Whittlesea Straw Bear
Reminders of what should be happening in St Andrews Hall, Whittlesey,
this evening (Friday, January 15th 2021.)
For over twenty years Pig Dyke has looked forward to an evening with friends in St Andrews Hall to start our Straw Bear. It’s another thing that can’t happen at present. We wanted to remind ourselves and everyone else about what should be happening there…
Firstly, old hands arrive at 8.05 because Tony sings to start the evening at 8 – always the same song. Here it is:
We haven’t heard this for too many years, but the inspired Rindercella by Dave Burdett used to have us in tears of laughter….
here he is with his composition:
We invite anyone there to do a spot…in recent years Mark Harris has been forced by popular demand to sing this song which
insists on audience participation (the recording is in Lincoln but it has the same feel):
There is always ceilidh dancing….here are some original tunes (and some Pig Dyke
tunes) from the brilliant Pig Dyke musician Kathryn (with Ady Bull):
Tony sometimes does one of the wonderful Les Barker’s poems. Here are two by
the man himself – one serious and one not:
Despite Some People’s lack of enthusiasm, for the instrument, there are always
ukuleles...here with the Appalachian dulcimer:
Drumming has grown on some of us as time passes – here is some from last year:
We can’t do a play this year…so here is last year’s “Whittlesey Wizard of Bogs” – the last time Sadie Heritage starred with
us, with her Wicked Witch of Whittlesey adding to her appearances which include seductive temptresses, grumpy old women, the
representation of dead boring, stewardess of Fenland Airlines and many others:
We always have some impromptu Appalachian stepping:
We have also found some old recordings from the mid 1990s of Rob (our musician
from The Beginning to 2008) playing tunes we used then – two of them
“traditional”:
Rob Tunes (under "New in 2021")
We should be on the streets of Whittlesey on Saturday…here we are from 2020:
And here are our friends from New Jersey, Handsome Molly, with whom we have shared memorable evenings in St Andrews: