no doubt at this stage of the evening by some visits to the
free bar. And surprise, surprise, we were asked to do it again - which
we reluctantly (not) did. After this it was Phungus getting
everyone on to the dance floor until the end of another very successful
and memorable Bunfight. Now, what shall we do next year.....?
As has become customary, the Bunfight was followed the next day (Sun
28th) by the Wokingham Winter Carnival, where the centre of Wokingham is
closed off to traffic, there is a Victorian style street market, various
other stalls, fairground attractions - and a number of local Morris
teams. Although it is always hard to get going the morning after the
night before, BB managed to acquit themselves reasonably well, and even
managed to get 6 dancers into the late afternoon procession despite the
damp and chill in the air. This year the Morris teams joined the
procession halfway round, which was a much better idea, although the
marshal assigned to us thought we were called 'Berkshire Bedroom', which
sounds more like a second rate furniture store than a team of top-notch
Morris entertainers (that's what it says on our CV anyway). The day
finished with a music session in the Broad Street Tavern, followed by
going home to collapse in a big heap of assorted kit, costumes and other
clothes from the previous 2 days. But another fabulous
weekend!....
December 16th featured the by now traditional BB Xmas dinner at the Thai
House restaurant, notable this year for an unexpected gift to the team
halfway through the meal from "Santa Claus" - a box containing
some oversized red, white and blue garters made out of what looked and
felt like oily bin liners, and also containing a suitably seasonal poem
which Malcolm was asked to read out to everyone. The poem had rhymes
about everyone in the side except, suspiciously, John - could there
possibly be a link between "Santa" and everyone's favourite
old goat?? (Decide for yourself - read the poem here). Then after a
speech from Malcolm looking back at his 10 years with BB it was time for
everyone's favourite part of the evening - trying to match the bill and
everyone's contributions. Remarkably close this year.
Saturday 18th featured the also traditional St. Thomas day 'tour' of
Wokingham, the tour as usual actually consisting of only 2 venues, the
Market Place and the back bar of the Red Lion. This year the weather was
particularly kind and at various times we had a reasonable sized
audience watching. Because of this we ran through a fair amount of the
repertoire, and were also pleased to have Andy make his first appearance
with us in full BB kit, which he did in fine style once the safety pins
were in place. And then on to the last performance of the year, at
Nettlebed Folk Club on Monday 20th Dec, as a part repayment for
Nettlebed's contribution to our sword purchase earlier in the year. We
appeared during the interval of the evening's concert, by the excellent
Arizona Smoke Review, and did a short set consisting of Sucking the
Monkey, Coconuts and the Sword Dance. It was a different audience from
our normal one, and the conditions were a bit tricky with a very
slippery floor and somewhat confined space, both of which contributed to
some difficulties in the Sword Dance. However the dance recovered well
by the final figure and we seemed to get a good response from the
audience, none of whom we came too close to decapitating this time.
And then that was it for 2004 ....... More next year,
anyone?
Read
here a feature on the side in the October 2004 edition of 'Best
of British' magazine written by Yvonne Baker!
|
|
For full reports from 2003 go to the BB
2003 Monthly Diary
Back to
Latest News
Back to Home Page |