THIRTEEN ITEMS OF FOLK MUSIC NEWS FROM SUSSEX FOR JANUARY

Well first of all, a HAPPY NEW YEAR to all readers. May you have a successful year and enjoy the music of your choice wherever you are. There will be plenty of good stuff on offer in Sussex:-
1] FOLK AT THE ROYAL OAK
Station Street, Lewes
Enquiries:- (01273) 478124 or 881316
Email tinvic@globalnet.co.uk.
Every Thursday 8.pm PROMPT START
Here is our programme for the first three months of 2009
Jan 1st * Closed

Jan 8th * £7.00 * THE SULTANS OF SQUEEZE
Two maestros of free reed instruments and England's finest folk singer. John Kirkpatrick and Chris Parkinson make their first appearance in the area. Unmissable!

Jan 15th * £5.00 * MAGGIE HOLLAND
Now based in Edinburgh, this is a rare southern appearance for this very talented singer of traditional songs plus songwriter, with banjo and guitar.

Jan 22nd * £5.00 * BILL PRINCE
The debut in Lewes of a very engaging singer with a crisp and adventurous guitar style. Traditional and own songs.

Jan 29th * £5.00 * "LISTEN & YOU SHALL HEAR" – THE LIFE & WORK OF LUCY BROADWOOD
As told, sung and played by Irene Shettle and Ralph Jordan.

Feb 5th * £6.00 * JEFF DAVIS
A very welcome return visit for one of America's finest performers of traditional songs and tunes on banjo, mandolo, guitar and fiddle.

Feb 12th * £5.00 * ZOOX
The enormously entertaining and talented trio of Linda Game, Becky Menday and Jo May

Feb 19th * £5.00 * THE OTHER BAND
One of the most popular bands in the south of England with a wide repertoire, Marilyn Bennett, Iris Bishop & Gary Holder

Feb 26th * £5.00 * FAUSTUS
The third trio on the trot! This time the superb combination of three of the folk scene's young Turks, Benji Kirkpatrick, Saul Rose and Paul Sartin

Mar 5th * £7.00 * MARTIN CARTHY, NORMA WATERSON & CHRIS PARKINSON
It is difficult not to fall back on superlatives; let's just say that in English folk music terms, this is as good as it gets.

Mar 12th * £5.00 * JIM & LYNETTE ELDON
The pride of Yorkshire! Jim is rightly regarded as one of the icons of English music with his singing and fiddling and Lynette is a champion clog dancer.

Mar 19th * £7.00 * DAVE SWARBRICK
We are delighted to welcome back the legendary fiddle player for another night of his tunes, songs and stories.

Mar 26th * £6.00 * LEON ROSSELSON
This year Leon will be celebrating fifty years of singing his challenging, thoughtful, provocative songs. His performances are a delight.

Apl 2nd * 5.00 * JIM BAINBRIDGE
A real one-off character. Jim's songs come from a wide range of sources and represent a unique approach to the tradition. He is also a great melodeon player

Our Future Guests will include:-
* THE ASKEW SISTERS * CHRIS FOSTER * CON FADA O'DRISCEOIL * TONY HALL * JERRY EPSTEIN & RALPH BODINGTON * DICK GAUGHAN * SPIERS, SHEPHEARD & WATSON * DAVE RUCH * JON BODEN, FAY HIELD & SAM SWEENEY

Our websites are at
http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~tinvic
and
http://www.myspace.com/royaloakfolklewes

Those of you who arrange listings are politely requested to include all of the above.
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2] FOLK AT THE ROYAL OAK ON "MYSPACE"
Our MYSPACE profile enables us to profile sample tracks of coming guests as well as show photos and biographies of coming guests. It is at http://www.myspace.com/royaloakfolklewes
Currently on our MYSPACE we have the following tracks by coming guests:-
Sultans of Squeeze [John Kirkpatrick & Chris Parkinson] - "Gentlemen of High Renown" - (January 8th)
Maggie Holland - "A Proper Sort of Gardener" - (January 15th)
Bill Prince - "Once I Courted A Damsel" - (January 22nd)
Jeff Davis - "Adieu Sweet Lovely Nancy" - (February 5th)
Zoox - "Draggin' The Bow" - (February 12th)
Norma Waterson - "Sheepcrook And Black Dog" - (March 5th)

