Leaving on a Jet Plane - Peter, Paul and Mary

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2m--R3J6f4

For 10 years, when I was in my twenties, I played a kamikaze wing forward for Reigate Rugby Club, the motley local rivals to the more "respectable" grammar school old boy team of Old Reigatians. As well as occasionally beating them, we were also proud of the fact that we could outdrink them and outsing them. While the former was often disputed, there was never any question about the latter. Reigate RFC was blessed with a number of near professional folk singers so the traditional lewd rugby songs were generally low or non-existent on our after-match repertoire which included an eclectic mix of genres from 1930 musicals onwards, folk songs, rock and roll and pop, from the Mills Brothers, through Elvis and Buddy Holly to the Beach Boys, the Beatles, the Stones, Simon and Garfunkel and so on. Individuals also had their own special numbers Chris Mager for example held clubs and pubs spellbound with his rendering of "Shoals of Herring" (see https://www.unclestylus.com/single-post/2020/05/13/the-shoals-of-herring-ewan-maccoll-una-furtiva-lagrima-enrico-caruso ) while Chrissie Barrett enchanted all with her acted rendering of "I have Confidence" from "The Sound of Music". The wonderful Leslie Doodge loved her "My Fair Lady" songs ("Luverly"!) while Paul Callow led on the more folky numbers such as "Scarborough Fair". My speciality was Peter, Paul and Mary's "Leaving on a Jet Plane", mainly because I was the only one who knew the verses, and everyone would join in with the chorus, turning it into a rollicking wave of joyful sadness and sentimentality.

Looking back, I realise that the song had a particular resonance for me, from the days when I was 13 years old in Bahrain where my father worked as a corrosion engineer, and I was sent off to school in the UK. For some reason the planes always left in the early morning, and I remember that horrible feeling of waking up in the dark to a drive to the airport, a hurried goodbye to my mother, the lonely flight and the uncertainty of another loveless term.

"The dawn is breaking, it's early morn,

taxi's waiting, he's blowing his horn,

already I'm so lonesome I could cry"

but of course I couldn't, stiff upper lip and all that. I had to be brave rather than be seen to cry.

Last October I went back to Reigate for the club's 90th centenary celebrations. After the de rigueur showcase rugby game, Mager, Callow and I and maybe six other club members from the 70's began a sing-song in a corner of the bar, thinking, I suspect, that the whole roomful of current members would be charmed by us and all join in, just as used to happen in the "old days". No-one took any notice. They just turned away and chatted even louder, indifferent to a load of old farts singing in the background. Still, we enjoyed it, for a moment experiencing that feeling of communal goodwill and warmth that comes from singing together.

Peter, Paul and Mary were a phenomenally successful folk trio in the US in the early 1960's where they had two number one albums while a third reached number 2. They were also the first artists ever to have a hit with a Bob Dylan song, "Blowing in the Wind" reaching number 2 on the US chart in 1963.

Mary Travers died in 2009, and Peter Yarrow on January 7th, earlier this year, leaving Paul the group's last surviving member.

Our Paul, Paul Callow, is still folk singing where he now lives in Cornwall (see https://www.facebook.com/p/Paul-Callow-Music-100087606194715/?locale=en_GB ). Leslie, sadly, died many years back, much too young. She was one of those people that it was always a pleasure to be with, so strong and genuine was her sense of fun. I'm not sure that she ever did find that "room somewhere". I hope she did.