Never Ployed to Mony Posh Donces
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I neverployed to monyposh donces ,,, SconTester, Sussex musicion, 1887 - 1972 RegHoll Musical Traditions supplementno. 2 1,990 I Produced and published by: Musical Traditions 98 Ashingdon Road Rochford EssexSS4 1RE. Editor: Keith Summers. rssN0265-5053 Design and desktop publishing: Graeme Kirkham. Cover design: Tony Engle. Cover photograph: Brian Shuel. @Reg Hall, 1990. First published 1990. Printed in Great Britain. AII rightsreseroed . N opart of thispublication may be reproduced , stored in a rctrieaalsystetn, or transmittedin anyforn or by any rneans, electronic,mechnnical, photocopying, recording or otherwix,without thepermission of theauthor and publisher, except for shortertracts for thepurposes of rersiewor academicquotation. To my late mother,Peg, and my wife, Claire. This book is published in coniunction with a double LP, ScanTester 7887-7972: I naner played to many posh ilances (Topic 2-12T45516). The records and further information are available from: Topic RecordsLtd. 50 Stroud Green Road London N4 3EF. I Contents Maps ....................4 Preface d Chapter 1 il;;;;;;;;;;;; ::: ; PART I BIOGRAPFIY Chapter 2 1,887- Great War ......... .....15 Chapter 3 GreatWar - 1,957......... .....45 Chapter 4 1957-1972 ......... ..............57 PARTtr CONTEXT AND COMMENT Introduction .....73 Chapter 5 Dancesand dancetunes ....................77 Chapter 6 Fiddle,concertina, melodeon and tambourine ......................93 Chapter 7 Church bands and village bands .... 101 Chapter 8 FriendlySociety Feast Days ............107 Chapter 9 The'othel music ...........109 Chapter 10 Songsand singers .........115 Chapter 11 Calendarcustoms .........119 Chapter 12 Minstrelsand carnivalbands ..........123 Chapter 13 Classand socialconflict .............,....1,27 Chapter 14 The1920s and beyond................ ......131 Postscript ,..........,,..,137 Discography 739 Acknowledgements 142 Appendix A: The wider world. Sound recordingsby other musicians of tunesfrom ScanTestels recordedrepertoire ..................143 I AshdownForesl ond lhe suroundingoreo: ploces mentioned in the texl . Turne/sHill . FORESTROW . Selslield WestHoathlY'' sharPlhorne . V[chCross . Twyford . tkchgrove CROWBOROUGH . cherwoodGate Rotherfield. BalCOmbe . .CinderHill .ChelwoodOommon Ardingly . 'NutleY . BrownsBrook Horsted .Danehill . Keynes cacktesrre€t . Fairwarp Mayfield . Lindfield . FiveAshes . ShellieldPark . CUCKFIELD . HAYWARDSHEATH Maresfield . HadlowDown . Fletching . Scayne'sHill . Buxted Pilldown Cross-in-Hand. Framfield . Newick ' ' UCKFIELD Blackbovs' HEATHFIELD . Wivelsfield . ' chaileY lsfield . BURGESSH|LL Horam. 5 miles The areashown on thesemaps is coveredby OrdnanceSurvey 1:50000 sheets 787,\88,198 and 199. I Mid-Sussex:ploces mentioned in the text . Edenbridoe . Lingfield . TinsleyGreen . TUNBRIDGEWELLS . coPthorne . EASTGRTNSTEAD . ThreeBridges 'CRAWLEY ---l 'RusPer . FORESTROW . Warnham . HORSHAM . HorstedKeynes CUCKFIELD . HAYWARDSHEATH UOKFIELD' HEATHFTELD. BURGESSHILL L_- __J . Barcombe Hellingly. LEWES HAILSHAM. Glynde ' Firle. Selmeston Lancing . BRIGHTON . Rottinodean 5 miles Shown on the map opposite. I I NEVERPLAYED TO MANY POSH DANCES,.,, Daisy Sherlock,Scan Testet and RegHaIl at a party giuen by Mervyn and Dod Plunkett, WestHoathly, Sussex; 2 NooemberL957. I Prefqce his view of ScanTester and his music, which To a large extent, I have allowed Scan to speak for is published in conjunction with the double himself. His recorded conversation, transcribed album on Topic Records, is essentially my verbatim with the minimumof editing, revealsmore own. Objectivityis a difficul t stanceto maintainand, of his personality and values than I could hope to inevitably, my own biases and value judgements capfure in dry prose. The tapes of Scan speaking about music and dance in general show through. were made by Mervyn Plunkett, David Nuttall, Other people making a selection might have pro- Alan Waller, Vic Smith, Rod and Danny Stradling, duced something quite different. Hilda and Hugh Gibson and me, and I have usedour initials at the end of each quotation to indicate the My relationship with Scanwas basedon friendship source.2 and music-making, and it never occurred to me, during his lifetime, to make Scan the subject of a It is now too late to gather much first-hand evidence project, nor did I ever record him or interview him of Scan'searly days, but I have tried to verify and with that in mind. In fact, I shied away from ques- expand upon what he told me with documentary tioning him too closely as I felt, perhapsmistakenly, evidence. My searchesin archive material have in- it would have been a breach of our relationship. I cluded parish registers, licensing registers, census did, however, hope