Pheonix Gardens agricultural show

We danced for the wonderful Pheonix Garden Agricultural Show

We danced in the church yard of St Giles, you would not imagine that we were in the centre of London and next to Centrepoint and Oxford Street.
The garden is beautiful, with banana plants even.
the gardener's blog is here

I was sent some photos of us dancing by Rory O'Callaghan:

Myrtle had special dispensation to attend the show as she is a very well-behaved morris beast and had her bells on. She used a rustic lead for the occasion

Checking out the bells in the belfry

The bunting was all made by the committee, and there were cakes on sale from the West End WI, local honey, fancy pigeons, bell ringing, farm animals from Surrey Docks... all very countrified

6th Croydon Night of Dance

We had a good night out with Blackheath, Northwood, Old Palace Clog and Marlings Morris, dancing in the streets of Croydon...

Lovely evening,
Thanks to James Denny for arranging it and inviting us

(side note - I saw 6 foxes as I cycled home)

I haven't any photos, but here's Myrtle in her chariot preparing to go and be a morris beast

I think she likes it

Chelsea Tour

on 13th July
we were at the Anglesea Arms in Chelsea and then at the Scarsdale in Edward Square

Kensington Tour

at the Elephant and Castle Holland St for 8th July where we were joined by Al and Debs of Sharps' Morris and then the Uxbridge Arms near Notting Hill Gate
Big apologies to Linda, the landlady of the Uxbridge Arms, who is always welcoming. We'll give you notice next time so you can tell the neighbours.

Notting Hill became a village for the evening.
Here's Allen dancing a jig

Fiztrovia Tour

Back to the Duke of York and then on to the Fiztroy Tavern for 1st July

Well received, and here's a photo of us joined by a hen party

at a school in Clapham

we were invited to dance for an international evening at Sacred Heart Primary School, on 25th June and hadn't been out for a bit and it just worked...
(I'm sure I took photos but can't find them)

Gt Ormond Street

I've been very behind with my blogging but let's get some things up to record the year

We had another lovely evening for Great Ormond Street on 4th May, dancing for and with some of the children at the Great Ormond Street Scout group
No photos I'm afraid

And some more from the FAF village fete

here's some more photos of Fowler's troop and the Deptford Jack

Folk Against Fascism's Village Fete

It was British Folk's finest hour on May 2, as Folk Against Fascism celebrated on the South Bank, at the Queen Elizabeth Hall.

We were there, being happily outdanced by the energetic Nonesuch from Bristol, by Thrale Rapper, the wondrous New Esperance, and the Belles of London (suffering from injury and the loss of a Top Hat, after mingling with Tories on St George's day).

This picture tells you all you need to know about the outside dancing conditions, and our battery ran out after this...

Among other things, the day included great cakes from the Women's Institute, a rare, sweaty and high-powered ceilidh from the Oyster Ceilidh Band (and another with Old Swan), and an evening gig of politically-motivated (* see comments below) folk.

It all stemmed from the BNP's ill-judged efforts to co-opt folk into their vision of British-ness. British folk may be British, it may even be patriotic at times, but it's not xenophobic. Take that, Nick Griffin!

Following The Jack...

Another nice May Day following Fowler's Troop

They find nice beer in good pubs

And a pleasant amble

What could be nicer?

Morris As Comedy - Some Common Threads

A couple of weeks ago in a Soho junk shop, I found two books of comic strips of The Cloggies, the classic Private Eye comic-strip clog dancing dating from the 1960s. A favourite strip is on the left. After practice, we noticed a couple of things about it

• Bells on the arms
• No musician in sight
• A recurring theme of disciplinary panels and authority
  

All three things are also true of last year's Life With Bells On movie. So I wonder if there's a reason Morris (or clog) has to always be that way in any comedy production, regardless of what medium, whether strip or film.

Certainly bells on the arms look good visually (even if they don't add much to the sound) and in any fantasy where you don't actually have to perform, a musician can be a needless complication. And Morris is an anarchic activity which shows up well when set against authority figures

One other thing I found on the Cloggies' Wikipedia page, is that there was actually a real side called the Cloggies, formed in tribute to the Bill Tidy cartoon. Their finest hour, bringing to a close a student performance of John Milton's Comus, got a snotty review from the Guardian theatre critic, which the lads quite rightly regarded as "a complete vindication of all they had stood for".

