TWELVE ITEMS OF FOLK MUSIC NEWS FROM SUSSEX

1] FOLK AT THE ROYAL OAK
Station Street, Lewes
Enquiries:- (01273) 478124 or 881316
Email tinvic@globalnet.co.uk.
8.pm START
Here is the programme for the next two months:-

Dec 6th * Free Admission * LEWES LATE NIGHT SHOPPING OPEN NIGHT

Dec 13th * £6.00 * ANDY IRVINE
One of the finest performers around is also a popular and regular visitor to The Royal Oak. Andy is a committed performer who is a total joy to listen to.

Dec 20th * FREE ADMISSION * CHRISTMAS PARTY NIGHT
And a right old song and dance it is too!

Dec 27th * Closed

Jan 3rd * £5.00 * BILL CADDICK
An outstanding songwriter and a compelling singer. "Holds your attention from first to last. He has hell of a voice and plays a mean guitar." fRoots

Jan 10th * £5.00 * MAT GREEN & ANDY TURNER
English folk dance tunes and songs from two of the finest exponents with Mat's fiddle
and solo jigging and Andy's melodeon, concertina and voice

Jan 17th * £5.00 * THE TITANIC SYNCOPATORS with PETA WEBB
With the Titanic Syncopators, Peta sings a range of distinctive songs from the 1920s and 30s, selected for their striking melodies and evocative lyrics.

Jan 24th * £5.00 * THE NEW DEAL STRING BAND
American Old Timey at its finest from three outstanding exponents. Tom Paley, his son Ben and Joe Locker.

Jan 31st * £5.00 * THE BOAT BAND
This very experienced quartet make this first appearance for us with their huge repertoire of English dance tunes and songs, many from the Lake District.
Other guests in 2008 will include:-
* Elizabeth Stewart with Alison McMorland * Beverley Smith & Carl Jones * Roisin White * Sara Grey & Kieron Means * Bryan Bowers * Bayou Seco * Phil Callery * Jeff Warner * Tim Van Eyken * Dave Swarbrick * Martin Carthy * Judy Cook * Dave Sealey * Bruce Molsky * Jeff Gillett & Ron Taylor
Our websites are at http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~tinvic and
http://www.myspace.com/royaloakfolklewes

Those of you with listings/ gig guides etc. are asked kindly to include
these dates amongst them.
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2] ROYAL OAK AMERICAN SEASON
From April 10th until June 5th we are having an AMERICAN SEASON at the Royal Oak and each Thursday we will feature some of the many top American performers that will be touring in the UK at that time plus one or two that are based in the UK. There are still some dates to be finalised, but at the moment the season will feature:-
April 10th BRYAN BOWERS
April 17th SARA GREY & KIERON MEANS
May 8th BAYOU SECO
May 22nd JEFF WARNER
May 29th BEVERLEY SMITH & CARL JONES
June 5th JUDY COOK
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3] FOLK AT THE ROYAL OAK ON "MYSPACE"
An additional website for the Royal Oak has been developed to give the
venture a MYSPACE profile. This should enable us to profile sample tracks of
coming guests as well as photos and biographies. It is at
http://www.myspace.com/royaloakfolklewes
Currently on our MYSPACE we have the following tracks by coming guests:-
Andy Irvine - "Gladiators" - (December 13th)
Bill Caddick - Slipping Away - (January 3rd)
Mat Green & Andy Turner - "Quicksteps" - (January 10th)
The Titanic Syncopators with Peta Webb - "Pennies From Heaven" - (January 17th)
The New Deal String Band - "Penney's Farm" - (January 24th)
The Boat Band - "Carlisle Reel" - (January 31st)
There is also a photo montage video of some of the best nights at the Royal Oak between 2002 and 2006 and video clips of some of our coming guests:-
ANDY IRVINE December 13th
BILL CADDICK January 3rd
TOM PALEY [here with THE NEW DEAL STRING BAND] January 24th
DAVE SWARBRICK March 20th
BRYAN BOWERS April 10th
MARTIN CARTHY June 26th
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4] SUSSEX FOLK GUIDE WEBSITE - UPDATED
For all the listings of folk music, song club, dances, festivals in and
around Sussex, have a look at http://whatson.brighton.co.uk/folk
This site all always kept updated with the latest events and those currently
listed cover all the dates up until the end of December 2007.
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5] THE FOLK DIARY
Most of the listings on the Sussex Folk Guide website are taken from the
paper magazine, THE FOLK DIARY Issue no 228 covers the months of December & January and this is now available. They are packed with adverts for various folk festivals, folk music record companies, specialist shops, instrument makers and other services as well as details of all the folk song and dance events in our area. As well there are four pages of reviews of recent fool music books, CDs and DVDs. To obtain copies of this free magazine as it is published, please send SAE's to Vic Smith at the address below. (Make sure that the SAE stamp meets the new postal charges!)
It is also the address to send album review copies to. Potential advertisers are also asked to contact Vic for a statement of our advertising rates. The copy date for issue no 229 covering the months of February and March is December 31st.
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6] THE FOLK DIARY ON LINE
THE FOLK DIARY is available on-line. For some years now, all the
listings which THE FOLK DIARY gives has been given in date order on THE
SUSSEX FOLK GUIDE WEBSITE but now, the entire magazine is available on-line;
go to the website for the FOLK AT THE ROYAL OAK, LEWES
http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~tinvic and then click on the "Folk Diary"
symbol. You will need Adobe ACROBAT READER to read the pages and, frankly,
unless you are on broadband, the page will take too long to download. The
size of each page is given by each page link and the content of each page is
indicated. The following issue is now on-line and is listed here with the content of each page :-

