{"id":3483,"date":"2020-06-07T16:46:44","date_gmt":"2020-06-07T16:46:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/?page_id=3483"},"modified":"2020-12-11T17:36:12","modified_gmt":"2020-12-11T17:36:12","slug":"wire-in-my-lads","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/index.php\/wire-in-my-lads\/","title":{"rendered":"Wire in, my lads"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
AKA<\/strong><\/td>You’ll live as long as I
The oldest inhabitant<\/td><\/tr>
First published<\/td>1906<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Lyrics<\/strong><\/td>Will Godwin<\/td>Music<\/strong><\/td> Fred Leigh<\/td>Roud<\/strong><\/td>21960<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Music Hall performers<\/strong><\/td>George Bastow<\/strong> (1871-1914)<\/td><\/tr>
Folk performances<\/strong><\/td>Source singers<\/strong>
Unidentified male, 1960, Sussex England
Charlie Cutmore,1964\/65 , Suffolk, England
Cyrill Phillips, 1966, Sussex, England
Jack Sykes, 1969, Yorkshire, England<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
A man's too old at forty, so the papers they be statin'\nWhat kind of person is he, then, the year he's eighty eight in?\n'Cos that's the age Oi am today, and still Oi don't feel done\nSo if you want to say the same, then my advice to everyone, is\n\n'Wire in, my lads, keep on livin' till ye doie\nIf ye keep on livin' long enough, ye'll live as long as Oi\nWire in, my lads, keep on livin' till ye doie\nIf ye keep on livin' long enough, ye'll live as long as Oi.'<\/em>\n\nOi've always loved the ladies, a fact Oi wouldn't smother\nI've had three wives, not all at once, but one behind the other\nThe more you know of wummin folk the more you'll find it true\nThe more you make a fus of them the more they'll make a fuss of you, so\n\nWire in, my lads, but remember from the start\nIf you make a fuss of two at once, whoi keep them both apart\nWire in, my lads, but remember from the start\nIf you make a fuss of two at once, whoi keep them both apart\n<\/em>\nIt often makes Oi chuckle when I sees young couples courtin'\nFor courtin' is a funny game, and one there's lots of sport in\nYou chaps as doesn't know what its loike, I'll tell 'ee what to do\nJust take my tip, and take a stroll, and take some nice young gal with you,\n\nWire in, my lads, and if she says, 'Leave off, John.'\nDon't 'ee take no notice, lads, but keep on keepin' on\nWire in, my lads, and if she says, 'Leave off, John.'\nDon't 'ee take no notice, lads, but keep on keepin' on<\/em>\n\nTo see your family growin' up, Oi'd like to know what's nicer\nWell, Oi've got nineteen kids myself, the last one was a 'twicer'\nWhen all the lads heard Oi'd got twins, the jokes began to floy\nSays Oi,'That's roight! Say what ye loike, 'Cos I don't mind ye chaff'\nsays Oi. So,\n\nWire in, my lads, twins won't never upset me\nAnd if my old wumman don't object, the next one shall be three\nWire in, my lads, twins won't never upset me\nAnd if my old wumman don't object, the next one shall be three<\/em>\n\nThe last toime I got married, a noice trick someone played us\nOutside the church, the village lads they cheered us and hoorayed us\nI knew theyed all got bags of roice, for someone told me so\nAnd as Oi passed along, Oi said, 'Oi don't care how much roice you throw.'\nSo,\n\nWire in, my lads, but Oi tell 'ee I got woild\nWell, I must have looked a picture for, the roice had all been biled\nWire in, my lads, but Oi tell 'ee I got woild\nWell, I must have looked a picture for, the roice had all been biled<\/em>\n \n \nN.B. Wire in<\/strong> - a shout of encouragement, usually in sport.<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
An early 20th century Music Hall number, still widely sung in the south-east of England a hundred years later. It features on the CD Comic songs of the Stour Valley<\/em>, which celebrates the songs sung in Suffolk pubs in the mid-1960s, as collected by Neil Lanham.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Searching the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library indicates that it’s been collected from three different source singers in the 1960s, so by my definition, at the moment it’s a “folksong which came from the Halls”. A further root about indicates it was collected by Steve Gardham from the singing of Jack Sykes in Hull in the late 1960s, available in the British library Sound archive<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was sung in the Halls by\u00a0George Bastow<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 one of a number of songs in which he lampooned country folk \u2013 his \u201cFarmer Giles\u201d songs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Wire in”is apparently something that 19th-century people would shout to encourage further efforts from sportsmen…<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Sources:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n