Uncle Joe's

Just heard a rhyme I've never heard before:-

Uncle Joe's mint balls keep you all aglow
Give them to your granny and watch the bugger go.
Away with coughs and sneezes and keep a few in hand
Suck em and see you'll agree there the best in all the land.

And the lady whose told me is not even a Wigganer.

It's ancient.

Mike Harding.

I knew someone on here would know.

link

Thanks priscus I've just listened to it on YouTube.

Houghton Weavers sing it too on YouTube.

well here's another for thee

Rathbones bread,
tastes like lead
if you eat it
you drop dead,

its made from flour
and no bloody wonder
if you have two slices
you fart like thunder

Tom

Do you recall the:

"Jimmy Gillet sells fish.........." song?

Remember local group named Pepper Used to sing it.

no I never herd of that I found this though on google
jimmy gillets song in the comments below

I remember Allan.

It is so long ago.

Cannot name the year when last I saw him, but I KNOW IT WAS BEFORE I WAS OLD ENOUGH TO BEGIN SCHOOL!

One of these days, I will get around to writing a song about FinnyAddy Row. I'am sure, tom, you could beat me to it if you are so minded, but do go ahead as I am sure we would write very different style of song, My thought are along the lines of a Ballad, something like Roy Orbison style.

ok I accept the challenge, songs of finney addy row at
25 paces,,,,,

Oh, I had intended it to be an invitation, not a challenge.

I do respect and admire the near-spontaneous way you turn a song off the cuff, as it were.

However, my way of working is the polar opposite. It is a process which takes months.

I need to write the words, first as a poem, and then polish them. Forget about them. Return to them with a fresh eye- breakout of tram-line thinking, and re-asses them. Experiment with complete re-formulations: challenge my pre-occupation with whatever I may regard as precious, and see how it runs without that feature etc etc. Sometime I have fifty or so versions, and still years later will modify what I have written if it is warranted.

As for the music, I have to let myself unconsciously experiment with snatches of melody, initially not caring too much if they fit, but experiencing the congruence (or lack thereof) with the verbal content. I often like to do the ISIHAC trick and sing to an existing melody which I know will not fit. It is like some complex multi-dimensional puzzle, and I am seeking an outcome wherein the shape fulfils a number of criteria. But does so with aesthetic elegance, and is able to deliver an emotional payload where the whole is more than the sum of the parts.

It takes Time.

Ok, we'll forget challenge, more of 2 different approaches to make a song/poem about the same place and how it got its name, BTW, Billy Cross who had the Golden Ball at the bottom of rag brew also bought finny Addy from Jimmy gillet and the pub stunk to high heaven on a Friday night

I can.t prove this but years ago when talking with a few old people Uncle joe's mint balls came up, for no other reasons than this women knew the Seddon family that lived in a house in Bryn road South that had a confectionery shop just on Bolton Road, their daughter Ellen made suets in the house kitchen for sale in the shop the mint balls was one of them, (Not called Uncle Joe's then) she latter married a William Santus from Wigan already a suet maker by trade it was him that gave them the name of Uncle Joe's but the first place they were made and sold was in Ashton-in-Makerfield

tom,

When I worked, performing, I would do quick compositions to suit the needs of the moment. However, I always would do them by adding my words to existing tunes. (My accompanist was a very proficient Dobro player)

So, for example, would take a line such as:

In a neat little town they call Belfast....

And morph my words to the melody instead, such as:

At the top of a hill they call Rag Brew ......

My 'quick and dirty" production line, enabled me to, churn out shed-loads of new stuff every week. However, as soon as the pressure to produce stuff like that ebbed, and I now only have to produce a song for my own satisfaction, the desire for the music as well as the words to be my creation leaves me working the way that I have described.

I have a similar tune in mind, but blues/boogie woogie
blueberry hill by fats domino,

there was a row on top of rose hill
where people would dart
to buy fish off jimmy's cart,

At the top of a hill they call Rag Brew
The smell of fish did abound
Every week on a Friday Night
When Jimmy had just done his round.

or, another obvious possibility

He was a fishmonger
back when I whur younger
who plied his trade in an al fresco mode
Finny haddock, he carried
Folk queued where he tarried
And on Eddleston Street he would stop
And t wurn't 'Singing Hinney'
But freshly fried Finney
that scented oer t road
and our shop.

