folk club rooms i have dwelt in

Subject: RE: folk club rooms i have dwelt in
From: The Sandman
Date: 02 Aug 22 - 05:13 PM

re freds boots.
Some years ago, on a cold dark night
Some boots did sing, 'neath the town hall light
There were few at the scene, but they all said
That the boots that they saw , looked a lot like Freds
The voice that they heard, had a Shropshire twang
the frost on the pumpkin,was the first they sang
I spoke not a word, but listened entranced
When the song did end the Boots did a dance
They walks the hills of the long white cloud
They visits the town when the night winds howl
Nobody knows, nobody sees
Nobody knows but me
the, voice sounds good and the diction clear
the boots tap on the ground and shed not a tear
But late at night, when the north wind blows
In the long white cloud they sing loud and slow
they walks these hills of the long white cloud
they visits the sea when the night winds howl
Nobody knows, nobody sees
Nobody knows but me

Subject: RE: folk club rooms i have dwelt in
From: r.padgett
Date: 11 Dec 20 - 11:56 AM

Yes club rooms where the landlord lights a coal fire half hour before the singing starts are a no no for me!

No names no pack drill

Ray

Subject: RE: folk club rooms i have dwelt in
From: GUEST,Jerry
Date: 11 Dec 20 - 09:13 AM

I used to run a club at a rural pub in Kent, and we used to meet in the barn behind the main building. Most of the year, it was quite convivial, but in the winter months it became hard work for both performers and audience alike. One cold night in January, I arrived to find that the landlord had tried to sort the problem for us, by lighting a fire in the centre of the (concrete) floor. For a while it was very cosy, but after an hour or so the smoke had filled the large roof void and had begun descending to our level. At first, you were only aware of it when you stood up, but eventually we had to evacuate the barn. Those who weren’t crying from the smoke were crying with laughter, but I guess you had to be there....

Subject: RE: folk club rooms i have dwelt in
From: r.padgett
Date: 09 Dec 20 - 08:09 AM

There was an article on Roger Giles in a recent? Living Tradition folk mag with some fine photos etc

Ray

Subject: RE: folk club rooms i have dwelt in
From: GUEST,Malcolm Storey
Date: 08 Dec 20 - 05:45 PM

Further to the Bunker:
Roger Giles was involved in running the club for almost 50 years and also had a big hand with Auckland Festival.
Roger was from Shropshire and worked with Fred Jordan as a young man.
He made his way to New Zealand in order to perfect his skills as a sheep shearer. He became one of the most respected members of his trade in the toughest school in the world and never did return to England to live.
By sheer happenchance he was on one of his sporadic visits to the UK when Fred died and when he went to visit Fred's niece shortly afterwards she asked if there was anything of Fred's he would like as a momento.
That is why Fred's boots finished up in the land of the long white cloud!
Roger died in early March this year.
Lovely man.

Subject: RE: folk club rooms i have dwelt in
From: rich-joy
Date: 07 Dec 20 - 09:26 PM

In Perth, Western Australia, I can recall regularly enjoying a couple of folk venues in the early 70s.

One was the Governor Broome Folksong Club, started and run by Geoff Morgan (his wife Margaret was one of my very favourite singers!)
From the vicinity of the Perth’s lovely 1880 Railway Station, one crossed the “Horseshoe Bridge” from William St into “The Badlands”, over the narrow Roe St with its infamous “Ladies of the Night” to where the Governor Broome Hotel stood on the corner. The area is nowadays the upmarket and artsy “Northbridge” …….. :)
The GB was a wonderful folk club (in the large dining room from memory), that was absolutely chockers every Friday night (I rem’ber the whole audience singing a rowdy Happy Birthday to me on my 21st, LoL). Perth had a large contingent of British Isles & Ireland migrants and the folk clubs reflected this, although, every type of ‘folk’ music was popularly performed, including American, blues, and contemporary.
After I left to do “The Overland Trip” in 76, I heard that a disgruntled client from the brothels, out the back, had set fire to the place!! I believe the hotel was also a popular alternative band (esp punk) venue, but was demolished in 1983.

