Elastic Band Mouse image from www.dynamicdrive.com

Chris Hamblin, Bruce Vaughan & Andrew McClymont:July 2002
play at a wedding on a farm near Glendale

This page gives details about Zimbabwe's only Celtic Music Band The Elastic Band founded in Harare by Chris Hamblin in 1990 who relocated to UK in 2002.

Email for further information

Bungee Jump May '98

A proposed CD cover....one rehearsal the Band was considering a group Victoria Falls Bridge Bungee Jump...! said to be the longest Bungee in the world. Brendan Mckenna who was the Bodhran player until he went to study in Cape Town has actually done it, the rest of us were glad to leave it at that! (Well done that Bodhran Player! )

Bodhran Info
http://www.ceolas.org/instruments/bodhran/

ELASTIC BAND REPERTORY SETS 2001
This is the current state of the band's 'aural' memory, we specialise in live music nothing has ever been published by Elastic Band as a recording, the band has had some 50 ex members over the years, most of whom have returned to home abroad, such is life in Zimbabwe!. The repertory reflects a changing and developing list of tunes enjoyed, many remind us of players who we have enjoyed playing with while they were in Zimbabwe. (In August 2002 Chris Hamblin relocated to UK, but Elastic Band carried on with Bruce Vaughan, Andrew McClymont, David Orpen and other musicians).

Current show set (prepared Feb 2000) Medley 30 mins
Improv on E drone/Finlays Gold W (Teri Rasmusson '86)/Curvy Road to Corinth
R /Road to Trempealeau R (Larry Unger '89)/ Marbna Luimni (Slow Air -
Limerick Lament)/ Corodinio R (Portugese)/Flamenco outburst by Paul Roditi/ Fiddle
Fanfare & 2 Jigs from Northern Spain** (from Kevin Carr)/ Cavan Potholes R /
ending set depending on venue/audience.
      "The Full Monty" (...a joke in 1998..!!): Medley 30mins
Sean Mckennas 1 & 2/ Morning Dew R/ Pinch of Snuff R /Hey Jude (Slow Air,
Hornpipe, Reel & ending like DeDanann) /Bodhran solo (optional?)/ Wise Maid
R /Mcleods R /Boys of Malin R /Gravel Walks R (with split octaves)/Lark In
The Morning /Rakish Paddy/ Foxhunters/ Toss the Feathers
(ie Fairport setting)
      Special Sets
Hey Jude (based on the DeDannan Version)
The Bear's Dance 1 & 2 (Flemish)/Horse's Branle (Brawl Mediaeval UK)
Music for a Swedish Masquerade (Stately-walk Waltz & Polka set)
"Freylock" (Klezmer) / Mominsko Horo (Bulgarian)
Mazurkas 1 - 5
A Breton Wedding March
Brian Boru's March
      Planxty's
Princess Royal /Morgan Magan / O'Carolans Concerto
Give Us Your Hand
Lord Inchiquin,
Hewletts,
Limerick Lamentation
Lord Massereene

      Reels
Sean Mckennas 1 & 2/ Morning Dew R/ Pinch of Snuff
Wise Maid R /Mcleods R /Boys of Malin R /Gravel Walks R (with split octaves)
Sally Gardens / Silver Spear / Sligo Maid
The Wood Choppers / Reel Du Voyagers QBC
Trip To Durrow / St Annes/High Reel
Masons' Apron / Jacky Daly's
Christmas Eve / Ships Are Sailing
Paddy Faheys 1 & 2/ Bobby Casey's or sometimes Star of Munster
Sean Sa Ceo / Sailing To Walpole's Marsh
Tarbolton /Longford Collector /Sailor's Bonnet

'Wild Cards'
O'Dowds Favourite (Gm)
Tune for A Found Harmonium
Lads O' Laoise
Rakish Paddy
Toss the Feathers
Jenny's Chickens (a tune that gets in somewhere, when nobody expects it! "nobody expects Jenny's Chickens" !)
      Jigs
Jig Of Slurs/Irish Washerwoman/Athol Highlanders ** (Very nice set!)
Tar Road Sligo (to S. Gokwe)/Whelan's/Tripit Upstairs
Kesh / Paddy Clancy's / Colman's Cross /Patsy Geary's
Spanish Mishfortune /The Blarney Pilgrim (48 Bar)
Lark In The Morning
     Slip Jigs
Butterfly/Kid On the Mountain
Foxhunters
     Slides
Merrily Kiss the Quaker (we do this first in 7/8 then 12/8 try it its fun!)
/ Behind the Haystack (48 Bar)
Catherine Foley's / John Kelly's /Katerine Hehirs / Dan O'Keefe's /
Connie Walshes /Dingle Regatta** /Denis Murphys
      Hornpipes
Rights of Man/Little Stack of Barley/Chief O'Niells
The Flowing Tide/The Sweep's (it's that triplety one!) /Plains of Boyle
Boys of Bluehill / Harvist Home
Walshes / The Little Stack of Wheat
Captain Pugwash (Trumpet) / Beilbeys
      Polkas
Bally Desmond / Egan's / Bill Sulivans / Sweeney's / John Ryan's / Rose Tree
Seneca Square Dance (Fed's are coming or Choice Wife)
La Bastrinque QBC/ Auvernge Polka No 1 / 2 / 3
    Scots
Da Slockit Light (Tom Anderson Slow Air "locally known as "Old Boring"!)
Spooter's Kerry, Da Wunda Fjord.
Locaber No More (Lament) /Stirling Castle Strath /Ms Ramsey R(complicated
pathway of 3 parts!)
Dargai (Pibroch on Violin) / Cameroon Highlanders / Devil Amang the Tailors
Hector the Hero / Laird O' Drumblair
      UK
Steamboat / Petronella R
Cheviot Rant/ Hesleyside Reel R
Jack Robinson / All a Siden R
Soldiers Joy/Jacob or Enrico's R
An Old English Tune (odd one :: A music has 13 bars !)/ Portsmouth H
Oswestry Wakes (C17th)/ The Royal Albert Jigs (48 bar)
      Waltzes
Jacquelines Waltz (T. Anderson duet)
Some from The Waltz Books:published by Bill Matthieson
Elephant Hotel / Crossing to Ireland
Amelia / Ashokan Farwell
April / Franconian
Nancy's / Far Away
South Wind / She Beg & She Mor
      Ending Set
Morrison's Jig / Drowsy Maggie (After which we play no more ! and this sometimes played as fast as it can go to really do the Bodhran player in ! ! ! )

** tunes so marked feature a jumping (obligato) for all players. Always good
for a laugh !

SONGS
Chris Hamblin:
Killkelly Ireland in 1860 (A long song interspersed with tunes)
Paddy's Green Shamrock Shore
The King of Rome (about a pidgeon race)
Ant and the Grasshopper (Leon Rosselson)

Songs with choreography by Viv Hamblin
The Deserter (from Fairport Convention) (The hero is shot in Verse 3)
Hard Luck Stories (Richard Thompson)
March of Progress (set of songs from Nuclear Power No Thanks !
Hippo, Ostrich & Lemmings, Out of the Darkness and others)
 

     Paul Roditi:
I wish I were Back Home in Derry!
Ride On!
Burning Times!

ELASTIC BAND MASCOTS

Mathilda :: an Elastic Band Mascot 1995 - 2001

Tony :: a recent addition, followed Andrew home from a craft fair !

Return to the top