Remembrance Day

It's November and the week of Remembrance Day. It's a sobering thought that we've had them for 90 years now but they seem to be as relevant and important to the public as ever, no doubt reflecting the prominence of the Afghanistan war. Two of our friends went to London on Sunday to join the parade and another went, as she always does, to the service in Nottingham parish church and to see her dad, a WWII soldier, march through the city. J and I were in London on Remembrance Day last year and had a couple of hours before catching the train home to watch from the back of the crowd on Whitehall. It was an impressive and moving spectacle.

I'm reminded of the event after listening to an Eric Bogle song on Folkwaves tonight. Eric has written some fine anti-war songs, especially And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda, famously recorded by June Tabor, but tonight it was No Man's Land, which has equally haunting lyrics and a memorable melody, especially the chorus: "did they beat the drum slowly, did they play the pipes lowly, did the rifles fire o'er you as they lowered you down..?" Poetry, as Ian McMillan would have said, that hits you in the guts.

I see from Eric's website that he emigrated to Australia from Scotland in 1969, just before my family did the same, from Cheshire. Hence his caricature. He's currently on a world tour of 88 gigs and is planning a 2010 tour of Australia. These folkies just keep going, thank goodness!