Saturday 3rd September saw us again at the Wallingford Bunkfest, now in its 4th year and going from strength to strength with a fine line up of artists and more Morris than ever. Our day started early on the Kinecroft South Stage – good venue though only a small audience early in the morning. But we also had later spots at the Market Place and outside The Dolphin before the now traditional highlight (well, we did it for the second time so it’s traditional now) of a trip to Sue’s nearby residence for tea and pineapple chunks with evap – a perfect way to while away an hour or two.
The next weekend (9th – 11th) we were at the Bromyard Festival where we are informed it always rains, and this year was no exception (though not of course on Berkshire Bedlam, oh no). Our weekend started with a reasonably well attended workshop on the main site, in which Jameson taught Sucking The Monkey and Mazurka, after which we had a slightly damp spot on site before heading into town where we eventually performed outside various pubs with various other teams and had a generally good time. In the evening several of us ate at the ‘Taste of India’ Indian restaurant in Bromyard though if you should ever go there having booked a table for 6.30 as we had, don’t expect your table to be ready till 7.30 or your food to arrive till 8.30 as happened to us, and as we had a pleasant chat with the manager about afterwards. On Sunday we had a later start and performed in several venues around town, the most memorable being a good session with Eynsham and Chinewrde in the back area of the Bay Horse. Later in the afternoon we had a ceilidh spot during the Bedlam ceilidh which was followed later by a particularly fine spot from Eynsham, helped it seemed by quite a lot of the previous contents of the town pubs cellars.
Two weeks late was another treat for us, with an invitation to join Shropshire Bedlams and Martha Rhodens Tuppeny Dish for the Bishop’s Castle Michaelmas Fair weekend, a weekend centred on the traditional Fair held in Bishop’s Castle in Shropshire (where both teams are based) and featuring a range of attractions including fairground rides, steam engines, and street entertainment – including of course Morris Dancing. For us though the weekend started in Montgomery, just over the Welsh Border, where on a beautiful clear morning we danced in the main square before climbing the hill to the grounds of the former splendid and now mainly in ruins Montgomery Castle, with quite magnificent views from its elevated position out over the surrounding countryside and hills. a perfect venue for an excellent picnic, though not quite so good for the short lived game of cricket (6 and everyone out as the first cleanly hit shot disappeared over the castle wall and into the depths below). After this we had more dancing in Montgomery before returning to Bishops Castle for further performances outside various pubs and venues up and down the main street through the town, before heading to the Church Barn for the evening entertainment laid on by our hosts, ‘An Open Evening At Hogwarts’. This involved, for most people, dressing up Harry Potter style, though since BB for various reasons (to be revealed later) were going through a Bavarian phase, out came the green hats and lederhosen again. The evening featured some most interesting turns, including games of Quidditch with doubtful rules, and a highly amusing cross between Charades and Chinese Whispers for which you had to be there really. BB performed their Bavarian (Schwarzkopf) dance (including a false start when the CD player jumped early on, after which Paul lived up to his name by Holden on to it) which went down _ (really well / OK / averagely / poorly / lead ballon / I’ll get me coat) – delete as applicable.
Next morning we performed again in Bishop’s Castle, danced at various pubs including the splendid Three Tuns, our guests home pub, and later watched the steam rally go by before performing again in the streets just after it had gone to a reasonably enthusiastic and appreciative audience. Throughout the weekend we had a great time and were really well looked after throughout by our hosts, who fed, watered and otherwise looked after us at every possible opportunity, as well as entertaining us with their own unique and excellent dancing and musicianship, led by John Kirkpatrick and many other very capable musicians.
And then on Tuesday Oct 4, on to a very different engagement. To cut a long story short, we had been asked to take part in an episode of ‘Chucklevision’, featuring the Chuckle Brothers Barry and Paul, for CBBC, the children’s arm of the BBC, after one of the Chucklevision producers had come across this very website with features and photos of us doing our Bavarian dance – exactly what he was looking for, especially as he hadn’t found anyone else who might be able to do it (well not this side of Bavaria anyway) despite extensive looking. So, 9 of us plus our 2 ‘agents’ Sue and Bob (or ‘spies’ as Rob referred to them) headed off to the Civic Centre Theatre in Aylesbury for an afternoon’s filming. CBBC had provided some interesting shorts, braces and hats for us to go with our own stuff to create a fascinating variety of Bavarian-ish looking costumes, and without going through the whole plot suffice it to say we were required to perform our Bavarian dance on stage extensively while Paul, Barry and other characters joined in.