The other main venue, that came a bit later, was The Stables Folk Club.
This was – yep, you guessed it – in the loft of an old stables, out back of the Mount Hotel (conveniently, situated in Mount Street – or maybe the back entrance was Malcolm St?) anyway, not far from the beautiful Kings Park on Mt Eliza, and, which hotel was more of a residential, rather than an alcohol-serving hotel.
My mate, Jan Hendry, had stayed there a while and now figured the outbuildings would make a great performance venue. So 3 of us cleaned the place up on a zero $ budget, and Jan started the folk club. Not terribly big, but VERY popular (on Thursday nights perhaps?) and soon Jan turned the running over to performer Stan Hastings, who had in recent years, migrated with his family from Wales.
I recall we had folk dance ‘classes’ there too, and the floor could often be seen gently heaving, haha! But I then lost touch with the folkscene for awhile, so I have no idea how long this venue lasted. It’s certainly not there now……

The city is, IMHO, barely recognizable now, due to the razing of lovely historic buildings and byways - which probably began in the 60s but the influx of Mining $$$, esp by the 80s, has exacerbated the decline of the place I once knew . Sure, visitors may marvel at it now (and do), but I, like a good folkie, just prefer a healthy mix of the historical amongst the skyscrapers, steel, mega-money and glitz! :)

R-J

PS        there were also venues like Mulligans of Milligan St and the Albert Tavern where Irish bands like The Quarefellas and The Ranting Lads used to play, but I dunno much about them – coz you can’t go to Everything, eh!!

Subject: RE: folk club rooms i have dwelt in
From: GUEST,Malcolm Storey
Date: 07 Dec 20 - 02:32 PM

Just got back to this thread.
I sang at the Bunker on Auckland Harbour a few times when I still had a voice.
Smashing friendly club complete with photo of Cecil Sharp which was turned to the wall if anyone sang a none traditional song!
And yes - it must have the greatest view of any folk club in the world.

Subject: RE: folk club rooms i have dwelt in
From: GUEST,jim bainbridge
Date: 07 Dec 20 - 12:17 PM

The Marsden Rattlers drove up from South Shields to Falkirk on a Friday night after work in about 1965 for a booking at the local club, part of a weekend of gigs- ceilidh at Peat Inn on Saturday and St Andrews club at the 'Star Inn'on the Sunday

We arrived late in Falkirk after hitting serious traffic in Edinburgh- no City Bypass in those days, so no chance of a pint en route- no breathalyser either...
As proper folkies, we were appalled to find the club was held in the Temperance Hotel! It was a very friendly club & we enjoyed it, having been assured that the pub over the road was open - we did manage to nip out for a pint of Heavy, but that's all we got, as the club ran late & the pubs in Scotland closed at 10 in those days.

'Heavy on the bevy, wi' a bottle by my side
Heavy on the bevy on the bonnie banks of Clyde,
When the wife has gone to rest, that's the time that I love best
That's when I am heavy on the bevy'

(tune- 'Roamin' in the Gloamin')

Subject: RE: folk club rooms i have dwelt in
From: GUEST
Date: 06 Dec 20 - 03:06 PM

A good many years ago there was a folk club (of sorts) in Finsbury library, Islington, just opposite City University. I sang there a few times. The audience was mostly old folk, one or two of whom would sleep during the proceedings.

Subject: RE: folk club rooms i have dwelt in
From: Manitas_at_home
Date: 04 Dec 20 - 04:01 PM

I was at Capital Folk club in Long Acre
Covent Garden one Sunday night when the organiser of the St Martins club came in and asked if our residents could help them out as their booked guest couldn't come at short notice. I don't think we had a guest that night so we went round in turn and filled in for them. There was also a Friday folk club in a separate crypt of St Martins which was a much more intimate area.

Subject: RE: folk club rooms i have dwelt in
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 04 Dec 20 - 02:59 PM

Of course there was two clubs at least in the undercroft of churches. The Hanging Lamp in Richmond on Thames, and St Martin in the Fields club.

Subject: RE: folk club rooms i have dwelt in
From: The Sandman
Date: 04 Dec 20 - 01:44 PM

then there was a folk club in a church vestry , to get to it you had to walk through a grave yard, someone told me it was full of previous guest artists who had died on stage

Subject: RE: folk club rooms i have dwelt in
From: Raggytash
Date: 02 Dec 20 - 06:41 AM

Whitby Brewery also has a small bar attached and outside seating area. They do make some decent beer, as well as some not so decent.

