best folk club gig ever

Subject: best folk club gig ever
From: The Sandman
Date: 07 Dec 06 - 04:26 AM

various threads on this site, got me thinking about folk club gigs I have done.
For me it was my very first gig,at the fighting cocks kingston 1976.marginally ahead o black bull blaydon 2006,both had excellent floorsingers, the first gig The singers that I remember were jim mageean and annie fentiman.
the Blaydon gig, vic gammon, peter wood, and many others .,Both clubs were well Attended,and well organised. Any one else had memorably good folk club gigs.Dick Miles

Subject: RE: best folk club gig ever
From: Blowzabella
Date: 07 Dec 06 - 06:51 AM

My most memorable folk club gig, was Roaring Jelly's retirement gig, (Custard's Last Stand) at the Red Lion, Trimdon. I was only a 'bairn' and they had been the first band I saw at a Folk Club - contemplating their loss was dreadful and I was torn between laughing so much I nearly lost control - or crying at the prospect I'd never get to see them again!

If memory serves me right, i did se them once more after that - didn't they do a reunion tour soon after to ..er...pay some bills?

Subject: RE: best folk club gig ever
From: Hamish
Date: 07 Dec 06 - 06:57 AM

Old Rope String Band sometime in 2005.

Planning to see the New Rope String Band next month at Forest Folk...

Best "Folk Gig" not in a folk club? Bottine Souriante, Hemel Pavilion; or Bellowhead, Komedia, Brighton.

Subject: RE: best folk club gig ever
From: alanabit
Date: 07 Dec 06 - 09:36 AM

The first time I saw Downes and Beer in 1976. They began with quiet, understated musicianship, progressed in to harmony and virtuosity and finished it off with inspired lunacy and a version of David Bowie's "Starman". I have never seen a duo since, who can do quite so much so well.

Subject: RE: best folk club gig ever
From: GUEST,Chris B (Born Again Scouser)
Date: 07 Dec 06 - 11:22 AM

Best night I ever spent in a folk club was one night in the summer of 1980. I went to see Martin Carthy and Jody Stecher with Krishna Bhatt at the Bull and Bush in Richmond, Surrey. Carthy was as good as I expected but the real revelation was Jody Stecher and Krishna Bhatt. If you ever heard them, you'll know. I searched high and low for their album after that. Took years to find it.

If that wasn't good enough, Noel Murphy also played a wonderful set of traditional songs (he laid off the crap jokes for one night and reminded everyone what a good singer he was) and Hot Vultures also played a short set. I wasn't a huge fan but at least it saved me paying money to come back and see them another night.

Finally, an honourable mention to their resident singer at the time, Jonathan Asprey, who did a marvellous set to open up with. All for a quid.

Subject: RE: best folk club gig ever
From: GUEST,Phillip
Date: 07 Dec 06 - 11:29 AM

Ewan, Hamish, Neil and Calum MacColl at The SIngers Club in about 1980. Their performance of Cheer'ly Man made most of the building fall down.

Subject: RE: best folk club gig ever
From: Les in Chorlton
Date: 07 Dec 06 - 12:09 PM

Hillary and thingy, Prines Hotel, Ellesmere Port1964, Peter Ballamy, Grove, Leeds 1972, Jackie Daly and Seamus Cray Hat and Feather, Bath 1976, Boat Band, White Lion, Swinton 2006

Subject: RE: best folk club gig ever
From: Bugsy
Date: 08 Dec 06 - 01:32 AM

My best gig ever was at Mundaring Folk & Blues Club when Jez Lowe came all the way to Australia from UK just to "Close" form me. Mind you, if you ask him, he'll say that I "Opened" for him.

If I get booked for the 2007 National festival in Canberra, Jez'll be there to "Close" for me again.

He's loyal is our Jez.


Cheers


Bugsy

Subject: RE: best folk club gig ever
From: GUEST
Date: 08 Dec 06 - 12:20 PM

Hedgehog Pie at the Bay Horse in Doncaster 1974 ish

Subject: RE: best folk club gig ever
From: Dartford Warbler
Date: 08 Dec 06 - 01:49 PM

Mr Gladstone's Bag at Dartford Folk Club (when at the Railway Hotel) in 197?

Can still remember waving the bunting they had passed around the entire audience and being in stitches during the whole show.

Subject: RE: best folk club gig ever
From: Bert
Date: 08 Dec 06 - 01:51 PM

Bucks County Folk Song Society are the best.

Subject: RE: best folk club gig ever
From: Les in Chorlton
Date: 09 Dec 06 - 12:07 PM

Hillary and thingy, Prines Hotel, Ellesmere Port 1964, Peter Ballamy, Grove, Leeds 1972, Jackie Daly and Seamus Cray Hat and Feather, Bath 1976, Boat Band, White Lion, Swinton 2006.

But now The Duncan McFarlane Band, last night, Otley Folk Club, stu-fookin-pendous.

