joby isobel sutherland groombridge .club

Subject: joby isobel sutherland groombridge .club
From: The Sandman
Date: 26 Jan 20 - 01:27 PM

I have very happy memories of this club in the early 1970s, isobel was a fine singer and was very encouraging, i remeber schoolchildren getting up to sing at the club, and seeing the copper family there and vic and christina smith. i would like to rise a glass to joby and isobel and all the residents , fine people

Subject: RE: joby isobel sutherland groombridge .club
From: Bonnie Shaljean
Date: 26 Jan 20 - 01:50 PM

I absolutely loved that club, and Isobel & Joby too. He was brilliant at restoring old harmoniums and cottage organs, and they kept a wonderful collection in their house. I had a fantastic time playing on them all... think I finally had to be forcibly dragged away... claw marks in the floor are probably still visible...

In fact I got the more modern-looking of the two harmoniums I used to gig with from them. (The other was an elegant Victorian mahogany fold-down one from a ship's chapel.) Still have 'em both too. We also bought a non-portable harmonium from Joby, which Isobel said had come from a Non Conformist chapel in Yorkshire or somewhere.

Aaaaaaand, it's just hit me that only this morning in the kitchen I was singing one of her songs in my head. I love how people live on in their music after they're gone. Yes, wonderful memories.

Subject: RE: joby isobel sutherland groombridge .club
From: Acorn4
Date: 26 Jan 20 - 02:10 PM

One of the first folk clubs i ever went to as we only lived at Crowborough just up the road.

Remember a very talented flute player called Chris Drinan who we bumped into not so long ago playing in the Midlands with The John Richards Band.

Saw June Tabor there when her career was just starting.

Subject: RE: joby isobel sutherland groombridge .club
From: The Sandman
Date: 26 Jan 20 - 02:19 PM

i remember tony and jenny dunbar an anglo concertina player who loved playing in b flat was it andy or chris white?

Subject: RE: joby isobel sutherland groombridge .club
From: Vic Smith
Date: 26 Jan 20 - 02:26 PM

I would like to echo what Dick has written about Isabel and Joby. They were lovely inspirational people and the Junction was a great club. We became very close to them and were instumental in getting their daughter Sandie to move into the house opposite ours. I learned more about singing traditional songs from Isabel than I did from any other person. They were also residents at out folk club in Lewes at one stage and we were involved in developing a couple of shows with them - the best show on Burns' songs that I was ever involved with an another called "Reynard the Fox".

We also bought a ship's harmnonium from them - possibly the one that Bonnie did not buy!. It had been lovingly restored by Joby.

Subject: RE: joby isobel sutherland groombridge .club
From: Bonnie Shaljean
Date: 26 Jan 20 - 02:27 PM

Jenny Dunbar had a folding harmonium quite similar to mine, which looked nearly identical - except that hers was a 4-octave and had a nifty little row of stops, whereas mine was only 3-octave and didn't :-(

#jealous

Subject: RE: joby isobel sutherland groombridge .club
From: Vic Smith
Date: 26 Jan 20 - 02:28 PM

was it andy or chris white?
It was Chris White - one of the tallest men I have ever met.

Subject: RE: joby isobel sutherland groombridge .club
From: Bonnie Shaljean
Date: 26 Jan 20 - 02:29 PM

Cross posted with Vic. Now I get to be jealous twice over. (Or three times, if you count Christine's gorgeous Bible-organ.)

Subject: RE: joby isobel sutherland groombridge .club
From: Vic Smith
Date: 26 Jan 20 - 02:32 PM

Later on, we sold the harmonium to Ian Kearey who plays in the Sussex Pistols with us. Ian has use in the studio to accompany singers as diverse as Ivor Cutler and Shirley Collins.

Subject: RE: joby isobel sutherland groombridge .club
From: The Sandman
Date: 27 Jan 20 - 02:40 AM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kj63o6UbhG8

Subject: RE: joby isobel sutherland groombridge .club
From: GUEST,jim bainbridge
Date: 27 Jan 20 - 05:20 AM

Thanks for starting this, Dick- I have great memories of the Groombridge club when I lived in Kent from 1970- still quite a long way from Folkestone, where I lived, but worth the trip.
I think I owe my long history and affinity with Elsie's club at Cowden to Isobel- Dave Watts told me he asked Isobel about likely guests & I did Elsie's annually for many years- still haven't given up on a return one day! So thanks Isobel & Joby for that as well.
It was a special delight when Isobel & Joby joined us for on our wedding day in our Cobham (Kent) oast house in 1982 - good friends, much missed....

Subject: RE: joby isobel sutherland groombridge .club
From: GUEST,John from Elsie`Band
Date: 27 Jan 20 - 11:42 AM

Jim,
    I still have Isabel`s LP, "Vagrant Songs of Scotland" that I got from her many moons ago at Elsie`s", which I can play. Quite unique.

