HMS Conway 1859 - 1974 © Alfie Windsor 1998 |
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First Conway Song (A Conway Carol) The Conway's The Pride Of The Blue Funnel Fleet Although not a Conway song the hullabaloo was performed before all rugby matches. The team would form a circle, link arms around each others' shoulders and belt out the Hullaballoo. It is now also chanted after the Conway Song at Club dinners and other Club gatherings. Its origins are unknown.
Hullabaloo! Hullabaloo! Hullabaloo! Ba La! Conway! Conway! Rah! Rah! Rah! (alternatively Hurrah! Hurrah! Hurrah!) Pieces of eight, Pieces of eight, Pieces of nine and ten, We'll cut the throats of everyman And sew them up again.
Chanted in unison, Fortissimo!
This chant was used to co-ordinate any heavy lifting or pulling work where a number of cadets had to work togther hauling on a rope. It originates from the days of wooden wall sailing ships and cannon. Every cannon was manned by a gun crew. Each member had a number and specific role in the logical stages of preparting and firing a cannon. Numbers two and six were apparently responsible for finally hauling the loaded gun out.
The First Conway Song - A Conway Carol This was published in the Cadet magazine in 1898. It was titled 'A Conway Carol" .
I do not know when the second song was introduced. The words were published in the Cadet magazine in April 1913 and the music in the April 1915 edition.
The Third (& Last) Conway Song In 1918 for reasons not explained the second song was no longer sung. The Cadet magazine reported that several attempts had been made to create a new song but that these had all faltered. John Masefield apparently wrote a set of words but these were not used. They may be the words for the second song reproduced above. Mr Cecil Roberts (Literary Editor at the Liverpool Post and a well kown author) visited the Ship in 1916 to read his Sea Ballads and was invited to write a new Conway song. He produced the words three day later but did not feel up to the job of setting them to music. He invited Miss Muriel Herbert to do this and her efforts were judged by the Cadet magazine to be "... beyond praise ... it voices the very spirit of the sea ... its rollicking lilt and crashing chords carry all before them". On 1st December 1916 she and Roberts visited the Ship and she sang the song to the staff and cadets. They obviously liked it as she "received an ovation". The third song was sung until the closure and is still "sung" today at gatherings of OCs. The words are below: The sheet music for the second song is on the following pages:
When I managed to get hold of a copy of the music I obviously needed to get the publisher's permission before I could add it to the web site. I thought finding them might be a difficult task but it turned out to be simple Directory Enquiries gave me the number in seconds - they are still based in Stockport as advertised on the sheet music! I rang them expecting a laborious discussion while I tried to explain about this probably long forgotten piece of music. I got straight through to the owner. After a few moments of rambling on by me he politely intervened to say that not only did he know of the Conway song, he was an OC! And his father (the previous owner) was an OC too. He was pleased to give us permission to add it to the site. So if you would like a copy please do not print off our rather poor copy, contact the publishers and buy one! The music is published by James Smith & Son of Southport, telephone number 01704 579852. The Friends Of The Conway publish a cassette with two versions of the second song, one by a military band and one sung by a male voice choir. See Items For Sale.
The Pride Of the Blue Funnel Fleet There were various unoffical
Conway songs. One, current around 1947-49 went as follows (this version
has been 'cleaned up" somewhat!
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Page Last Modified (D/M/Y): 24/7/07 |