Subject: RE: best folk club gig ever
From: Bugsy
Date: 09 Dec 06 - 06:59 PM

Sorry guys, I read the first line of the original post and thought it was the best gig YOU'VE ever done.

Best gig for me was at Bowes Lyon house, 1964/5 I saw, Tom Paxton, Bill Clifton & the Echo Mountain Boys, Derek Brimstone, plus Bill Monroe & the Bluegrass Boys and a few other acts who's names escape me after all these years. Bill even played a request for me (Orange Blossom Special).

Perhaps you can understand the impression a gig like this left on the mind of a 16 year old who had just discovered folk and got his first musical instrument (an autoharp).

My life's just never been the same since :>)

CHeers


Bugsy

Subject: RE: best folk club gig ever
From: Dartford Warbler
Date: 10 Dec 06 - 12:12 PM

first musical instrument (an autoharp).

Autoharp = Musical instrument ????? ;-)

Subject: RE: best folk club gig ever
From: The Sandman
Date: 10 Dec 06 - 02:37 PM

when I started the thread, that was my intention,I went on to describe two of my most enjoyable gigs, THIS THREAD WAS MEANT TO BE BEST FOLK CLUB GIG YOU HAVE EVER DONE, still your all having a good time, so what does it matter.

Subject: RE: best folk club gig ever
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 10 Dec 06 - 03:07 PM

So many of my favourite folksingers I could never choose. The best ones though always seem to be in the top room of a pub. Hardly anybody there in the way of audience and the artist knows the fee is safe, so he thinks - I'll just go for it..... do my best.

Noel Murphy, Derek Brimstone (of course), Gerry Lockran, Jack Hudson, Alex Campbell, Roy Harris, Pete Quin, Spider John Koerner, Martin Carthy (of course).....a couple dozen others spring to mind.

it good, folk music...... innit?

I suppose there are certain acts which NEED an audience.... I think I would put Brownsville Banned......(that gas mask moment!) at the top of that league.

Subject: RE: best folk club gig ever
From: GUEST,Greycap
Date: 10 Dec 06 - 03:30 PM

Any night at the old Cropwell Bishop folk club near Nottingham

Subject: RE: best folk club gig ever
From: Big Mick
Date: 10 Dec 06 - 03:39 PM

It kind of qualifies as a folk club gig. At the FSGW Getaway, I have done several mini concerts. I absolutely love singing for these folks. It can be a bit disconcerting for the uninitiated, but I love it. The disconcerting bit has to do with singing for a very savvy group of folkies that understand the music, and its context, very well. I love taking much loved songs with a historical point of view, often political, and then singing them my own way (arrangement, phrasing, stylings), often with an eye to showing why they are relevant today. Because many of these songs had a political point of view when they were written, I like to show how they are just as relevant today. When one does this in front of folks like the FSGW'ers who really know this music, it is a thrilling yet terrifying experiment. Blow it, or come off trite, and you will see it in their faces in a Silver Spring second. But when they sit there, they realize you are up to something, you can see them figuring it out, and then they start singing the verses with you, adding harmony, filling in the spaces............ absolutely the best ever. It is why I have come to regard these folks with such affection. FSGW events ....... best folk gigs ever.

Mick

Subject: RE: best folk club gig ever
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 10 Dec 06 - 04:01 PM

Aye lad! Cropwell bishop was indeed a good one, with the seats ripped out of old buses....! That was living it up in them days...

still here we are tonite drinking our Chateau de Chatilly, tell the kids of today what a good time we had and they'll look at your like you're daft!

Other people who I've seen do brilliant gigs to empty pub backrooms... roy harper and Ian Campbell.

Subject: RE: best folk club gig ever
From: GUEST,woodsie
Date: 10 Dec 06 - 04:10 PM

For me the most memorable were those late after hours sessions that were sort of ad hoc after the main evening gig was over with just 4 or 5 people playing and maybe some of the people that never join the main session due to shyness or whatever start let their hair down
We used to have some great nights like that down at the Guidford Arms in Greenwich before it became a trendy wine bar

Subject: RE: best folk club gig ever
From: Rasener
Date: 11 Dec 06 - 02:36 PM

>>I suppose there are certain acts which NEED an audience<<

I would put it in a differeent way WLD.

Its great if an act can have a good audience. It does the act good and the audience get a good night.

Bakewell springs to mind :-) Oh my god not Bakewell - almost broke my marriage up.

Subject: RE: best folk club gig ever
From: the lemonade lady
Date: 11 Dec 06 - 07:38 PM

Llantrisant Folk club; I laughed so much when Arthur started ad libbing in one of his own songs. Doesn't matter cos no one knows the song, but John and I had to harmonise in the chorus and we weren't sure what was going on. I just corpsed knowing i had to pull it together for the last song that is tacked onto the end of his song. The audience were laughing with me but they had no idea what i was laughing at.

Happened again in Loughborough last week.