I like them both,, With me it either comes together straight away or it does't come at all, I keep chopping and changing but, up to now its at this stage,

to the tune of blueberry hill

there was a place,on top of rag brew
which people would know
as finny addy row

on friday night
Jimmy gillit would call
and sell them fresh fish
from the fishmarket hall

then the bridge/middle eight( wlnd in the willows bit)

they'd make quite a smell
rose hill was like hell
people crossing the street
there was nowhere to retreat

back to first verse,

I'll take it in the studio later in the week, the single will be released for Christmas

Nice one, tom.

Tell you what though, I don't half wish I had a jimmy Gillet delivering fresh fish these days.

My local Fishmonger ceased trading last year.

I don't mind the couple of miles walk to Large Tesco, in fact usually walk there first thing mornings, to get fresh bread. They too have cut back. Fish counter now only open Wednesday to Saturday! Their trout and suchlike OK, but their cod is from Iceland, and has been frozen. One of these days, when time permits, will get up early, and set out at 4-00am to drive over to Whitby for some fresh North Sea cod. (It had been banned for ages due to stock depletion, but some is again being landed)

To quote from yet another song.

You don't know what you've got till it's gone!

I saw a program recently about fresh fish and the outcome of the program was,
1. frozen fish is fresher tasting than so called 'fresh fish'
2. smelly fish ( off) won't make you ill

conclusion,,,,its not worth getting up early for,

true story this,

A mate of mine went into bryn chippy at lunch time, he got fish n chips, that night he was ill, throwing up, runs and fever, he was off work for a day because of it and went into bryn chippy and complained he'd lost a days work because of his fish, the owner said sorry and paid him £70 compensation,
If that owner had watched the program I saw, he would have said, " nothing to do with my fish mate" ,,,

white fish displaces its food waste though the body, that's why it smells, oily fish like mackeral,sardines,salmon displaces its waste through the skin,

knowledge is power,,

Fresh fish doesn't stink, it is when it starts to go off, that it starts to smell fishy, and Amines; are the culprit

https://nutrition.org/is-fish-smelly/

Fish smelling fishy is fine to eat.

It is when it starts to smell of ammonia, it has really gone off!

Even then, White fish probably will not make you sick, but it will taste really foul. (It's good for the garden though!)

Don't know about other species, but cod that has not been frozen (provided it is cooked the day it is landed) has flavours which are completely absent from that which has been frozen.

I do accept that frozen was probably fresher at time of freezing than what is sold as fresh fish, but I would completely reject, at least as far as cod is concerned, that its flavour is not impaired.

I would say try for yourself, and compare, but getting the stuff is now quite an ordeal.

The Scots East coast fishing ports
Cornwall
Whitby

'odeur poisson' well that's a whole other kettle of fish!

A light hearted comment and it's turned into a great thread, that's what Wigan World is all about.

Finny Addy row, the single Will it be the christmas number one,

Are they new keyboards tom?

Didn't look like what I recall seeing you play, times past.

I've had that one a couple of years I think, I try new stuff out but always go back to yamaha, they are so much better ( sound wise) than other digital keyboards, I keep looking at their upright strung pianos but, the size , weight and constant maintenance is offputting,
What do you have priscus ?

Main instrument is a 'Challen' baby grand piano, but I am about to donate it to a music school. Arthritic fingers: not played now for a few years.

Also have a Yamaha PSR290 keyboards. (about 15 years old now, so NOT latest tech) I normally use for repetitive practice, along with headphones, so as not to impose on others within earshot. Also use it along with computer. (MIDI)

So, I am trying to reconcile myself to my days of playing being over.

I know what you mean arthur has limited me as well, I can no longer bend my fingers enough to play guitar but I can still get away with stomping on the keyboards albeit clumsily But, I can still see,listen , taste , walk talk and drink beer so I'm happy with that,

I'm sad to hear you no-longer play guitar, tom. From your previous communications, I know you had a number of them, and had quite an interest in the instrument.

Did you have a Dobro, or some similar Resonator?

Tom will know what I mean, but for anyone following who does not have the jargon, here is a link.

And, if any fans, here is a performance on Dobro:

click

yes I has resinator guitars and banjos too

here's a brass one

and I had a wooden one too, it was electrified

I loved them all but sadley we had to part company

................