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I Never Played to Many Posh Dances

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I Never Played to Many Posh Dances I Chopter4: 1957-1972 n 1955MervynPlunkett, whowas living inWest and working as a cowman, his singing, mostly at the Hoathly, recorded two local singers.l Pop PunchBowl,Selsfield, was much more extrovertand Maynard had a degree of local fame for his abrasive.2These two singers did not exist in isola- successin the World Marbles Championship, held tion; they performed at appropriate times among eachGood Friday at Tinsley Green,but at 83 he was their friends on their home ground, and there were also a remarkable singer with a large repertoire of many other singers about. The new teacherat West old songs.He frequentedtheChrryTra atC-opthome, Hoathly school,Jean Hopkins, from EastGrinstead, and his frail form, dignified posture and slightly stayed with Do€ and Mervyn Plunkett, and with introverted delivery, even of a comic song, com- their encouragement started singing songs from, manded attention whenever he got up to sing. Gmrge and in the style of, her grandfather and great-uncle, Spicer was quite different. In the prime of life at 49 Harry and Charlie Burgess. '1,956. Harry Holman (left) and PopMaynard Tecordingfor the BBC in the Cherry Tree af Copthorneon 4 February (Photograph:East Grinstead Courier) I I NEVERPLAYED TO MANY POSH DANCES,,,, I was living at home in Northfleet, Kent, and it was bledon is eighteenmiles' when PeterKennedy and I through Ken Stubbs,who worked nearbyin Gravesend played Soldier'sloy, but at that stage we had not but lived in East Grinstead, that Mervyn and I met. come acrossany other musicians. Towards the end of 1955,MenSm organised a do in the SwanatEast Grinstead with Bob Copper, one of It was impossible to follow-up every lead and inv! the now famous singing family from Rottingdean,as tation to meet singers.Every pub sessionproduced the guest,and I was invited to warm up the proceed- somethingnew and Mervyn met and recordedmany ings on the melodeon. Things took off from there. I old singers,the most notablebeing Brick Harber, Jim began spending time in West HoatNy and Mervyn Wilson and GeorgeTompsett. AtCuckfield he came organised more pub sessions. In February 1955, acrossJack Norris, Peter Gander and Bill Hawks, Peter Kennedy recorded one of our sessionsin the who sang regularly in their local.a Cherry Tree for the BBC, and Pop, George Spicer, Jeanand Merv5m appeared thatJune on the Sunday At 59, Jack Norris was twenty-odd years younger morning radio programme, z{sI RooedOut. than his mates.sA foreman joiner and coffin maker by trade, he was friendly and humorous and loved Pop Maynard had stepdancedand played the tam- the old songs, and new ones as well. He was a re- bourine when he was younger, and there were still markable musician, the melodeon player that ap stepdancersin the CherryTree.3 At the BBC record- peals to me more than any other I have heard. He ing session, one of the regulars from the nearby could play any song-tunethat cameinto his mind on Abe r gaa enny Arm s, attr acted to the Clrerry Tr eeby the his double-row C/ C sharp Hohner, and sing at the bar extension,picked up a tin tray and played it like sametime. It was as if the fingering cameautomati- a tambourine and sang'From Wibbledon to Wob- cally as he opened his mouth. He was essentially a 10.30,\s I Rol'l:D o(rT ]'ou ;rre invitcd to listen to songs nnrl_trrrrsir: sLill srrng and ptnyed In the l.lriti.qh Jslcs S--Son(r from Srrrrcr Pc'ter linnna(ly rocarlls ;rn rrvenlng spont ,rt The Q11n77r,Trar: !n thC vill;rgo of Copthorne, and lntro- drrces sorrrc of the songs he heard Dan....intorlu,l,,rby Th. llnytnnk(:ts I)it,'r't,.11Iry lr.rlr.r 5n;111ir.ly lililr'l nrlil Intrfrllrfr.l Iry l\ltriG Slrxiornl;4 I'rprlrrr.,.rliry llar(!lil ttogora (llliC rac616;ng; RadioTimes, 22lune 1956 Opposite:lack Norris, Halleigh's,Brook Street,Cuckfield; Iate 1"950s. JackNonis andfriends; Iate 1950s. (Bothcourtesy Florence Norris) I CHAPTER4:1957-1972 On Saturday 24 August 1957,Mervyn assembledfor the first time the West Hoathly Country Band of Music, or as Arch Sherlock was always to refer to it, the West Hoathly Scuffle Group'. I remember the evening at Bow Cottage, the Plunketts' home, as a heady, boozy do. Mervyn held the band togetherby thumping on my melodmn case.The music at times was marvellous, but sometimes it collapsed into total anarchy. There was little trouble finding common ground - we all knew Tfte Girl I left BehindMe and Cockof the North - and we took risks, the most successfulof which was our schottische rendering of Jack Nor- ris's