Beech Band chucked out again

Subject: Folklore: Beech Band chucked out again
From: Les in Chorlton
Date: 29 May 15 - 10:43 AM

I know this is of limited interest to the International Community that is Mudcat but we in the Beech Band I keen to recognise and preserve old traditions and make them known to whoever:

We have been thrown out of The Beech again! Clearly part of that "Old English Tradition": Find a pub you feel is really suited to the sort of music you play, get settled, get unceremoniously chucked out for reasons that you don't understand.

Still the Dulcimer Bar has welcomed our return, every Tuesday and made us feel at home:

Dulcimer Bar

https://www.facebook.com/groups/285466650899/

Or visit our website

Singaround 1st & 3rd, Tunes 2nd & 4th

Cheers

Subject: RE: Beech Band chucked out again
From: Will Fly
Date: 29 May 15 - 11:21 AM

Blimey, Les - that's sad news. I gather it was a relatively new landlord in there? You never can tell what goes through their mnds sometimes. I would have thought that a large group of people buying drinks is better than a few people buying drinks... but what do I know!

Good luck at the Dulcimer Bar.

Will

Subject: RE: Beech Band chucked out again
From: Les in Chorlton
Date: 29 May 15 - 12:19 PM

Same Landlord for around 5 years! We never really felt welcomed back. Some of the staff were unfriendly, the pub is a dump with over priced beer. Shame it has the best little snug for miles.

However, the Dulcimer is very welcoming, great decor, cheaper xlnt beer good acoustics but Tuesday only - not so popular. Still you can't have it all.

Cheers

Subject: RE: Beech Band chucked out again
From: Mo the caller
Date: 30 May 15 - 08:48 AM

Keep on keeping on Les.

Subject: RE: Beech Band chucked out again
From: GUEST,CJB
Date: 30 May 15 - 09:45 AM

Huh - we had an international 'meet' of Jig Dolls in the local Holiday Inn Express at T5 near Heathrow. Having been unceremoniously kicked out of the restaurant mid-meal, we adjourned to the bar area. But we had no sooner unpacked our 'dolls' and started to jig dance them to a mouth-organ when the manager VERY rudely told us that 'entertainment' was not allowed anywhere in the hotel under any circumstances. That was despite (or because of) the interest in the dolls from visiting tourists / guests such as the family from India. The jobsworth even said that dancing the dolls on the paddles sans music was not allowed. Needless to say a report was uploaded to TripAdvisor.

Subject: RE: Beech Band chucked out again
From: GUEST
Date: 30 May 15 - 10:29 AM

If you are going to organise an 'international meet' of any kind would it not be good idea to ensure that the venue you have chosen is aware of your plans and happy to facilitate them before you book it. Just seems like common sense to me.

Subject: RE: Beech Band chucked out again
From: Les in Chorlton
Date: 30 May 15 - 01:12 PM

Thanks Mo - much fun at The Dulcimer every Tuesday - well most

Subject: RE: Beech Band chucked out again
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 30 May 15 - 01:57 PM

It is a perennial problem for any folk sessions, unfortunately. Several that I know of up here in Scotland have had to change venue almost on a regular basis as new managers come and go!

Subject: RE: Beech Band chucked out again
From: Les in Chorlton
Date: 30 May 15 - 03:23 PM

Certainly older than Morris Dancing!

Subject: RE: Beech Band chucked out again
From: GUEST,Guest
Date: 30 May 15 - 07:16 PM

The reasons you probably don't understand could be down to the manager / landlord being under pressure to sell some of the overpriced beer and other rubbish kindly supplied by "the brewery". Just another of Maggie's attacks on the working class, making sure all her mates got into the pub trade cheap to make immoral profits.

If people sit all night with half a pint / bring their own soft drinks and even booze / leave a mess of rubbish they can't be bothered to be sensible with then eventually the axe falls.

The Old Hat Band were kicked out of pub in Whitby for not drinking enough but that might be considered a special case as they were taking up a whole (large) room and were not actually official guests of the festival that year. It was also late lunchtime in a pub that sold quite a lot of good food.

Subject: RE: Beech Band chucked out again
From: Les in Chorlton
Date: 31 May 15 - 04:06 AM

Well, Landlords run businesses. They have to maximise beer sales.

"If people sit all night with half a pint / bring their own soft drinks and even booze / leave a mess of rubbish they can't be bothered to be sensible with then eventually the axe falls."

We did not drink a lot but did none of the rest and always tidied up, put all glasses to the bar and stools on seats before we left.

