At the Railway (Heatley, Lymm) we run Guest Nights, Singers Nights and 'Big Spots'. Sorry if this comes across as a 'plug'... we don't really need it, we're doing well enough without, thank you!!

A 'Big Spot' is a Singers Night for the first half, with a guest ('showcase' idea as above) for the second half.

We attract in excess of fifty people on a Singers Night, at least half of whom are performers. This means we can only allow one item per person, three items for a band. It's rare that we manage to start a second round, although we may put someone on to close the night if time allows.

Our residents (Stewart Lever, Nelson-Peach, Nick and Lin, Don and Heather, and me) take turns in providing the 'warm-up' on guest nights, which quite often are full houses - in the past few weeks Martin Carthy, Vin Garbutt, Martin Simpson and the John Wright Band have sold out well before the night - Boo Hewardine looks like doing the same, and tickets are going fast for John Kirkpatrick - December 7th.

We are proud of the fact that the pub has resisted change, and isn't 'plastic'. It is CAMRA listed, and offers a range of 'guest beers' which change week by week.

What comes as a surprise to some people is the fact that a musicians' session is usually running in the 'Snug' at the same time as the club is running upstairs - so it's a bit like a festival every week.

Added to that is our fortnightly 'Songs in the Snug' on the 2nd and 4th Wednesdays of each month - a sort of traditional 'singaround'. One of our Snug regulars is Ted Edwards...

Interestingly, though, a Singers Night crowd differs significantly from a Guest Night crowd - though there are some 'core regulars' who attend both. It certainly indicates that the folk scene is healthy in Lymm and the surrounding area.

That's why I make the forty mile round trip every week...

People can make all the disparaging remarks that they like, but not everyone likes festivals... I only go to festivals if I'm booked!!

Hint... ;o)