The Pump House & The Queens Hotel.

Sweyn’s Ey visited The Pump House in Swansea Marina and then moved on to The Queens in Gloucester Place on Thursday evening. Once again a few of our regular, reliable members were busy elsewhere but we still managed to field 8 dancers (Alex D, Alex H, Claire, Erin, Geoff, Keith, Margaret and Nige). Siân and Kev provided the music. One of the benefits of having a bigger membership is that we can still get a side together for our Thursday dance-outs even when people are away on holiday.

It was a very hot evening and there were plenty of people sat outside the Pump House and folk strolling around the marina who seemed to appreciate our efforts.  It was good to see Alex H back from his trip away in the heat, I don’t suppose he found it as uncomfortable as the rest of us. We left our new collection tin conveniently placed by the Dylan Thomas statue, not sure if this encouraged or discouraged contributions! 

We danced Balance The Straw, Banbury Bill, Postman’s Knock, Valentines, Beaux of London City (Badby), Vandals and The Curly Boar. We stopped for re-hydration frequently and several onlookers took the opportunity to ask us what we were up to, Keith told them.

We moved on to The Queen’s Hotel where an enthusiastic crowd of customers (and passers-by) enjoyed our dancing in the street. More vehicles than any of us can remember stopped and waited for our dancing to finish before driving on (with one exception who squeezed past). We danced Banks of The Lea, Rose Tree, Grenadiers, Sweet Jenny Jones, Greensleeves, Lads A Bunchum and Bonny Green Garters. We now have a new type of hey in our repertoire, courtesy of Erin; hope we’re able to repeat it. We managed to perform both of our ”fishy, fishy, clack” dances this evening. Geoff was keen for us to carry on and move to Wind Street. There wasn’t quite enough support for this from a hot and tired side so we had another pint in The Queens and headed for home.
Write up by Nigel, pics by Claire.