Speed the Plough
Speed the Plough track 23
The quintessential English country dance tune - it became a sort of unofficial national anthem for the English country dance revival of the seventies and eighties, and you could almost define what sort of band you were dancing to by how they played 'Speed the Plough', in particular by how fast they played it... The EFDSS publication Hard Core English contains eight variations of the tune. And it's used to accompany a Bampton morris dance.
Of course it's by no means restricted to England - it is also popular in Scottish, Irish and Northern American traditions. And although it has long been part of the tradition we know (unusually) exactly who wrote it, and when. The following information and quotation are taken from Andrew Kuntz's article at www.ibiblio.org/fiddlers/speed.htm
The tune was composed in 1799 by John Moorehead - who at the time was violinist at Covent Garden Theatre. Moorehead had been born in Edinburgh, and had lived in County Armagh before coming to London. His tune was originally titled 'The Naval Pillar'
"in support of a proposed memorial column of that name to have been erected in London to commemorate Lord Nelson’s recent headstrong victory over the French in the Battle of the Nile in 1798. Moorehead lived to see his melody become a popular success, although he unfortunately later committed suicide by hanging in 1804. The violinist’s melody was employed by the English dramatist Thomas Morton (1764-1838) for his ‘comedy’ Speed the Plough (it was actually much like a melodrama, although the term had not been invented then), written and staged in the year 1800".
The tune became so strongly associated with the play that it acquired a new name - and ever since it has invariably beenknown as 'Speed the Plough'.
Preceded by All Jolly Fellows
We were joined on our recording of this tune by Pete North (English concertina) and Mat's Woodpecker bandmate Jeff Dando (melodeon). Pete had taken my place in the band for the initial Magpie Lane Christmas concerts in 1993, while Jeff was the sound engineer at all our initial gigs and again had taken my place on stage on at least one occasion.
