Advice needed: folk clubs in G.B.

Subject: RE: Advice needed: folk clubs in G.B.
From: nutty
Date: 03 Sep 08 - 10:19 AM

referring back to my original post re Tyne/Tees area. This info may help............

FOLK CLUBS

Subject: RE: Advice needed: folk clubs in G.B.
From: melodeonboy
Date: 03 Sep 08 - 06:52 AM

P.S. Look under "local venues", not just the folk club adverts.

Subject: RE: Advice needed: folk clubs in G.B.
From: melodeonboy
Date: 03 Sep 08 - 06:48 AM

"Folk Orbit is almost entirely Yorkshire and Lancashire, with only one club listed for the whole of Scotland (which, Lox, *is* part of GB). "Countrywide" it is not."

Check it again, Jack. There are 38 entries just for Kent, so it's not just Yorkshire and Lancashire. And I counted 45 entries for Scotland!

Subject: RE: Advice needed: folk clubs in G.B.
From: TheSnail
Date: 03 Sep 08 - 06:43 AM

This Mudcat thread gathers quite a few useful sites and Folk and traditional music in specific areas of England is good.

Subject: RE: Advice needed: folk clubs in G.B.
From: GUEST,Raggytash
Date: 03 Sep 08 - 06:27 AM

Although there is only one folk club in Whitby (on a Thursday) there are sessions in differeent venues on Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. It is also home to one of the finest festivals of British Traditional Music, song and dance in the land. It is held the week before August Bank Holiday and next year starts on Saturday 22 August

Subject: RE: Advice needed: folk clubs in G.B.
From: Terry McDonald
Date: 03 Sep 08 - 05:31 AM

The 'Sadfolk' and 'Tony and Peter's Folk Diary' web pages will tell you all you need to know about the folk scene in Somerset and Dorset. You could probably find a club or session for every day of your visit, but getting to many of them without your own transport could present problems.

Subject: RE: Advice needed: folk clubs in G.B.
From: Jack Campin
Date: 03 Sep 08 - 05:27 AM

Folk Orbit is almost entirely Yorkshire and Lancashire, with only one club listed for the whole of Scotland (which, Lox, *is* part of GB). "Countrywide" it is not.

Does anybody know any anthropologists' work songs? Fieldwork hollers or something? And do anthropologists appreciate having a welcoming tune written for them, "The Elgin Fiddle Orchestra's Welcome to the Girl with the Laptop" or something? - it'd be cheaper than killing a pig when they arrive.

Subject: RE: Advice needed: folk clubs in G.B.
From: melodeonboy
Date: 03 Sep 08 - 04:04 AM

3 to 4 nights a week is certainly possible in Kent, although you'd have to think carefully about where you want to stay, depending on the public transport options. (I can give you info. on this if you want.)

For countrywide info., have a look at the folkorbit website. That'll tell you where the regular clubs and sessions are and give you contact numbers.

Subject: RE: Advice needed: folk clubs in G.B.
From: Lox
Date: 02 Sep 08 - 08:28 PM

You could even consider extending your trip to take in Ireland and Scotland. After all you've come all the way from America, you may as well go the extra mile.

Subject: RE: Advice needed: folk clubs in G.B.
From: TheSnail
Date: 02 Sep 08 - 08:25 PM

Let's hear it for the South-East!

Here in Lewes we've got two clubs a hundred yards apart, The Lewes Arms Folk Club (Saturdays) and The Royal Oak (Thursdays).

Loads of other stuff in the region. See the Folk Diary and the Brighton What's On Guide

Subject: RE: Advice needed: folk clubs in G.B.
From: Nick
Date: 02 Sep 08 - 07:06 PM

If you are approaching it as an anthropologist perhaps you ought to spot which monkeys shout loudest and either head towards them or away from them - depends what your hypothesis is

If you are approcahing it as as a folk musicologist or folk music lover then that's different.

Subject: RE: Advice needed: folk clubs in G.B.
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 02 Sep 08 - 04:53 PM

The North-West of England - The Fylde in particular...

Tuesdays: Staining - The Plough; hosted by the entirely sandgrown Penny Black with customary panache & hospitality (yes, yes, I know we've never actually been, but we will, and soon...)

