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1970 |
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‘The Magnificent 1970 Diary’ Ewart Russell recalls in his letter to Roy Dyson dated 14th January 1971. In the letter Ewart says ‘I have read it through with many chuckles’. The diary appeared lost and all hope was nearly abandoned for its discovery, and then in 2004, like the 43 Bus to Bulwell, three came along at once. John Sweeney had a clear out and handed over a car boot full of Dolphin memorabilia and paraphernalia, Colin Shaw posted an envelope of documents and photographs and a visit to the Nottingham Central Library was made. All three sources yielded the diary. It was also discovered that for 1/- (5p) copies were sold on the door at NTMC.
This is the cover of the ‘lost’ diary of 1970. It is full of information about dancing events and venues that might have fallen into folklore had it not come to light.
The 1970 diary begins with an entry for January and February. Mainly practices but it does mention that, ‘The hard-core of eight men who had danced in 1969 had been joined by five beginners’. Only two ‘stayed the course’. Dolphin’s members all attended the NTMC; Dolphin was, ‘very firmly a folk-club side (and proud of it)’.
The NTMC Touring Company is recalled and it was obviously a success as far as being able to put on a show of Morris and country dancing, mumming plays and singing was concerned. The group was popular, but the sheer weight of numbers meant that it was uneconomical as a venture and could not be sustained so the idea was abandoned.
Leicester Morris Men held an annual feast. It was to be on Saturday 14th March 1970 at Ashby-de-la-Zouch (probably at the Highfield Hotel). Heavy snow fell that day but Dolphin, who had about seven men going, braved the elements. Upon arrival the men were informed that the evening had been cancelled. Only Dolphin turned up and undaunted they bravely ordered chicken and chips, and deciding that they were there to dance and drink, ‘we did just that’. ‘The manager at one point phoned Leicester to tell them that, though the feast had been cancelled, there was a troupe of wild Morris men dancing in his lobby, what should he do? It appears that no useful advice was forthcoming. Bob Hine adds, ‘I think that we all went in Roy Dyson’s Land Rover. I remember being dropped off at the Schoolhouse afterwards in a well lubricated state’.
Monday 13th April 1970; and the first tour of the season was arranged for Sutton Bonington with dancing at The King’s Head, The Anchor and the Old Plough. The only record of the evening says that ‘at the first stop, two people from Adderbury drew up in a car just as we were doing “Black Joke” – very kindly they said they liked our performance of the Adderbury dance, and asked us to do some more’.
Saturday April 25th 1970 was to be a day of instruction and Ralph Harrison, Squire of the Wessex Morris Men came up to Nottingham and taught ‘mainly Headington and Bledington’. He not only taught, he provided the music and demonstrated the dances as well.
In the evening an informal ceilidh was held when The Dolphin Morris Men were joined by the ladies and an assortment of NTMC members. The NTMC news-sheet number 30 dated 17th April gave advance notice of the day and pointed out that there would be ‘dancing, singing and (knowing Morrismen) prodigious drinking at the Memorial Park Pavilion’. News-sheet 31 dated 24th April 1970 pointed out that the ceilidh was ‘free entry and that everyone is invited’. Halfway through the evening it was discovered that too much beer had been ordered, it was incumbent on the assembled masses to polish off the excess to prevent it getting to the drains before being introduced to the intestines.
‘The company rose nobly to the challenge’ and ‘conviviality rose to new heights’ while ‘dancing fell to a new low’.
The first pub tour of the year was on a Monday, but the remaining tours of the year changed and each took place on a Thursday. Bob Hine recalls, ‘Monday evenings were pretty dead in the pubs’.
Pub tours were peppered with good bags, free pints and good times. Thursday 21st of May 1970 was particularly memorable: ‘A Thursday evening tour of The Flying Horse and the White Horse, Kegworth, and The Rose and Crown, Zouch. A sunny, but bitterly cold evening, with a wind that put most people off their dancing. The first two stops were no more than average, but on arrival at The Rose and Crown we received via the landlord, an invitation to dance at a party being held at the Manor in Sutton Bonington.
We arrived at the massive old building with some trepidation to find a host of people in evening dress. Immediately fed on vast quantities of food, we proceeded to dance outside the house, joined by a large number of guests. We had not intended to collect, but the Lord of the Manor had some inkling of the Morris tradition and insisted on it, starting the ball rolling with a large fistful of money. We were then led away and treated to champagne, and invited to stay for the remainder of the evening. It was only after much persuasion that the side was dragged away from free booze, and Bob Hine from a bird he was chatting up, to dance at The Rose and Crown, as we had promised’.
