ADVANCED KIPPER (may contain bones)
During twenty odd years of professional performances – some odder than others – Sid Kipper and Chris Sugden have created all manner of material which will be of interest to the committed Kipper fancier. Some of this will be developed in this section.
PREWD’S PRUNINGS
To mark the centenary of Mrs. Miriam Prewd’s notorious visit to St Just-near-Trunch in 1904/5, as so graphically described in the book ‘Prewd and Prejudice’, we are delighted to be able to publish for the first time some parts of the original project which had to be omitted for reasons of space.
Currently the first four months are featured. Further months will be added as their anniversaries come round.
March 1904 ‘Gentleman’ Jack Kipper, and Cobbler’s ‘Rural Rides’.
April 1904 Education, Education, Uncle Wesley.
May 1904 Morris dancing, the Trunch Flitch, and more beaten bounders.
June 1904 The Goat Inn, dressing up, and lozenges.
July 1904 Doyley Silver-Darling is Cromeo, the saga of the pebbles, and night-time perambulations.
August 1904 More sheep shearing, an Albert Kipper poem, and the niceties of the poaching season.
September 1904 The composer Ben Jarmine Brighton performs at the Snipe Maltings, and more about muck spreading.
October 1904 Sweetcorn dollies, competitive crumpet eating, and the Trunch flitch.
November 1904 Elections, and the strange history of Doyley Silver-Darling and his man.
December 1904 Wassailing, mumming, and more about turkeys.
January 1905 Whipsy, Plough Monday, and Ken Peel.
February 1905 The Feast of Lights, Cromer versus Cromer, and a wedding.
MAGAZINE MUSINGS
From time to time magazine and newspaper editors have been rash enough to ask Sid to contribute to their pages. Sid is often happy to oblige, safe in the knowledge that his words will be wrapped round chips and gone forever in no time at all.
Not with microchips they aren’t.
A FLY ON THE WALL – life as a megostar
A DAY IN THE LIFE – specifically a day in early 2000
WHO’S WHO? – Chris Sugden interviews Sid
WHO’S WHO TOO? – Sid returns the dubious favour
FOLK ON TAP LETTERS
For over a decade Sid has been a regular correspondent to Folk On Tap, “The Magazine of the Southern Counties” (www.folkontap.co.uk). Much of his writing has consisted of thinly disguised plugs for performances, albums and books, and are therefore of little general interest. On the other hand, lots of other famous people have all their letters published, so why not Sid?
DEAR FOLK ON TOP
HENRY KIPPER RIP
For seven years, in the 1980s, Sid toured with his father, Henry, as ‘The Kipper Family’. They were painful years, which Sid doesn’t like to talk about, as he was the one causing the pain. However, there is much to be read between the lines, and it may be that Sid did not feel he had fully taken over the Kipper mantle until the old man’s death in 2000. We reproduce here the Trunch Trumpet’s coverage of his departure.
THE END OF AN ERROR
COUNTRY DANCING
Sometimes known as Barn Dancing, or, for vegetarians, Free-range Dancing, Sid has some expertise in this area. He traces a direct line to Will Kipper, the 16th century dancing master and author of Kipper’s Incomplete Dancing Master. This was recently re-issued in a limited edition of 3. Copies are still available.
BOOK INTRODUCTION
THE TRIMINGHAM TRIANGULAR SIX
FOND
FOND stands for Friends Of the Norfolk Dialect. Sid is, of course, a member – even though he has sometimes been described as an enemy of the English language. Further details of their activities can be found at www.norfolkdialect.com
Sid also contributes occasional pieces to their Newsletter, The Merry Mawkin, so we take this opportunity to share some of them with ‘furriners’.
FONDNESSES
CRT
Sid supports the Countryside Restoration Trust, which not only campaigns but also works practically “to demonstrate, through the purchase of land, that sensitive farming practices, capable of balancing the needs of conservation, education and recreation with commercial food production, sustainable for future generations, must be the future for this country”. Not that Sid would put it that way. More about the CRT can be found at www.crtbarton.org.uK
HOW SID DOES PUT IT