It is located just passed the Abbey at the top of the 199 Stairs. Unfortunately neither can be seen from the brewery itself when your in there.

Subject: RE: folk club rooms i have dwelt in
From: GUEST,Malcolm Storey
Date: 30 Nov 20 - 10:53 AM

Alfreton FF weekend used the back room of the Pub with no name as indoor camping.

I recall one couple who were newly in lust being rather naughty - especially with children in the room - one year.

Subject: RE: folk club rooms i have dwelt in
From: The Sandman
Date: 30 Nov 20 - 03:05 AM

unusual in that it is a working brewery and looks like it

Subject: RE: folk club rooms i have dwelt in
From: Raggytash
Date: 29 Nov 20 - 12:47 PM

That Easter FF at Barnsley was magic!! Always enjoyed that one.

Subject: RE: folk club rooms i have dwelt in
From: r.padgett
Date: 29 Nov 20 - 11:47 AM

Gerry Bates from the Sheffield folk train has recently passed btw on RIP sad news

Slept on the floor at The Red Lion in Wath one year accompanied by Ken Johnson and Jim McDonald

Poynton FF slept under the snooker table and on the stage! different times of course

I ran an Easter ff at Barnsley a number of years and the YMCA floor was full ~ they travelled miles ~ we were on local radio Radio Sheffield and the fire brigade visited on two occasions ~I digress!

Ray

Subject: RE: folk club rooms i have dwelt in
From: Raggytash
Date: 29 Nov 20 - 11:03 AM

"the folk club at the brewery in whitby is unusual"

In what way Dick?

Subject: RE: folk club rooms i have dwelt in
From: Jos
Date: 29 Nov 20 - 08:45 AM

No need to apologise. Does that mean they are still going when it isn't Christmas?
It's too far away for me at the moment, but people in Yorkshire, Lancashire or Derbyshire might be interested.
(Lockdown permitting, of course.)

Subject: RE: folk club rooms i have dwelt in
From: The Sandman
Date: 29 Nov 20 - 08:30 AM

my apologies, jos the lockdown is getting to me .apologies for being facetious

Subject: RE: folk club rooms i have dwelt in
From: The Sandman
Date: 29 Nov 20 - 08:22 AM

not over christmas

Subject: RE: folk club rooms i have dwelt in
From: Jos
Date: 27 Nov 20 - 03:38 AM

Are the Sheffield and Manchester Folk Trains still going.
(Not overnighters, obviously - though that might be an idea for the sleeper trains between London and Scotland or Cornwall.)

Subject: RE: folk club rooms i have dwelt in
From: The Sandman
Date: 27 Nov 20 - 02:05 AM

the folk club at the brewery in whitby is unusual

Subject: RE: folk club rooms i have dwelt in
From: Susan of DT
Date: 26 Nov 20 - 06:01 AM

"Folk club" has a different meaning in the US than in the UK. In the UK it seems to refer to a location that sponsors folk gatherings. In the US it refers to a group of people who like to gather for folk music, concerts/and or sings. I have been seeking out sings for almost 60 years (I'm in my 70s).
1964-68 Cornell Univ in Ithaca NY
       There was a Cornell Folksong Society, but they were into bluegrass at the time, and a group of people would congregate in the Outing Club cabin most Friday nights to sing. I come to that group.

1971 or 2 - 1975 Salt City Song Miners in Syracuse, NY. The concerts had a location, but the sings moved from house to house, a common arrangement here (our houses tend to run larger than the older homes in the UK)

1979-2013 various groups
    Princeton (NJ) Folk Music Society had a concert venue, but sings moved from house to house
    Dick Levine had a long-standing group that moved from house to house on the (New) Jersey shore
    Branford (CT) Folk Music Society had a concert venue, but sings were held at two houses
    Mudcat gatherings, mostly at Annap's and WYSIWYG's
    Rich Kaufman had an annual gathering at his cabin summers
    Dick Greenhaus and I sponsored sings at our house in NJ when we lived there.
    Meetup groups I hosted for Sea Shanty and Folk Music Appreciation (I inherited that one) and Trad Folk in the Northern Suburbs (I started that)
    several others we got to occasionally in NJ, NY, CT
    I keep trying to start one in my retirement community, but with little success so far.

