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Remembered Today:

Far, Far From Ypres


Len Trim

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Hi all,

just bought this excellent CD. WW1 music etc. with a very strong Scottish slant. All the old favourites; Mademsoiselle from Armentieres, Tipperary, Bombed Last Night etc. but also modern folk songs such as The green Fields of France and The Band Played Waltzing Matilda. CD also contains Scottish bagpipe music Blue Bonnets etc. Superb.

Produced by Greentrax recording Ltd. CDTRAX 1418.

Len

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  • 1 year later...
Hi all,

just bought this excellent CD. WW1 music etc. with a very strong Scottish slant. All the old favourites; Mademsoiselle from Armentieres, Tipperary, Bombed Last Night etc. but also modern folk songs such as The green Fields of France and The Band Played Waltzing Matilda. CD also contains Scottish bagpipe music Blue Bonnets etc. Superb.

Produced by Greentrax recording Ltd. CDTRAX 1418.

Len

Got this for Christmas - I like it alot!

I was a bit disappointed that some of the songs were cleaned up/prettied up but was grateful last week when I got a report from my 4 year old's daycare that he was word perfect at "Mademoiselle from Armentieres"!

Actually have it on as I type!

Chris

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Excellent CD as you say - and the odd lesser known tune as well such as the Last Long Mile.

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  • 5 years later...

Greentrax's Far, Far From Ypres CD was used as the basis for a stage show in 2012 as part of Glasgow's Celtic Connections and that has been reprised several times since to great reviews. I have yet to see it myself.

See here: http://www.greentrax.com/news/article/far-far-from-ypres-stage-show

Snippets are available on YouTube - e.g. ...

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as well as the cast singing Eric Bogle's No Man's Land/The Green Fields of France ... but I'll post that in one of the threads on that specific song.

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 2 years later...

Pals,

I see from the Greentrax Newsletter that reached me today that the Ian McCalman Far, Far From Ypres stage show will be touring again later this year.

 

Dates so far ...

  • Sunday 5th August - Victoria Halls, Selkirk
  • Thursday 9th August - His Majesty’s Theatre, Aberdeen
  • Wednesday 29th August - Corran Halls, Oban
  • Friday 31st August - Aros Centre, Portree, Skye
  • Saturday 1st September - Village Hall, Ullapool
  • Sunday 7th October - Whitehall Theatre, Dundee
  • Sunday 14th October - Albert Halls, Stirling
  • Sunday 21th October - Eden Court Theatre, Inverness
  • Sunday 28th October - Theatre Royal, Dumfries
  • Sunday 11th November - Usher Hall, Edinburgh

See here for more details:

https://www.greentrax.com/news/article/far-far-from-ypres-stage-show

 

Mark

 

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I have the CD - much recommended :)

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Well this has brought back some pleasant memories.

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I'm hoping to catch the show in Oban, but the Remembrance Day slot at the Usher Hall on the 100th Anniversary of the Armistice will be quite a powerful experience ... very tempting.

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  • 2 months later...

I see from their Newsletter that Greentrax are running a special offer on the Far, Far From Ypres CD bundled with one of their compilation samplers.

 

https://www.greentrax.com/music/product/5cd-offer-for-20

 

 

Limited Time Offer - buy both albums together for £20 (includes UK postage and packing).

Scotland, The Music And The Song (A 20 Year Profile Of Greentrax)

The 59 tracks for this 3CD compilation have been carefully selected by Greentrax MD Ian Green from over 300 albums, showcasing the remarkable Greentrax Recordings catalogue of Scottish traditional music.

Far, Far From Ypres - Songs, Poems & Music Of World War One

A Double CD tribute to all the soldiers from Scotland, England, Ireland and Wales, and also their Commonwealth brothers in arms from all corners of the globe, who fought and suffered together in the Great War and, in particular, all those who died.

 

 

The Greentrax info on the Great War CD - note especially the section I've highlighted in bold red ...

