Shock Horror; Folk Club alive and well!

Subject: RE: Shock Horror; Folk Club alive and well!
From: Snuffy
Date: 13 Nov 05 - 06:32 PM

Agreed.

Subject: RE: Shock Horror; Folk Club alive and well!
From: BB
Date: 13 Nov 05 - 03:23 PM

Snuffy, if performers aren't prepared to stay for the whole evening *after* doing their spot, the organiser(s) shouldn't give them a spot in the future. If they support the club through thick and thin, and doing graveyard spots, give 'em a better spot, or extended spot if they're good enough, another time. Carrots and sticks can work.

Subject: RE: Shock Horror; Folk Club alive and well!
From: Strollin' Johnny
Date: 13 Nov 05 - 03:43 AM

Aaawwwww shucks!

Subject: RE: Shock Horror; Folk Club alive and well!
From: BusyBee Paul
Date: 12 Nov 05 - 08:13 AM

Wot, all 3 of us?! Sorry John, just jesting! :-)

Subject: RE: Shock Horror; Folk Club alive and well!
From: Rasener
Date: 12 Nov 05 - 06:04 AM

Is the Adrenalin working yet for this Friday Strollin' :-) Got you opening the second half if that is OK.

I have heard that the Strollin' fan club will be there on Friday. ooooooooh :-)

Subject: RE: Shock Horror; Folk Club alive and well!
From: Strollin' Johnny
Date: 12 Nov 05 - 05:08 AM

Each to their own - plenty of room for both types of format and variety is, after all, the spice of life.

If a club's failing in one format it's not beyond the wit of man to re-think and try something a bit different (e.g. the Ep'th revised format recently). What works for one club doesn't necessarily work for another and there's a need for flexibility. It's something the committee need to get their heads around...... unless, of course, there is no committee and one person makes all the decisions, in which case it's up to the attendees to make their feelings known.

Here in N. Lincs we have very successful clubs in both 'singaround' (e.g. Gainsborough) and 'concert' (e.g. Market Rasen) formats, and as a performer I enjoy both for different reasons - the singaround for its informality and the absence of stress, and the concert format because it's an opportunity to get that great adrenalin rush from formal performance.

I think numbers of attendees can be a little misleading however - density of population and ease of transport can have a significant bearing on how many bums are planted on seats. In a very rural location such as MR, 65 is a huge number simply because people have to travel long distances and public transport is non-existent (or even worse than that!). Around here, between 30 and 50 is regarded as cause for celebration.
S:0)

Subject: RE: Shock Horror; Folk Club alive and well!
From: Rasener
Date: 12 Nov 05 - 04:21 AM

Oh forgot to mention. I always start bang on 8:15 without fail. Nothing worse for listeners than to sit around waiting for ages for the evening to start. The listeners come to hear the music.

Subject: RE: Shock Horror; Folk Club alive and well!
From: Rasener
Date: 12 Nov 05 - 04:05 AM

Don

You couldn't ask for a more rural area than where I run my club. It is concert style with all performers pre booked. Four performers doing 25 minute floorpsots and one doing 45 minutes.
Each evening is varied and does not have the same performers playing week in week out.

The last time pulled 65 including the performers.

Most performers stay all evening. They do not know when they are on until they arrive on the evening. The order is based on blending so that each performance is different from the other.

To me as a non performer - variety with competent performers is the one way to bring listeners in.

Singarounds generally bring performers, but not so much the listeners.

Les

Subject: RE: Shock Horror; Folk Club alive and well!
From: mandotim
Date: 12 Nov 05 - 04:01 AM

Guest, you've just stirred a very deep memory; the folk club at the Cross Keys in Uppermill has been thriving for a very long time. I made my first ever public appearance as a guitar player there in 1972, at the age of 17. It was a floor spot, as a trio; Pete Troughton and I on guitars and very shaky vocals, and an even younger Maartin Allcock on bass. I think this was Maart's first public performance too. We were rubbish.
Tim from Bit on the Side

Subject: RE: Shock Horror; Folk Club alive and well!
From: Don(Wyziwyg)T
Date: 11 Nov 05 - 08:26 PM

My club has always run on two or three song spots, with occasional (about every six weeks) singarounds. It still struggles for audience, although the performer base is more than adequate.

Location, location, location. And I don't mean the venue; it's the town that is the problem. Not for nothing is Maidstone called the dead centre of Kent.

Don T.

Subject: RE: Shock Horror; Folk Club alive and well!
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 11 Nov 05 - 07:26 PM

In any area it is good to have a mix of styles in the clubs to please the majority. If it is confined too much to one style...some will not find their particular type of enjoyment.
Best wishes, Mike.

