Steve Shaw and I have had personal disagreements.
Steve you are perfectly free to contact Mansfield folk club,Mansfield Folk club can come on to this forum and say their piece.
here is the correspondence realating to the cancellation.
message: 27th Nov 2009
Hi there Dick,

Due to unforeseen circumstances, the folk club
has experienced quite a few changes in the
past few months and regrettably we've had to
make some changes to our 2010 bookings
calendar.

I'm afraid your booking at the Brown Cow Folk
Club for June 8th 2010 has to be cancelled.
I am very sorry about this, but as it is over
6 months away, I do hope it doesn't cause you
too much inconvenience.

I have taken over from Sue Crawford who made
the original booking with you, as she is not
at all well these days and all contact with
the club should, for now, be through me - my
contact details are shown above in the email
header.
I apologise once again for cancelling the
booking.

Regards
.------------------------------hi,what is the reason for cancelling the booking?
what has happened to the club? can we arrange an alternative date?or can I do the club for a reduced fee?,the previous night I am in leicestershire,so my travelling expenses are minimal,I hope we can come to some compromise.
Unfortunately it is unlikely that I will now be able to fill this date,as most clubs are booked up beyond six months.
Best Wishes,Dick Miles
Hi Dick

The club has had a rocky road from organisation point of view over the past 6 -8 months ( I'm sure most of the regulars are quite unaware of what goes on behind the scenes and haven't noticed) added to this our venue has been under threat several times and we've had 3 different landlords at the pub - a new one started last week

Sue and John Crawford who'd been doing a grand job of running the club for a few years decided to stand down as Sue's health hasn't been too good. Another guy offered to take it on but unfortunately he ran into a few problems and wasn't able to do all the admin that's needed. Unfortunately he didn't shout for help.
Sue and John had been so efficient they'd done all the programme and printed fliers etc taking us up to Oct but when they ran out we realised we didn't even know what was happening the following week.
I offered to help sort things out.
From sketchy hand written notes I set about confirming what acts were booked up to the end of the year, got a programme printed and the website updated etc. but we'd missed all the deadlines for advertising in the likes of Stirrings.
I've since worked through the notes for Jan - March and am now piecing together information from April onwards which is where I've hit a snag. We normally run a guest night approx once every 4-5 weeks. I don't know how it's happened, but there are 3 Guest Bookings in a 7 week period from end of April to 8th June, two of which are traditional concertina acts.   I can only imagine that it happened during this overlap period.

It's not so much about the fee - but thank you for offering to come at a reduced rate- but the fact that we have two acts that will sound very similar in the programme so close together. We're only a small club and don't have much of a draw from outside of the town and I just don't think we would get much support for the second one. I have discussed the situation with a couple of the club regulars and they unfortunately agree.   Hence my decision to cancel your booking - I'm sorry .

Have you tried Belper Folk Club - they also meet on a Tuesday and at the moment their website isn't showing any confirmed act for June?

I really feel awkward about this Dick but not as bad as if you were playing to a nearly empty room.

Regards tina

my problem is that I am on tour from Ireland, finding accomodation for the night will be difficult plus finding another gig
,is it not possible to cancel one of the other sqeezebox giggers?, after all they live in the country and wont be as badly inconvenienced as myself,
I basically have to find and pay for accomodation as well as losing the gig, furthermore, I now use guitar for a third of my material,and was planning to do some of my own songs, to make it a less traditional night, Best Wishes Dick Miles



From: Dick Miles
To: tshirtedwinstowe@yahoo.co.uk
Sent: Sat, 28 November, 2009 12:48:34
Subject: dickmiles
- Show quoted text -
for the record, my act includes guitar and some contemporary material if required.
the landlord situation appears to be irrelevant,he has not thrown the club out.
so, Why not offer an alternative date,or postpone the other concertina player and offer him an alternative date,he is local to the club?