Comus, of course, is the perfect vehicle for any celebrity Morris, as it was performed in Cambridge in 1908 by a team (left) including the poet Rupert Brooke and the mountaineer George Mallory (more details here).

St George's Day at Hays Galleria

Hays Galleria, by London Bridge, has a 3 storey high vaulted ceiling that resonated brilliantly when we tapped our sticks on the stone floor.

We were there as guests of Balls Brothers, Hays Galleria, who were opening a new bar there. They had an evening of St George's day related things, as with the knights dancing with us here.

Terry Frisch had his first dance out with us this night and did admirably.

Great Ormond Street Hospital

The 17th Holborn Scout & Guide Group meets in Great Ormond Street Hospital to provide Scouting and Guiding for the children who are patients there, meeting every Tuesday evening from 6.30 - 8.00pm, in the Activities Centre at the Hospital.

They invited us along for the Tuesday before St George's Day, to celebrate the occasion, and we had a fine time with them; showing, teaching and talking about morris dancing

A wave of Morris enthusiasm greets our new term

We moved into Cecil Sharp House on Tuesday nights - just as the Morris Media Frenzy hit. Peter, Michael and I have all been interviewed for the radio, along with - it seems - just about every dancer in the country.

The practical result has been a lot of new dancers showing up at Cecil Sharp House, and converging with us and a solid group who have been learning under John Russell (form the the Beaux of London).

London Pride members have been joining John's group, as well as having our own fortnightly practice alongside. For me, John's sessions have been the biggest, most engaging and most energetic morris practices I can remember. Tuesday night saw up to 24 dancers learning Adderbury Lads A Bunchum, along with Headington Bean Setting and Trunkles, and the Fieldtown Nutting Girl jig.

Into the national publicity, comes the movie, Morris: A Life With Bells On. A gentle British comedy about a somewhat fantasised world of Morris dancing - it's struggling to get distribution, but is visible in several village screens in Dorset. A campaign is underway to get it screened in more places!

The Morris Media Frenzy

Well, it's a slow news week. There's only the end of the financial world to report, so what else should we have but a burst of reporting on the "death of Morris".

The Morris Ring sent out a Press Release in December which they thought had "sunk without trace". That was until Monday, when stories started appearing in the Times and the Telegraph and then all over.

The release said Morris could be "extinct" in 30 years. The Federation and the Open Morris, and pretty much every dancer in the land jumped up to say No Way, and by and large the media took them at their word.

I had an email read on the PM programme, and then appeared on the Jeremy Vine Radio 2 show with Kitty - following an excellent turn by Simon Care of Moulton. Meanwhile Peter Kanssen was on Radio 6, and then on local London Radio.

I then had a call from a non-flappable Mail journalist, whose leisurely feature for Saturday's paper had been suddently rescheduled for tomorrow - given the urgency of the news - giving her a three hour deadline to fill.

Our message through all these outlets: we're not extinct, we practice in Cecil Sharp House on Tuesdays, and all are welcome.

2008 Feast:: A New Squire and a New Era!

This year's AGM took place in a dark room, decorated with a parachute, fairy lights and red ribbons. To find it, we had to fight our way through the crowds of Portobello Road market.

With the Westway's motorway traffic humming gently past, three feet above our heads, we welcomed our guest, Graham Cox of the Cambridge Morris Men, who is our Ring area representative. We took care of AGM business, danced (of course), and then had tea (of course).

After a little more dancing, we moved out into the body of the Inn on the Green, handing the function room over for what sounded an interesting musical evening, and gently finding space amongst the tango class which was packing up. We then cooked our feast in the kitchen, alongside two barbecue chefs.

The pub is an eccentric and welcoming place, with (on this visit) Fuller's Jack Frost on the pump. There were books and table football available, but I'm not sure if we made use of those. And the nearby pound shop was able to make good the deficiencies of the kitchen: the club now owns twelve yellow glass soup bowls.

The main business of the day was to welcome and install Michael Runge as Squire. The blurry photo is here for proof. Congratulations Michael, and I hereby promise to serve faithfully under your leadership!

