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Havenstreet Steam Up 24/08/24

The day was a wet Saturday in August typical for summer fayres. The intrepid Men of Wight and their good Friends the Oyster Girls carried on regardless. Outside the bar with the beer festival in was a lovely canopy which we could dance under. We danced from 11am until 1pm with the lovely smell of burning coal from all the engines on site The public stopped and enjoyed our performances. Sydney the seahorse also put in an appearance. 

Overton Sheep Fair

Men of Wight were invited to perform at the 2024 Overton Sheep Fair in July.  The fair is only run every 4 years.  Overton is just North of Winchester so not far for us to travel.

The Overton Sheep Fair dates back to the 13th Century, when sheep drovers from across the district brought their livestock to be seen and sold in the village.  The 21st century fair requires a section of the main road though the town to be closed for the weekend, to enable an array of stalls and performance spaces to occupy the street.  

The number 8 tour

The side had a booking to perform at the Seaview village fete, so Malcolm thought why not make a day of it.  The result was a great tour using Southern Vectis buses - the number 8 route all the way.  Newport St Thomas' square, Sandown Pier, Seaview and Ryde sea front. The No 8 route must use every back road possible which makes for a very interesting journey!

Samantha Davis

So sad to hear of the passing of Samantha (Sam) Davis, wife of actor Warwick. We met with them at Godshill in 2014 for his TV travel show.  My memory is of Sam warning us that she was 'quite heavy' when we lifted her in one of our dances.

Tunes for musicians' practice

To help our musicians with learning or remembering tune, here is a selection of recordings to practice to.  These are generally NOT at performance speed but have been slowed by about 5% to make practice easier.  Some are live recordings from practice nights, some are studio recording and some are, sadly, musicians who are no longer with us.  I use Logic Pro to process and clean up these recordings and where the accordion is used I have rebalanced to emphasise the right hand.

I'll add more recordings as I process them

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