A Fairy Tale of New York

A much punkier and lost Irish dream take on Christmas than the Leninist laments we grew up with - from the Pogues from 1987. The title is taken from a novel by Irish author JP Donleavy. The song narrates the story of an Irish couple striving to pursue their dreams in New York. Set on Christmas Eve, the eternal romance and hope of Christmas contrasts with the gritty reality but both are given full whack by the song. 

It was Christmas Eve, babe

In the drunk tank

An old man said to me

"Won't see another one"

And then he sang a song

"The Rare Old Mountain Dew"

I turned my face away

And dreamed about you

Got on a lucky one

Came in eighteen-to-one

I've got a feeling

This year's for me and you

So happy Christmas

I love you, baby

I can see a better time

When all our dreams come true

They've got cars big as bars, they've got rivers of gold

But the wind goes right through you, it's no place for the old

When you first took my hand on a cold Christmas Eve

You promised me Broadway was waiting for me

You were handsome, you were pretty, queen of New York City

When the band finished playing, they howled out for more

Sinatra was swinging, all the drunks, they were singing

We kissed on a corner, then danced through the night

And the boys of the NYPD choir were singing "Galway Bay"

And the bells were ringing out for Christmas Day

You're a bum, you're a punk, you're an old slut on junk

Lying there almost dead on a drip in that bed

You scumbag, you maggot, you cheap, lousy wazzack

Happy Christmas, your arse, I pray God it's our last

And the boys of the NYPD choir, still singing "Galway Bay"

And the bells are ringing out for Christmas Day

"I could have been someone", well, so could anyone

You took my dreams from me when I first found you

I kept them with me, babe, I put them with my own

Can't make it all alone, I've built my dreams around you

And the boys of the NYPD choir, still singing "Galway Bay"

And the bells are ringing out for Christmas Day

America i.m. 22 November 1963

A special 22 November 2025 release of our cover of Simon& Garfunkel's love song to/elegy for the American Dream.

"Let us be lovers, we'll marry our fortunes together

I've got some real estate here in my bag"

So we bought a pack of cigarettes and Mrs. Wagner pies

And walked off to look for America

"Kathy", I said as we boarded a Greyhound in Pittsburgh

"Michigan seems like a dream to me now"

It took me four days to hitchhike from Saginaw

I've gone to look for America

Laughing on the bus

Playing games with the faces

She said the man in the gabardine suit was a spy

I said "Be careful, his bowtie is really a camera"

"Toss me a cigarette, I think there's one in my raincoat"

"We smoked the last one an hour ago"

So I looked at the scenery, she read her magazine

And the moon rose over an open field

"Kathy, I'm lost", I said, though I knew she was sleeping

I'm empty and aching and I don't know why

Counting the cars on the New Jersey Turnpike

They've all come to look for America

All come to look for America

All come to look for America

We're not so much trying to make 'America' great again in our version as to do it justice. Simon & Garfunkel's original version is perfection. One of the greatest folk/pop songs ever written, simple genius from lyric through melody to performance, arrangement and production, it's top ten in the Great American Songbook as far a we're concerned. It's that elusive American dream in a song; a hymn to enduring hope. All the longing of youth; all the energy and spaciousness and potential of America and all the sadness as both fall short.

