> Folk Music > Songs > Never No More For Me

Never No More For Me / A Trip to Southend

[ Roud 22772 ; trad.]

George Belton sang Never No More for Me at The Wheatsheaf, Marsh Green, on 20 June 1974. This recording made by Jim Ward was included in 2020 on Belton’s Musical Tradition anthology A True Furrow to Hold. Rod Stradling noted:

Astonishingly, a Keith Summers recording of George Belton singing this song is the only entry in Roud’s Folksong Index. The song was recorded by Ben Lawes on Edison Bell’s ‘Winner’ label no. 2139 in 1912, probably the same year as publication. Other recordings were made by Harry Rodgers and Harry Fay (as Ben Ashton). The second verse on these early recordings is not used by George.

Bob Lewis sang A Trip to Southend on his 2003 album The Painful Plough. Vic Smith noted:

One of George Belton’s favourite songs, probably music hall in origin.

Lyrics

George Belton sings Never No More for Me

I’ve heard such a lot of the wondrous seaside;
I made up my mind I’d go down by the tide.
I started away with a few bob to spend
And went to the station to book to Southend.
But never no more for me,
I put down a sovereign, you see.
They said, “Change at Tilbury”, and straight I did swear,
When I get to Tilbury, my change isn’t there,
So never no more for me.

We gets to Southend and goes up a side street
Then pops in a cook-shop for something to eat
They charged five and six for a small piece of cheese
A strip of linoleum, a spud and some peas
So never no more for me
The cheese came and jumped on my knee
The meat was so small they brought out on a tray
A draught from the door came nd blew it away
So never no more for me.

I saw married couples, there spending weekends
All bathing together as if they were friends;
One damsel I saw was so bony and lean
She’d scraped all the paint off the bathing machine.
But never no more for me
My wife she weighs twenty stone three.
She frightened the fish when she bobbed up and down,
And nearly got summonsed for flooding the town,
So never no more for me.

The lodgings we got was ten miles from the shore
With a kind of a loft on the very top floor
The bedstead was one of them crazy concerns
To sleep on the feather we took it in turns.
But never no more for me
I’ve said my goodbye to the sea.
I jumped in the train and the kids they did roar
They laughed ’cos my whiskers got shut in the door
So never no more for me.

Bob Lewis sings A Trip to Southend

I’ve heard such a lot of the wondrous seaside;
I made up my mind I’d go down by the tide.
So I started away with a few bob to spend
I went to the station to book to Southend.
But never no more for me,
I put down a sovereign, you see.
They said, “Change at Tilbury”, and straight I did swear,
When I gets to Tilbury, my change isn’t there,
So never no more for me.

I saw married couples, there spending weekends
All bathing together as if they were friends;
One damsel I saw was so bony and lean
She’d scraped all the paint off the bathing machine.
But never no more for me
My wife she weighs twenty stone three.
She frightened the fish when she bobbed up and down,
And nearly got summonsed for flooding the town,
So never no more for me.

The lodgings we got was ten miles from the shore
In a kind of a loft on the very top floor
The bedstead was one of them crazy concerns
To sleep on the feather we took it in turns.
But never no more for me
I’ve said my goodbye to the sea.
I jumped in the train and the kids they did roar
They laughed ’cos my whiskers got shut in the door
So never no more for me.