Mad March Mayhem and Music at The Arnold Arms

I knew that it was going to be a busy night, but I had no idea just how busy. As the evening approached I got the usual messages telling me that someone might be there, or maybe not this month. On the night itself, as I was running the last cables and Ali from Monday Nights was setting up his drum kit, I was counting the performers coming in, both old friends and new, and it occurred to me that I might not be singing after all. There were also three bands, and that is quite a lot to deal with. Shirley and I are familiar enough with MDF to get them on stage and playing quite quickly now, (what do you mean they always play quite quickly) but the other two were going to be more of a challenge and once more Shirley was much relieved to have Craig on hand to help with the mixing desk.

The opening performance went to Monday Nights, a local four piece band comprised of Alixe, Ellis, Jacob and Ali. It was a milestone for them, their debut performance and a milestone for us, our first drum kit. I know we’ve had more than a few cajons, bongo and djembe, but never a drum kit until now and I wondered how it would fit. I think Ali left a few bits of it at home.

They opened with Googoo Dolls’, ‘Iris’ followed by Nothing But Thieves’, ‘If I Get High’. Their third song was ‘Flight’. It was written by the band themselves and was without doubt their best song of the night.

Next up was Tony Collins, a once regular OMC contributor. He has been very busy lending his support to BHM artists, and tonight he paid his first visit to The Arnold Arms. I think he was a bit taken aback at the lively atmosphere and noise; a very different vibe from The George days.

His first song was Grant Clarke’s ‘My Little Bimbo’ and then Wayne Raney’s, ‘Four Aces And A Queen’. He squeezed another very short one in, but it was so quick that I didn’t catch what it was.

Local Band The Tunnellers’ members Steve and Alistair clearly their enjoyed their Night of Lurve success as they were back again. They began with Erasure’s ‘Give a Little Respect’. This was followed by a song that I’m not familiar with. It sounded like ‘What is to what is’ which I think is a fantastically philosophical song title. An hour of googling got me nowhere, so I’ll just have to ask Steve what it was called and who it was by. Mind you, I wasn’t the only one that didn’t know it, and Alistair did very well to pick it up on the bass as Steve played on.

Regular and much loved Steve Edgar was in fine Irish form in the run up to St Patrick’s Day, beginning with ‘Spancil Hill’. He took advantage of the willing and talented fiddler, Hedley Stone.

Their last song was Ed Sheeran’s ‘Perfect’, which was just perfect.

Mike And John went all Six Nations on us with an Scotland v Italy. They began with Come By The Hills, a traditional Scottish Aire which has been recorded by many, including The Corries. The link will take you to Noel McLoughlin's version on Youtbe. For their Italian side it was a very convincing Elvis Presley's 'It's Now Or Never', with the chorus sung convincingly in Italian.

Kristy, clutching her newly acquired ukulele, made a very good fist of Jason Mraz’, ‘I’m Yours’, before being joined by me on the bass for a sad and lilting ballad ‘The Parting Glass’. It is hard to believe that the joint winner of this year’s Night of Lurve has only been playing the ukulele for just a few months, and performing in public for only a short while longer.

The Mighty MDF were without Tracey and TCB, so it was all down to Ross for the vocals tonight. After seeing Dead South at The 02 Academy, Birmingham, they were inspired to bash out ‘Achillies’, which Ross thinks is something to do with Death, but I think is about physiology. This was followed by Steve Clarke's ‘Gallway Girl’ which was seamlessly stamped by the band into The Pogues', 'Sally MacLennan'. 

Nigel hasn’t been for a while too, and it as good to see him again. Tonight he also made the most of the versatile Hedley Stone for some elegant violin accompaniment to his songs, ‘Day Dreamers’ and ‘I’m Not Sure Any More’. Then they covered Tom Waits’, ‘Picture in A Frame’.

Another old friend, and Night of Lurve winner, Lew Bear returned this evening. It has been a while since we’ve seen him, and he brought a new song with him, inspired by the work of

the news printer; The Printer’s Song. There is a real sense of the fast and unstoppable rhythm of the print reels and the demands of placed on those that ran them. His second song was Leonard Cohen’s, ‘Dance Me to The End Of Love’. His last was one, ‘Nearly The Wild Rover’, we all thought we knew; until we caught some of the subtly changed lyrics. Still it didn’t stop us joining in once we’d got the joke.

 Another old flame to visit the Collective at The Arnold Arms for the first time was banjo wielding Tony Haigh. It really has been a long time since we saw him; he had a guitar then. I didn’t catch the title of his first song but is seemed to be something like ‘The Only Sound’. His second was immediately recognisable as The Carter Family’s, ‘May The Circle Be Unbroken’, which had a few people singing along to.

Dangerous Derrick Meyer and his ‘band in a box’ was once again in fine form. He is a slick and confident performer, and he knows how to work a crowd. On any other night I would have been happy for him to give us a good half a dozen tunes but gent that he is, he stuck to just the two. Chris Rhea’s, ‘The Road To Hell’, and then, Billy Ray Cyrus’, ‘Achy Breaky Heart’; which caused a bit of line dancing to break out.

I love the last band of the night. Greengrass. Ross refers to it as ‘George is star-stuck again’; and he’s right. It’s been a couple of years since they came to play for us and lots has happened. Mostly they have just got better and better, but they’ve also written some fantastic songs, they have played at Warwick Folk Festival and have been popping up all over the place. It took from last autumn until now to find a date that they could commit to. They are a hard working band, and you can tell that they play a lot together and really enjoy themselves on stage.

Among the songs they sang were:

Rivers Run

‘Judith’s Song’ written by Loren

Bantry Bay

Ramblin’ Man

The Blacksmith

‘The Waltz’ written by Kate

Standing on the shore of America (not the title, but you know the one I mean)

So 'Thank you!' to all our contributors, and of course to Tina and Matt for hosting. We'll be doing it all again on Friday 3rd April.