 

Quote

55 tracks

CD1: Your King and Country Need You (Spoken Word - Iain Anderson) * Your King and Country Need You (Song - The Scottish Pals Singers) * Regimental Tunes (The Army School of Piping and Highland Drumming) * The Last Mile Home * It’s a Long Way To Tipperary * Mademoiselle From Armentieres * Fred Karno’s Army * We’re Here * Living in a Trench * Raining * Minor Worries * If The Sergeant Steals Your Rum * Oh! It’s a Lovely War * Hush! Here Comes The Whizz-bang * Bombed Last Night * Gassed Last Night * Fritz Boy * Forward Joe Soap’s Army * Pack Up Your Troubles * Whiter Than Whitewash * Far, Far From Wipers I Long To Be * Take Me Back to Dear Old Blighty * I’ll Make a Man of You * I Wore a Tunic * Goodbye * When this Bloody War is Over * I Don’t Want to be a Soldier * I Want to go Home * The Old Battalion * The Bells of Hell * It’s a Long Way to Tipperary * Keep The Home Fires Burning * Sister Suzie Sewing Shirts For Soldiers * The Only Girl in The World * Roses of Peccary (All The Scottish Pals Singers) * Keep Right on to The End of The Road (Harry Lauder) * The Flowers of The Forest (Corporal Neil McNaughton) * The Last Post (John Samson).

CD2: The Bloody Fields of Flanders Set (The Army School of Piping and Highland Drumming) * In Flanders Fields (Poem - Iain Anderson) * The Green Fields of France / No Man’s Land / Willie McBride (The Corries) * Jimmy’s Gone Tae Flanders (Jim Malcolm) * Black is The Sun (Stevie Palmer) * Mothers, Daughters, Wives (The McCalmans) * Geordie McCrae (Robin Laing) * And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda (Eric Bogle) * In Memorium (Poem - Iain Anderson) * An Eala Bhan (Roddy MacLeod) * Halloween (Sheena Wellington and Karine Polwart) * Why Old Men Cry (Dick Gaughan) * As If He Knows (Eric Bogle) * Jimmy Waddell / Battle of The Somme (Malinky) * Letters From Wilfred (Alan Bell) * Only Remembered (The McCalmans) * Cha Till MacCruemen (Poem - Iain Anderson) / MacCrimmon’s Lament (Heather Heywood) / MacCrimmon’s Sweeheart (Dougie Pincock).

 

Special Offer - buy this album together with Scotland, The Music And The Song (A 20 Year Profile Of Greentrax) for £20.

 

In 2018, Greentrax Recordings are re-launching this critically-acclaimed, best-selling album. This unique project was undertaken by Greentrax in 2009 and the album was released to wide critical acclaim. It is a double CD for the price of one and for the past three years it has consistently outsold all other Greentrax albums.

 

The album is a tribute to all the soldiers from Scotland, England, Ireland and Wales, and also their Commonwealth brothers in arms from all corners of the globe, who fought and suffered together in the Great War and, in particular, all those who died.

 

Read more about the Far, Far From Ypres stage show tour in 2018 which has already been presented several times at Celtic Connections, Glasgow and The Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh. The album has been one of the top-selling titles on the Celtic Connections record stall.

 


 

The album has a more Scottish perspective than any of its predecessors but when one considers that Scotland suffered the most soldiers killed, per head of population, of any nation that fought in the conflict, such an album was greatly overdue. It is also doubtful if the songs, poems and music of WW1 have ever before been covered in such depth.

 

This project was first suggested to Ian Green of Greentrax Recordings in 2004 by Des Brogan, Managing Director of Mercat Tours International, who specialise in tours of both WW1 and WW2 cemeteries and battlefields. Jim Paris, who also contributed, is a Mercat Tours Battlefield Guide. Ian, who had read many books on both WW1 and WW2, was interested but regrettably the lack of financial resources at that time caused it to be placed on the ‘back-burner’. In 2007, however, Des Brogan invited Ian and his wife June on one of Mercat’s WW1 coach tours of France and Belgium. June was also finally able to fulfil a life-long desire to visit the graveyard of her Grandfather McLennan, in one of the many beautifully maintained War Cemeteries.

 

The WW1 Cemeteries & Battlefields Tour is a moving experience and it had a profound effect on Ian, as it does with most visitors. Such a visit is highly recommended. The scale of slaughter becomes very real when you are confronted with huge war cemeteries around every corner, plus large monuments containing thousands upon thousands of names of young men whose bodies were never recovered. The words lest we forget and we will remember them take on a new meaning. Ironically, WW1 was described as “the war to end all wars”!