Terry Paling has a memory of being asked to dance at ‘Gotham Manor’ for a wedding where there was, ‘booze and champers aplenty and salmon in aspic’ which, ‘I consumed more than was good for me’. Ian Stewart recalls the event where, ‘We all got pissed during the ensuing wedding party’. Ian also recalls that a bottle of the hosts wine left with the dancers, ‘tucked under me jacket’.
30th May 1970: another NTMC ceilidh, and another lunchtime tour of pubs by Dolphin, who were joined by Towersey Morris Men and Oxford City Morris Men. They danced and sang their way through: The Black Lion at Radcliffe on Trent; The Rose and Crown at Cotgrave; and danced in the Square in the nearby town of Bingham.
At Bingham, ‘Collectors were dragged into the local supermarket by the checkout girls to collect inside, followed by a long line of men dancing Bonny Green Garters’
Thaxted held its 37th Ring Meeting on the weekend of 5th-7th June 1970 and Dolphin had been selected to attend even though they were not yet admitted to membership of the Morris Ring. NTMC newsletter number 35 dated 5th June 1970 was glowing with praise for the achievement and took the invite to be, ‘proof of the high regard that N.T.M.C.’s own Morris team have earned’.
Dolphin were very pleased to be at the meeting but had, ‘memories of the last time the side had been down to Thaxted, very soon after the formation of the Dolphin Men in 1968. On that occasion, we had arrived as spectators at the Ring Meeting, dressed in disreputable plain clothes – bursting with enthusiasm but very deficient in skill. Because of our habit of performing impromptu dances at the roadside, and the great quantities of drink we got down, someone had christened us “The road-side p…..artists”, a name which stuck’ .
The intention of the men was to show that their skill had reached new levels while their enthusiasm had not diminished. A memory of the occasion is of a change of dance brought about by Ravensbourne dancing Dolphins intended Trunkles. Ravensbourne performed Bledington Trunkles and Dolphin, who had practiced the Headington version, had to put in a last minute change. John Whitelaw in his 30th Anniversary write up [written in 1998] has this to say about the event:
‘One of my proudest memories was at our first official Ring Meeting at Thaxted [1970]. The Squire of the Ring at that time was a Sergeant Major type of character called John Venables who would only let sides perform their show dance at a massed display if he had seen it and was satisfied that it was of a high enough standard. We saw him arrive at our dancing site and knew that this was our big chance to perform Headington Trunkles, which we had been perfecting for several years.
The side we were touring with, however, decided to perform Trunkles from Bledington immediately before us. We were totally deflated as we realised that the two dances were too similar to follow each other. Instead, out of desperation, we decided upon an old standard, Shepherd's Hey from Adderbury. "Would you like to perform that at the massed display this evening?" asked John Venables. “Just you try and stop us mate!”
We danced our hearts out and got a tremendous reception. Dolphin had arrived!'
The official photograph taken at the evening display. Roy Dyson, with Ian Stewart behind him on the left, and Colin Shaw on the right.
After the event Roy Dyson wrote a letter of thanks to Thaxted Morris Men for the ‘cordial welcome’ at ‘our first official Ring Meeting’. Roy also gave thanks for the ‘inclusion of a non Ring side in a limited meeting’ it being the ‘exception rather than the rule’. John Whitelaw wrote, ‘It was only some years later that we discovered that we had only been allowed back to see if we had changed from the mob who in 1968, had taken themselves along to Thaxted, all but incapable of dancing’. [Truth or fancy, it is a lovely idea].
Whit Monday June 8th 1970 was memorable for one Dolphin. NTMC newsletter number 35 dated 12th June puts it, ‘Wanted: One Morris Minor 948c.c. engine. Whilst down at Bampton at Whit in a borrowed car, Bob Hine of the Dolphin Morrismen managed to blow up the engine and has not been able to find a replacement!’ Bob Hine adds to the story with some good news, ‘Someone at the Station pub, Kegworth offered me an engine and to put it in, all for £25! Those were the days’.
Thursday 18th June 1970 was a tour of pubs at Bunny, Costock and Wysall. Made memorable because there were big audiences at every pub, the collection was the largest of the year and the silencer decided to part company with the remainder of Ian Stewart’s car giving ample warning of Dolphin’s approach from several miles away and put paid to any ideas of a mysterious unannounced arrival!
Saturday 27th June turned out to be one of the busiest of the 1970 dancing calendar with a fete in Sutton Bonington and a Medieval Fair at Barrowden with Leicester Morris. The fete was supposed to draw an estimated crowd of 3000, but damp and dull conditions kept the majority at home. Upon arrival the gateman said that the army of girlfriends/wives/sweethearts/groupies would have to pay or not get in. He said, ‘It was a matter of conscience to pay the girls in’, the diary goes on to say, ‘We put him right on this moral issue with a few well chosen words, and the girls got in free’. Another correspondent recalls, ‘Ah! The army of Groupies/Sweethearts etc – Happy Days!’
