The Hammerman Tour - A Magnificent day out

Looking suitably pleased with themselves, behind their immense statuesque stare of pointless grandeur, are one Alan H and the notable DR Sweeney, posing as men most contented with their pie and first pint of the day on The Hammerman Tour, our Magnificent Day Out when we celebrate local history, culture and geography with a song and tipple or two.

And our very many hats must be doffed to this pair (and a few others) for their care and attention to detail in organizing this year's event, that took in Swindon's fantastic STEAM exhibition and commemoration of all things railway (a definite longer visit required to do it justice), the Glue Pot pub nearby, walks up Liddington Hill and along the Thames (in the encroaching gloaming), South Marston to visit the home and final resting place of Alfred Williams, the Hammerman Poet himself.  

More pictures and recordings to emerge shortly, but for now, here are the blokes in action with their first song of the day in the tunnel under the Railway in the centre of Swindon.

The Hammerman Tour

The Hammerman Tour

And so to this year's Wold Tour.

It has been described by some as "A glorified pub tour interspersed with exercise and culture by means of walks and readings from the works of Alfred Williams, The Hammerman Poet", and they would be bang on the money.

The plan is to start in the Heritage Quarter of Swindon near STEAM then go visiting villages of the Upper Thames with connections with local hero Alfred as the basis for the itinerary.

Along the way there will be much singing, a pie, a spot of lunch, maybe the odd tipple, rounded off by a half decent supper and maybe a bit more of a sing, all intermingled with readings from the Hammerman Poet himself.  It promises to be a day full of surprises and a good deal of culture as we explore the rich industrial history of Swindon's Railway Heritage Quarter and the outlying villages.

Another Magnificent Day out.

Timings merely for guidance and will need adjusting if anyone dawdles. 

Time	What & Where	What we will do
1015 1025	Coach leaves AK Pickup in Cricklade	Opposite Town Hall as usual
1045 1100	Arrive at STEAM, Swindon	Intro to AW.  Sing. Time for short tour. Reading 1.
1200 1215	Walk to Gluepot Inn Railway Village, Swindon. Gather at pub.	Sing in underpass tunnel. Pint and pie at pub.
1245	Pick up coach. Drive to Liddington Hill.	Walk up hill. Sing. Take in Vale of White Horse and Upper Thames views. Reading 2.
1345	Drive to South Marston.	Visit AW Cottage(s) and grave. Sing + reading 3.
1430	Carpenters Arms, South Marston.	Late lunch, sing.
1530	Drive to Coleshill, drop off at start of walk.	Coleshill round walk. Reading 4.
1630-1645	St Andrew’s church, Coleshill.	Sing Georgian pieces.
1715	Radnor Arms, Coleshill	Pint and sing in forge.
1800	Drive to Buscot	Thames path walk to Trout Inn, weather permitting
1900	Trout Inn	Reading 5. Sing.  Food.  Bigger sing.
2100	Leave Trout Inn Coach to Swindon Train Station + Cricklade Town Hall + AK	Drop off those who need to return via train at Swindon Train Station 2120/2130, blocking the road for all others… thence to Cricklade 2150/2200 then AK Arrive AK 2215 ish Non-AK residents will need alternative transport home – taxi? Or beds to fall into

There are still a couple of place left if you fancy coming along, just email us at our email address themagnificentak47@gmail.com and we will see what we can do.

The merry month of May

No one could have quite predicted how brilliant this last month has been for our merry troupe of troubadours, but it has turned out to be pretty much everything we had hoped for when all the planning began many months ago on those dark winter night when "pub talk" becomes at its most fanciful, especially a couple of pints into an evening.

Unless you are completely new to this vessel of BlokeDom you will have no doubt been following our ever increasingly ambitious adventures with every increasing incredulity that a bunch of blokes from North, North Wiltshire could dare to attempt such follies.

True though that be, this is no ordinary bunch of blokes, it is now a cracking singing team (or is that "creaking" in some cases?) that can leap off a 52 seater bus coach and melt the hearts of ladies within earshot at a drop of their many hats.

Tis also true that they sing to horses, both the Shire and White varieties, and do a damn fine job of it in the process.  There are quite a few videos and photos that have yet to be unleashed on the unsuspecting public that will emerge over coming weeks showing great displays of bravado, especially when singing "And I Love Her" to a huge Wadworth's Shire horse

Everywhere we have been this past month we have spread our love for BlokeSong and the way we do it down in the depths of our manly tones.  We have sung on many hill tops overlooking White Horses and wonderful views, we have sung in pubs and melted ladies into puddles of bass-soaked emotions, we have dressed up as Pirates and sung Sea Shanties with some of the best on land or sea.

Reading between these lines you might think that we have had quite a time of it this last month, and you'd be right!

So, here's to the next month's worth of adventures, Headline gig in Bristol, our very own festival BlokeFest, gig at the Roundhouse in London, Latvian Ladies gracing us - another great month ahead, but what a very merry month of May we have had this year.

Where were you when? On The Magnificent Wold Tour

Well, what can we say that hasn't already been muttered during the course of the day and a half that was our very first "Wold Tour"?  An exceptional time was had by all.

Hardly a moment passed during those hours when we weren't either singing, eating, supping ale, singing, walking, posing for daft photos, admiring stupendous view and generally having a brilliant time.

All the fun was organized by a very dedicated team who selflessly checked out every pub and tested every pie that was later consumed by a very grateful gang who boarded the Ellison's bus coach early on Saturday morning.

