Lola's Keg Night, the story of Lola Wright, founder of the second bush band

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updated 16/10/14 with pictures from October premiere of the play
Lola's Keg night at Merringong Theatre

Videos - Part 1 & Part 2  recorded 'live' in the NSW Teachers Federation Auditorium (Sydney, Australia) Saturday 25th October 2014 by Wayne Richmond 

Sometime in early 1954 a young teacher from the Illawarra attended a production of the hit musical play Reedy River at Sydney's New Theatre and was so impressed by the Bushwhackers Band and the songs they performed in the play that she decided to start her own bush band.

The Bushwhackers helped her, and Australia's second bush band, the South Coast Bush Band was born.

South Coast Bush Band: L to R - Norm Mitchell, Merv Haberly, Jack Wright, Jeanette Caine, Wally Watt, Lola Troy, Jack Chalmers

In October 1954 The Bushwhackers founded the Bush Music Club, & in February 1956 when the Club published the first issue of Singabout, the journal of Australian Folksong, Lola Troy (later Wright) was the representative of the South Coast Group.

Illawarra Mercury, undated, c.1955

Coast's Rarest Band
They beat out the old hits - vintage 1900

The South Coast Bush Band comprising young musicians was formed last year to popularise Australian songs and music.

Mrs Lola Troy is piano accordinist and pianist, Mr Jack Wright is bones player, Mr Wally Watt guitarist, Mr Merv Haberly mouth organist, Mr Norm Mitchell is on the "lagerphone,"  Mr Jack Chalmers is on the "bush Bass" and Miss Jeanette Caine is pianist.

Mrs Troy is the driving force.

The idea of forming the band was conceived after the players had seen the play, "Reedy River."

They realised that Australia had a wealth of folk songs which were in danger of being lost to the people.

The band members wear clothes that were fashionable at the turn of the century, and some of the men wear full beards and others settle for a moustache.

The Band has a catalogue of more than 50 numbers, and is steadily adding to its collection.

The collection covers songs about all types of industry and many songs of the sea.

One of the oldest is "Botany Bay", and many others have survived from the convict days.

Band members said they would be pleased to hear from anyone who knew any Australian songs, particularly old ones.

If anyone knows the tune and words of an old song the Band will take a tape recording of it and Mrs Troy will set it to music for the Band.

Mrs Troy said the band mainly played for charity affairs and benefits for people in need.

The band has never made a charge for its services.

It would play next Sunday at a benefit at Warrawong for a woman whose husband was killed recently in an accident. 

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Lola joined us at our Songs Session at the recent National Folk Festival and you can see pictures here http://bushmusicclub.blogspot.com.au/2014/04/bmc-national-folk-festival-easter-2014.html 
 

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Lola's life story has now been turned into a musical play, Lola's Keg Night, and will be premiered in October.

Wollongong - Merrigong Theatre,  9, 10, 11 (2 shows) October 

Sydney - NSW Teachers Federation auditorium, 25 October

Lola's Keg Night - a musical memoir adapted by PP Cranney & Christina Mimmocchi, from the autobiography of Lola Wright. As a reading only, with music, it was a big hit at the Illawarra & the National Folk Festivals. A full production will be happening at Merrigong Theatre in Wollongong in early October & in Sydney shortly thereafter.

Performers: Vashti Hughes (as Lola) with music from Laura Bishop & friends

Lola's keg night? Well, Lola was famous for her parties, where the keg was not broached until sufficient songs were sung! And no one could say they didn't know the songs as the words were projected onto a screen. After all, she was a teacher.

Lola's Keg Night @ Merringong, June 2013,  (Christina Mimmocchi photos) 

The Band

Laura & Vashti

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 Illawarra Folk Festival, 2014 (Mike Young photos)

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Laura & Christina on stage, Lola with audience, Illawarra Folk Festival, 2014 (photo Sandra Nixon)

Vashti & Lola at the National Folk Festival, 2014 (photo Sandra Nixon)
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Photos from Merringong October 2014 (Photos Sandra Nixon) 

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Found on TROVE part 1, First and early versions of traditional songs and poems we love

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Trove: A revolutionary new free search engine

Finding information just got easier – thanks to Trove, a revolutionary new free search engine created by the National Library of Australia.

With just one click at trove.nla.gov.au users, like never before, can access a wealth of resources - across more than 90 million items in one go - about Australia and Australians.
Trove’s content, much of which is digital, comes from more than 1000 libraries around Australia as well as other cultural and educational institutions and international collections with relevance to Australia.