After the dance spot it was a drive down to Barrowden and perform at the fair with Leicester Morris. The fair was better than the fete but not enough time was allowed for dancing. Dolphin didn’t have time to rest on their laurels; they had to get back to Sutton Bonington for the second dance spot - under floodlights! This time the audience had grown, attracted by the promise of open air Tom & Jerry cartoons and not as Dolphin had hoped, them! Dolphin stayed for the cartoons and all agreed they were indeed the high spot of the day. Roy went to collect the fee and was asked to accept a reduced amount due to the poor public attendance. Roy said, ‘Well, I’ll tell you what – you give me the £10; I’ll give it to the lads, and if they want to give you any of it back you’ll get it’. To date the matter is still under consideration.
On 2nd July 1970 Dolphin and Foresters danced in the Edwalton and Normanton areas and threw ‘about ten pints of ale in the bushes’ at Normanton because it was so bad. The men were not noted for throwing ale away and no other similar occasion has been chronicled except John Whitelaw recalls, ‘Edwalton flowers not the only ones to suffer. Landlord at the Victoria, Ruddington, always brought up a couple of jugs from the cellar. I think he kept the beer from year to year. I think that this was the only venue we have struck off in order to avoid free beer!!!!’ The beer tossing was the only ‘notable feature’ of the evening according to the diary but Terry Paling recalls, ‘When we chucked all that ale (ALE????) in the bushes, it was not otherwise uneventful, (the soon to be Sir) Gary Sobers was there’.
The second Stainsby Folk Festival took place on July 4th 1970 and Dolphin were booked to perform.
Roy Dyson provided the following publicity material for the Stainsby programme; ‘The Nottingham Dolphin Morris Men are a south Nott's based side who perform a wide range of traditional English Cotswold Morris dances. At the Stainsby Festival they will be dancing in their usual colours of white trousers, white shirts, decorated straw hats and red and green baldricks. Described as being the most vigorous side in the East Midlands, they have performed at a number of festivals and other events in and around the Midlands as well as touring the villages of their home ground in South Nottinghamshire’. Nine Dolphins attended and entertained alongside The Yetties, The Dransfield's, Packie Byrne, Barnsley Longsword etc and, ‘contributed a great deal toward the wonderful atmosphere that existed’.
Dolphin danced on seven of the fifteen days of the festival much of it in the company of The Foresters Morris Men. On one occasion in the Old Market Square a group of ‘bovver boys’ attempted their own version of the Morris and were promptly escorted away by the Police to the cheers of the crowd. Presumably they hadn’t got a collection permit, that’ll teach them!
On another occasion Dolphin were to dance at the festival site on Wollaton Park. Being disappointed that they were only to do a couple of dances the organisers said they could dance at a spot about 100 yards away, ‘if we wanted to’. ‘This we did’ and ‘promptly drew the crowd away from the rest of the show’ and took a ‘fine collection’. The Nottingham Festival and the Ring Meeting appeared to have faded into each other as the diary entry only states, ‘Finally came the Ring Meeting itself, which was much enjoyed by all the members of the side, though on the Sunday there was some trouble with the weather.’ Colin Shaw recalls, ‘The Foresters Ring Meeting, tied in with the Nottingham Festival, saw us having a particularly good time with the Bacup Nutters’.
Nottingham Festival committee promised assistance with some of the arrangements for the Ring Meeting and the maximum cost per man for the weekend would be £3. 10s. 0d (£3.50p). Dolphin and Foresters cooperated with some of the meeting arrangements; tour leading etc and some joint practices were held.
It was at the Nottingham Ring Meeting that Dolphin was advised that it would be in their interest to apply for membership of the Morris Ring. Roy Dyson made the request.
One month later on August 22nd 1970 Colin Shaw, Dolphin Squire at the time, got married and ‘all available personnel were in Northumberland’ to witness the occasion.
Colin and Kathy’s was, appropriately, the first Dolphin wedding, and Colin in his write-up on the subject recalls: ’The proceedings were notable for the groom having been suffering from sickness and diarrhoea for the previous five days, and therefore having eaten nothing. This resulted in severe difficulties in keeping new suit trousers up! The above complaint clearly had nothing to do with the stag night on the previous Saturday around Nottingham City Centre! The event began in Yates’ Wine Lodge, moved along Upper Parliament Street in a vaguely Sneinton-ish direction before reaching closing time somewhere in the Lace Market. I was then assisted back to Slab Square for a Chinese. I do recall refusing the invitation to order and retreating to the gents, where I promptly fell asleep.’
