Bristol Rag Morris

Bristol Rag Morris, or simply Rag Morris, is a predominantly Cotswold Morris side based in Bristol, England, in the United Kingdom. Formed in 1981 and an affiliated society of the University of Bristol Student Union, it is one of the oldest continually dancing university morris sides in the country. It recruits year round and welcomes members of all genders and abilities over the age of 16.'Rag Morris', Bristol University Folk Society website. https://ragmorris.com/rag-morris/
== History ==
Bristol Rag Morris is a side with a keen sense of historicity, and elects an archivist alongside positions like Squire, Bag and Foreman at its annual AGM. The history of the side is recorded in a collection of scrapbooks that detail the events of each year back to the first decade of its existence.
=== Formation ===
Bristol Rag Morris was formed in 1981 from a union of Bristol University Morris Men (or BUMM, a line of humour University of Bristol students societies are yet to give up on) and Whiteladies Morris.'Our History', Bristol University Folk Society website. https://bristolfolksoc.com/our-society/our-history/ Bristol University Morris Men was a men's side, affiliated - as the name suggests - with the University of Bristol, and Whiteladies Morris was a local women's side. The new side was formed to be open to all.
The side's first public appearance was at the University of Bristol RAG ('Raising and Giving') ball that year. The legend goes that, when challenged at the door, the dancers replied that they were allowed the enter because they were the RAG morris, and the name stuck.
=== Folk Club ===
In 2003, musicians and musically-inclined members of Bristol Rag Morris began meeting in local pubs to play sessions together on Monday nights. Over the years this gathered a few more interested locals and students, and became known as the Folk Club. Over the 2010s, Folk Club sessions were advertised as a distinct sister entity alongside Bristol Rag Morris in all publicity materials, and the society was listed as 'Rag Morris and Folk Club' at student recruitment events.
=== 2012 Olympics ===
In 2005 it was announced that the United Kingdom would host the 2012 Olympic Games.'London beats Paris to 2012 Games', BBC News Sport 6 Jul 2005. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/front_page/4655555.stm At the close of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, Sebastian Coe was asked how the UK would follow the spectacle that had been created in China. He replied 'five thousand morris dancers',Stephanie Condron, 'Unlikely anarchists: Morris-dancing 'flash mobs' to protest against Olympics snub... but won't we hear them coming with all those bells?', The Mail on Sunday. 11 Dec 2011. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2072583/Unlikely-anarchists-Morris-dancing-flash-mobs-protest-Olympics-snub.html a quote that became somewhat infamous in the British morris community, taken by many to be disingenuous and scathing of the tradition. In a statement in 2011, the Squire of the Morris Ring referred to the comment as "froth and spin with no expectation of fruition"Peter Halfpenny, 'Morris Dancing and the 2012 Olympic Games', The Morris Ring website. 1 Mar 2011. https://themorrisring.org/article/morris-dancing-and-2012-olympic-games. Tabloid press outlets reported that further questions on the subject had been met with laughter from the Olympic organising committee. However, Sir Bob Russell, MP for Colchester between 1997 and 2015, campaigned for morris dancing to be included in the order of eventsEmma Hartley, 'Morris Dancing into Olympic History', The Glamour Cave. 16 Aug 2012. http://theglamourcave.blogspot.com/2012/08/morris-dancing-into-olympic-history.html and the Joint Morris Organisations - Open Morris, the Morris Federation and the Morris Ring, worked hard to register the interest of the morris community.
In February 2012 several sides were secretly approached by the team organising the 2012 Olympics Closing Ceremony'Bristol morris dancers take to the stage at the Olympic Closing Ceremony', University of Bristol: News and Features. 14 Aug 2012. https://www.bristol.ac.uk/news/2012/8721.html and asked to audition at 3 Mills Studio in East London. Out of those that auditioned two were selected, Bristol Rag Morris and Blackheath Morris. Both were asked to sign confidentiality agreements.
In an early rehearsal, an organiser pointed to one particularly bearded and energetic member of the side and said "we'd like you all to look like him". Their intention, of course, was to ask the side to perform in more uniform tatter jackets than the usual variety of colours, although the 'Any Other Business' item 'the side needs more beards' was a fixture at AGMs for three years following. Accordingly, the side sewed a set of new tatter jackets ahead of the event to match the red and green design of the dancer in question. The 'Olympic Rags' are now frequently the tatter jackets given to new members who have not yet sewn their own kit.
Bristol Rag Morris was asked to create a dance that could be used to travel, fit the rather linear requirements of the space and could be danced to 'Always Look On the Bright Side of Life'. The new creation was a hankie dance in the style of Bampton and used a reel of short sidesteps for the chorus. They then had around ten rehearsals to perfect the performance before the event.
On the 12th of August 2012, Bristol Rag Morris and Blackheath Morris performed alongside Eric Idle to a global audience of 26.9 million people'The London 2012 Olympic Games: Media Consumption', Ofcom. 18 Dec 2012. https://www.ofcom.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0019/55360/report.pdf. Page 6. in the Olympics Closing Ceremony. 
The side has adapted its Closing Ceremony performance into a non-processional set dance named 'Brightside'.'Repertoire of Dances', Bristol University Folk Society website. https://ragmorris.com/rag-morris/repertoire-of-dances/ 
=== Bristol University Folk Society ===
In an AGM in 2018, the society was renamed and restructured to give greater committee representation to the Folk Club sessions and to allow for an expansion of student opportunities in the society - notably a society ceilidh band with its own practice night. The student society name is now the Bristol University Folk Society, which currently covers Bristol Rag Morris, Folk Club and the Broken Biscuits Ceilidh Band.[Instagram Post, posted by @bristolfolksoc. 24 Sep 2021. https://www.instagram.com/p/CUNmvcFMJZK/]
== Kit ==
Bristol Rag Morris has very little uniformity to their kit, instead members are encouraged to sew their own tatter jackets in colours, styles and fabrics that they feel represent them as individuals. Historically tatter jacket styles in the side tended toward the individually multicoloured, but in more recent decades there has been a trend toward making each jacket a particular main colour that might be merely accented by a few complimentary or clashing rags of different hues.
