NINE 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 first months of 2008:-

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 their first appearance for us with their huge repertoire of English dance tunes and songs, many from the Lake District.
Feb 7th * Free Admission * TUNE-AROUND
Led by Will Duke and Dan Quinn. Join in with the tunes you know and play some we don't. Songs allowed.
Feb 14th * £4.00 * GAVIN ATKIN & JULIE WELLS
Romantic songs for Valentine's Day sung by wonderful Kent chanteuse accompanied on duet concertina and fiddle.
Feb 21st * £5.00 * ROGER JENKENS'
Roger Grimes, Ken Langsbury and Jen Spencer from Gloucestershire perform English traditional song.
Outrageous harmonies and outrageous stories from Ken. Memories of The Songwainers.
Feb 28th * £5.00 * RÓISÍN WHITE
Róisín is a noted, distinctive and very experienced singer from Armagh. She has a great range of varied songs in English and Irish
Mar 5th * Free Admission * OPEN NIGHT
All performers, particularly new ones to the Royal Oak are welcome.
Mar 12th * £5.00 * PHIL CALLERY
One of Ireland's outstanding singers of traditional songs. Phil was with the leading Irish group,
The Voice Squad
Mar 19th * £6.00 * DAVE SWARBRICK
We are delighted to be able to present a solo appearance by the remarkable legendary fiddle player
Mar 26th * £4.00 * JAMIE CRAWFORD
A talented singer of ballads but mainly a compelling storyteller with a mesmeric presentational style.
Apl 3rd * £5.00 * ELIZABETH STEWART with ALISON MacMORLAND
Elizabeth is a prominent member of the extended travelling family that includes Britain's best traditional
singers with support from another remarkable Scots singer. Also exhilarating Scots tunes on piano from Elizabeth.

THEN OUR "AMERICAN SEASON" - 10th April until 5th June
Bryan Bowers (10/4) * Sara Grey & Kieron Means (17/4) * Claudia Gould & Ben Paley (24/4) * Rosie Davis, Joe Locker & Bob Winquist (01/5) * Bayou Seco (08/5) * Dana & Susan Robinson (15/5) * Jeff Warner (22/5) * Beverly Smith & Carl Jones (29/5) * Judy Cook (05/6)
And then before the summer break:- TIM VAN EYKEN * MARTIN CARTHY
Other guests in 2008 will include:-
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] 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:-
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)
Roisin White – "Among The Heather" – (February 28th)
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:-
BILL CADDICK January 3rd
TOM PALEY [here with THE NEW DEAL STRING BAND] January 24th
ROISIN WHITE February 28th
DAVE SWARBRICK March 20th
BRYAN BOWERS April 10th
MARTIN CARTHY June 26th
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3] 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 January 2008.
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4] 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 has just passed. The copy date for the April/may 2008 issue will be February 28th
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5] 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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6] 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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7] 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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8] HUGE EVENT with SHIRLEY COLLINS AT THE SOUTH BANK CENTRE IN LONDON IN MARCH
This press release has 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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9] SUSSEX ALL-DAY SINGAROUND - SATURDAY 19th January 11.00 a.m. - 11.00 p.m.
Once again the venue for this will be ROYAL OAK, BARCOMBE, EAST SUSSEX BN8 5BA.
Free admission - pub food on sale all day.
There will be an hour of informal tunes while people arrive. Then the singing starts, finishing with a good hour of glorious choruses. Ballads & the occasional instrumental party piece will be very welcome too. And the following day, whilst people are in the area:-
ENGLISH TUNES SESSION Sunday 20th. January noon - 3.00 p.m.
The Lewes Arms,
Mount Place,
Lewes,
East Sussex
BN7 1YH

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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.

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

Vic Smith
26 Ferrers Road
LEWES
East Sussex
BN7 1PZ
England

Tel & Fax:- 01273 478124
Email:-
tinvic@globalnet.co.uk
folk@brighton.co.uk

ROYAL OAK WEBSITE:-
http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~tinvic

SUSSEX FOLK GUIDE WEBSITE:-
http://whatson.brighton.co.uk/folk

SUSSEX PISTOLS BARN DANCE BAND WEBSITE:-
http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~tinvic/pistols.htm

COMPOUND SOUNDS WEBSITE
http://www.compoundsounds.com