Upon arriving in Northumberland Colin and the men were called upon to once more partake of a stag do with the bride’s male relatives and friends.
The day of the wedding came and it was realised that there was not a full dancing side! The Squire was excused duties and Ian Stewart was missing. A quick call to Radio Newcastle resulted in The Newcastle Morris Men providing a couple of men to make up numbers. All then carried on fairly normally, with Mr. John Baxter in the role of Best Man, followed by dancing and singing, ‘dominated by the bride’s 80 year old Grandmother’. And they lived happily ever after.
September 7th 1970 and a letter from Ewart Russell confirmed that Dolphins application for Ring association would be heard early in the new year, at the annual meeting of club representatives.
Bromyard Folk Festival (the 4th) took place in September and Dolphin sent along five men to make up a scratch team again.
Dolphin do not generally enjoy carnival parades but the Gainsborough Mayflower parade on September 26th 1970 proved the exception when a case of ale found its way onto the lorry they were provided with, and the carnival girl collectors took rest breaks upon the lorry assisted up by the ever gallant Dolphin Men. In the diary write-up there is no mention of dancing during the parade, just beer and girls! After the parade some dancing was in fact done in the centre of Gainsborough and after a drive back to Nottingham the men performed at the NTMC ceilidh.
The newsletter number 48 of October 2nd 1970 has, ‘Our Dolphin Morrismen had been appearing at Gainsborough during the day but had enough puff left to dance us a couple in their usual vigorous style.’
Newark’s Medieval Fair organised by the Tradesman’s Association was set for Thursday 8th October 1970 and Dolphin were looking forward to an event to rival the previous years which produced a great atmosphere and a great collection, but had been held in July. But 1970 was disappointing: it was cold, people stayed indoors and at the ‘official’ dance pitch, although there was a crowd, the lady announcer (trying to be helpful) informed the public of the impending collection. ‘Never has a crowd been seen to disappear so quickly as when those Morris hats came off!’
October 31st 1970 and another NTMC ceilidh but this time in fancy dress:
Saturday 19th December 1970 and yet another NTMC fancy dress ceilidh according to newsletter number 56 dated 18th December 1970…but Dolphin could not in the event be there because Roy Dyson decided it was a good day on which to get married. Some of the men did though make it back in time.
Roy’s wedding took place at St Paul’s Church, Heaton Moor, Stockport where he married Celia and, as was becoming traditional, the Dolphin Morrismen went along as well - for the beer (and whatever else may be required of them). Dolphin formed a cordon on either side of the bride and groom to cut off any avenue of escape that may have been contemplated.
Colin Shaw in his own wedding write-up finishes with: ‘Quite a straight forward do really – unlike Roy Dyson’s, a few months later, which was notable for Mick Couldry and the plate glass window!’
Terry Paling writes, ‘I remember the crockery smashing but only vaguely remember Mick Couldry smashing a door. After the do, I think some of the lads found Dyson’s car which he’d kept hidden, and did something to it. Washing up liquid perhaps? Obviously as I was not one of the perpetrators I’d not be sure! We drove back to Nottingham later and went to one of the NTMC’s ceilidhs. I’m fairly sure that we carried a coffin with the inscription R. Dyson RIP.’
Mick Couldry denies all knowledge of the door. John Whitelaw (an impartial witness after the fact) recalls, ‘Somebody walked through a plate glass door and Mick Couldry was the only one with glass in his hat afterwards’.
Bert Cleaver recalls, ‘I first met Dolphin in June/July 1970. A Ring Meeting had been organised in Nottingham by Foresters/Dolphin and I was Squire [of the Morris Ring] elect at the time. The current Squire, John Venables, was going on a field study course with his pupils so asked me to deputise. This was unusual as the convention was (and I believe still is) that a former Squire should be asked. The meeting ran very successfully and I thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Shortly after I had assumed office the Bagman (Rusty – Russell Wortley) told me that Dolphin had applied for Ring membership so I arranged to visit a practice – probably in late Nov/early Dec. The practice was at Ian’s house in Kingston. I was very happy with the result and recommended acceptance at the next ARM.
The last NTMC newsletter of 1970 shows an artists impression of a Dolphin Morris Man
1970 drew to a close after a busy but satisfying year, two weddings under their belt, and eight promising beginners making steady progress and three budding musicians in the pipeline. The diary states, ‘We look forward to 1971 with optimism’.
Information to hand suggests that new members for 1970 include, Ted Hutchby and Victor Akinin. The names of the eight promising beginners were not recorded.
An early example of a Dolphin
poster.
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July
11th to 26th 1970 was an eventful time for the
Dolphin Men. It was the period of the Nottingham Festival, and
included the Nottingham Morris Ring Meeting organised by Foresters
Morris Men.