Wednesdays: Blackpool - The Clarence; handbags & gladrags, a fine time assured with the emphasis on top rank guests & local supports, & free admission! Where the who's who of Fylde Folk hang out; the place to be seen...

Thursdays: Fleetwood - The Steamer; hosted by Spitting on a Roast; great music, fine beer & general bonhomie in a heavenly bar down by the docks; anything goes, and very often does...

Fridays: Preston - The Moorbrook; the Holy of Holies - the pure drop & the very best in traditional music & song, with residents Tom Walsh, Neil Brook, Hugh O'Donnel, Rob Mulaney, & Dave Peters in the best pub in Lancashire.

Lots more in striking distance & other attractions too...

Subject: RE: Advice needed: folk clubs in G.B.
From: Tootler
Date: 02 Sep 08 - 04:32 PM

I would go with those who recommend North East England.

A publication called "Folk Roundabout" lists clubs etc. in the region, roughly from York to the Scottish Border. Someone counted 94 entries for folk clubs, sessions and the like in the last edition of Folk Roundabout and that did not include the dance entries of which there are also quite a number.

Subject: RE: Advice needed: folk clubs in G.B.
From: Fidjit
Date: 02 Sep 08 - 02:59 PM

look at this

Chas

Subject: RE: Advice needed: folk clubs in G.B.
From: GUEST,Joe G
Date: 02 Sep 08 - 02:48 PM

You would certainly be very welcome in West Yorkshire and as a reglar at the Topic I would be only too happy to invite you to the club. As already mentioned there are loads of other clubs in easy reach of Bradford (and you can get great beer and curry here too as well as visiting Saltaire our World Heritage Site and the stunning scenery)

Ok - advert over - As I am originally from Hartleppol I can also wholeheartedly recommend the North East as others have. When I was young it was renowned to have one of the best folk scenes in the country and I gather things are on the up there again.

Wherever you decide - enjoy.

just remember us Brits have a strange sense of humour! Especially in Hartlepool!

Subject: RE: Advice needed: folk clubs in G.B.
From: Jack Campin
Date: 02 Sep 08 - 02:36 PM

Or Edinburgh. Edinburgh and Leith folk clubs in the city itself; two or three sessions every night of the week; and within half an hour's travel you've got regular clubs and sessions in Haddington, Newtongrange, Penicuik, Lasswade, Auchendinny, Loanhead, Balerno, Mid Calder, Linlithgow, Dunfermline, Falkirk and Stirling. Plus: accordion and fiddle clubs (Newtongrange and Macmerry); ceilidhs; Scottish country dance; Indian music workshops; international, Playford and Balkan folkdance; classes and groups doing bellydance, samba, salsa, rapper morris, Irish set dance and African gumboot dancing; university groups doing Greek, Arabic and Persian dance; a weekly Shetland fiddling group; bluegrass and old-time sessions; several pub-folk acts every night; Scottish music classes with the Scots Music Group; a huge annual fiddle festival; amateur pipe bands; three or four folk-based choirs; brass bands in several nearby villages...

And we get enough people like you coming to watch that there is probably scope for a weekly anthropologists' and sociologists' session. Persuade a publican that feminist postmodernism will bring in the punters and they'll buy you a round every night you can keep that sociology of tango going.

Subject: RE: Advice needed: folk clubs in G.B.
From: cptsnapper
Date: 02 Sep 08 - 02:27 PM

Plenty going on in the Beds., Bucks., Herts. and Cambridgeshire area. The local magazines are Unicorn & Shire Folk.

Subject: RE: Advice needed: folk clubs in G.B.
From: Leadfingers
Date: 02 Sep 08 - 02:22 PM

Apart from the cost of living , London is a good centre ! A wide variety of clubs and sessions . and the public transport does run a bit later than in some areas .

Subject: RE: Advice needed: folk clubs in G.B.
From: Acorn4
Date: 02 Sep 08 - 01:58 PM

The East Midlands is excellent - particularly the Leicester area:0


Folk in the East Midlands

Subject: RE: Advice needed: folk clubs in G.B.
From: Waddon Pete
Date: 02 Sep 08 - 01:26 PM

Interesting!

Norfolk and Suffolk have lots going on as well!