As you know you`re sorely missed and ever welcome, "Elsie`s" and Snargate.

Best wishes to Francie from us.

John

Subject: RE: joby isobel sutherland groombridge .club
From: Bonnie Shaljean
Date: 27 Jan 20 - 01:22 PM

Elsie's... <3 <3 <3
Another brilliant club that I always loved.

Subject: RE: joby isobel sutherland groombridge .club
From: The Sandman
Date: 28 Jan 20 - 03:07 AM

here she is againhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thYb-99wnjc

Subject: RE: joby isobel sutherland groombridge .club
From: GUEST,jim bainbridge
Date: 29 Jan 20 - 09:14 AM

Yes John from Elsie's- don't write me off yet- had some of my best nights ever at Elsie's & Doris's- Francie's still rattling her spoons and is asking after you!
Mind you, I think I owe something to Vic & Tina Smith as well as Isobel & Joby…
To clarify, I met Vic & Tina at the Blairgowrie festival in 1968- we said goodbye after the festival- I had assumed they were living in Scotland & I was moving south so said something like 'see you both next year'....
Anyway I moved south to work for Thames TV in Teddington & went to Rod & Danny Stradling's club at the 'Fighting Cocks' in Kingston. Rod organised a bus trip to a ceilidh at the Wooden Bridge hotel , on the Guildford bypass, with the Rakes as the band.
To my amazement, within minutes I found myself next to Vic in a 'Strip the Willow' set!
I think Vic offered me a booking at the 'Laughing Fish' in Isfield & met Isobel & Joby there?
Bit of a memory ramble, but hope some folk can make a connection like Isobel & Joby did all the time!
Oh, and this was 1968, not 1970- must be older than I thought...

Subject: RE: joby isobel sutherland groombridge .club
From: Vic Smith
Date: 29 Jan 20 - 09:53 AM

You did play for us at The Laughing Fish, Jim, but that was at least a decade after that. In the meantime, we had booked you a couple of times at The Lewes Arms in the early 1970s and later on around 1978 when the club met for a year or so at The Brewers Arms in the High Street. Weren't you living in the Dover/Deal at that time?
Usually, you stayed with us after the club but one time you needed to get to London that night and I was concerned because the road from us would have taken you through Brixton and that was at the time when the riots were at their height. What year was that?

The first time that we booked you in Lewes, I had been building up your first appearance in the area. but I was surprised and delighted that we had a capacity crowd - over 100 - for someone who had not been performing in the area before.

You also gave us our only ever folk club booking in Ireland in Schull and we played with you on a number of your sessions including a wonderful trip to Sherkin Island.

Subject: RE: joby isobel sutherland groombridge .club
From: GUEST,jim bainbridge
Date: 29 Jan 20 - 11:57 AM

seems the memory's going as well, Vic- mine I mean!!
Brixton riots were in 1981- we were diverted from the A23 somewhere south of Brixton & only found out why when we read the Sunday morning papers!
I was in East Kent from 1976-83- about Ireland, can you remember when just before your visit I had fallen off a barn roof & finished up with both legs in plaster?
You came to my weekly booking in Arundel's bar in Schull but I couldn't lift my feet & keep time.....
happy days, but still think you must have been involved in my first contact with Isobel & Joby?

Subject: RE: joby isobel sutherland groombridge .club
From: Vic Smith
Date: 29 Jan 20 - 12:17 PM

you must have been involved in my first contact with Isobel & Joby?
As well as running their own club, they often came to our road to see their daughter and grandaughters and then drove us to Lewes and came to the club with us. They were at the Lewes Arms more often than not and that must have been when they saw you.

You came to my weekly booking in Arundel's bar in Schull
I remember that well. On the previous week your regular guitarist, Patrick Forester, couldn't make it and you managed to phone and get a dep.... someone called Christy Moore! The word had got around and when we got to Arundel's with you we could hardly get in for all the crowds hoping that he would be there again!

Subject: RE: joby isobel sutherland groombridge .club
From: The Sandman
Date: 29 Jan 20 - 04:38 PM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n58W_WjpRYQ

Subject: RE: joby isobel sutherland groombridge .club
From: Vic Smith
Date: 30 Jan 20 - 12:47 PM

Our route to tomorrow night's gig in Tonbridge will take us past the pub in question The Junction in Groombridge. It's bound to stir good memories.

Subject: RE: joby isobel sutherland groombridge .club
From: johnadams
Date: 30 Jan 20 - 01:07 PM

I have fond memories of playing there with Muckram Wakes and staying with Joby and Isobel - a fine stimulating sociable experience.

I have one of Jobys' restored American organs - a Mason & Hamlyn picnic organ which sounds beautiful but is in old pitch so can't play with more modern instruments unless retuned. I've never had the need to retune it. I'm going to sell it soon as I need the room but I'll be making sure it goes to a good home.