We also decided to move our practices to Cecil Sharp House, home of the English Folk Dance and Song Society. We will be there on Tuesday evenings at 8pm, starting on 20 January. We believe we will be the only Morris team practising in the House, and we hope the change of venue will encourage more people to come and join us.

Other things to say about the feast: the main course stew from Michael was splendid, as was his trifle. I think these alone would be a good enough reason to join LP. Also, to my shame, I'm sorry to say we forgot the toast to the Immortal Memory.

Who'll get custody of Bradford and Bingley's bowler hat?

asks the BBC - which raises a thought.

Ezra's one is falling apart. Maybe they could give it to him.

(disclaimer: London Pride Morris are not in any way related to Bradford and Bingley Building Society)

Notting Hill Pre-practice tour 15 Sept

We have this one to get us back in to the swing of Monday evenings. 

We did a brief show at the Ladbroke Arms, our usual after-practice haunt, and then off to the Uxbridge Arms, where Landlady Linda had just come back from holiday and was wonderfully welcoming. Ezra did another solo jig, and we had enough men to dance Lichfield Ring-of-bells (an 8 man dance)

Gillespie Park Ecology Centre 14 Sept

No photos of this I'm afraid as we were all dancing, and my camera was in use elsewhere too. We've enjoyed coming to the Ecology Centre for the last few years. 

One thing that I'll have to provide a photo of soon is Myrtle (the Westie) in her Baldrick and bells, which she showed off for the first time. She doesn't dance but sat at the side checking our stepping. 

Some more photos from the Canal Festival

Dancing well despite having just had his hips done, and evidently having done it before, this chap is John Shacklock, an old friend of Allan's. John took over from Allan as Bagman of Standon Morris Men, some years ago. John now has a narrow boat, which won the prize for best-decorated boat at the Canal Festival - his wife was accepting the prize round about the time these photos were taken.

Queen Caroline from the Kew Woodland Wonders surprised us by appearing incognito as a bargee

these and more are in a Flikr set here

Angel Canal Festival 2008

Once again, we had a good time at the Angel Canal Festival, even though the weather wasn't as good as it has usually been.







We danced three shows - not a lot of photos here, as I was dancing most of the time.







The last show was between two shows by Orleta, a wonderful Polish group that practise in Balham.

It's always a pleasure to see a dance group with a well-practiced set, bright, costumes and big smiles. They were enviably young and attractive too!

Corporate Morris Dancing again

Peter J, Allen and I were hired again by Rampage Events to teach morris dancing to teams from a different organisation. This time it was CBS, who weren't natural bonders like the Loctite people. We mistook the initials - maybe it was GBH..? (cue stick clashing...) they still enjoyed it though.

We only managed to see 5 of the 7 teams that were coming down the river. Maybe they got lost and took a wrong turn - up the Fleet or the Effra or maybe the Wandle?

Here's Allen keeping supple by dancing a Princess Royal while waiting for the trainees:

Eventually the chickens needed feeding and we had to go home. But spending an afternoon chatting in the sun outside a pub isn't too hard a chore...

Chelsea (and Kensington)

At the Anglesea Arms, and then the Scarsdale Tavern in Edwardes Square

the weather had been threatening downpours all day, but the magic of the morris kept it away, and we had a nice evening's dancing. And pleasant audiences too.

Bloomsbury Tour

at the Norfolk Arms and Rugby Tavern (sorry I only had my camera out at the Norfolk Arms)

we were joined by Dan Kenning, who is now working in these part, but work is too busy to bring whites too :(

The Norfolk Arms is quite a gastro-pub these days, but the patrons still enjoyed the show, as did a coach-load of american tourists, before going off to investigate the darker recesses of London

Myrtle came along as official morris-beast-in-training

and enjoyed dancing Bonny Green Garters

after that over at the Rugby tavern. It was the barman's first day, poor thing, and I've been very lapse lately in warning pubs we were coming. He was getting worried that he'd lose his job by the pub losing it's licence on the first day he'd worked. 

We reassured him that Morris wasn't included in the music licensing laws "because it isn't entertaining" (?) 

and even more:

that the chances of us still noisily dancing after 10pm were fairly slim....