The Wheeze and Suck Band on this CD are:
John Milce
Ian MacIntosh
Tony Pyrzakowski
Rhonda Mawer
Lol Osborn
Nigel Walters
Pete Kerrawn

1. New Rigged Ship (trad.) /Yarborough Chase (Kerrawn)
Yarborough originated as a gentle canter around the Lincolnshire countryside. The Wheezers have turned it into a full-blooded cavalry charge!

2. The Bristol Mail (trad. arranged Osborn)
Tom and Dick are there to guard us with pistols and blunderbuss as we ride the mail coach through the English countryside – finishing off the journey with a pint of best ale at the Coachman’s Arms in Bristol.

3. Shoreham’s Green Shore (Macintosh)
A naval recruiting poster from the late 18thC.,and an Arnold Bloxham regression which invoked an incident on board HM frigate ‘Figgie’ outside Calais Harbour during the Napoleonic War, provided the inspiration for this original song.

4. Marston Mesey Hunt (Macintosh) / Great Western Flyer (trad. arr Band)
` ‘Marston Mesey Hunt’ recalls the sight of hundreds of Beagles swarming along the Lechlade road. Great Western Flyer is the Wheezers’ version of The Arkansas Traveller, Inspired by the great Australian band Headbelly Buzzard.

5. Lord of the Dance (Words Sydney Carter – arr Band)
‘Muddy’s’ Appalachian dulcimer gives the tune an original North American theme while the band plays and sings a rousing Wheeze and Suck version of the modern Sydney Carter song.

6. Ladbroke Grove (Macintosh)/ Vincent Street (trad. arr. Macintosh-Osborn)/ Davy Davy Nick Nacks (trad.)
Ladbroke Grove is a tribute to life in London’s `60’s bohemian quarter. Vincent Street is the half-recalled skipping song from a ’50’s Birmingham childhood, finishing with a tune collected in 18th.century Oxford.

7. Sailor’s Life (trad.)

8. The King (trad.)

9. Sammy’s Bar (Cyril Tawny – are. Osborn)
Second CD – second Tawny song. The song is set in a small Maltese fishing village. A Dghajsa (pronounced Disa) is a Maltese ferry boat.

10. Horses’ Bransle (Trad. from Thionot Arbeau 1589. are. Pyrzakowski)

11. Warlike Lads of Russia (Traditional)
The tale of Bonaparte’s disastrous attack on Russia in 1812. That cruel cold winter saw Bony retreating with only 10,000 men from an initial force of 600,000.Napolean’s statement about this staggering waste of life was only..”My army took some losses”.

12. The Guns of Navarone (Toinkin / Webster)
The Skatalites were the greatest! Here’s a tribute to JA’s finest, and of course, Prince Buster.

13. Boar’s Head Carol (Trad. arr. Mawer)
In medieval times the scholars of Queens College, Oxford spent their Christmas holiday in residence rather than risk the long and, in those times, dangerous winter journey returning home to Northumberland and Westmoreland. Perhaps this is why this ancient song and the ceremony it celebrates have survived through the centuries, and to the present day.

14. Tyburn Fair (Macintosh)
A ‘Tyburn Blossom’ laments his fate on his journey to the gallows, which once stood at Marble Arch in London.

15. Yarborough Chase Reprise (Kerrawn/Walters/Pyrzakowski)

Bonus Tracks

16./17. Mad Tom 0′ Bedlam (trad. arr. Macintosh)/The Madcap Laughs (Kerrawn)
The Wheezers are let loose in the asylum for this traditional favourite – with a couple of new verses and some Floydian reverie thrown in for good measure.