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ROARING JELLY
(J8x32)
Hugh Foss Glendarroch SD Sheets
1- 8
1s cross RH, cast 1 place, cross RH & cast (Man up & Lady down) into
centre
9-16
1s+2s+3s circle 6H round & back (1s end in centre)
17-24
1s change places RH & dance to right into Figs of 8 (Lady round 2s
as 1M dances round 3s)
25-32
1s dance reels of 3 on opposite sides giving RSh to 2
nd
corners & cross
RH to places
The tune 'Roaring Jelly' is also known as 'Smash the Windows'. There has been a persistent rumour that both titles
refers to plastic explosives. While that makes a good story, the tune and its titles predate the explosives by
about 80 years. It is more likely that the "jelly" title refers to the rolling boil required for cooking jellies and
jams.
It was often used as the accompaniment for the country dance "The Haymakers' Jig" an Irish ancestor of the
American contra dance "The Virginia Reel."
Gelignite (aka gelly), a blasting gelatine, has been used in mining operations since around the turn of the last
century. Roaring gelly was used, one presumes, by Scots miners comforted at day's end by the eponymous tune.
Listen to it -- can't you hear a lilting upward blast on the A part, followed by the delicate fall of the rubble in the
B part? No? Try another single malt and listen again...
Alan Gardiner & his band have recorded Roaring Jelly as 1
st
tune in an 8x32 bar jig as The Flying Scotsman on
Scottish Dance Vol.7.