After each gig the songs will drop off to be replaced with another by an upcoming guest. In addition there are videos by each of the following coming guest artists:-
SULTANS OF SQUEEZE - January 8th
ZOOX - February 12th
NORMA WATERSON & MARTIN CARTHY – March 5th
Then
DAVE SWARBRICK – March 19th
JIM ELDON - March 12th
DAVE SWARBRICK – March 19th
LEON ROSSELSON – March 26th
THE ASKEW SISTERS - April 16th
CHRIS FOSTER - April 23rd
TONY HALL - June 11th
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3] FOLK AT THE ROYAL OAK ON "YOUTUBE"
There are two photo-montage videos of artists that have appeared at the Royal Oak in past years posted on "Youtube". The first one features singers and musicians who have played at The Royal
Oak between 2002 and 2006. You can see it at:-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnHcbITBoJ0
It is accompanied by the following music:-
a] Foul Weather Call/From Night Till Morn
b] Monkey Hornpipe/Stepdance
c] Hunt The Squirrel/Four Hand Reel
This is played by Dan Quinn & Will Duke, two of the resident performers at the Royal Oak, and taken from their album "Wild Boys" available from:-
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/rebe.cleveland/hebeweb.htm
The second one is a montage of some of the best performances at the Royal Oak during 2007. You can see it at:-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnHcbITBoJ0
It is accompanied by the following music:-
a] The High Low Schottische / Untitled Schottische
b] The Bird on Nellie's Hat / Hopscotch Schottische
It is played by Will Duke, one of the resident performers at the Royal Oak,
and taken from his 2008 album "Out of the Box " available from Will by
emailing him at willlawrenceduke@hotmail.com
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4] SUSSEX FOLK GUIDE WEBSITE - UPDATED
For all the listings of folk music, song club, dances, festivals in andaround 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 2009.
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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 234 covers the months of December and 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 pages of reviews of recent folk CDs. To obtain copies of this free magazine as it is published, please send SAE's to Vic Smith at the address below.
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 the April/May issue is February 28th. However, it should be mentioned that once the available space has been filled, no more adverts can be accepted even if they are received BEFORE the copy date. With this in mind, it is worth contacting the editors before the copy date to state your intentions and reserve advertising space even if you have not got final details or you copy prepared.
Please contact
JIM MARSHALL 01273 559750 jimars@globalnet.co.uk
Or
VIC SMITH 01273 478124 tinvic@globalnet.co.uk
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6] THE FOLK DIARY ON LINE
THE FOLK DIARY is available on-line at
http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~tinvic/fd.htm You will need Adobe ACROBAT READER to read the pages. 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. 234 DECEMBER 2008 - JANUARY 2009
Page 1 (913kb) Zoox gigs, Barber and Taylor at the Good Companions, The Rude Mechanicals (Weds). Brighton Folk & Blues Club (Fris) , Tacet Ensemble/ Spiers and Boden "Junctions" tour
Page 2 (1409kb) Piggies Open Mic Uckfied (Tues), Greg Harper, Lamb Eastbourne (Weds), Hobgoblin Music, Spyboy presentations
Page 3 (1201kb) Komedia Brighton, Royal Oak Lewes (Thurs) - Advertising rates and copy dates
Page 4 (2498kb) Willows Arundel (Weds), CD Reviews
Page 5 (1346kb) Brighton Acoustic sessions (Mon), Horsham Folk Club (Suns), CD Reviews
Page 6 (410kb) Brighton Folk, CD Reviews.
Page 7 (622kb) SEFAN Strategic conference, Taverners' Christmas Party, Barry Murphy banjos, Richard Thompson at Brighton Dome, Maypoles to Mistletoe at Hawth Crawley
Page 8 (832kb) Fee Calls Ceilidhs, Elsie's (Sats), Beacon Tunbridge Wells (Mons), Six Bells Chiddingly (Tues), Brighton Singers Club (Suns & Weds), Meltdown Ceilidhs Haywards Heath (Sats) Brighton Cellarfolk (Tues)
Page 9 (1984kb) Croydon Folk Club (Mons), Sussex Folk Association, Acoustic Sussex
Page 10 (1395kb) Seaford Folk Club (Fris), Dansez Francais, Mid-Sussex Folk Singers, Spinning Jenny Dance Band.
Page 11 (1288kb) Twagger Band, Jolly Brewer Brighton (Thurs), Vince's fiddles, Electric Voices (Guildford area), White Horse Bodle Street Green (Mons)
Page 12 (657kb) Lewes Arms Lewes (Sats)
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7] BIG CHANGES FOR THE LEWES ARMS FOLK CLUB IN 2009
Valmai Goodyear writes:-
Dear Everyone,
After twenty-one years at the Lewes Arms, the Lewes Arms Folk Club is moving to the Elephant & Castle, White Hill, Lewes BN7 2DJ   (www.elephantandcastlelewes.co.uk ). We haven't quite finalised the name, but we expect to call ourselves something like 'LEWES SATURDAY FOLK CLUB at the Elephant & Castle.'

