“And You’ll Find The Rest Is Diddled..” by Jennifer Reid

Please note: This audio contains strong language throughout.

“Ee I came here to Hamble,
Chancing on a ramble,
A fine country song I did seek to inspire.
When chancing on the park,
Afore it got dark,
The songs poured forth from me like an internal choir.
This beautiful scenery,
This charming greenery,
Did fill up my heart with a beautiful glow.
And I muttered by gosh,
Is that a dog wash?
You don’t get that in parks in the North don’t you know”

I specialise in Lancashire dialect and I’ve developed a bit of an accidental method for collecting songs that can be mirrored across all the counties of England and, I suppose, beyond.

Trying to get a handle on Hamble was fun, I improvised - listening to the women gossiping in the slow lane of the pool at the sports centre - and stumbled upon a hyper-specific local history society on the high street. I ended up at the University looking at their collections and doing such digging keeps the mind bright. It allows me to see what Lancashire has and map out the whole UK’s folk offerings whilst also appreciating the Hampshire songs in front of me. Themes I expected came up, such as Navy ballads, and others surprised me, which you’ll hear across the artwork I’ve produced and the recordings I’ve done. It all kind of fell into place around me.

Then, at the sailing club, I met with a couple of legends of the local folk dancing scene and even invited to one of their homes for a proper do. From our very local starting points we found places to cross over: me clogging to some tunes, she percussively and intuitively stepping to old Hampshire songs. I found that the area has an experimental tradition that pulls on many heritage laden strands and my crash course introduction to diddling (filling the gaps in the lyrics with nonsense or unintelligible wisdom) was so refreshing.