Tim Kent, professional musician living in Sussex, performs two traditional folk songs at The Willows Folk Club, Arundel, West Sussex on Wednesday 30th June 2010. Both these songs Tim plays on a 27” low-octave Leyanda guitar which he has cherished since ’84.
The Bedlam Boys has for many years been among Tim’s most requested songs and this video is “the full pour” for “haileymon”. Many different words abound but here are Tim’s:
V1.For to see mad Tom of Bedlam ten thousand miles I’d travel / mad Maudlin goes on dirty toes just to save her shoes from gravel. CHORUS: Still I sing bonnie boys bonnie mad boys Bedlem boys are bonnie, and they all go bare and they live by the air and they want no drink nor money. V2. I went down to Satan’s kitchen for to get me food one morning / and there I saw souls piping hot all on the spit a’turning. V3. My staff has murdered giants and my bag a long knife carries / for to cut mince pies from children’s thighs with which to feed the fairies. V4. The spirit’s white as lightening would on my travels guide me / the earth would shake and the stars would quake whenever they espied me. V5.No gypsy slot or dopsie can win this mad top from me / I’ll weep all night and with stars fight and the fray will well become me. V6. And when that I have murdered the Man in the Moon to a powder / his bones I’ll shake and his staff I’ll quake and there will howl no demon louder. Hope you like it!
The second traditional ballad “The Banks of the Bann” is Irish and is included here as a complete contrast to the first song.
Tim currently runs his own folk club “The Harbour Sessions” on the 2nd Sunday of each month at The Gather Inn at Hove Lagoon, Brighton.
Currently due to Coronavirus this has ceased.