Our first night there will be a singaround on the theme of Great Escapes on Saturday 3rd. January.

We are moving because the new management of the Lewes Arms has asked us for £50 to use the club-room on a Saturday night and £75 during the daytime when we run workshops because they want to use it as a restaurant at weekends. We run to break even and give all door money to our guest performers, paying for our advertising with a weekly raffle and occasional night without a guest; the management were well aware of this when they asked us for money, which they described as a peppercorn rent in comparison with the amount of money they could be making out of the space we use: a room that holds fifty people at a pinch.
Not only have we been at the Arms for twenty-one years, but Vic and Tina Smith ran a superb club there before us; the best of traditional music has been in the pub for the best part of forty years. My first visit was to Scan Tester's 83rd. birthday party in September 1971. This year alone we have run and weekly performances and fifteen all-day workshops by excellent musicians including Alistair Anderson, Martin Carthy, John Kirkpatrick, Paul Sartin and Coope Boyes & Simpson.
If you would like to protest to the owners, Fuller Smith and Turner, in the hope of showing them that a lot of people value folk clubs and that they will lose goodwill and money by evicting them from their pubs, please email
fullers@fullers.co.uk

or write to

Mr. Michael Turner, Executive Chairman, Fuller Smith & Turner Plc, The Griffin Brewery, Chiswick Lane South, London W4 2QB.

Best wishes,

Valmai
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8] CONCERTINA ANONYMOUS SESSIONS
With the folk club moving all the other traditional music activities are moving to the Elephant and Castle from January 2009. Bryan Creer's Concertinas Anonymous sessions will move from the Lewes Arms on the first Monday evening of the month to the Elephant and Castle, White Hill, Lewes BN7 2DL (www.elephantandcastlelewes.co.uk ) –

CONCERTINAS ANONYMOUS
An informal session for concertina players of all systems to learn tunes together, swap ideas & techniques & maybe show off your party piece in an unpressured atmosphere.
The Elephant & Castle www.elephantandcastlelewes.co.uk

(upstairs) 8.00 pm
White Hill, Lewes BN7 2DJ
Second Tuesday evening of the month
Admission free

For further information
ring Bryan Creer at home on 01323 505372
bryancreer@aol.com
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9] THE LEWES FAVOURITES PRACTICE SESSIONS
The Lewes Favourites practice sessions are moving from the Lewes Arms to the Elephant and Castle, White Hill, Lewes BN7 2DJ in January 2009 and to the fourth Tuesday of the month. Our last meeting of 2008 is on Wednesday 17th. December in the smaller upstairs room in the Lewes Arms.

We are moving because the new management at the Lewes Arms wants to charge us £50 for the use of the club-room on a Saturday night for the folk club and £75 for the full day we need for our workshops. We are therefore moving all our traditional music activities to the Elephant and Castle.
These are a regular opportunity to practice tunes popular in local English sessions, whatever instrument you play, to whatever standard, and whether or not you read music. It's a chance to identify some of those tunes you recognise when you hear them but can't quite remember, to put the names to familiar tunes, and to play them over until you are sure of them. You can record the sessions. Admission is free.
You can download 180 of the tunes plus 33 recent additions in Noteworthy Composer, ABC and midi form from the Lewes Arms Folk Club website www.lewesarmsfolkclub.org/ : go to Links and then to Lewes Favourites. The 'Lewes Favourites' tune book compiled by Andy Warburton contains background information and pictures as well. It is available from the contacts below or through the website, price £10 plus £1 p&p, by cheque payable to 'Lewes Arms Folk Club' (that's right). A supplement of the additions is available at the sessions.

