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The Bully Wee Band

Venue: Grayshott Folk Club
Town: Grayshott
Date: 24/01/14
Website: http://www.bullyweeband.com

The Bully Wee Band formed in the early 70's, and were quite successful, but called it a day in 1983. It was 20 years later that Colin Reece and Ian Cutler gate crashed a Fergus Feely gig in Faversham, resulting in a jam session, which led to the band reforming. The three of them toured in January 2004, and were joined by founder member Jim Yardley the following year.

The four of them live in three separate countries, so it is quite a Herculean task arranging a tour, so they only tour for two weeks every January and these days their gigs are often sold out. Their circuit includes more venues than there is time to visit, so they only visit some places, Grayshott included, every other year. The Grayshott Folk Club only formed in 2011, so this was their second visit.

Grayshott is a little village that was just off the A3, until the Hindhead tunnel was built and it suddenly became isolated. It has a large village hall where the Grayshott Folk Club meets once a month. Sometimes, though, the hall is otherwise occupied and they meet at another venue, the Social Club. That has an equally large hall with an added advantage of also having a bar. Amazing that such a little village can support two venues.

A pantomime at the village hall, meant that the Social Club was the venue of choice for the night's entertainment.

The support act was a guy called Simon Kempston from Dundee. Simon is a classical guitarist and a singer song writer. Not sure if he'd travelled all the way from Scotland that day, but he had got stuck in traffic in London, so hadn't had time to do a sound check. He simply turned up and hit the stage running. Some excellent songs, most notably one called "My Tattered Uniform" about a friend of his who struggled with life outside the army.

The Bully Wee Band were introduced as the band who had saved the folk club. Apparently, when it first started in 2011, attendances were small, until TBWB were booked. Since then, the club has never looked back. This prompted Fergus to say that they would have to renegotiate their fee next time. "We hadn't realised that your arse was so close to the line."

They play a mixture of their own material and some traditional songs heavily arranged by them. One of the most exquisitely beautiful songs that you'll ever hear is their version of "The Snows They Melt The Soonest." For the last couple of tours they have dropped this from their set list, it was replaced by an very beatiful song called "Like The Snows", but I'm glad to report that "The Snows They Melt The Soonest" was back again this year. It doesn't matter how many times I listen to that song, I am instantly transported to a land of beauty.

As well as beautiful music, the band is renowned for their witty interjections between songs. Colin Reece introduced his song "The Wedding At Stanton Drew", by describing the myth that the standing stones at Standon Drew were supposed to have been a wedding party turned to stone when they danced to the devil's music. He said that he'd seen the stones and that they looked nothing like people, so it's strange what imagination, a couple of spoons of Benylin and someone else's glasses will do. Mind you, he added, Fergus went down and bought a used car from one of them.

Fergus gave a master class in how difficult it actually is to introduce the next song. Whilst doing it, you've got to be concentrating hard on several things, such as tuning your guitar, remebering the rhythm and tune that you're about to play, being witty, and probably many other things as well. It's sometimes easy to let something slip that you didn't really mean to say. Whilst introducing "The Girl Who Broke My Heart", Fergus accidentally dropped a rather unexpected four letter word expletive. There was a brief silence whilst everyone refused to believe that they'd heard the word, then peals of good humoured laughter. Nobody had taken offence. Just to be on the safe side, though, Fergus started the second set with a strip of masking tape stuck over his mouth.

The following set list is as accurate as I can make it. Fairly sure I've got it correct, but they do have a habit of playing several instrumentals in a row, or blending two songs together which makes it a challenge to chronicle.

Set List
Strike The Grey Harp/ The Blarney Pilgrim
Dixieland
Last Letter Home
Arrival/ Donnybrook Fair
The Madmen of Gotham
The Girl Who Broke My Heart
The Wedding At Stanton Drew

Silvermines/Lady Anne Montgomery
Dear Old Donegal
The Snows They Melt The Soonest/ The Shepherd's Daughter
Laird Of Drumblair
50 Channels
Leitrim Town/ Master Crowley/ Over The Moor To Maggie
Lady Lovibond

Encore
When Mother Says Move
Farewell To Ireland/ The Mason's Apron

Pete Bradley