Subject: RE: folk club rooms i have dwelt in
From: GUEST,jim bainbridge
Date: 26 Nov 20 - 05:40 AM

I was once on a trip to Jersey with Ken Lees & Taffy Thomas, about 1977 I'd guess... we were flown in a 4 seater to the folk club in Ailderney.
We arrived after weeks of serious gales & the club room was in a hotel on the beach. Unfortunately most of the beach seemed to be in the club room & the club was off. We went elsewhere, I think, but really can't remember. We went to a pub in the island's lovely main street at one stage, but the noise was more like a dockside pub in a big city & that was at 5pm!
They were all high on dirt cheap Hanky Bannister & overall it was quite an experience- asked later what he thought of Alderney, Taffy said ' bit like 300 alcoholics clinging to a rock'.

I had many lovely vists to Sark over the ears, but never back to Alderney- I wonder if it's changed?

Subject: RE: folk club rooms i have dwelt in
From: The Sandman
Date: 26 Nov 20 - 03:07 AM

yes, i played there a few times. not very good acoustics though

Subject: RE: folk club rooms i have dwelt in
From: GUEST,Sidewinder
Date: 26 Nov 20 - 02:24 AM

What about the "Dolphin" in Robin Hoods Bay. Surely the 3rd best Folk venue in the world?

Regards.

Sidewinder

Subject: RE: folk club rooms i have dwelt in
From: The Sandman
Date: 13 Nov 20 - 06:56 AM

there was a folk club at the wrexham soccer ground, i think it was called the racecourse ground, one or two pictures of old wrexham footballers , i do not think they ever won very much

Subject: RE: folk club rooms i have dwelt in
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 13 Nov 20 - 03:35 AM

The railway station one was the buffet bar at Stalybridge station, Dick. I dunno if the folk club is still going but the bar is thriving. The one at the Star in Salford has gone but the room was indeed a thoroughfare to the gents! The pub was faced with closure some time back but was bought by a community group and is still going. Swinton Folk Club, in the back room of the White Lion, while not as eccentric as some, does house a collection of pictures of the Swinton Lions Rugby League team. This is because it was the birthplace of said team.

Subject: RE: folk club rooms i have dwelt in
From: The Sandman
Date: 13 Nov 20 - 03:16 AM

Then there was les cousins in soho. memorable days spent in this all nighter.

Subject: RE: folk club rooms i have dwelt in
From: rich-joy
Date: 10 Nov 20 - 04:52 AM

Yes Sandra, they sure were good times. I was only in Darwin 1983 to 1993, during my 30s and 40s, but I still say they were the best 10 years of my life!!
Like with many others, The Turret and its weekly folk club, was where I first found the courage to sing in public, and, where I first met my late Beloved (Paul Lawler, a most wonderful singer-performer), so, this iconic structure is important to me on other levels too!!
And so many Australian and Overseas folk performers passed through over its active years and doubtless never forgot their performing in such a unique outdoor venue, so close to the sea, with the oft steamy fragrance of the tropical air - and often too, accompanied by an audience of rather loud and rhythmic green tree frogs in the concrete loos outside, ha ha!!

Both Stewie and occasional Catter "Tony in Darwin" could better elaborate of course .....   :)


R-J

Subject: RE: folk club rooms i have dwelt in
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 09 Nov 20 - 04:10 AM

Top End Folk Club, in Darwin, not my memory, but both Stewie & Rich-Joy knew it well, the decommissioned East Point Gun Turret, built in the 30s but not used in WW2.

Check out the picture & imagine singing there! Great acoustics, but to quote the club history, 'The few who did fall over either of the edges appeared largely unaffected and simply grabbed another beer.'

Subject: RE: folk club rooms i have dwelt in
From: The Sandman
Date: 08 Nov 20 - 03:32 AM

Stage One Deanery Road Stratford East. Anyone remember this Folk Club

Subject: RE: folk club rooms i have dwelt in
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 05 Nov 20 - 09:06 PM

Preston at 'The Lamb' on Church Street. Garstang at theEagle and Child. Gainsborough at Sports and Social club etc etc.