 

CD1 consists of the soldiers’ marching and trench songs, music hall favourites of the time, a Harry Lauder track, a pipe band track consisting of tunes associated with Scottish regiments, the poignant Flooers o’ The Forest and The Last Post. Twenty-seven soldiers’ songs and six music hall songs were recorded and produced by Ian McCalman at Kevock Digital Studio - and what better a choice could have been made than someone who has been a professional singer most of his life and one of the internationally acclaimed McCalmans folk group, since disbanded. Ian was immediately excited by the project and totally immersed himself in it. His contribution to CD1 is immeasurable. The Scottish Pals Singers, as we named them for CD1, are Fiona Forbes (Sangsters), Ian Bruce, Tich Frier, Hamish Bayne and the then current McCalmans lineup of Ian, Stephen Quigg and the late Nick Keir. Much of the instrumental work is by Martin Allcock but Ian McCalman, Hamish Bayne and Nick Keir all contributed. Magnificent work by all concerned.

 

CD2 comprises a pipe band track of tunes named after some of the major battles of WW1, songs written about WW1, or strongly connected with that war, by such amazing songwriters as Judy Small, Alan Bell, Eric Bogle, Dick Gaughan, Jim Malcolm, and the late Davy Steele. Some of the writers perform their own songs on the album but there are also contributions from The Corries, The McCalmans, Malinky, Sheena Wellington and Karine Polwart, Robin Laing and Gaelic singer Donny MacLeod. There is also a chilling contribution from a young Scottish songwriter Steven Palmer, who later recorded a solo album for Greentrax called Heartprint Shadow. The BBC Radio Scotland presenter Iain Anderson reads three poems and acts as narrator on stage which he does brilliantly. Greentrax is greatly indebted to all the artists on this album. The songs and music for CD2 were selected and compiled by Ian Green.

 

The pipers and drummers on both CDs are from The Army School of Bagpipe Music and Highland Drumming, by kind permission of Lieutenant Colonel James Robinson, Commanding Officer, Infantry Training Centre, Catterick. Thanks to Captain Stephen Small, Director of Army Bagpipe Music, Edinburgh, for his excellent co-operation and for arranging the music. The solo piper on CD1 is Corporal Neil McNaughton, also from the Army School. The Last Post on CD1 is played on the bugle by the fine jazz and classical musician John Samson.

 

The poem In Memoriam (included on the album) by Lt E Alan Mackintosh MC (1893-1917) and other poems by this poet of the Highland Division can be found in Can’t Shoot A Man With A Cold by Colin Campbell and Rosalind Green, published by Argyll Publishing - email info@argyllpublishing.co.uk

 

The informative sleeve notes are by Des Brogan, Jim Paris and Ian Green. Greentrax will be forever grateful to Des and Jim for suggesting this extremely worthwhile project and for their enthusiasm, tireless help and advice right through to its conclusion. The outstanding artwork is by John Slavin of DesignFolk. The more recent recordings are by Kevock Digital Studio, Watercolour Studios, Bees Knees Media and Pier House Studios. Mastering is by Peter Haigh, Pier House Studios.

 

This project was a labour of love by Ian McCalman and Ian Green who are deeply proud of what has been achieved on this double CD and by the stage show. The album is now a Greentrax best-seller.

 

[Comment by Mark - this next section was news to me: remarkable, and likely to be of interest to the Pals here.  Does anyone have further info on John Hastings?  51st Highlanders is rather unspecific:  I assume it means Hastings was in the 51st (Highland) Division, which gives rather a large pool of battalions to find him in ... and is also at odds with the 1914 Xmas Truce]

 

In a remarkable development, a copy of the CD ended up in the hands of a family in Australia where a 92 year old lady, recognised her father, John Hastings, as one of the soldiers on the front cover. John Hastings, who was born in Glasgow, was in the 51st Highlanders during WW1. He fought in France and experienced the Christmas truce – when the soldiers came out of their trenches all along the line and shared drinks, food and photos of family with the enemy – as depicted in a recent film Joyeux Noel. John shared many of his memories with his family, telling them of life in the trenches. Not all soldiers were able to speak about their experiences and this connection with John’s family gives us a rare living link through folk memory back to the trenches of WW1.

 

The memories clearly live on and as a result of the CD and the stage show, we expect more stories to unfold.

 

 

Details of the other CD in this special offer are here:

https://www.greentrax.com/music/product/scotland-music-song-profile-greentrax

 

 

Cheers,

Mark

 

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  • 3 years later...

I have just been browsing https://musicscotland.com and see that a DVD of the multimedia/stage show is now available. As mentioned previously, I have the CD, but I fancy having the DVD as well, so am about to order it. 

https://musicscotland.com/collections/dvds/products/far-far-from-ypres-the-concert is the link - and it might be worth adding SPE10 to the discount box on checkout, in case you can get the discount they are offering me at the moment.

sJ

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