After the Manchester Morris Men had danced one Thursday evening in 1968? Edwin Spring and Denis Cleary got into conversation with a man (in his 60s) in the Golden Lion pub in Blackley Village. He told us he had danced with the Mossley Men in the 1930s and he had enjoyed our performance of the Mossley dance. He said he had one criticism namely that we didn't use one of the tunes that he remembered the Mossley men dancing to. Edwin immediately produced some manuscript paper from his accordion box and persuaded our acquaintance to hum the tune which he noted down. The notation given below is as taken down by Edwin and confirmed by our informant when it was hummed back to him. Edwin then played it on his accordion to the old Mossley man's delight. Edwin commented that the tune was a version of Aiken Drum. Since the Manchester Men already had a set of tunes which they had been using for many years for the Mossley dance it was decided not to break this pattern by introducing the new tune but when Harry Corser revived the Oldham dance Edwin and Jim Reilly decided to use this tune as the first tune in the sequence of tunes for that dance.
Aiken Drum as sung to Edwin Spring in 1968.