Subject: RE: folk club rooms i have dwelt in
From: vectis
Date: 05 Nov 20 - 08:15 PM

The Bunker in Auckland, New Zealand is hard to beat. Held in an underground bunker cut into the side of a dormant volcano. The views across the harbour to Auckland CBD have to be about the best in the World.
Back in the days when I was a student I went to a lot of the London clubs, The Troubadour with its unique decor and the Rising Sun with its not-quite-a-stage were but two of them.

Subject: RE: folk club rooms i have dwelt in
From: GUEST,Tom Patterson
Date: 05 Nov 20 - 03:00 PM

I remember many happy Saturday nights in the late 1970s at Birmingham's Star Folk Club which was held in the premises of The Communist Party, just yards from the city centre. Great music, plenty of drinking, merriment and other things perhaps best not mentioned.
The upstairs room was basic, with a hard floor and plain tables and chairs set out cafe style. The only real downside was the club's choice of beer - Watney's Red Barrel, "The Red Revolution".
As well as wonderful guests from the U.K. and Ireland,the residents and visitors included the best of the locally based traditional singers - Mick Hipkiss, Dave Phillips, the Campbells, Tommy Dempsey, Nick Fenwick, Nigel Denver and Aiden Forde etc. Dave Phillips had a wonderful rich voice and in my view should have been better known than he was.
Lock-ins were a regular occurrence through until the early hours and whilst I never slept there, I understand others did.
Sometimes the activities of the Communist Party overlapped with those of the folk club and I remember Russian delegations when trays of vodka shots were passed round for toasts. There was also a visit from the National Union of Mineworkers Vice President Mick McGahey who accepted an invitation to sing. He had a voice akin to that of Lee Marvin, honed on whisky and Capstan Full Strength cigarettes. I was asked to accompany him and he chose The Riddle Song ( I Gave My Love A Cherry ). God knows what we sounded like.
Those evenings at the Star tend to blur together in my mind now but a warm glow remains.

Subject: RE: folk club rooms i have dwelt in
From: Dave Sutherland
Date: 05 Nov 20 - 02:26 PM

In November 1974 we at South Tyne Folk and Blues were invited to move premises to the Douglas Vaults, an old pub in South Shields town centre which had an unsavoury reputation. However the new owners had gutted the pub, totally refurbished the building and they were now advertising it as South Shields live music centre and the ideal venue for the local sophisticates to start the evening before hitting the night clubs.
By February 1975 it was fairly obvious that the pub was not only attracting its previous clientele but in far larger numbers and they tailored their strategy to fit in with them which by May saw us operating our folk and blues club on a Friday night sandwiched between Thursday’s Drag Night and Saturday lunchtime’s topless go-go dancers.
A few weeks later we were asked to source other premises as clearly we were giving the place an unwanted air of respectability.

Subject: RE: folk club rooms i have dwelt in
From: GUEST,heathermabel
Date: 05 Nov 20 - 05:34 AM

The Valley Folk Club upstairs in the Ivy Bush Pontardawe Swansea Valley had a percussive Victorian chain flush toilet over which it was impossible to hear anything. You had to let it join in or
wait until it had refilled.

Subject: RE: folk club rooms i have dwelt in
From: The Sandman
Date: 05 Nov 20 - 12:45 AM

the elbow room at kirckaldy, the room was unremarkable but the fifers were being fifers, what remarkable people.

