There were quite a lot of itinerant types travelling round the colliery villages before the [first world] war. I well remember three men in particular whom we children called “The Three Musketeers”, or the long, and the short, and the tall. They probably came from Newcastle or Gateshead area, but whenever a popular or untoward event occurred, you could bet these merchants would turn up with a song to commemorate the event. Although the words would obviously be different, the tune seldom varied. The tall one played a trumpet, the long one played a melodian, and the short one a fiddle.