sometime to make a record of returns, ParliamentaryRegistus, Kelly's Directory of him, and Scanwas quite happy about the idea. The Sussexand the SussexExprasl held in the East recordingswere made informally in private homes SussexRecords Office in Lewes,Brighton Reference and public houses,as a bonusto what were first and Library, the University of SussexLibrary and by the foremost social events. None valued our music- RegistrarGeneralof Births,Deaths and Marriagesat making more than Scan,who consciously recalled St. Catherinds House in London, and in local church- old tunes when he knew the machine was running, yards. and once exclaimed at the end of a sessionwith his 'Cor, daughter, Daisy, and me, we're better than I am grateful to Vic Gammon and Keith Chandler for Jimmy Shand!'l encouragingme to organisemy material for publica- tion.I particularly wish to acknowledge the former, However fine and remarkable Scanwas as a musi- for the electric shock given to my dormant thoughts cian, he was not unique. He acknowledgedother on the nature of English vernacular music by his musicians he had known and played with, and, if he doctoral thesis, Popular Music in Rural Society: appearedtobe a majorfigurein themusic-makingof Sussex181.5-1914, and for the advice and criticism his locality in the latter part of his life, it was largely he has offered so freely. David Nuttall has shared becausehis old mateswere dead and gone or had with me everythinghe noted during his association given up playing in public. Scanwas not simply a with Scanin Scan'slastfew years,and hasdiscussed musician; cricket, football, gardening, friendships Victorianand twentieth-centurypopular musicwith and his family were all important to him, and, me in the contextof his collectionof printed dance although he was not particularly mechanically music. Phil Lucas from Danehill, a local historian minded, he could turn his hand to pretfy well any- with his feet set firmly in the working life of the area thing practicalto earn his living. His life was spent and with close family and neighbourhood connec- within the culture of workers and tradesmen in a tions with Scan'sassociates, has been very generous small areaof the SussexWeald and I will comment with his material and suggestions.Scan's daughter, on this social background. Daisy,and her husband,Arch Sherlock(who sadly I I NEVERPLAYED TO MANY POSH DANCES..,. died a year or so before publication), have been The focus throughout this book is on music and enthusiastic about this production and have given dancing,and the text representsthree distinct per- me much biographical and anecdotal material. spcctives. The first two sections of the biography Numerous others,includin g Scan'srelatives, friends (chapters2 and 3) reconstructScan's musicial activi- and neighbours, have contributed factual informa- ties in the context of his own home environment and tion, photographs, advice and practical help. are basedlargely on verbal accounts,supported by documentary evidence.Chapter 4 introduces me as Most of all, I remain deeply indebted to Mervyn one of the leading actors,and thus createsan in-built Plunkett for introducing me to Scan, his brother problem of how to maintain objectivity. I have cho- Will, and Daisy, and for our shared experiences sen therefore to write it in the first person, to avoid pubbing in the villages and small towns around any pretencethatit is anythingother thana personal West Hoathly from the mid-1 950sto the early 1950s. memoir. Beneaththe gentrification that was all too evident in Sussexeven then, there was still a country, popular The rest of the book, chapters 1 and 5 - 14, setsScan culture, its roots unbroken, but beginning to take a in a much broader context, namely that of tradi- hammering from vast social change. There were tional music-makingand dancing in southernEng- plenty of marvellous old singers about and a few land and further afield over two centuries.It is a re- musicians, too, but they tended to keep their heads markable fact that English traditional instrumental down. Mervyn had the imagination, sensitivity and music has escapedthe attention of historians and motivation to meet them on their home ground. As ethnomusicologists. My intention in engaging in a direct consequenceof his activities, my rubbing what I consider to be a tentative exploration of the shoulders with those old boys left me marked for subject has been to propose an agenda for debate life. In recent years Mervyn pondered upon the and to put down markers for future research. nature of Scan's style and repertoire and he in- tended writing a section of these notes. His unex- pecteddeath in December 1986deprives us of his stimulatingand inevitably contentiouscontribution. RegHaII 7 DuppasAvenue Croydon CRO4BX NOTES 1. Shand'shitrecord,TheBluebell