Trove takes users straight to the source – not just to a list of websites – and allows them to search across pictures, unpublished manuscripts, books, oral histories, music, videos, research papers, diaries, letters, maps, archived websites and Australian newspapers from 1803 to 1954. read more National library of Australia Media Release

Mark Gregory folksinger and scholar has been searching through the digitised newspapers using lines from traditional songs and poems and seems to be announcing discoveries almost daily!

They are published in his website Folkstream - A collection of Australian traditional and bush songs with words, music and information about each song. 

List of Songs 

A few interesting examples -

 The Visions of a Night Watch by C. J. O. S., of N.S.W. in The Kadina and Wallaroo Times (SA) 25th December 1889, known today asThe Drover's Dream

 

 The Bare Belled Ewe is the earliest known version of Click Goes the Shears, and was published in Bacchus Marsh Times (Vic) 20th November, 1891. It has been Bowdlerised with 2 changes in the last line He works hard, he dies hard, and goes to heaven at last replaced by He works hard, he drinks hard, and goes to hell at last.  

 Jason & Chloe Roweth sang it earlier this year on ABC's Landline

 The Shearer  from  Northern Argus (Clare, SA) Friday 3rd April 1874. p. 3.

Comment by Mark -  Because of its familiar phrases this 1874 South Australian song appears to me to be a forerunner of other shearers' songs. We have the famous hand shears "Ward and Payne", the ringer, the "clicking of the shears", "down the belly up the neck and down the whipping side", the "open Sorby wide", the "loudly bawls for tar", "wool, wool ringing near and far" and "the cobbler". All these phrases or variations of them appear in a number well known songs including Lachlan Tigers, Ryebuck Shearer, Tomahawking Fred, Widgegoweera Joe, Goorianawa, and, last but not least, Click Go the Shears. 

One of "the Have Beens"  A Song by Robert Stewart ©Robert Stewart 1875  published in the Manoro Mercury and Cooma and Bombala Advertiser, November 20, 1875 (Manaro was the alternate spelling of Monaro) 

   
The Bullock Dray   now known as The Old Bullock Dray,

 

 published in the Queensland Figaro and Punch, on 9th November 1887 with wonderful illustrations

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Song, Verse & Tune Diamond Jubilee Competition winners

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Congratulations to the following winners who were announced at our Diamond Jubilee Dinner, and thanks to all who entered. The dance results will be announced soon due to the great number of entries.

Song - The Reedy River still flows            


Chorus:
Time goes by, how the years they fly
And fashions may come and may go
But as long as there’s music, as long as there’s dance
The Reedy River still flows
The Reedy River still flows

In the far distant times of the Dreaming
When people first walked this land
There was music and dancing to sing up the spirits
To bring us together, every woman and man

Chorus

And from far distant lands others came
And still come to our bounteous shores
They bring stories and songs that tell who we are
And we dance round the room as did others before

Chorus

In far distant places through the bush of Australia
The song catchers tirelessly roamed
Collecting the stories and tunes of our country
Collecting the dances, the songs and the poems

Chorus

So let’s sing songs of those come before us
And let’s strike up the fiddle and bow
And let’s dance till we drop, and then sing one more chorus
So the River of Music still flows

Chorus
© Bruce Watson 2013

Hi Sandra

I'm absolutely delighted.  I really appreciate the BMC running this project. For me it was a great catalyst for reflecting on the Australian folk music tradition and folk revival and what it means in our culture as well as in my life.

I'm really pleased with the song I wrote, which I have now dipped into the that flowing Reedy River, hopefully adding to that tradition, keeping it strong and, like a river, constantly renewing.

Thanks to the BMC for making that happen - all power to you.

Cheers

Bruce

Bruce's website  http://brucewatsonmusic.com/  includes a link to the video of the winning song

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Verse - Australian Dreaming 

You talk of old Australia, with the flooding rain and drought;
Of the shearer, of the drover; of the cook, the rouseabout;
You talk of paddle steamer, or of bullock team and dray;
It’s the noisy, smoggy city where we congregate today.

You talk of red Australia, and the hulking Uluru;
Of the emu and the brolga, of the bounding kangaroo;
You talk of Kata Tjuta, like a buried monster’s spine.
It’s in the boutique restaurants we like to meet and dine.

You talk of white Australia, and the mountains capped with snow,
Where only hardy currawongs and wombats care to go;
Or hibernating possums fast asleep beneath a drift.
We like a bright skyscraper with a fast ascending lift.

You talk of blue Australia, with its narrow rim of sand,
Where breaching humpback whales provide performances so grand;
Whale sharks up at Ningaloo, or dolphins in the surf.
The bitumen and footpath offer more familiar turf.