song, The Fox.The greatest risk, however, was in inviting a neighbour we knew nothing about. DoE Plunkett taught Bill McMahon's children and had heard he was good on the spoons, but for all we knew, and slightly suspected,he was terrible! He turned out to be dynamite, and good fun as well.e Keys were the main difficulty: Scanhad his B flatlF music and anout-of-tuneC/G,I had my usualG/D melodeon and a slow-action C/R and Jack was more used to playing in C sharp than C, but had a G mouth-organ, as did Snowy Howick from West Hoathly. Michael Plunkett, who played with me, then as now, in The Rakes,could manage G on his recorder, but had to tune his fiddle down a tone to get C with his D fingering.lo We were all encouraged, and some of us very ex- cited, by our first efforts, and over the next few singer and his repertoire of old-fashioned dance rnonths the band grew in size and we began to be tunes was very small.He had the commonly known knownin thedistrict. The personnel wasfairly fluid CockO' The North and KeelRoa, and a schottische, depending on who was available and how many AnotherCup of Coffeeand a LittleMoreTw, but hisbest Mervyn could pack into his car. At Rusper we met number was another schottische, which Mervyn Bill Agate. During the War he had played for route named the BrookStreet Pollu.6 He was usually reluc- marches in the Home Guard band on the mouth- tant to play his one and only stepdancetune.7 organ and tambourine, playingboth instruments to- gether in the old style! My lasting visual memory of Cne $aturday afternoon in July 1957, Don Joneg Bill is of his enormous hand, fingers like a pound of deliverinq greengroeeryat the Plunketts'back door, pork sausages,whacking away at a tiny tambourine. hearcime -playinga few ttanesin the kitchen. 'Who's He had a tendency to push the beat, but his music that? My wife's fatlaerplays like that!' Idis tiather-in- had plenty of life and drive, in complete contrast to law was Will Tester. The subsequenteven-ts were his slow speech and infirm frame. Jack Norris's particularly significant for Mervyra and r,.e, and mates from Cuckfield, Peter Gander (triangle) and resulted in a burst of energy and ir:terest for Scan FtrcraceGladman (mouth{lgan and silent jera/sharp), which carried him through to tPreend of his life. took part, and the third member of The Rakes,Paul Merryn followed the lead to Scan, rather than to Gross,ioined us on the fiddle. In severalpubs other Will, and called on him one evening soon after at people, who remained strangers to us, would occa- Cinder Hill, quartbottles of beer under his arm and sionally join in on the mouth-organ or take a turnon his tape recorder in the car.EWhatever was said that the melodeon, and any number of make-shift per- night establishedin Scan'smind our interest in his cussioninstruments, such as the tea-chestbass and old repertoire, and the four- pieces he r,ecordedon the penny and beer glass, appeared. Although we that occasionwere fz and out the Wipdows,,the,Mon- played in the Crozr.rn,Horsted Keymes,and the Sfone key Hornpipe, Bighton Camp and The Man,in the Qarry, Chelwood Gate,we gravitated to Copthome, Moon. Balcombe,Cuckfield and Three Bridges,very largely away from Scan'shome area.ll I I NEVERPLAYED TO MANY POSH DANCES.... L,eftto right: lim Wilson,Michael Plunkett, GeorgeSpicer, PauI Grossand RegHalI, at the PrincessLouise, Holborn,London; 7 March 7958. (Phot ograph: Ed dis Thomas) In October 1957 Mervyn arranged a coach trip to Hopkin's family, the Burgesses.ArtWinter, known London. We entered Pop Maynard, JeanHopkins, to the Testersway back, was the resident melodeon George Spicer, Bill Hawkes and the full band in a player at the Trcuor Arms and his gutsy old-fash- competitive festival at Cecil Sharp House, head- ioned pub music prompted Will to make what was quarters of the English Folk Danceand SongSociety. to be his final flurry on the tambourine. A year later We shockedmany of the people there and confused he was dead. some of the adjudicators, who were used to genteel settings of folk songs.One of them,TheTimesmusic Mervlm was asked to make a contribution to A critic, criticised Pop Maynard for allegedly not SussexConcert in Cecil Sharp House in March 1958, knowing his words and for having a Poor standing and thus we had another outing to London. Jim posture. Very few of the audiencehad ever heard a Wilson from Three Bridges, George Tompsett from country singer before, and even fewer had ever Cuckfield and Pop Maynard had never sung in a heard country pub music. Someof them, it seemed, formal concertbefore, but they put their songsover were excited by it.
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