Love is in the air

The Oyster Girls formed a fabulously colourful guard of honour outside St Mary’s Church in Brading for the wedding of Pam Matthews, one of their dancers.

John Bentley and Karen Butcher chose Quay Arts Centre for their wedding venue. The Quay looked at its most attractive and atmospheric. Garlands and lights hung in festoons from the ceiling and the chairs were covered and decorated with bows. Part of the entertainment was, you guessed it, folk music from their many friends, followed by a mega jam session.

Congratulations to both the happy couples!

More song venues open up

The Gallybagger Inn Folk Night reopened on the last Thursday in July with Sham organising the evening, ably supported by other Barnacles. The refurb. has greatly improved the acoustics and the decor. The locals who put in so much effort during lockdown have done an excellent job. Plus, the new committee are doing all they can to ensure the event is as Covid- safe as possible.

Unfortunately, The Trinity Folk Club in Ventnor was unable to start at the end of July, as planned. A new date of 20th August has been announced.

The Spyglass Inn in Ventnor is resuming live music in August.

Dancing is back

Several sides are out dancing now. Men of Wight have a full programme for the summer, Moonshine, Bloodstone and the Oyster Girls have all performed too. Whitgar and Wight Bells are brushing up their heys. The Playford social dance group is setting and turning single with gusto. Only Guith are lagging behind, in urgent need of a (temporary) musician .

Sheshells

Sheshells are a newly formed all-female singing group. They can be heard at Ventnor Fringe on Sunday 25th July, when, weather permitting, they plan to make the bandstand in Ventnor Park ring from 1pm with a salty selection of shanties and sea songs. Stick around that afternoon and a little later you can enjoy the music of the ever-popular Second Time Around, who take to the stage at 2pm.

The Sheshells, pictured below, recently performed for the first time at The Porter Folk Night, Ventnor.

Morris on

At last, the Island’s morris sides are finally able to revisit their dances in a socially distanced outdoor way. Some are now planning to perform in front of real crowds once more. On Sunday 18th July, The Highland Gathering descends on the Steam Railway at Havenstreet. As well as the electrifying Bloodstone Border Morris, the entertainers include Scottish Country Dancers, Pete’s Sake and Wight Hot Pipes. Not a bad line-up for just £10. Phone 07779794103.

Will they or won’t they?

Clubs planning to open up this month are Island Storytellers on Monday 19th, Chillerton Folk Night on Thursday 29th and Trinity Folk Club, Ventnor on Friday 30th, see Events page for details. Of course, all this depends on our new Health Secretary and a small collection of molecules so tiny they cannot function alone.

Shanties are having a Moment

Martyn Waitt, of the Shalfleet Shanty Singers, has achieved TV fame, thanks to the power of TikTok. The humble marine work song has been much in the news since a young Scot, a postman called Nathan Evans, shared a video of his version of the ‘Wellerman shanty’ on the site. Martyn’s daughter suggested he should join in and together they came up with a covid-related rewrite. Within two days it had reached over a quarter of a million views, then half a million just four days later. Appearances on both BBC local news and national news followed quickly. Martyn has since shared a number of other shanties on TikTok and now can boast nearly 30 thousand followers! Here is the link if you would like to sing-along-o-Martyn. https://www.tiktok.com/@martynwaitt/video/6919619034170281218

The Wonder of Zoom

Meanwhile, the three zoom ‘folk club come all ye’ sessions a week are as as popular as ever. It is wonderful to see and hear local friends as well as meeting fresh faces from all over the country also and America, Hawaii, Canada etc, etc, etc. A recent highlight was the Oddfellows Burns themed afternoon with Ian Watterson’s dramatic rendition of the Address to the Haggis. These get-togethers are so valuable, keeping us all ‘tuned up’ until we can finally return to the old haunts such as the Dairyman’s Daughter, pictured below with Ian on ‘stage’.