You talk of green Australia, with the moss, the ferns, the trees;
The dew drops in the morning, and the cool and healing breeze;
The nesting cassowaries, or the stealthy thylacine,
But we prefer the steady purr of petrol-fuelled machine.

We don’t think of Australia as we make our busy way
Through the surging hordes and traffic of another hectic day.
“No room for sentiment,” we say, but all’s not as it seems.
Australia comes, with scented gums, and greets us in our dreams.

© Stephen Whiteside 07.11.2013  

http://www.stephenwhiteside.com.au/

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Tune - Yabby Catcher by Maggie Sommerville

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Chris & Virginia Woodland collection - Miscellaneous items

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Chris's membership card, from our earliest set. (BMC archives, Green & blue membership cards, c1956 to 1967. Foundation members had renewal dates of 1957)

Chris joined BMC in 1964, was elected M.C. in 1966 & moved out of Sydney in 1967, but has always been very involved in BMC activities, no matter where he lived. Chris was made a Life Member in 2014.

1. Covering letter

2. Newspaper clipping from an unknown paper, Monday 8th May, 1967
 
 3. Weekend Pass for Chris Woodland 1980 Bush Music Festival

4.  Poems

5.  Beer & Cheese Night, 5th Dec 1967, with 2 themes Eureka Stockade & Mary Gilmore

6. Beer & Cheese night, 5th Dec 1967, 2 themes Eureka Stockade & Mary Gilmore

7. Report to Bushwhacker Conference, 1957 - p.1, given to John Meredith by Jamie Carlin, & a full copy given to Chris by Merro.

8. Report to Bushwhacker Conference, 1957 - p.2

9. Report to Bushwhacker Conference, 1957 - p.3

10. Report to Bushwhacker Conference, 1957 - p.4

11. Report to Bushwhacker Conference, 1957 - p.5

12.   Poem - Convict Saw Pits by John Dengate, published in Education 2.3.77

13.  List of dances, undated, unknown writer  - 1965?

14.   Reminder about AGM 23rd March (1965) probably read at a  Singabout or Workshop just before the meeting.

15. leaflet used between January 1968 & March 1969

16.

17. details of 20 Golden Greats LP, 1980

18. M.C's copy - Songs from Manifold's Penguin Australian Song Book to be learnt for future workshop nights.  1965 AGM authorised the purchase of copies of this book.

19. Names of participants

20.  Singabout 692), 1967 notice of Chris & Virginia's move to Mulwala.

21.  Article in Sun-Herald, June 9, 1968 re bushranger Fred Lowry  who said "tell them I died game" 17 years before Ned Kelly said it.

22.

23. receipt for door takings May 1967. (BMC archives, receipt books)

Pages from Araluen. A History through photographs, c.1840 - 2000. To honour the pioneers. From the combined albums of Chris Woodland and some long-established Araluen families. (Braidwood & District Historical Society & Museum, October 2014 ) Used with permission

24.  page 46 - Session at Araluen Hotel, c.1965. The concertina player on the right is Dave de Hugard who became one of Australia's best-known singers of traditional songs. (photo supplied by Dave to Chris - Woodland collection) 

25.  page 47 - top - John Meredith playing his button accordion beside the open fire of Woola hut July 1992, & inspecting the "Fairy Tree"  (photos © Chris Woodland) 

left - Jim "Kaiser" Simpson (c1893-1973) playing his button accordion outside the Araluen Hotel, 24 April, 1966.  right - Jim Thorley, Johnny 'Jack'Marshall, Peter Harrison, Jim 'Kaiser' Simpson at the Araluen Hotel.  (photos from the Woodland collection) 

26. page 102 - top - Vern Douglas (left) and Chris Woodland enjoying a cup of tea before the fire in the last remaining room of Cudgee hut, and Kevin Griggs below, August 1973  (All the pictures on pages102 and 103 were taken with my camera. Obviously someone else took the shots with me in them, or I used a time-delay ... can't recall - Chris, October 2020 - Woodland collection)

27. page 103 - top - Vern, Kevin & Chris outside Cudgee hut, August 1973. 

below - Ron Hatcher, Vern Douglas & Chris Woodland at Woolla, Easter 1981. (All the pictures on pages102 and 103 were taken with my camera. Obviously someone else took the shots with me in them, or I used a time-delay ... can't recall - Chris, October 2020) 

28. Clipping from Yarrawonga Chronicle, 14th August 1969
... article about the BMC I organised at Mulwala. I have no idea now who the woman mentioned was! (Woody 18/1/23) 

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