And a very merry wassail to you too

Is it the start of the St George’s backlash? Having praised the venue on various occasions in the past might it have come unstuck with its latest guests? The evening was to celebrate songs of winter and Christmas as presented by Waterson Carthy. These are the individually and collectively celebrated Martin Carthy, his wife Norma Waterson and their daughter Eliza Carthy. In addition to their excellent voices they also have their guitar and violin skills. However, with Waterson Carthy you get a fourth member, so we had Saul Rose on melodeon. But then in addition to that we had a further three singers – going under the collective name of the Devil’s Interval. So seven in all, singing individually and in various combinations, accompanied and unaccompanied. And in such an entrancing manner that you want to be up there with them (admittedly probably not a very good idea). And this was the minor issue with St Georges, it was such a fantastic evening it should have been in your local pub keeping out the cold on a winter’s evening with beer or cider glass in hand and singing along. But instead you got the very slightly clinical atmosphere of everyone sitting quietly – albeit appreciatively – and all the work being done onstage. Which may be for the best but it slightly lacked something. Of course what you got in exchange was the excellent acoustics so that you could hear everything with absolute clarity. (Perhaps I should concede at this point that this is not that much of a backlash.)
They were mostly playing material from their new album – Holy Heathens and the Old Green Man – although they featured at least one that they had unfortunately had to leave off a previous album which was made around 30 plus years previously – so there’s nothing wrong with their memories or depth of repertoire. And so good was this new (ish – it came out in 2006) album that it just had to be bought and became the sound of Christmas. And now no Christmas can be complete without rousing versions of various Wassails (Jacobstowe and Sugar) and many of the other songs. I tried it and, after some scepticism, the enjoyment was infectious. So, if you’ve missed them, get the album anyway, turn it up and sing along – you’ll feel infinitely better for the whole experience. And I have every confidence it’s just as good when the sun’s shining.