The first port of call on the trip was the White Horse at Westbury and breath taking view from a breath taking gusty hillside where we knocked out a lusty, wind-swept version of "Concrete" as we gazed over the, er, concrete works below.  After that we were in need of refreshments and took a quick pie and beer stop courtesy of Paul's Pies and The White Horse Brewery's "Village Idiot" (not sure why they thought we might like that particular brew . . . ).

Following that we ventured a few more miles to the town of Devizes and Wadworth's Brewery for a tour around the premises then some beer sampling which was accompanied by entertaining the ladies serving in the bar and the startled visitors to a song or two.  We then continued the tour to visit the impressive sign workshop and we even serenaded one of their Shire Horses with a heartfelt version of "And I love her" - shame it turned out that the horse was actually a bloke!

Undaunted by this we nipped next door to the Brewery for a very hearty meal in The Crown which we would heartily recommend for the quality of the lunch and the speed with which it was brought out for us.

Next we visited the White Horse at Devizes, then on to the White Horse at Cherhill then a quick stop at, er, The White Horse at Compton Bassett to re-create the ancient art of Tug-o-War, thence to, you've guessed it, the Hack Pen White Horse and finally to the final White Horse pub at Winterbourne Bassett for a serenading of unsuspecting ladies and a spot of supper in the midst of a torrential hail storm before heading home to The White Hart (!) and an early bed. 

Anyway, the scores are in

1. The Locations - 4.5 (Great locations, we learnt so much about our county and all the strange go-ings on that prompted people to build daft things on hillsides - unfortunately no visible signs in the photo so we have to be docked the 0.5 points on that technicality).

2. The Pose - 4.5 (Looking exceedingly wind swept as it was a bit nippy up there, the pointless grandeur is personified by the fact that we were all trying to spot the plane supposedly coming to take some aerial photos of us but it could not be seen at that point).

3. The X-Factor -  5.0 (If only for the sheer weight of numbers acting as a multiplier effect).

Making that a total of 14.0 - The highest score ever for 18 blokes having a lovely time in spite of the wind factor.

More please, even if only one bloke at a time.

"I am just going outside and may be some time."

Well, after so long in the muttering and planning stages, the time has nearly come to cash in those "Brownie Points", smash open your piggy bank or search down the back of the sofa for those few extra pennies of pocket money, work out which Black T-Shirt to wear, leave some food out for the cat and a note to your significant others to let them know "I am just going outside and may be some time".  

The (end of the) Wold Tour is nigh!

To keep it simple there is but one final instruction for all blokes who have signed up for this, be at The White Hart, Ashton Keynes for 9am on Saturday 11th May ready to depart at 9:15am.  No mercy will be shown to anyone dallying as we have a tight schedule and much culture and singing to pack into the one day.

Bring some pocket money and stout outdoor clothes as we will be going outdoors, possibly drinking stout, and definitely wearing clothes - this is a family show and not some youthful Rugby club nonsense, although be prepared for some silliness at some point during the weekend.

We should be back in the village 22:00 ish.

Looking forward to our big day out  - GRAND!

P.S. DO make a special effort to thank significant others in advance for allowing you time off for good behaviour as we will be trying the patience of many family and friends with our absence at various escapades that are planned in the forthcoming couple of months before our Summer recess and the start of the Spooky Man season.


P.P.S. We are not wanting to make light of the context of the original quote used in the title of this posting but it was too good to not use.

Wold Tour Alert!

We are VERY excited to tell you all about be going on our very own "Wold Tour" in a few days time.  A major landmark for the group and all concerned (ie significant others who will wonder were we have been all day).

This stupendous undertaking has been a work in progress by a crack unit of blokes known as a C.A.M.E.L. (Committee Acting Mostly at Executive Level) for over a year now since we first floated the idea and ran it up the flagpole to see if it had any legs on it.  Much selfless research into the various pubs and locations has been undertaken by all involved and our gratitude is deep, heck, we might even buy them a pint by way of thanks.

The basic plan is to get on an Ellison's Coach (not a bus, in case you are aware of that particular in-joke), go to Wadworth's Brewery in Devizes then create a unique series of sonic experiences as we serenade several of Wiltshire's iconic White Horse chalk hill figures and visit hostelries of the same name.  Timings and other details are (barely) visible on the screen grab of the very magnificent poster that has been created by Brother Bill H (much gratitude and beer tokens owed).

So, what else is involved?

• some singing
• a complementary pie (steak and ale pie or homity pie) 
• a complementary pint (from either the White Horse Brewery or Stroud Brewery)
• a tour and 'taste of beer' at Wadworths' Brewery
• a lunchtime meal (see here to view menu)
• some more singing
• an evening meal (meat or veg chilli)
• a souvenir poster
• Tug-o-War in an attempt to re-enact an historic Wiltshire event (more later)
• late night singing in The White Hart

In other words, a pretty full on day.  Hopefully a very memorable one, provided the lads don't over do things.

The pubs have been warned but are apparently still very excited that we are coming and we are sure to get a warm reception.

We will tell you more about what is planned for Sunday in the next exciting episode - so until then.

P.S.  If you are a lapsed member of the group, or thinking about joining and you would like to come along, we have a few places still available on the bus, sorry, coach, so please email us at themagnificentak47@gmail.com to let us know and we can come to some arrangement.