In front of a packed house in the Union Chapel in Islington, Eliza Carthy and Jon Boden transported their audience to an earlier time.
Flanked by festive fir trees and backlit by the chapel’s gorgeous stained glass windows, the pair kept an old English tradition alive: Wassail.
Wassail is a Twelfth Night tradition with pagan roots which has been practised in Britain for centuries, manifesting itself in many forms, depending on local tradition.
Long before carollers were the norm, festive singers would go door to door, exchanging songs for money, food and ale.
Coming from the old English waes hael, ‘wassail’ is a toast meaning ‘be hale’ or ‘good health’.
Carthy and Boden embraced this more revelrous form of the tradition, encouraging the crowd to ring the rafters with collective shouts of Wassail!
They took their modern London audience back to some of the oldest songs in the English canon, including Thomas Ravenscroft’s ‘Remember, O Thou Man,’ which was first published in 1611.
The two best-known wassailing classics are The Gloucestershire Wassail Song, “Wassail! Wassail, all over the town, our toast it is white and our ale it is brown,“ and The Wassailer’s Carol, “Here we come a-Wassailing among the leaves so green.“
Boden and Carthy demonstrated a considerable array of musical talent, blending their voices with a variety of instruments, from guitars and violins to a squeeze box.
Boris McGraw, 74, a folk performer and floor singer at two folk clubs in Watford and Harrow, was singing along, eyes closed, lost in the music.
He said: “I’ve seen their last two Wassail tours, and this one is rather stripped down, which is nice, as last time they had a brass band with them who weren’t up to scratch.
“I’m very pleased with the gig and pleased to see they’re keeping the Wassail tradition alive as part of the English heritage.”
Carthy was particularly impressive when, during a playful number, she pretended to repeatedly try and hit her stage companion with the end of her violin, all while never dropping a note.
The Yorkshire-born singer was the heart and soul of the show – the consummate entertainer.
From poignant anecdotes about her late mother, Norma Waterson, lead singer of hit folk band The Watersons, to cracking jokes and blowing raspberries at the opposing team during a round of competitive carol singing, Carthy brought warmth and laughter to the darkest days of the year.
If ever her musical talent fails her, which it shows no sign of doing, she would no doubt do well as a stand-up comedian.
Jon Boden, usually of the contemporary folk band Bellowhead, was slightly overshadowed by Carthy.
Colin and Wendy, 65, from Northern Ireland and long-time fans of Jon Boden and his band Bellowhead, said: “Honestly, I’m not loving it. I feel like Jon is a lot more subdued than when we normally see him in Bellowhead.”
They added: “The squeeze box he is playing is taking over and blocking out some of the vocals.
“They’re funny, which is sweet, but the crowd is a bit subdued.”
Yet as the lilting notes of the violins carried up to the intricately decorated wooden rafters of the chapel, my foot was stomping along to the music and, for a brief moment, I was in a London where horse-drawn carts, not lime bikes, ruled the roads.
The Wassail tour came to an end on December 16th, but check back next year for a chance to grab yourself a slice of English history.
Main image credit: Danny Weller
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