The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #126417   Message #2812459
Posted By: Geoff the Duck
15-Jan-10 - 05:48 AM
Thread Name: Yorkshire folk clubs 60's and 70's
Subject: RE: Yorkshire folk clubs 60's and 70's
In Bradford, the Topic Folk Club is pretty well documented, with the guest lists reconstructed back as far as 1970 to the present day. It was the first folk club I attended, some time around Easter 1977 onwards. Looking at the guest list from that year, I remember seeing Nadine Elliott clog dancing on a board whilst Derek and Dorothy sang "My gal's a Yorkshire gal". I was reliant on bus transport, so never saw the end of anyone's final set, as the bus left town at 11.00pm.
Another club which ran around that time was in the upstairs room of The Kings Arms at Heaton, opposite St. Bede's School where I spent most of my weekdays. Not sure who ran it, but I seem to recall one of the regulars was Neil Ingram who was at one time a member of local band Aiken's Drum.
A couple of years later Neil was running a club in an upstairs room in The Metropole Hotel, Sunbridge Rd. I used to go when home from University, but can't recall how long it ran. At the time, The Metropole was one of a small handful of Tetley pubs which still had the original autovac handpumps. They had never been removed when the keg beer revolution gutted most of the country. A pint of Tetley bitter from the Metropole was completely different from that produced by later handpumps, with a head thick as cream, not like the flaccid froth on the top of modern pints.
Another club which hasn't yet been mentioned was at Wilsden. It was before my time, but I believe it was at The Ling Bob on Haworth Road.

As for Addingham. I didn't know Sunday nights at the Fleece, and David Harrison until the 1980s dancing with Boar's Head Morrismen. I recall the famous line attributed to him - when people at the back of the (always packed) room were making too much noise he told them "If you want to talk, there are two empty pubs further down the village".
Quack!
GtD.