Rattle Up My Boys

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Rattle Up, My Boys (RUMB)
RUMB logo 2025.png
RUMB logo 1987.png
Masthead of issue 1, Summer 1987.
Categories sword dance, folk dance
FrequencyQuarterly
Founded1987
First issue1 June 1987 (1987-6-1)
CountryUnited Kingdom
Language British English
Website https://www.morrisfed.org.uk/magazines/rumb
ISSN 2977-8581

Rattle Up My Boys (RUMB) is a print journal for those with an interest in sword dance. It covers news, interviews, features, and reviews on longsword, rapper sword and other forms of European and world sword dance. The journal is published quarterly in the UK and is available worldwide via subscription.

Contents

History

Rattle Up My Boys was launched as a journal in Summer 1987 by founding editor Trevor Stone. The title is taken from the 1980 book written and privately published by Stone called "Rattle Up, My Boys: The Story of Longsword Dancing - A Yorkshire Tradition". [1]

The phrase comes from the end of the "calling-on song" used as a preamble to the North Skelton sword dance: "Sword dancers we are and we‘ve never danced here before, We'll try to do our best and the best can do no more". This is followed by a call to “Rattle Up!" which sets the dance in motion with the rattle of the swords as they are clashed together while the dancers walk around in a circle. [2]

The journal was conceived as "an occasional broadsheet" intended to appeal to "all with an interest in Longsword dancing - the enthusiast, researcher, the performer or those with general interest in this distinctive tradition". [3]

Initially the journal was published as and when enough material became available, with the intention of issuing at least three editions per year. The journal was organised into "series" (volumes). Series 1–6 were published between 1987 and 1997, each containing five issues. The journal moved to a regular quarterly format with issue 1 of Series 7, published in Spring 1998.

Trevor Stone continued to edit RUMB through to the end of series 11. He retired in 2002 having published 50 editions with Andrew Kennedy taking over as editor in 2003. He published 28 editions across series 12–18, stepping down in October 2011. He handed over to Jeff Lawson who published his first edition in November 2011. He published 52 editions across series 19–31 and stepped down at the end of 2024. Simon Vaughan replaced Jeff in January 2025, with the first issue of series 32 published in March 2025, being the 131st edition of Rattle Up, My Boys.

Online archive

The Morris Federation website hosts the Rattle Up, My Boys online archive. It contains scanned copies of every edition from 1987 to the present, with a rolling 2 year delay behind the current print edition. A search interface is available of the OCRed content.

Editors

References

  1. ↑ Stone, Trevor (1980). Rattle Up, My Boys: The Story of Longsword Dancing - A Yorkshire Tradition (PDF). privately published.
  2. ↑ Allsop, Ivor (1996). Longsword Dances: from traditional and manuscript sources (1st ed.). USA: Northern Harmony. p. 201. ISBN   0-9627554-7-8.
  3. ↑ Stone, Trevor (1987). "Why Rattle Up, My Boys?". Rattle Up, My Boys. 1 (1): 1 – via Morris Federation.
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