Stephen
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Post by Stephen on May 5, 2014 15:30:34 GMT -5
A few shots from the streets, Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX9 Rochester Sweeps May Day Festival. The Lumix was bought cheaply from Ebay, works well. Not bad for £10 or so......... Stephen
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Stephen
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Post by Stephen on May 5, 2014 16:29:15 GMT -5
Traditional Sweeps Dancers at the Rochester May Day Festival..
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Post by Rachel on May 6, 2014 3:33:45 GMT -5
Super photos Stephen.
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Post by philbirch on May 6, 2014 4:55:03 GMT -5
Yes good photos. We went to Llandudno where there was a Victorian Extravaganza. Nothing like your photos here. Just a big fairground and a few organs blasting out tunes. There were some folk dressed like this but you'd have to search them out.
I used mainly film that trip so they'll be back later in the week.
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Stephen
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Post by Stephen on May 6, 2014 16:26:07 GMT -5
Couple more shots, Clog Dancing to Hurdy Gurdy Music, and a Morris Dance Band. I think they thought it was a Dickens Festival
Stephen.
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SidW
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Post by SidW on May 6, 2014 18:20:41 GMT -5
An exciting day and exciting pictures. My favourite character is the hurdy gurdy man. His companion has a similar, but bowed, instrument, with keyboard. This is known in Sweden as a nyckelharpa (keyed harp, keyed fiddle), en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NyckelharpaBoth these instruments are usually made one-off, by craftsmen, or by the player. My wife's grandfather used to make them, around a hundred years ago. We don't have any though, they were probably made to order and went to the purchaser directly, and gave him a welcome extra income.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on May 7, 2014 9:47:43 GMT -5
I'm glad that guy doing the sand dance didn't kick any higher. I would have had nightmares for weeks
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Stephen
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Post by Stephen on May 7, 2014 14:50:40 GMT -5
I must admit I did look.....to be sure....he had safety underpants on!! And what amused me about the local bookseller was his remarkable resemblance to his dog and vice versa. I have some film results being processed at the moment, I will post later on.
Stephen.
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daveh
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Post by daveh on May 8, 2014 3:07:11 GMT -5
Where was Betty?
Great stuff, Stephen, though many Morris Dancers will be aghast at there being female Morris Dancers.
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Post by philbirch on May 8, 2014 5:59:15 GMT -5
Where was Betty? Great stuff, Stephen, though many Morris Dancers will be aghast at there being female Morris Dancers. The men look like big girls anyway with their easter bonnets and hankies. Grabbed from a video, it was too dark to photograph.
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Stephen
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Post by Stephen on May 8, 2014 17:31:23 GMT -5
You have to remember that Morris Dancing is just a darn good excuse to go on a serious pub crawl......more seriously it is a revival of older traditions in most cases, except for the Abbots Bromley dancers and The Padstow May day celebrations, which have long recorded histories. Oddly a lot of Church of England Vicars in the late Victorian period seemed to be the source of the Morris revival, along with Folk Song enthusiasts like composer George Butterworth, and his friends like Vaughn Williams and Gustav Holst. I do have a connection with Wilson, Keppel, and Betty, Grandfather was a close friend of Joe Keppel, both born in the same street in Cork in Ireland, and he nearly became their business manager in the 1930's, remaining close friends in later years. Betty Knox had been the stage partner of Jack Benny on the early radio shows . Stephen
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Stephen
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Post by Stephen on May 8, 2014 17:42:07 GMT -5
And amazingly film exists of composer George Butterworth dancing, shot silently in 1912, but with the sound added later. Sadly he was killed in the first World War, a terrible loss to classic British Music.
stephen
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daveh
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Post by daveh on May 8, 2014 18:12:26 GMT -5
There were, of course, several Bettys, but just one each of Wilson and Keppel.
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Stephen
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Post by Stephen on May 9, 2014 6:14:37 GMT -5
Betty Knox, then her daughter, and six others, mainly in the later 1950's when Wilson and Keppel were semi-retired, and had a new "Betty" just for the season. The BBC did an amusing radio programme about the "Bettys", and traced several from the 1950's. By that period there were several copy acts that confused the issue, including a street entertainment group who used the act. Stephen
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on May 9, 2014 9:12:10 GMT -5
Singing "We are lumberjacks and we're OK." Where was Betty? Great stuff, Stephen, though many Morris Dancers will be aghast at there being female Morris Dancers. The men look like big girls anyway with their easter bonnets and hankies. Grabbed from a video, it was too dark to photograph.
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