Sal
www.myspace.com/shotdogs

Subject: RE: best folk club gig ever
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 12 Dec 06 - 05:27 AM

Les - I take it you never saw the gasmask moment, in Brownsville banned's act. probably what some of our more learned brethren on Mudcat would call second rate comedians - not to be compared with the esoteric delight of getting you arse bored off by a real expert - a guardian of the tradtion, with the words in an exercise book.

Subject: RE: best folk club gig ever
From: Rasener
Date: 12 Dec 06 - 05:32 AM

Al
The simple answere is "No"
Les

Subject: RE: best folk club gig ever
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 12 Dec 06 - 05:44 AM

Watch and learn - the best live act ever on the English folk scene. utterly mesmerising performers. Sadly too early for the alternative comedy revolution of the 1980's. they made everything on your television seem irrelevant, and they are probably one of the reasons I find the present orthodoxies so hard to swallow - let alone those miserable buggers who would legislate for us - what should be in folk clubs. Yes the folk scene managed to stifle talent like this - f--king well done!

http://www.angelfire.com/band2/brownsville/from1977.htm

Subject: RE: best folk club gig ever
From: The Sandman
Date: 19 Sep 17 - 11:25 AM

AlexCampbell about 1974 at dartford folk club

Subject: RE: best folk club gig ever
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 19 Sep 17 - 01:04 PM

1 October 1993 at the Tree Inn Folk Club, Stratton, near Bude. Ron Kavana, Miriam Kavana and Fran Byrne. Magic! And they went on over time by more than two hours. Three amazing musicians. Ron went off in several directions in the 90s and even seemed to go into hiding for a while. Many may not consider it pure folk music but he was a killer act when it came to the jigs, reels and polkas. Some damn good songs too.

Subject: RE: best folk club gig ever
From: GUEST,Some bloke
Date: 20 Sep 17 - 01:29 PM

Nic Jones in a village near Retford only a few weeks before his accident.

Paul Metzers supported and the trad from Nic combined with the modern songs by Paul made a perfect evening. (My mate and did a floor spot on melodeon and banjo, as Dick asks for our own performances, and yeah, looking back...)

The most fun gig was helping carry Tony Capstick back to his in laws after a session which started with him doing some cracking songs before the beers started lining up, circa 1979.

Subject: RE: best folk club gig ever
From: GUEST
Date: 20 Sep 17 - 02:05 PM

In 1998 Truro, Cornwall..Martin Carthy. He went long overtime and we had to find a place to sleep as we had missed the Bus to Newquay. Same year at Bodmin, Norma Waterson and Eliza Carthy...wonderful.

Subject: RE: best folk club gig ever
From: GUEST,Jim Knowledge
Date: 21 Sep 17 - 10:40 AM

I `ad that Mick Diles in my cab the other day. Don`t ask me why but `e `ad sand all in `is Barnet and `e`d printed off some posts from that Mudcat about good folk club gigs and whatever.
`e said, " Morning Jim. `ere you lot `ave been gigging folk clubs all over for years. What`s your best one you can recall?"
I said, " That`s a no brainer Mick. We were booked at a pub just by the bottom gates of Greenwich Park. They`d double booked a wedding and when we turned up they were just getting stuck into some grub and claret. We just sat down at the bottom table, nobody said a word, we `ad a blooming good meal, toasted the Bride and Groom, all got pissed and we didn`t `ave to play a note. They don`t come better than that!!"


Whaddam I Like??

Subject: RE: best folk club gig ever
From: DBov
Date: 22 Sep 17 - 05:03 PM

Bill Caddick's Urban Legend at the Dabbers FC in Nantwich in 1991 - a brilliant night. Sadly they weren't together for very long and their only recording was a limited edition cassette sold at gigs - mine, transferred to CDR, still gets played regularly.

Subject: RE: best folk club gig ever
From: Fossil
Date: 23 Sep 17 - 07:29 PM

Well, just to prove that 'Catters never read threads before hastening in, the OP asked for personal experiences of the best folk club gig YOU did. Not who was the main act at a good night you may have had back in 1842.

Anyway, I'm not a famous act or anything, but I do sing and play guitar at a lot of open mic nights around home, and last week I went to one that succeeded almost in spite of itself. Upstairs in a private club on the sea front of a small beach place in New Zealand, it was a new venture by a friend of mine. When I arrived, there were a lot of total strangers, eating, drinking and playing pool. TV screens all around were tuned to a variety of Sky Sports channels. And up one corner was a dinky podium, where some poor guy was trying to compete with an amplified acoustic and some songs he had written. I almost turned around and went home.

But by the time my name came up on the blackboard, the diners and the pool players had all left, lots of other live music aficionados had turned up and the TV's had been muted. And the stage itself, though small, was adequate and the sound system was superb, with a very solid foldback speaker, so I could hear exactly what I was singing. And my guitar was in tune. And I had had just about enough beer that my voice was well lubricated, but I could remember the words.

Sometimes it all comes together. The best folk club gig ever? Probably not. But I felt pretty good afterwards, anyway!