The management had booked 2 events on two of our nights without telling us. When I noticed this and told the bar staff - offering to go elsewhere for a couple of weeks the bar staff said they knew nothing. One of them rang me up a few days later and said we could not return at all because they were expecting a busy Summer and needed the space.

I respect the right of Pubs to do what they think is best. I would have valued a warning. Since we only returned in March I suspect the plan was to chuck us out as soon as the beer garden kicked in with the good weather.

The thing is the Dulcimer Bar has welcomed our return, every Tuesday and made us feel at home. It's a great bar with good beer, good acoustics and great staff.

If you live near Manchester drop in a ebjoy the fun.

Cheers

Dulcimer Bar

Subject: RE: Beech Band chucked out again
From: Raggytash
Date: 31 May 15 - 06:26 AM

I have to ask why you returned to the Beech if you had been made welcome at the Dulcimer?

Subject: RE: Beech Band chucked out again
From: Les in Chorlton
Date: 31 May 15 - 10:56 AM

Couldn't get Wednesday at the Dulcimer - numbers were low on Tuesdays - people seemed keen on Wednesday and the Snug of The Beech is a great place to sing.

Subject: RE: Beech Band chucked out again
From: GUEST,Jon
Date: 01 Jun 15 - 10:25 AM

Unfortunately, loosing venues and moving on is (as Tattie Bogle says) quite common.

Of the ones I've known go, some have been lost following the change of landlords. Others have become unworkable. Examples of the latter are a pub in Bangor which decided it wanted to catch customers on their way to a night club, one on Anglesey that started hosting reggae nights on the same night as the session and, closer to where I live now (I'm on the North Norfolk coast), one in Norwich and a clash with football on tv (couldn't hear one another over the cheers, etc.).

We rarely get out to sessions these days but as things stand, I think the Norwich ones have a good venue. The Gatehouse hosts 3: A very "serious" (the "core" players have the 1000+ tune repertoires) one on Wed, a more relaxed mostly Irish one on Sun and a sort of anything goes tunes and songs one on a Thu. I'm not sure if it's still going but it might also still host a monthly mostly English one on a Sunday afternoon.

I like the acoustics in the rooms (wed uses the main bar, the others use a sort of side bar) and the landlord seems to want the music. As an added bonus, he's probably the cheapest pub in the city for drinks.

Hope it keeps going but you never know... I just think the sessions have a good thing at the moment and hope that others wherever they are playing who have somewhere stable and nice to play in value what they have.

Subject: RE: Beech Band chucked out again
From: GUEST,Morris-ey
Date: 01 Jun 15 - 11:50 AM

If you want to perform or hold a session anywhere, it is common sense and good manners to ask permission beforehand.

If you have a regular venue and the management changes, you need to get permission from the new incumbents.

Folk music is not that popular these days and some of it hardly qualifies as entertainment except for those performing...

Subject: RE: Beech Band chucked out again
From: GUEST,Morris-ey
Date: 01 Jun 15 - 12:37 PM

If you want to perform or hold a session anywhere, it is common sense and good manners to ask permission beforehand.

If you have a regular venue and the management changes, you need to get permission from the new incumbents.

Folk music is not that popular these days and some of it hardly qualifies as entertainment except for those performing...

Subject: RE: Beech Band chucked out again
From: Leadfingers
Date: 01 Jun 15 - 07:47 PM

Security Of Tenure has LONG been a problem with ANY Pub Music ! New landlords have different ideas , and SOME bar staff have their own agenda and make it difficult for the performers !

Subject: RE: Beech Band chucked out again
From: GUEST,Guest
Date: 01 Jun 15 - 08:35 PM

Was not accusing you of any of those bad habits, just generalising.
We all have to make allowances and unfortunately the licensed trade is one of the worst for the treatment it gives to its employees (which is what most of them are although not usually recognised as such).
I made up my mind a lot of years ago that it was not something I would care to be making any sort of a living at.
Fortunately I did not have to but there are far too many people who are succoured into thinking that running a pub is a good idea.
Good old Maggie - not!

Subject: RE: Beech Band chucked out again
From: Les in Chorlton
Date: 02 Jun 15 - 04:47 AM

"the licensed trade is one of the worst for the treatment it gives to its employees "

Spot on guest - and I feel sure that is part of our problem - why would overstretched under paid staff want to put up with 20+ extra noisy people in a small pub when the landlord is 5 miles away running another pub?

