Norcsalordie & Jankie Fardal play together for the last number 22nd March 2008
What a great night out, Nether Stowey village hall was definitely rockin' on Good Friday. There were no problems with encores, the bands would have happily played on past midnight - if we'd let them! But, sadly, licensing regulations had to be adhered to. The Battle, for the title of 'Liveliest Folk Band in The Quantocks', was a real winner.
Quantock Online (that's Teresa and me), organised the event for two reasons: firstly because we thought it would be a fun evening and secondly to raise money towards the Nether Stowey May celebration weekend.
Martin Neal and Paul McHugh of Norcsalordie
Well, it certainly was fun - and we raised £250 towards the May weekend. Nether Stowey twinning association ran a raffle at the gig, raising about another £80.
The idea for the 'Battle' came about following a joke comment in an e-mail we received. Whilst submitting another entry for the diary page of this site Martin Neal noted:
"I see we have competition - on January 26 Jankie Fardal describes his act as 'The liveliest folk music you will ever see in the Quantocks' - that's fighting talk - we'll have to have a shoot out !"
Jankie Fardal
Well, that put us into organisation mode and the next thing Martin knew was that we were offering a choice of dates. Looking at the above comment, I'm not sure Martin realised then that Jankie Fardal usually has a minimum of six members of the group playing. Although Norcsalordie play regularly in the Quantocks they actually come from Leicester, whereas the members of Jankie Fardal are all local - would this prove to be an additional handicap? There was plenty of light hearted pre-fight banter both by e-mail and even over the air-waves.
The evening was divided into two halves with judging, by three people who had heard neither group, taking place in the second half. At the start Norcsalordie won a toss of the coin and put the opposition in to bat first. The first half most certainly achieved its objective of warming the audience up and dancing commenced almost immediately. Always a good sign. After one set each there was a short interval.
For the second half the bands really went for it - the joint was jumpin'. Two sets each and the judges handed in their verdicts. Little did the bands know that they were playing for a magnificent trophy - hand carved in stone and kindly donated by local artist Peter Gambier. The final scores were Norcsalordie 76 points, Jankie Fardal
78.5 points. Well done Jankie!
The bands enjoyed it so much that it looks as if they're going to set up a re-match in Leicester. Watch this space, we may even organise a coach trip!
