Show of Hands Trivia

1. Although the lyrics of "Breme Fell at Hastings" are in English, there are a few spoken sections which are not. Which language is used for these utterances?

From Quiz Show of Hands Took the Long Way Home

Answer: Saxon

In the song Breme is a Saxon farmer serving in the army of Harold Godwinson at the battles of Stamford Bridge and Hastings. There is a historical basis for this. The name is recorded alongside that of the Saxon nobles who fell at Hastings, but it may not have been the true name of the man. Whoever he was he was a freeman from what is now the village of Dagworth, Suffolk. A few lines in Latin are sung in "The Old Lych Way", another song on this album.

From Quiz The "Dark Fields" of Show of Hands

Answer: Cornwall

Copper and tin were mined in Cornwall for several thousand years (and may be again soon). Until the late nineteenth century the mines of the English West Country were the principal supply of these elements in the world. When the Cornish mines began to be worked out, the Cornish emigrated around the world to where their skills could be used. In that age the Cornish miners were acknowledged experts. This song is an echo of those times. (Much of this also applies to mines in west Devon, but it was the Cornish who were known as 'cousin Jacks', and the song refers to places in Cornwall exclusively.)

From Quiz Music at the 'Cold Frontier'

Answer: Family firms

A song which combines some amusing lyrics with good advice. "It's always they that did not pay / that stand at the bar and drink all day." and "How strange the band that claim they wrote / their songs when they can't play a note." This recording includes several current and former members of The Joyce Gang, described by Steve as an Exeter-based band, and on their own website as "an Anglo/Irish roots band based in England".

From Quiz A slice of 'Country Life'

Answer: Chainsaw bite

A reminder that life in the country is not all sweetness and light. But as Steve Knightley has been known to point out at concerts, it is only a song: he doesn't really have a brother with fingers missing from an unfortunate incident with a chainsaw.

From Quiz Show of Hands are Waking the Union

Answer: Shepherds

This song could be a way of describing the financial crises of the early twenty-first century. It can be seen as suggesting that "getting out while the going is good" is the best option in times of trouble. Lines such as "The books have been cooked and the chairs rearranged" and "Wolves in the night been circling the flock. Shepherds are honing their knives on the block" all follow this theme. For me it is reminiscent of Terry Pratchett's Igors, departing the castle via the back door as the mob storms the front gates.

From Quiz Show of Hands Took the Long Way Home

Answer: Honour the dead

The chorus starts, "Go light the lantern at your door. And honour those who have gone before". Since "gone before" is a common euphemism for having died, the meaning is clear. This song is one of two on this album written by singer/songwriter Chris Hoban. Chris also plays accordion on this track and several others.

From Quiz Arrogance, Ignorance and Greed

Answer: At sea

If I'd mentioned in the question it was a shanty it would have made it more obvious. The notes in the lyrics booklet with this album note that this arrangement of the song was compiled from "half a dozen sources", and I am sure that there are more versions of the song. There seem to be two distinct variants of this sea shanty. In one set the sailor sees his lover in his dream and then realises that she has died. The other version reverses it and the woman sees her lover, the sailor, in a dream and realises that he has drowned.

From Quiz The "Dark Fields" of Show of Hands

Answer: Poacher

The long dog is a lurcher, while the song itself is concerned with a modern day poacher. This is evidenced in the tools of his trade; "...a four wheel pick up and a shotgun, never bought a meal in my life...". Steve Knightley notes that the song is based on "an amalgam of various disreputable characters encountered in West Dorset".

From Quiz Music at the 'Cold Frontier'

Answer: Silver coin

"A silver coin I will leave for you. You can spin it in the air. On any country it chooses to fall, the coin will pay your fare." I am not sure that a Roman coin is quite that valuable, even with budget airlines like easyJet. (Who would probably charge you extra for using something as old-fashioned as a coin.) In the notes with the CD, Steve Knightley says he wrote this after a 'trip to warm and sunny Italy', where he started thinking about how a soldier of the Roman Empire would have felt being sent far away from his home to the 'Cold Frontier' of the empire in the British Isles.