ISSUE No. 228 DECEMBER 2007 - JANUARY 2008
Page 1 (2335kb) Croydon Folk Club (Mons), Lord Nelson, Brighton (Mons) Steve Hicks concert in Horsham, Christmas Ceilidh in Bexhill.
Page 2 (1589kb) Sussex Folk Association. Fee Calls Ceilidhs, Elsies (Sats), Worthing Ceilidhs, Footlights West Chiltington (Sats), Pepper's Ghost at Brighton Toy Museum, Rude Mechanicals Shoreham (Weds), Spyboy events at Hailsham Pavilion
Page 3 (402kb) Lewes Arms Lewes (Sats), Royal Oak Lewes (Thurs) - Advertising rates and copy dates
Page 4 (402kb) Book and CD reviews
Page 5 (422kb) CD reviews, Amberley Folk Club (Tues), BCMA trip to Texas.
Page 6 (926kb) Cellarfolk Brighton (Tues), Vince Purcell fiddles, Mid- Sussex folk singers (Weds), Willows Folk Club Arundel (Weds), Seaford Folk Club (Fris)
Page 7 (581kb) Fireman's Arms Uckfield (Tues), Brighton Singers' Club (Weds & Suns), GBH Ceilidhs Godalming, Chris & Jill from Cornflower Blue, Acoustic Sussex
Page 8 (227kb) CD reviews.
Page 9 (284kb) CD reviews, Button Badges, The Sussex Pistols
Page 10 (1263kb) Barry Murphy banjoes, Sandra's party, Horsham Folk Club (Suns), Lewes Ceilidhs, Six Bells Chiddingly (Tues), White Horse Bodle St. Green (Mons),
Page 11 (1437kb) Hobgoblin Music, Electric Voices Guildford area, Meltdown Ceilidhs, SEFAN.
Page 12 (2053kb) Mistletoes To Maypoles Hawth Crawley, Transports of Delight at Brighton Toy Museum, Komedia Brighton.

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7] NEW WEBSITE ADDRESS FOR THE LEWES ARMS FOLK CLUB
This message comes from Bryan Creer:-
The Lewes Arms Folk Club website has now moved to http://www.lewesarmsfolkclub.org/ so please update your links.
It looks pretty much the same. A few things didn't work and I think I've fixed them. If you find any more, please let me know.
Bryan
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8] INSTRUMENTAL & VOCAL WORKSHOPS IN LEWES
LEWES ARMS FOLK CLUB WORKSHOPS 2008

The workshops last a full Saturday or Sunday and the tutor performs at the club in the evening.