Overall it was a unique chance for us to be luvvies for an afternoon, including refreshments with the rest of the cast and producers from the Outside Catering Van, and waiting before being called in the ‘Green Room’ which was distinctly not green (or actually in any way attractive) except for some of our particularly bright lederhosen. It must be said though that the luvvie bit, not surprisingly, came more easily to some than others. By the end of the afternoon we had been filmed from every conceivable angle, Jameson and Paul Chuckle had bashed each other’s fingers to bits doing the sticking routine, Barry Chuckle had done his cute high kneed trot up and down the line endless times, most of the cast has disappeared down the (fake) trapdoor, and we had performed throughout like troopers. The episode was first shown on CBBC in February 2006 and again on BBC1 in March 2006 – meanwhile Morris sides everywhere take note – it don’t come any bigger than Chucklevision ……
But that wasn’t the end of year or this particular dance by any means – just a few days later we were at Nettlebed to perform some spots during the Phungus ceilidh, The first spot was our normal repertoire, the second one was the Bavarian dance again – same dance, slightly different profile, as to add to the frivolity 4 of us also strapped on the old water filled balloons for some cross dressing – never fails to get a laugh (normally).
The 29th of October saw us on a riverboat on the Thames for the evening, where we had been booked along with a variety of other entertainment at a private function hosted by an acquaintance of Lee’s. We finished up having a fabulous night, and our spots were received extremely well by the audience who initially hadn’t quite known what to make of us. However our hosts very kindly also allowed us to take advantage of the food and drink on offer – which we duly did. There was also a limbo competition, won amazingly by our own Brian who somehow got away with going under the bar in a sideways crouch every time. We finished our evening performance with The Mazurka, during the last chorus of which the boat executed a fairly fast 180 degree turn, causing our lines to drift alarmingly but in unison from left to right and back again. Nice feature actually, which we’re thinking of keeping in though the future logistics may be tricky.
Sat 26th November was Bunfight Day – our annual flirtation with the side’s professional and financial suicide which we usually manage to get away with somehow, this year being no exception. We had an inspired theme (thanks to Andy) of ‘Bunfight at the OK Corral’ which we assumed said it all really. As usual many of our guests dressed accordingly and we had a lovely selection of sheriffs, cowboys, cowgirls, squaws, showgirls, Mexicans, and many other inspired outfits. A special mention also for the Magnificent 7, made up of 4 cowboys (one with a very dodgy beard which I hope she eventually managed to scrape off) with 3 appropriately dressed dummies arranged somehow on poles between them. Great idea though it did take them 15 minutes to get through the door. As usual our band was the excellent Phungus, with Hugh Crabtree calling, who were all on top form, with Hugh in particular having an extra sardonic curl on his top lip for anyone going wrong. The first BB dance spot of the evening was Shooting, which had seemed in advance like a good idea, it being linked to the theme in a fairly obvious way, though we had not in fact practised the dance or what we would do during it at all, so the ending, when Jameson and Simon fell down ‘dead’ rather unexpectedly, rather threw everyone else. Anyway, after an excellent Irish, no sorry Wild West, no sorry Kansas, Bingo, it was time for the show spot of the Can-Can, performed by 8 cross-dressed Bedlams to the very lively Bad Manners version of the Can-Can. John had choreographed a suitable (?) routine, with plenty of skirt flicking up, and he had also organised a BB sewing bee the previous week to make 8 suitable skirts, while the tops were a variety of creations, which hid (or didn’t hide in many cases) the usual water filled balloons. However as we had not got around to a full dress rehearsal of the spot, it quickly became apparent very shortly after we started the dance that the water filled balloons were not going to be staying in place for long for many of the side. Anyway the dance seemed to be well received, to the extent that the audience demanded an encore, though these days Hugh is trained to make them insist on one no matter what the quality of the spot is. Overall though another highly successful evening, with a good turnout – and a special credit to John for making the spot happen.
The next day was the Wokingham Winter Carnival – which always suffers from being after the Lord Mayor’s show, so to speak, even though the Lord Mayor is in it. It was a bit chilly and damp. Nuff said.
Our final dance spot of 2005 was on Saturday 17th December, the St. Thomas’s Day lunchtime danceout – a cold crisp clear session, but a good one nonetheless, and also featuring the first performance of our new stick dance ‘Wizo The Flem’ with its syncopated sticking choruses, before retreating to a nearby home for some food and a preview of the new BB DVD produced by Steve Newland from footage shot in 2005 at Weymouth and the Shropshire Bedlams weekend. Excellent, especially the interview.
And then the very final BB act of 2005 – Thursday 22nd Dec, the annual Xmas dinner at the traditional venue of The Hideout Thai restaurant. An innovation this year was the ‘Secret Santa’, and within (or around) the limit of £5 there were some truly extraordinary presents, some of which are not suitable to be revealed on a family oriented website such as this (eh Tim?), though Simon’s orange animal with a mind of its own (especially when let loose in his shoe) must get a special mention. An appropriately frivolous end to a truly varied and always entertaining year …….