From Quiz A slice of 'Country Life'

Answer: Terry

Terry is the subject of the song 'Red Diesel'. Terry is an ambiguous character who "keeps all his records in his head and would rather be paid in cash or kind" and "in a uniform he's a hero, on the terraces he's scum". Red diesel in the UK is a low tax fuel intended to be used by the agricultural industry with an additive colouring it red to ease identification. There is a song entitled 'Tommy' on the album, written by Kelly Joe Phelps (it is the only track on the album not written by or arranged by Steve Knightley). Steve and Phil are the forenames of the members of Show of Hands.

From Quiz Bearing folk Witness by a Show of Hands

Answer: Herod

Having revealed the stranger's identity, the question in the lyrics, "What is he doing with the children?" becomes more worrying. This is one of the few songs on the album not written by either (or both) of Steve Knightley or Phil Beer. The words are taken from a poem by Charles Causley and the tune is by Johnny Copin.

From Quiz Show of Hands Took the Long Way Home

Answer: Horologist

Songs in the folk world are about often about the older trades such as blacksmiths and those connected with farming. This song although modern is about a crucial skill in nautical history, clock making. John Harrison was noted for his advances in making clocks that were not affected by the motions of ships while at sea, thus enabling more accurate measurement of longitude.

From Quiz Music at the 'Cold Frontier'

Answer: Someone's pocket

Possibly a ghost story, one could also interpret this as a straight murder but without a body. On his first night away from home, young Billy falls for a girl, and the rest is the plot of the song. On Dartmoor, it seems people can just vanish into the mists. Maybe Conan Doyle was basing his famous story on something closer to fact than fiction.

From Quiz A slice of 'Country Life'

Answer: Be cruel

The advice given from the gypsy caravan, (and others during the song) include making friends or money, being smart or lucky, breaking the mould or the rules. I'm not convinced that this information is worth crossing a palm with silver to obtain.

From Quiz Show of Hands Took the Long Way Home

Answer: Rambleaway

The song here has been combined from lyrics of at least three traditional versions. Rambleaway is one of these, Brimbledown Fair is another. The main story concerns a young handsome visitor to town who girls are attracted to, even when they know his reputation for loving them and leaving them. The pop song "The Wanderer" appears to tell the same sort of story. "Reynardine" is another song along these lines, where the seducer takes his name from the French word for fox; in some versions he is a were-fox. "Sweet William" is another frequent name in traditional songs but is not related to this ballad, whilst "The Folker" is an album by singer-songwriter Fred Wedlock.

From Quiz A slice of 'Country Life'

Answer: Autumn storms

"Never thought I'd long for Autumn storms." The singer admits he misses the same things that caused him to leave, and no longer knows why he did leave. So now, just like the 'Prodigal Son,' he's returning home.

From Quiz Show of Hands are Waking the Union

Answer: Cecil Sharp

The song is set around an imagined experience of Cecil Sharp on his trip to America in the early part of the twentieth century. In the song "Aunt Maria" is trying not to be singled out, saying that there are lots more people like her to listen to. Both Sabine Baring-Gould and Lucy Broadwood were collecting folk songs from rural parts of England in the Victorian era. Steve Roud is much more recent and has compiled a database of folk songs that bears his name, the Roud Folk Song Index.

From Quiz Show of Hands Took the Long Way Home

Answer: Lonely side of town

The song starts, "I'm glad that you would meet me in this lonely side of town", the remainder of the song follows the theme of regaining an original love. Of the other options, "The Old Lych Way" is the title of another song on this album. the "Dark End of the Street" is a song covered by many artists including, from the folk world, Richard & Linda Thompson, and June Tabor & the Oyster Band. The "back room of the pub" is simply a reference to a traditional setting for folk clubs to meet.

From Quiz Arrogance, Ignorance and Greed

Answer: Wartime evacuation

All of these might have been possible but this is the story of a young lad in the country whose peaceful existence is disrupted by the inflow of children from the city. Lines such as "flirting with the city girls or fighting with its sons" are typical of the experiences of those involved at the time. The song is apparently inspired by the experiences of Steve Knightley's mother being evacuated from Southampton during World War 2.

From Quiz The "Dark Fields" of Show of Hands

Answer: Lovers talking

"Dark Fields", the title track of the album is a song about a relationship breaking up. Lovers talking in a dark field. It is possible to find all the other options(and more) in dark fields, but not within the lyrics of this song.