When Bristol Rag Morris were asked to perform in the Olympics Closing Ceremony in 2012 they were required to make a uniform set of tatter jackets to match one member's pre-existing design in red and green. Several of this set of 'Olympic Rags' are still used in the side and are usually given to new members as a loan costume until they are able to sew a jacket for themselves.
Other speciality tatter jackets have been made by the side for mumming and include a St. George's Cross tatter jacket and a regal glossy black set to portray Queen Victoria in mourning.
Hats are optional and varied, and dancers are asked to avoid wearing jeans or plain black trousers where possible, although this is not enforced.
== Repertoire ==
Bristol Rag Morris dance an almost entirely Cotswold Morris repertoire, although they have written one original Border Dance. The side tend towards a living tradition approach to their dances, trying to pass on the dances as they were taught to the side whilst adding small touches of their own personality, like altering the words of dancing-on songs or making thematic noises to accompany some figures. The side have a 'Rag Tradition' of entirely self-penned dances wherein, perhaps characteristically, no two dances share any common features or styling.
The side's current taught repertoire includes:
Adderbury
* Shooting (The Beaux of London City)
* South Australia
* Three Musketeers (Skirmish)
* Lads a’Bunchum
* Sweet Jenny Jones
* Black Joak
* Quaker
Bampton
* Chasing Chickens (Highland Mary)
* Shave the Donkey (Step and Fetch Her)
* The Rose Tree
Fieldtown
* Balance the Straw
* Blue-Eyed Stranger
* Old Molly Oxford
* Dearest Dickie
* The Old Woman Tossed Up
* The Banks of the Dee
* Lass of Richmond Hill
* Trees (Shepherd's Hey)
Sherborne
* Cuckoo's Nest
* Orange and Blue (the Orange in Bloom)
* The Old Woman Tossed Up in a Blanket
* Over the Hills
* Monck's March
Ascott-under-Wychwood
* Valentine
* Black Joak
* Stick Chucking (Young Collins)
Lichfield
* Ring of Bells
* Vandals of Hammerwich
Oddington
* London Pride
* Old Frog
* Constant Billy
Chingford
* The Upton-upon-Severn Stick Dance
Rag Morris
* Brightside (in the style of Bampton)
* Red Arrows
* The Bad Boys of Dunkirk (Border dance)
== Beasts ==
Bristol Rag Morris has something of a love-hate relationship with its beasts, however it does boast a small menagerie. Each creature has its fans and its foes within the side.
=== Billy the Bonker ===
Billy the Bonker is, in the grand traditions of traditional dancing, a grinning head on a stick that can be used to 'bonk' the heads and backsides of dancers in a dance. Bristol Rag Morris is currently on its eighth iteration of Billy the Bonker. Previous versions have been retired for reasons including vegetable decay, not being scary enough, and being so scary it made small children cry. 
Billy the Bonker is referenced in Rag Morris' dancing-on song for the Three Musketeers:Some talk of Alexander, and some of Hercules,
Of great big morris dancers with girt big knobbly knees,
But of all the world's great heroes, there's no one who can compare
With a rum-titty-tum and a belt up the bum from Billy the Bonker!
=== Rags ===
Rags is a wearable hoss, with the 'rider' entirely visible from the waist up. He has a bright white wooden face, alarmingly pink and bodacious painted lips, and a body made from a mass of neon pink rags in the same style as the sides' tatter jackets. 
=== Unicorns ===
In response to the mascots for Exeter and Warwick folk societies, discussions were had in around 2016 about the need for a shared student mascot for Bristol Rag Morris and Folk Club, to help establish a presence at national student folk events such as IVFDF (the Inter-Varsity Folk Dance Festival). Fatefully these discussions happened in a pub, with access to online shopping, and - because a heraldic beast of Bristol is a unicorn, as can be seen on top of the City Council buildingRené & Peter van der Krogt, 'The Bristol Unicorns', Statues - Hither & Thither. 21 Mar 2019. https://statues.vanderkrogt.net/object.php?webpage=LE&record=gbsw052 - an enormous pink and blue fluffy unicorn onesie made an entrance and was christened Chuck Jingle.[Instagram comment, post by @bristolfolksoc. 20 Feb 2018. https://www.instagram.com/p/Bfb2exNHviH/] Chuck is worn in set by one of the dancers and often appears with the side in cold weather. Further unicorns followed, a small matching stuffed mascot named Charlie[Instagram post, posted by @bristolfolksoc. 20 Feb 2018. https://www.instagram.com/p/Bfb3gVMHaWC/] and a giant pink unicorn named Chad.[Instagram post, posted by @bristolfolksoc. 24 Feb 2018. https://www.instagram.com/p/BfmDuyxnGni/]
== Bristol Mummers ==
Bristol Rag Morris has a strong tradition of penning and performing mummers' plays, and are often billed as Bristol Mummers when doing so.
Original plays include:'Mummers' Plays', Bristol University Folk Society website. https://bristolfolksoc.com/mummers-plays/
* The Legend of Vincent and Goram, the giants of Bristol
* The Severn Bores and the Wyld Wimmin
* The Nine Lives of Isambard Kingdom Brunel
* Prince Albert and the Lionheart
* The Big Bang, a particle physics mummers' play
The side has also performed traditional mummers' plays from South Cerney and Alveston in Gloucestershire.
== References ==
Category:Morris teams in United Kingdom