Best wishes,

Peter

Subject: RE: Advice needed: folk clubs in G.B.
From: GUEST,sarah
Date: 02 Sep 08 - 01:08 PM

you could try Newcastle area, very friendly and off the top of my head, The Bridge Folk Club Newcastle upon Tyne, Ashington, Cramlington, South Shields and The Davy Lamp at Washington plus sessions in the Cumberland Arms, The Irish Centre, The Cooperage and theres more...!

Subject: RE: Advice needed: folk clubs in G.B.
From: GUEST,Nicholas Waller
Date: 02 Sep 08 - 12:50 PM

Actually The Topic, pub-based through most of its history, is currently based in the Bradford Irish Club.

Subject: RE: Advice needed: folk clubs in G.B.
From: GUEST,Nicholas Waller
Date: 02 Sep 08 - 12:47 PM

You could try Yorkshire, home of the oldest [weekly English-style continuously-operating* pub-based] folk club in the world, The Topic in Bradford. I do the website, and there's a short history (going back to its founding in 1956) and a list of gigs from 1970 to last week on the site.

Not huge distance away are The Grove in Leeds, The Black Swan in York, Otley FC, Skipton Folk Unplugged, Ryburn FC, and BACCApipes in Keighley, all with websites.

Also have a look at the Folk Map http://www.folkmap.co.uk/ for a sense of geodistribution.

*We reckon it has only been closed on about 33 club nights in 52 years, and this year's Xmas Day will be the first dark club night since 2003.

Subject: RE: Advice needed: folk clubs in G.B.
From: Northerner
Date: 02 Sep 08 - 12:27 PM

I live in the same area as nutty. Agree with her completely - though you may want to order a taxi to get back from a few of them to where you are staying. Bus services tend to stop before the clubs finish. I live in Middlesbrough - you would be welcome at the Stockton Folk Club on a Monday night. We quite often get visitors.
http://www.stocktonfolk.org.uk/

There are two clubs in Guisborough. Area is very active. Even better if you are a musician and go to sessions.

Avoid August - unless you are going to festivals.

Subject: RE: Advice needed: folk clubs in G.B.
From: Don(Wyziwyg)T
Date: 02 Sep 08 - 12:20 PM

Good advice re. the number of clubs available, and the cost factor.

Worth mentioning that many clubs close during the August school summer vacation period, so that is a good time to avoid.

Spring time (say late May to early July) will offer more club choice, and also some of the early festivals.

September and October tend to produce high attendances at clubs after the summer break, so may offer more to listen to within the clubs.

Don T.

Subject: RE: Advice needed: folk clubs in G.B.
From: greg stephens
Date: 02 Sep 08 - 12:19 PM

North Cheshire/south Lancashire would provide the density of clubs you need easily. These are in the northwest of England. Liverpool, Chester and Manchester are the relevant cities, with loads of towns in between. There are also loads of sessions in the same region.

Subject: RE: Advice needed: folk clubs in G.B.
From: nutty
Date: 02 Sep 08 - 12:11 PM

The North East of England - from the Tyne to the Tees is still very rich in folk clubs which would give you an infinite amount of choices. Transport links are also good in/between the inner cities and the cost of living much lower than down south.

Subject: Advice needed: folk clubs in G.B.
From: JClapp
Date: 02 Sep 08 - 11:53 AM

Hello,

I'm appealing to the many posters here on Mudcat for some information regarding British folk clubs.

I've been a folk fan and amateur musician for a while, but I'm also a student in anthropology here in the US, and have decided to focus my studies on folk music.

Next year at some point I'd like to take an extended trip to the UK to take in music at folk clubs. However, I will only have a certain amount of time, a limited amount of $$, and no car.

So my question is: what area(s) of G.B. would you recommend if I'm looking to attend as many folk nights as possible in a given week? I'm looking to settle in an area that has a few nearby clubs that I can get to relatively easily. Also, I'd like to attend at least 3 or 4 nights per week (if this is possible).

If anyone can recommend a good area (and perhaps a good time of year to be there) in order to maximize my available time abroad, I would be extremely grateful. I couldn't think of a better place to ask this information than on this very well-informed forum.

If you'd like to respond here, please do so, but you can also e-mail me at [e-mail]. Any information would be greatly appreciated.

All the best,
Justin C.