Subject: RE: Beech Band chucked out again
From: Will Fly
Date: 02 Jun 15 - 05:03 AM

We're very privileged with our Sunday evening session in Ditchling - which has been going once a month for nearly twelve years. Until about a year ago, we were based at the Bull - and the organisers (two of my fellow band musos) were paid £100 by the pub owner to run the session! (The money was spent on buying the attendant musicians their beer!) The staff were always welcoming - but, in latter years, the manageress of the pub really couldn't see the point of the music. After the pub was listed in the Times "Top Ten Country Restaurants", we were politely asked to go...

Luckily, just over the road from the Bull is the other pub in the village, the White Horse, who took us in gladly. We don't get paid to run the session, but we don't care - the money was neither here nor there - as the pub is larger, the acoustics are better, and the locals love us.

The bar staff love the music as well. Aren't we lucky!

Subject: RE: Beech Band chucked out again
From: GUEST,Jon
Date: 02 Jun 15 - 05:12 AM

Long may it last, Will!

Subject: RE: Beech Band chucked out again
From: GUEST,Raggytash
Date: 02 Jun 15 - 05:15 AM

Like you will we are fortunate in Whitby to have the backing of the landlord and staff at the Elsinore on a Tuesday night. A mixed session of predominantly but not exclusively folk music and song. We normally have about 12-14 performers but have had a lot more at times.

Subject: RE: Beech Band chucked out again
From: Kampervan
Date: 02 Jun 15 - 06:37 AM

On the occasions when I've been involved in starting a folk club, we found that the best bet was to find a pub which had an un-used room .

The landlords were normally only too pleased to get a group of people who bought a few pints and didn't interfere with the rest of the pub.

You can't always do that, I know, but it's worth bearing in mind.

Cheers
K/van

Subject: RE: Beech Band chucked out again
From: Rob Naylor
Date: 02 Jun 15 - 11:48 AM

Will, I couldn't get over how enthusiastic the barmaid was about the session on Sunday...she must have said 5 or 6 times how much she loved it, and how it had made her day!

Never got that feeling from the staff at the Bull.

Subject: RE: Beech Band chucked out again
From: Will Fly
Date: 02 Jun 15 - 12:35 PM

Yes - she was incredibly enthusiastic - and young!

Subject: RE: Beech Band chucked out again
From: GUEST
Date: 02 Jun 15 - 04:32 PM

This is sad. I spoke to several musicians at the Chester folk festival who were looking for a not-too-fast session in the Manchester area, and I pointed them to the Beech. I didn't get names or addresses, so I hope they find you.

I'm afraid landlords these days are largely new to the trade and all go through the same training course, that doesn't include any sort of live music other than tribute bands, or any sort of community interaction beyond having the customers swearing at footballers on Sky tv.

Subject: RE: Beech Band chucked out again
From: Les in Chorlton
Date: 03 Jun 15 - 03:52 AM

Thanks Guest, all will be most welcome at The Dulcimer! 1st & 3rd for songs, 2nd & 4th for tunes.

We had a great night of songs last night thanks to Ken, Pete, Chris, Anthony, Eddie, Martin, Mike and last but not least Jude. Good songs, good chorusing, good accompaniment much banter and a drawing class who simply sat and did drawings! Is this a first at a folky event? Probably not.



Songs and Tunes with The Beech Band at The Dulcimer

Or visit our website

Subject: RE: Beech Band chucked out again
From: GUEST,Jon
Date: 03 Jun 15 - 05:06 AM

Sketching I've seen in a few forms. Pip does it sometimes although (hope she doestn't mind me saying) is not great at that sort of thing (but millions time better that me - I can struggle to make a box look square) - she is better at copying something already drawn.

The odder one for me (although I gather it had a new popularity with younger people) was knitting. There was for example a few years back in the Nelson before the move to the Gatehouse a group of (I think A level who later went their own ways to universities) who seemed to enjoy a combination of jigs reels and knitting.

Subject: RE: Beech Band chucked out again
From: Will Fly
Date: 03 Jun 15 - 05:40 AM

"Jigs, Reels & Knitting"

Jon - there's a tune in there somewhere, just dying to get out!

Subject: RE: Beech Band chucked out again
From: GUEST,Jon
Date: 03 Jun 15 - 06:01 AM

Aye Will, that would be a good name!

Folk tune wise, a favourite of mine is just called "Bank of Turf" though...

You will btw find a couple of my attempts to write in the Mudcat Midis (Eg. one called Jayne's Jig and another called just "Waltz" but it's something I gave up with.

Subject: RE: Beech Band chucked out again
From: GUEST,Jon
Date: 03 Jun 15 - 06:08 AM

( the first link to the bank of turf I find)