Maz - lead vocal, acoustic guitar

Gaz- vocals, bass, floor tom drum

New Lang Syne

This is the same live soundtrack filmed in    • Auld Lang Syne Live at Burns Night 20...   only with all the other instruments (harmonium, snare, bass drum, hi hat) I couldn't throw in the mix at the time as I had my hands and feet full. Surely the most popular parting song sung in the world with words written by Scotland's national (and international) poet Robert Burns, his canon bestriding both the 18C Enlightenment and Romanticism. It seems "Auld Lang Syne" (literally 'old long ago') replaced 'A Parting Glass' as Scotland's favourite end of evening farewell and that one takes some beating. We always sing it with the Ecclefechan Tarts Orchestra and Choir at the winding down midnight close of our annual Burns Night banquet of haggis, poetry and song by which time I am revealing far more inner thigh than is strictly necessary and one of us seems to think it's already the end of the year! Auld Lang Syne Words by Robert Burns [Verse 1] G D Should auld acquaintance be forgot, Em C And never brought to mind? G D Should auld acquaintance be forgot, Em C G And auld lang syne! [Chorus] G D For auld lang syne, my dear, G C For auld lang syne. G D We'll take a cup o' kindness yet, Em C G For auld lang syne. [Verse 2] G D And surely you’ll buy your pint cup! Em C And surely I’ll buy mine! G D And we'll take a cup o’ kindness yet, Em C G for auld lang syne. [Chorus] G D For auld lang syne, my dear, G C For auld lang syne. G D We'll take a cup o' kindness yet, Em C G For auld lang syne. [Verse 3] G D We two have run about the slopes, Em C And picked the daisies fine; G D But we’ve wandered many a weary foot, Em C G Since auld lang syne. [Chorus] G D For auld lang syne, my dear, G C For auld lang syne. G D We'll take a cup o' kindness yet, Em C G For auld lang syne. [Verse 4] G D We two have paddled in the stream, Em C From morning sun till dine; G D But seas between us broad have roared Em C G Since auld lang syne. [Chorus] G D For auld lang syne, my dear, G C For auld lang syne. G D We'll take a cup o' kindness yet, Em C G For auld lang syne. [Verse 5] G D And there’s a hand my trusty friend! Em C And give me a hand o’ thine! G D And we’ll take a right good-will draught, Em C G For auld lang syne. [Chorus] G D For auld lang syne, my dear, G C For auld lang syne. G D We'll take a cup o' kindness yet, Em C G For auld lang syne.

The Holly and the Ivy

The holly and the ivy
When they are both full grown
Of all trees that are in the wood
The holly bears the crown

[Refrain:]
O, the rising of the sun
And the running of the deer
The playing of the merry organ
Sweet singing in the choir

The holly bears a blossom
As white as lily flow'r
And Mary bore sweet Jesus Christ
To be our dear Saviour

[Refrain]
The holly bears a berry
As red as any blood
And Mary bore sweet Jesus Christ
To do poor sinners good

[Refrain]
The holly bears a prickle
As sharp as any thorn
And Mary bore sweet Jesus Christ
On Christmas Day in the morn

The New Album in 360 seconds

The New Album in 360 seconds  Each track has a dedicated film, lyrics, full track notes, info etc etc.

• This is an album we've made to celebrate our Sapphire Wedding. The concert of British folk and Americana we'd invite you all to if we were 45 years younger! If you have any questions or comments about the music, you can submit them as you listen and we'll get back to you at the end. Or please feel free just to listen, let the music do the talking and enjoy. 
  FEEL FREE TO LISTEN TO ANY OR ALL OF THE ALBUM AND WATCH THE FILMS BEFORE DECEMBER 1ST but we do hope you will also join our get together for the Listening Party on the day itself. All welcome. The more the merrier!

   

• Streaming + Download 

  Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
  Download available in 16-bit/44.1kHz. 

    £7 GBP  or more

   

	1.	The Peacock's Tale 03:00 video
	2.	Rosemary Lane 03:20 video
	3.	Crazy Man Michael 03:39 video
	4.	In The Bleak Midwinter 03:22 video
	5.	The Rise of an April Leaf 03:04 video
	6.	Lady Guinevere 03:01 video
	7.	Bring Me To Fring All Saints 04:02video
	8.	Listen Listen 02:43 video
	9.	Blackwaterside 03:02 video
	10.	Tired With All These 02:03 video
	11.	Gwenhwyfar 05:40 video
	12.	Summer Wine 04:37 video
	13.	The Swimming Song 01:58 video
	14.	Walk on the Wild Side 04:52 video
	15.	Diamonds and Rust 04:14 video
	16.	Twenty Years 01:58 video
	17.	Transatlantic Arti 04:29 video

Listen, listen

The English Civil Wars and Other Nursery Crimes coming this Sunday!!