15th March        Alistair Anderson                 Northumbrian music (any instrument)
19th April        Martin Carthy                       Guitar & song (12 places only)
7th June        Cloudstreet                              Vocal harmony
14th June        Paul Hutchinson                 Accordion
14th June        Paul Sartin                         Fiddle
                                Belshazzar's Feast evening (TBC)
19th July        Mick West                                   Scottish song
19th July        Frank McLaughlin                 Scottish music for guitar
20th Sept        Mary Humphreys & Anahata    Fenland tunes (any instrument)
18th Oct        John Kirkpatrick                      Modes (any instrument)
25th Oct        Coope Boyes & Simpson          Vocal harmony        
25th Oct        Georgina Boyes Seminar on Wassails, Carols & Winter Customs (pm)
22nd Nov        Roy Clinging & Neil Brookes   Cheshire tunes (any instrument)


The website for more details is
http://www.lewesarmsfolkclub.org/LAFC/workshps.html or contact Valmai
Goodyear on (01273) 476757 or email ValmaiGoodyear@aol.com
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9] REGULAR SESSIONS IN THE LEWES/BRIGHTON AREA
Bryan Creer has taken on the task of detailing these and they are listed at
http://www.lewesarmsfolkclub.org/LAFC/Sessions.html Have a look and
if there are any you think that Bryan has missed - contact him on
Bryancreer@aol.com

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10] BRIGHTON MIDWINTER CEILIDH
20th DECEMBER CORN EXCHANGE, BRIGHTON
Once again, this hugely popular event will feature The Sussex Pistols with caller Vic Smith. Though there is a very large capacity, the event sells out very quickly. Last year, we had quite a number of enquiries coming to us to see if we had any tickets, once the Dome Box Office announced that it was sold out. Well, we didn't have any and won't again this year so if want to come, you would be advised to go soon to their website at http://www.brightondome.org or to phone the Box Office on 01273 709709
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11] HUGE SHIRLEY COLLINS EVENT AT THE SOUTH BANK CENTRE IN LONDON IN MARCH
This press release has just been issued by the South Bank Centre in London:-
SHIRLEY COLLINS' 'FOLK ROOTS, NEW ROUTES'
25 - 30 March 2008, Southbank Centre
Folk Roots, New Routes - a five-day series of performances and talks in the Queen Elizabeth Hall and Purcell Room programmed by the renowned and much-loved folk singer Shirley Collins. The America Over The Water talk in the Purcell Room (a fascinating account of her journeys with Alan Lomax) was a surprise hit event of 2006. The diverse line-up of expected guests will attest to an influence and an address book that extends far beyond the world of folk music.
Look out for more details of these talks/concerts/performances etc as they emerge. There will certainly be full details in these circulars.
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12] DOGAN MEHMET IN FINALS OF BBC YOUNG FOLK AWARDS 2008
Dogan has been seen regularly playing his fiddle and melodeon and singing in the two Lewes folk clubs either on his own, in partnership with Matt Quinn or as a member of Too Many Strings. The final will be on Friday the 7th of December at the Queen Elizabeth Hall on the South Bank in London. Tickets are free and for more details check out www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/folk Dogan would be delighted to have some support at this event.
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A NUMBER OF OUR GAMBIAN INTERESTS HAVE NOW BEEN GATHERED
TOGETHER UNDER THE FOLLOWING WEBSITE
**COMPOUND SOUNDS***
Have a look at it at http://www.compoundsounds.com where we have
added a video clip of Jail Sheriff Kenneth playing at the Whitby
Music port Festival in October 2005.
*** This website includes the work that we are doing to help to set up a new music school in Brakeman, teaching okra, blazon, demes and jail singing to European tourists to The Gambia.

***The lovely batiks made by Bubal Drummer sell through this site and we photograph each one to show on the site:- http://www.compoundsounds.com/batiks/index.html

The Compound Sounds website can now accept payment for batiks and
for the two albums by the kora maestro Jali Sherrifo Konteh by Paypal and
most major credit cards. Sound clips from Sherrifo's album "Chesano" have
been added to this website.
Sherrifo has a Myspace site where you can hear six tracks by him at   http://www.myspace.com/jalisherrifokonteh
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...And if you are ever looking for a good barn dance band, look no further than THE SUSSEX PISTOLS - though you should get in quickly - available dates for 2008 are being snapped up quickly. Once again this year, the Sussex Pistols will be playing for the big Brighton Midwinter Ceilidh at the Corn Exchange in Brighton on December 20th.

Contact Tina on 01273 478124 or email her at tinasmith226@yahoo.co.uk to book the band.
The band's website is at http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~tinvic/pistols.htm and, yes,
they also have a MYSPACE profile as well at http://www.myspace.com/thesussexpistols

VIC & TINA SMITH