Subject: RE: Shock Horror; Folk Club alive and well!
From: Snuffy
Date: 11 Nov 05 - 06:52 PM

Come in, do your three songs early on, then bugger off without litening to the other performers.

Perhaps that's why singarounds have become more common.

Subject: RE: Shock Horror; Folk Club alive and well!
From: GUEST
Date: 11 Nov 05 - 05:50 PM

Otley isn't the only club alive and kicking!!! We go to Uppermill FC at the Crossed Keys on a Sunday night. Fab folk club, always lots of people and lots of performers (Sunday is concert format and on Wednesdays they have guests) We haven't made it on a Wednesday, but from what I understand they get more audience for the Sunday than the Wednesday (open to correction on this though).

Another club which is definitely alive and well is Auckland FC in NZ. This is our "home" club since we're just over here for a year. Seats 100 and nearly always standing room only - for guests and singers nights.

The common factor for these two clubs is a charismatic MC (not the same one.... obviously). I think this can be the making or breaking of a club/session/festival/whatever. We have been to a number of singarounds and concerts at festivals and FCs where the MCing has been so dire as to dampen the whole evening and ensure that we don't go back.

What is the MC like at Otley?

F

Subject: RE: Shock Horror; Folk Club alive and well!
From: John Routledge
Date: 11 Nov 05 - 04:56 PM

Thanks for the memory jog BB.

In "the good old days" the guys(usually men) who went to the club regularly would sing three songs in turn and then invited people they knew could/would sing and finally threw it open to all. Usually there were few "outside" takers so the process started again.

I agree that the singaround in order format is most likely to appeal to other singers rather than a folk club audience - hence the decline?

Subject: RE: Shock Horror; Folk Club alive and well!
From: BB
Date: 11 Nov 05 - 02:47 PM

Now there's a novelty!

But my aged brain says that that was what most folk clubs did in 'the good old days', and I agree, it's a good format, which enables those who manage the single song in a session or singaround to progress to 'presenting' a balanced spot - and that's an important progression in my opinion. It also gives a better chance to those who may be able to take it further, and work professionally.

There's very much a place for both formats, and local clubs of different kinds should support and encourage each other. Perhaps we'll then get back to a large number of clubs with regular attendees, rather than people just turning up when there's a guest on that they particularly like. Yes, I know, there are clubs like that, but they seem to be few and far between these days.

Subject: RE: Shock Horror; Folk Club alive and well!
From: Ferrara
Date: 11 Nov 05 - 02:13 PM

That's the format the Folklore Society of Greater Wshington used in its Monday Open Mikes, an awfully long time ago, at the Red Fox Inn in Bethesda, MD. It worked extremely well for some years. Each participant did two songs. Because we wanted the emphasis to be on traiditional music, at least one had to be a piece or song that wasn't written by the performer.

Subject: RE: Shock Horror; Folk Club alive and well!
From: John Routledge
Date: 11 Nov 05 - 12:47 PM

It is certainly much easier to sing three songs consecutively than have two one hour gaps between them.

Subject: Shock Horror; Folk Club alive and well!
From: Singing Referee
Date: 11 Nov 05 - 12:20 PM

Now that I've got your attention; after all the doom and gloom about the recent demise of several folk clubs and sessions I thought I'd share this!

Over the last couple of weeks I've had to spend some time up north on business, so was looking for somewhere to go in the evening. (I'm a 'southern softy' in case you hadn't guessed!) Having been recommended Otley Festival and had a great time there in September, I decided to investigate the Otley Folk Club.

WOW!!

100ish there for Spiers and Boden! I believe there were 70+ for Steve Tilston the previous week. This week, 70ish for a singers night!

Now somebody is getting things awfully right here!

Great venue, friendly people, good beer (though they ran out of Black Sheep both nights I was there!), and obviously a format the audience enjoy; alternate guest and singers nights.

I may be talking out of turn after just two visits, but I think those who attend purely as audience appreciate the 'concert' and 'performance oriented' nature of the club that I perceived. Running the singers night in concert format with 2 or 3 songs per spot seems to give the artists more of a chance to put on "a performance" than is possible in a "sing-around" format. This in turn leaves those who come just to listen having been "entertained" rather than just as observers.

Sing-arounds and sessions have their place for giving everyone a chance regardless of ability, encouraging new talent and for practicing new material, but will remain largely singers and musicians clubs.

Otley have obviously decided exactly what they want the club to be and made a great success of it.

Can't make next week, when I guess it will be packed out for Harvey Andrews, but definitely hoping to make it for the next singers night.

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