Subject: RE: folk club rooms i have dwelt in
From: The Sandman
Date: 04 Nov 20 - 01:55 PM

The Star at Salford, had a one armed landlord and a boisterous potman, who collected up empty bottles in a manner reminiscent of a milk man trying to play a musical instrument and if i remember correctly, people had to walk through the club to rid themselves of their urine, there have been a few others like that

Subject: RE: folk club rooms i have dwelt in
From: The Sandman
Date: 04 Nov 20 - 06:21 AM

i did see him , he used to reciyte mcgonagle[i think]and bang a red can with a stick, this was about 1967, extraordinary but interesting

Subject: RE: folk club rooms i have dwelt in
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 04 Nov 20 - 05:49 AM

I just remembered The Dungeon Folk club, which took place in a pub called The Copper, in Tower Bridge Road. It was run by Ian Grant BBC producer, of Country Meets Folk, and Cliff Aungier. Anyway, the club was in a downstairs room, which had cells, surrounded by iron bars, and there was another wee room down a short flight of steps, all stonework, and gloom. Altogether a weird spooky venue. I can remember Ron Geesin doing an evening there, where he used the wee downstairs bit as part of a piece he had written especially for the venue, and at one point, he shot down there singing, and banging a pot lid on the floor. Ron was a unique performer, and you need to have seen him, to understand.

Subject: RE: folk club rooms i have dwelt in
From: Mo the caller
Date: 04 Nov 20 - 05:09 AM

QWhen the Bedworth festival was just a 'Day of Folk' there was an excellent fringe session on the Sunday morning. Forget the name of the pub, but it was made memorable for the staff shouting numbers for the breakfast orders in the middle of songs. And the fact that as well as ticket buyers some of the guests were still there, so we had a good morning;

Subject: RE: folk club rooms i have dwelt in
From: GUEST,Nick Dow
Date: 04 Nov 20 - 04:12 AM

Blimey! You think you know people... (applicable to both clubs)

Subject: RE: folk club rooms i have dwelt in
From: The Sandman
Date: 04 Nov 20 - 02:59 AM

nick, i always felt like a caged animal under that canopy in the rising sun, then of course there was the sinning penguin. apropos dingles
yes mr holt, he who i hoped might start a revolution, ran off to become a nudist somewhere in the direction of bognor regis, the south coast and sunnier climes is a good place for pirouetting revolutions

Subject: RE: folk club rooms i have dwelt in
From: GUEST,Nick Dow
Date: 04 Nov 20 - 02:41 AM

Roger Holt??? He was a lot of things but a nudist wasn't one of them.
The committee was Roger, his wife Helen, Ros Shaylor, Martin Nail, Jim Mageean, Sam Stephens and Anne Lennox Martin, and yours truly! Which one was the nudist?

Subject: RE: folk club rooms i have dwelt in
From: The Sandman
Date: 04 Nov 20 - 02:29 AM

yes, igigged at dingles and the rising sun, both good clubs, but the layout in the rising sun singing under a canopy in my opinion was notthe best layout.
i do remember one of the organisers at dingles repeatedly shouting revolutions,i briefly hoped he was going to overthrow the capitalist system but unfortunately the nearest he came was performing revolutions at a nudist camp

Subject: RE: folk club rooms i have dwelt in
From: RTim
Date: 03 Nov 20 - 08:28 PM

Many years ago now - we used to run the Folk Club in Banbury at Ye Olde Rein Deer Inn in Parsons Street. (In medieval times the street was called "Grope Cunt Lane!!" )

The club room (called The Globe Room) was featured in an old painting that was called - "When did you last see your Father?" - a famous scene from the British Civil War.
The room is totally Wainscoted in old oak panels with a large stone fireplace and the acoustics were very good.

We had some great nights there..

Tim Radford

Subject: RE: folk club rooms i have dwelt in
From: GUEST,Nick Dow
Date: 03 Nov 20 - 07:27 PM

I ran it, for eighteen months with Chris Roche, when the organisers moved to Nottingham. With the exception of one of the landlords I don't remember anything resembling a Zoo. There was a wooden canopy over the stage, and another in the left hand corner and a wooden door system made specially by John Heather to keep the bar room noise out. It was a successful club in it's day. We had great nights with Fred Jordan, and Mervyn Vincent, Roy Harris, and Nic Jones. The Singers nights were legendary. The three Tony's who ended up at Elsie's used to play there regularly. I was resident at Dingles at the same time, and that was an interesting set up. I'll let someone else give those details. I don't remember seeing you at Dingles Dick. Maybe I was working that night.

Subject: RE: folk club rooms i have dwelt in
From: The Sandman
Date: 03 Nov 20 - 01:19 PM

the 5sing sun in catford was an idiosyncratic room, possibly remiscent of singing in a zoo cage