From Quiz Show of Hands are Waking the Union

Answer: Cutting and pasting

The whole song refers to various ills of the modern computerised society. Starting with ripped off music, carrying on to cc e-mails, facebook and twitter. Finally, the song moves on to student life, and the only usage in song of the word "plagiarisation" that I have encountered. The relevant lyrics are: "Plagiarisation dissertation, I take another essay from the net. I've been three years wasting cutting and pasting. Now I'm £30,000 in debt." Things have changed since my time at college, drinking it up would have been appropriate then. Tweaking Facebook is also referred to in the song but not with that particular phrase. The oxymoron "peace riot", is taken from a song by Fred Wedlock.

From Quiz Show of Hands Took the Long Way Home

Answer: Love

Another way of describing the theme of this song could be "don't give up hope". The first line of it is "When love just seems so far away". The song was written by Andrew Cadie, one of a pair of Englishmen based in Germany who form the group Broom Bezums. For those at sea, both harbour and safety can reasonably be seen as far away. Ushant is a French island which along with the Scilly islands can be used to roughly mark the western end of the English Channel. Both of these places are found in the shanty "Spanish Ladies" which informs us that "From Ushant to Scilly is thirty-five leagues".

From Quiz Arrogance, Ignorance and Greed

Answer: Probity

A modern protest song, targeted at those whose actions resulted in the financial crisis of 2008. The relevant lyric here is "The toxic spring you tapped and sold. Poisoned every watering hole. Your probity you exchanged for gold." Other pointed lyrics include "So where's your thrift and your caution, your honest sound advice? You dealt yourself a winning hand and loaded every dice". Politicians, bankers and their bonuses, not to mention their seemingly bottomless expense accounts, are the targets. All of these finances being taken from the general public.

From Quiz The "Dark Fields" of Show of Hands

Answer: Polly

As with many traditional songs various versions are known. The version here is a fairly common one that has been arranged and recorded by several artists. The crux of the story is the soldier trying to encourage his love to follow him when his regiment is sent abroad. Polly refuses, in part because she is pregnant with their child. At the end of the song she bewails the death of "her true love" and her three brothers, all killed in warfare.

From Quiz A slice of 'Country Life'

Answer: Winter

A song to interpret as you wish. The simplest interpretation is that the song is the promise of Spring, a rebirth at the turning of the year.

From Quiz Show of Hands Took the Long Way Home

Answer: 40 days and nights

Any of these might fit the song but the relevant lyrics are "Forty days and forty nights I'm waiting for your light red to glow". The song is a simple 12 bar blues, described in the lyrics booklet as "Genuine, Westcountry, frontier gibberish". A song from the earlier days of Show of Hand's performing life.

From Quiz Arrogance, Ignorance and Greed

Answer: Rudyard Kipling ("The Smuggler's Song")

Although the song is more about looting than smuggling, the words of Kipling's do seem to fit the mood of the song. "Five and twenty ponies, trotting through the dark Brandy for the Parson, baccy for the Clerk. Laces for a lady; letters for a spy, Watch the wall my darling while the Gentlemen go by" The original poem appears in the book "Puck of Pook's Hill".

From Quiz The "Dark Fields" of Show of Hands

Answer: Flora

A traditional song about the fickleness of women. The singer courts his beloved, kills his rival and goes to the gallows courtesy of the testimony of the woman he was besotted with. The more I read the papers the more I am forced to conclude that history repeats itself ad infinitum.

From Quiz Music at the 'Cold Frontier'

Answer: Higher pasture

This song describes various instances in the life of a sheep farmer over the last few decades, written from the perspective of a hill farmer's son and taking in the difficulties caused by Chernobyl. "Our dogs would drive the sheep to higher pasture." Watching a shepherd controlling their dogs is an experiencing not to be missed, incredible. A sheepfold is an enclosure, often of stone, that sheep up on moor and fell can huddle in to protect themselves from the wind and snow.

From Quiz A slice of 'Country Life'

Answer: Drake

"Drake's Drum" was the property of Sir Francis Drake. It hangs in Buckland Abbey in Devon. Before he died Sir Francis swore that if England was in need, and the drum was beaten, he would return to defend the country. It is also claimed that the drum has been heard to beat in times of war, including on HMS Royal Oak upon the surrender of the German fleet at the end of the first world war. Other occasions when it is alleged to have been heard include the departure of the Mayflower and during the miracle of Dunkirk.

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Last Updated Nov 16 2024 5:49 AM

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