The video premieres Sunday August 22, 11 am. (date the Civil War started in 1642)

https://youtu.be/rKDIJGQYUAY

A musical film of the Phezant Tail’s new album “The English Civil Wars and Other Nursery Crimes” which premieres on August 22, the date the English Civil War began in 1642. Both album and film tell the story of an England at war with itself in the Roundhead v Cavalier conflict of 1642-1651 (and the origins of that conflict in the English Reformation of a century before) revealing the hidden meanings of familiar nursery rhymes associated with those conflicts. This soundtrack is linked here to still images of the folk and storytelling duo in Royalist and Puritan costume against the historical interior (stained glass, plain glass, wall paintings, whitewashed wall paintings, altar rails etc) and exterior of a small local parish church in Norfolk, which preserve the story of those conflicts. It also features two colour plates central to the story of that Radical 17C attempt to build a visionary new England by the artist William Blake from his mixed media works ‘Milton’ and ‘Jerusalem.’ Photography by Bhas Allan. (Additional photography by the Phezant's Tail) The costumes are Cromwell's Preachy/New Jerusalem (Maz) and Whore of Babylon/Old Gloriana (Gaz) depending on your point of view! Digital download of album with full notes, lyrics and credits https://phezants-tail.bandcamp.com/al... (this link also goes live on Aug 22)

Vardy up front for England v France?

Fenland storytelling combo the Penland Phezants are conjuring up the spirit of '66 as their Hereward the Wake tour comes to All Saints Church Fring (9 July) and the Ely Folk Festival (July 14) next week.

That's 1066 and the English defeat at Hastings, folks, not the 1966 victory at Wembley, but there are hopeful parallels across (almost) a thousand years.

The title song - https://soundcloud.com/gaz29-1/for-the-soul-of-england-by-the-penland-phezants

Herwardi Saxonis (Hereward the Saxon)  - 'Vardy' for short - is the original English underdog who won his day, in the wake of a crushing English defeat that seemed like the end of the world at the time. 

As every English schoolchild knows, after an exhausting victory at Stamford Bridge in 1066, King Harold, the last Saxon king of England, fought bravely and his defenders were well on top at Hastings until tactically outwitted.  Harold's Saxons thought they had won the game when the Norman French dropped deep into their own half only to be caught by a devastating counter attack. A speculative arrow through the air into the penalty area hit Harold in the eye and the rest (including Saxon England as we knew it) is history.

Hereward (of Bourne in Lincolnshire) was in Belgium at the time - adding to his international reputation as a brilliant mercenary general - but returned in September 1067 to join and swiftly to lead the growing English resistance to William the Conqueror's harrowing invasion. Hereward did so most famously at Ely, leading a solid defensive formation of mighty Saxon warriors and monks and Danish diehards, all secure in local knowledge and the impregnable native fen and forest, soaking up wave after wave of attack on a waterlogged fenland pitch, then catching those offensive Normans napping on the break. Not even the services of a French witch deployed on a wooden tower could shift Hereward and his men from their fastness and the Conqueror was losing heavily and on the verge of giving up when, alas, the Abbot of Ely betrayed the secret paths through the fens to the invaders.

One loyal monk warned Hereward just in time and the great Saxon hero escaped with his men to fight (and win) many another day - in a series of madcap adventures in the greenwoods of Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire and Warwickshire, and at Peterborough Abbey, many of which are the real originals of Robin Hood legend.

The 'overdog' Norman conquerors brought many positives into English culture but love of the underdog was not one of them. Our  enduring love of an underdog defying the odds plus the sturdy survival of English rather than Norman French as our national language can both be traced to Hereward's timely resistance.

The Penland Phezants  90 minute musical show "A Very English Resistance: The True Story of Hereward the Wake" words written and narrated by poet Gareth Calway, music by Andy Wall and Vanessa Wood Davies, the whole performed by the trio on guitar, harp and drum, plays Fring and Ely Folk Festival as the World Cup enters its Final week. If France and England are still contenders by then, it might make an interesting replay!  

Advance tickets for Fring here http://www.wegottickets.com/event/443249

 or on the door. £10 incl. glass of wine/ light refreshments.

Ely Folk Festival bookings -http://elyfolkfestival.co.uk/tickets/

1966 and all that - https://soundcloud.com/gaz29-1/1966-england-win-the-world-cup

1068 and All That - first stop Bury Saint Edmunds Arts Festival May 23

The Penland Phezants bring you "As Free As The Waters That Flow Through The Fen; A Very English Resistance: The True Story of Hereward The Wake."

