Category: Videos

Transatlantique

Transatlantique is a banjo tune written by Tarrant Bailey Junior on the 12th August 1958. He dedicated it to the American Banjo Fraternity. They are still going and have a website here – https://banjofraternity.org I was helped in the making of this video by Charlie the cat!

Banjo / Videos

Abide With Me

Arranged by SE Turner, this was a celebrated version of the hymn tune in banjo circles prior to World War Two. This performance is by no means perfect, but I thought it was good enough to share and an interesting example of a tremolo technique that is very rarely heard …

Banjo / Uncategorised / Videos

Hold the Line plus anti-fascist chants at the Bookmarks Fiftieth Anniversary Celebration

My performance of Pete Seeger’s Hold the Line at the Fiftieth Anniversary celebration for Bookmarks held on 18 February 2023 in London. Bookmarks is a radical bookshop located in the heart of Bloomsbury in London’s West End. On the platform are Roger Huddle (co founder of Rock Against Racism) Judy …

Banjo / Protest Song / Videos

COP26: What’s This?

November 2021 saw the global climate talks known as COP26 held in Glasgow.

The COP26 Coalition organised decentralised mass mobilisations across the world, bringing together movements to build power for system change – from indigenous struggles to trade unions, from racial justice groups to youth strikers.

This is my contribution. he words are by Steve “Protest Family” White and I set them to a tune of my own devising. It was great to go some collaborative songwriting like that, and great to have such a great songwriter as Steve on tap to call on!

I was also pleased with the edit in the “It’s a Wonderful World” introduction.

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Then as part of the day of action I was privileged to perform the song in Barkers Pool Sheffield…

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COP26, what’s this?
COP26, what’s it gonna fix?
COP26, just more politics
And we’re running out of time.

This flooding is brought to you by Microsoft
This wildfire by Sainsbury’s and our friends at Sky
This drought by Unilever and some others we forgot
We’re saving the planet
One multinational at a time

Your speech is sponsored by “blah, blah, blah”
Your blind eye by corporate environmental crime
It’s greenwash, we know what you are
You’re not saving the planet
And were running out of time

You’ve got the tarmac, but we’ve got the glue
You’re stuck on the motorway, and we’re stuck on it too
You can stick your air source heat pump scheme,
‘Cos that just will not do
You’ve got the tarmac,
but we make the glue!

Banjo / Protest Song / Videos

Pity the Downtrodden Landlord

Written by Fred Hellerman and dedicated to my previous landlord Lee and Amelia Hall, who having had more then £100K out of us over ten years and subsequently selling the property for more than half a million quid refused to give us the deposit back because they wanted us to pay for dry cleaning the curtains and rehanging the doors.

They did get seventy quid back becasue I had hung pictures on the walls. I hope they don’t choke on it.

Please open your hearts and your purses,
To a man who is misunderstood.
He gets all the kicks and the curses,
Though he wishes you nothing but good.
Well he wistfully begs you to show him,
You think he’s a friend, not a louse.
So remember the debt that you owe him,
The landlord who lends you his house.

So pity the downtrodden landlord,
And his back that is burdened and bent.
Respect his grey hairs,
Don’t ask for repairs,
And don’t be behind with the rent!

Now, you’re able to work for a living,
And rejoice in your strength and your skill,
So try to be kind and forgiving,
To a man whom a day’s work would kill.
You can work and still talk to your neighbors,
You can look the whole world in the face.
But the landlord who ventured to labor,
Would never survive the disgrace.

When thunder clouds gather and darken,
You can sleep undisturbed in your bed;
But the landlord must sit up and hearken,
And shiver and wonder and dread;
If you’re killed, then you die in a hurry,
And you never will know your bad luck,
But the landlord is shaking with worry,
“Has one of my houses been struck?”

Now when a landlord resorts to eviction,
Don’t think that he does it for spite;
He is acting from deepest conviction,
And what’s right, after all, is what’s right.
But I see that your hearts are all hardened,
And I fear I’m appealing in vain;
Yet I hope my last plea will be pardoned,
If I beg on my knees once again.

Banjolele / Videos

Palestine

My banjo arrangment of the song Palestine by Jim Page. Find out more about Jim here – www.jimpage.net I’ll tell you a story, make it clear as I can About the far away troubles in the holy land Pictures of the children etched in your mind Layin’ down their bodies …

Banjo / Videos