Subject: RE: joby isobel sutherland groombridge .club
From: Bonnie Shaljean
Date: 30 Jan 20 - 05:40 PM

How can I have played these beasties all my life and not know what a "picnic organ" is??!! (Google doesn't seem to either: "Teddy Bears' Picnic?" it suggested hopefully... plus a few choice tidbits for organ.) The thought of bringing one out on a picnic is pure delight.

So Johnny - is it like a folding one, e.g. the Pearl River you guys had? Curious now. (Subtext please don't let me be the only one on here who doesn't know...)

Subject: RE: joby isobel sutherland groombridge .club
From: johnadams
Date: 30 Jan 20 - 07:32 PM

Hi Bonnie,
You might remember that there were two a Pearl River harmoniums (harmonia?) - the big folding one with two voices like Muckram Wakes had, and an upright single voice instrument. The picnic organ is like that and it was typically used by American religious groups for Sunday picnics. It was loaded on to a wagon and transported out to the countryside where it was used to accompany hymns. I think mine is dated somewhere around 1900. It’s a lovely little thing.

I’ve still got one of the big folding Pearl River jobs which I’ve not used since Chrissy and I stopped gigging.

Subject: RE: joby isobel sutherland groombridge .club
From: johnadams
Date: 30 Jan 20 - 07:37 PM

Here’s one on YouTube

https://youtu.be/i-LknMbIlcY

Subject: RE: joby isobel sutherland groombridge .club
From: johnadams
Date: 30 Jan 20 - 07:40 PM

Sorry, forgot to make a click.

https://youtu.be/i-LknMbIlcY

Subject: RE: joby isobel sutherland groombridge .club
From: Bonnie Shaljean
Date: 30 Jan 20 - 10:06 PM

Packie had one exactly like that! With the same triangular shape on top. We drove up to a little village* in (?) Suffolk or north Essex or somewhere, on a beautiful Sunday afternoon, where a lady in a posh old house full of gorgeous antiques was selling it. We bought it (ummmm... OK... Packie did the paying... I did the playing) and had it at Mapesbury Road for years.

Thanks for the link - love the black-&-white kitty that walked away the minute the guy started playing! Ours was a bit sharp of concert pitch, but in tune with itself.

*The church there had medieval graffiti on the inside walls from the time of the Black Plague, when the locals enclosed themselves there, as a voluntary quarantine to protect others.

This thread is making me nostalgic. Wahhhhhhhhh... I miss everybody...

Subject: RE: joby isobel sutherland groombridge .club
From: The Sandman
Date: 31 Jan 20 - 02:59 AM

how are tings out east bonnie, do they take tiffin out youghal way[joke

Subject: RE: joby isobel sutherland groombridge .club
From: GUEST,Dom
Date: 08 Feb 20 - 10:07 PM

Nice to know there are some people that remember Isobel and Joby. Growing up I remember we saw Joby in various TV series.

In 1978 my father got a harmonium from Joby. We transported it by Kombi Van to Edinburgh where we were staying. He didn’t keep it though as I think he decided it was going to be too expensive to transport back to New Zealand.

Roger Giles of Devonport Folk Club reminded me his family came over from Devizes, by van and camped in their driveway over night. My Uncle came down from Scotland and he described the occasion as being like family reunion. My parents sang at Isobel’s folk club.

Did they ever go to the Crown Inn in Groombridge as I seem to remember visiting a place that had a village green?

Subject: RE: joby isobel sutherland groombridge .club
From: The Sandman
Date: 09 Feb 20 - 03:06 AM

the club i remember was at the Railway

Subject: RE: joby isobel sutherland groombridge .club
From: GUEST,Abi Blanshard
Date: 20 Jul 21 - 02:58 PM

Hello,
,
Apologies for jumping into your thread so long after your discussions, but I wanted to thank you for saying such lovely things and sharing lovely things about Isabel & Joby who were my Granny & Grandad. (I’m their son Ken’s youngest - there were four of us grandchildren altogether)
Today would have been Isabel’s 100th birthday & it has been a joy to read your fond memories of them both.
I remember being very happy in there ‘summerhouse’ at Rotherfield playing the harmoniums for hours on end. We were very lucky grandchildren!!
I hope you are all well & keeping happy in these strange times.
Love & thanks,
Abigail

Subject: RE: joby isobel sutherland groombridge .club
From: The Sandman
Date: 21 Jul 21 - 09:43 AM

Thankyou, Abigail, I remember your grandparents fondly, such kind encouraging people. I used to look forward to going to their club. i lived in South Ockendon Essex, about a 70 mile round trip Oon sunday afternoons.
great people and great times

Subject: RE: joby isobel sutherland groombridge .club
From: The Sandman
Date: 22 Jul 21 - 04:57 PM

not the railway, the junction