950 years ago, Hereward the Wake came home (from outlawry, exile and a gallery of bold and magical adventures in Cornwall, Ireland and Flanders) as a famous warrior and the leading military genius of his age. He was no Little Englander, speaking several European languages and with experience of leading several foreign armies, and as at home with Danes as with Saxons: his name means 'Head of the army' in both Danish and English. But he did not come home to rest on his laurels. He came home to lead the growing English Resistance against the Norman Conquest. Hereward first avenged the Norman murder of his brother and theft of his manor in his home town of Bourne in Lincolnshire, then established himself in the Isle of Ely alongside the Earl of Morcar (the dead King Harold's brother) and King Sweyn of Denmark, repeatedly outwitting a desperate siege of the Isle personally led by William the Conqueror himself. 

So successful was Hereward's defence that William, incredibly, was on the point of offering peace terms when Hereward was betrayed by his erstwhile military allies, the Abbot and monks of Ely Abbey. The ever-elusive Hereward escaped to further historic triumphs against William's armies at Burgh (Peterborough) and the later rearguard victories against all odds in Fenland, Lincolnshire Greenwood and the ancient Saxon forests of Northamptonshire.

Gareth Calway's 90 minute narrative tells the full story, from the magical folk tales of Hereward's early continental career to his historic defence of Saxon England. Based closely on the honest Latin chronicles compiled by 12C monks, this historically-based narrative gives full rein to the Freeborn English humour and derring do of a real life Robin Hood. (The Robin Hood legend borrows much of the spirit and many of Hereward's real-life adventures.) 

The compelling narrative is given a period flavour by harp music composed and performed by Welsh Romany-influenced harpist Vanessa Wood-Davies and a folk perspective by a sequence of new ballads written by poet Gareth Calway and folk musician Andy Wall.  The Penland Phezants' stirring performance of these is a particular highlight of and perfect fit for this great English folk tale.

Starts: 8pm
Tickets: £10, £2 discount off top price band for Festival Friends, purchase ten or more tickets in one transaction and save £1 per ticket 
Venue: Station Hill Social Club, Bury St Edmunds

Viking tailer    Celtic trailer

JINGLE JINGLE THE PENLAND PHEZANTS CHRISTMAS SINGLE!

The recently formed East Anglian folk trio the Penland Phezants have released an online Christmas single inspired by the Lynn mystic Margery Kempe. The song,  'A Lynn Carol' has a happy Christmas message and a strong local connection.

Margery Kempe of Lynn was not your average mediaeval woman. She wrote the first autobiography in English, 'The Book of Margery Kempe.' It begins with an account of her traumatic first pregnancy (she went on to have 14 children) and what we would call a 'post-partum psychosis' during which she received visions of heaven and hell. Her 'Book' describes visions of devils, Jesus, God, the Holy Ghost and the Virgin Mary and how her spiritual experiences were regarded by the authorities of the time. In a revolutionary (and at the time heretical) direct personal address to God, she requested that the Holy Spirit she heard like thunder in her right ear be changed to something more homely, merry and English: a robin singing. God obliged! 

 
The idea behind the lyric is that while 'Mystic Margery' and a young modern Lynn shopgirl would probably gape at each other's lives in astonishment, they would both understand and share the experience of love. The moment in the song where the girl falls in love is as much a vision as Margery's.

Now starry angels on the tree
Grow larger in the dusk
To heaven-blue and Eden-green
And gold and reindeer-musk.

And what was heard by Margery,
The Visionary of Lynn,
Rings out on tills for checkout girls
Who hear that robin sing. 

The only gift left on the shelf
That nothing else can rise above
Includes all treasure, lasts forever,
And grows when shared with others: love. 

The Penland Phezants are a combination of Ely folk musician Andy Wall and Waywood, the Sedgeford storytelling duo made up of harpist Vanessa Wood Davies and poet Gareth Calway. They are currently seeking to add further engagements to their Hereward the Wake tour next year, which already includes two nationally acclaimed folk festivals.  The Phezants' Christmas single may be heard via the trio's Bandcamp site, from which listeners can add it to their Christmas playlists or purchase a digital download. https://thepenlandphezants.bandcamp.com

And a little robin also tells us that Margery Kempe's extraordinary story may be coming home to Lynn in 2018, 600 years after she wrote her Book there, with some musical assistance from The Phezants. Watch this space.

The Phezants' next appearance is at Wisbech Library in February, where they will perform "Bread or Blood" the story of the Littleport and Ely Riots of 1816.  (part of the Cambridgeshire Library Presents series) Album sampler here  
Phezant photoshoot by Bhas Allan