We meet in the Elephant & Castle club-room, White Hill, Lewes BN7 2DJ from 8.00 p.m. onwards on the fourth Tuesday of every month.
27th. Jan / 24th. February / 24th. March / 28th. April / 26th May / 23rd. June / 28th. July        / 25th. August / 22nd. September / 27th October / 24th. November / 22nd. December

Bryan Creer, 12, Fife Court, 99 The Hydneye, Hampden Park BN22 9DD 01323 505372
bryancreer@aol.com
Valmai Goodyear, 20, St. John's Terrace, Lewes BN7 2DL        01273 476757 valmaigoodyear@aol.com
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10] LEWES WORKSHOPS
Also transferred to the Elephant and Castle.
The workshops last a full Saturday or Sunday and the tutor performs at the club in the evening. The programme for 2009 will be:-

28th Feb         Brian Peters         Melodeon
1st. March         Brian Peters   Ballad forum
28th. March         Tom McConville Fiddle        
25th. April         Craig Morgan Robson Way through the Woods
26th. April         Craig Morgan Robson Vocal harmony
6th. June         Kerr /Fagan /Harbron Fiddle /Bouzouki /Concertina
7th. June         Kerr Fagan /Harbron Vocal harmony/Winter MS tunes
11th. July        Will Duke Scan Tester's tunes
18th. July         Bonnie Shaljean    Harp
12th. Sept         Tommy Peoples Fiddle
19th. Sept         Jeff Warner Song accompaniment
10th. Oct        Tim Edey    Melodeon
14th. Nov        Vicki Swan Scottish smallpipes
21st. Nov        Tom & Barbara Brown Ballad forum
5th. Dec        Billy Teare Storytelling
5th. Dec        Kathleen O'Sullivan Irish song

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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11] REGULAR SESSIONS IN THE LEWES/BRIGHTON AREA
Bryan Creer has taken on the task of detailing these, but has made changes
to the way this is presented. Here is what he says:-
I have given free rein to my inner geek and written a new version of the Sessions page that works out the date of the next of each session (except for the weekly ones where it seemed a bit pointless). This was inspired by the uselessness of "Fortnightly counting from 3rd October 2006". I think it probably works almost all of the time (maybe). Would you like to change any references you make to it to
http://www.lewesarmsfolkclub.org/LAFC/Sessions.php
Cheers
Bryan
Have a look and if there are any you think that Bryan has missed - contact
him on Bryancreer@aol.com
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12] SUSSEX All-day SINGAROUND Saturday 17th. January 2009
This annual event runs from11.00 a.m. - 11.00 p.m. It takes place at The Royal Oak, High Street, Barcombe (near Lewes) East Sussex BN8 5BA. Free admission - good pub food on sale all day. First 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 for those who want to make a weekend of it, this is followed by
ENGLISH TUNES SESSION Sunday 18th. January 2009 noon - 3.00 p.m.
The Elephant & Castle, White Hill, Lewes BN7 2DJ   
Details of both events from Valmai Goodyear on (01273) 476757 or email ValmaiGoodyear@aol.com
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13] THE COPPER FAMILY HOUSE CONCERT.
Jon Dudley has emailed me to say that they are having another Copper
Family house concert on Tues. 13th January. They will have the
delightful Blue Blokes 3 as guests. That is Ian Anderson, Ben Mandelson & Lu Edmonds. If you saw them at their first booking ever at the Royal Oak earlier in the year, you will realise how wonderful they are. They have asked Vic to MC the evening, which he is delighted to do and "could I tell those who ought to know about it so that they can get in first."
He adds:-
"This time we're suggesting a 'voluntary' £7.00 donation. There will be a free glass of Harveys or a glass of red or white wine, subsequent ones at £1 a throw. Strictly not-for-profit. All proceeds to artists."

If you don't have Jon & Jill's email it is:
Jon Dudley copperdudley@btopenworld.com

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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 2009 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 they have a MYSPACE profile as well at http://www.myspace.com/thesussexpistols
__________________________________________

VIC & TINA 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 WEBSITES:-
http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~tinvic
http://www.myspace.com/royaloakfolklewes

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 WEBSITES:-
http://www.compoundsounds.com
http://www.myspace.com/jalisherrifokonteh