September Folk Music News from Sussex (2008)

Subject: September Folk Music News from Sussex
From: Vic Smith
Date: 03 Sep 08 - 09:00 AM

ELEVEN ITEMS OF FOLK MUSIC NEWS FROM SUSSEX FOR SEPTEMBER

Let's start off this month by giving our warmest congratulations to MATT QUINN and DOGAN MEHMET, two young musicians who, in their teenage years, have both already made a huge contribution to the folk scene in Sussex in a number of ways. Both will be taking up their places at the University of Newcastle Traditional Music Degree Course later this month. (See also September 11th in Item No. 1 below)

1] FOLK AT THE ROYAL OAK
Station Street, Lewes
Enquiries:- [phone] or 881316
Email [e-mail] .
Every Thursday 8.pm PROMPT START
Here is our programme for our new season and for the rest of this year. Please note that we have been forced to make a couple of changes to our previously advertised programme for September

Sept 4th * £5.00 * STANLEY ROBERTSON, LIAM FARRELL, JOE WHELAN, REG HALL, SAM LEE.
We have an assembly of favourite and talented singers & musicians from Scotland, England and Ireland to help us celebrate the 60th birthday of Will Duke, our much loved and very talented resident singer and musician

Sept 11th *£5.00 * MATT QUINN
On hearing that Matt has achieved a place at the University of Newcastle Traditional Music Course to start later in September, we decided to give him an evening to himself to thank him for his major contribution to the venture over the last couple of years during which his singing and his musicianship on fiddle, melodeon and mandolins has developed so rapidly and radically. This replaces the previously advertised appearance by Bajaly Suso

Sept 18th *£5.00 * JIM WARD        
Jim brings us him wonderful selection of songs and monologues, mainly derived from the Cockney Music Halls. This replaces the previously announced appearance by Dave Sealey

Sept 25th *£5.00 * STEVE TURNER
Steve is an outstanding singer and musician on mandolin & concertina who has returned to performing in recent years.

Oct 2nd * £5.00 * MANDY MURRAY
The all-Ireland champion concertina player who is also a remarkable singer. This replaces the advertised appearance in July that Mandy was forced to cancel.

Oct 9th * £6.00 * BRUCE MOLSKY
Alone or with fellow musicians; guitar, fiddle, or banjo in hand, Bruce Molsky has been exploring traditional music from an astonishingly broad range of cultures over the past two decades

Oct 16th * £5.00 * PETE COE
A multi-instrumentalist on melodeon, dulcimer, banjo and bouzouki, Pete is a lovely singer of both traditional and written songs with a particular affinity with ballads.

Oct 23rd * £5.00 * PETE MORTON
One of the outstanding English songwriters and a mesmeric character in front of an audience. His songs and performances are a joy

Oct 30th * £5.00 * RON TAYLOR & JEFF GILLETT
Ron, once of The Songwainers in a great singer and Jeff's guitar accompaniments support beautifully. Their recent album, "Both Shine As One", is a delight.

Nov 6th * £5.00 * JEZ LOWE
A man who written so many outstanding songs and one who performs them with great panache, style and relish.

Nov 13th * £6.00 * RORY McLEOD
Ex-circus clown and fire eater. A one man soulband, poet and storyteller,
singing his own unique upbeat dance stories. A modern travelling troubadour using tap shoes, acappella, harmonica, guitar, trombone, spoons, finger cymbals, bandorea, djembe and various percussion instruments!

Nov 20th * £6.00 * MARTIN CARTHY
The outstanding singer and guitarist of the folk revival, Martin has been a top attraction for four decades now.

Nov 27th * £5.00 * JIGJAW
The superb line-up of Janet Russell, Rosie Davis, Kerry Fletcher and Frances Watt bring their unique combination of song, music and dance.

Dec 4th * free * LEWES LATE NIGHT SHOPPING OPEN NIGHT

Dec 11th * £5.00 * PEPPER'S GHOST CHRISTMAS SHOW
Songs, music, monologues and poems augment the wonderful Victorian Christmas magic Lantern show with Alan & Rene Marriott, Charlotte Oliver, Richard Spong & Roger Brasier.

Dec 18th * free * CHRISTMAS PARTY NIGHT
Our annual song and dance bash is always one of our most popular events.

Other attractions during 2009 will include:-

SULTANS OF SQUEEZE (John Kirkpatrick & Chris Parkinson) * MAGGIE HOLLAND * TONY HALL * JIM & LYNETTE ELDON * JEFF DAVIS * ZOOX * JIM BAINBRIDGE * THE ASKEW SISTERS * SHEPHEARD, SPIERS & WATSON * JERRY EPSTEIN & RALPH BODINGTON


Our websites are at
http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~tinvic and
http://www.myspace.com/royaloakfolklewes
Those of you with listings/ gig guides etc. are asked kindly to include
these dates amongst them.

***********
2] THE TWO LEWES FOLK CLUBS – An Announcement
It is certainly unusual these days, but the town of Lewes has TWO folk clubs
that operate independently at pubs within a couple of hundred yards of one
another.
* One on THURSDAYS at the Royal Oak in Station Street, Lewes
* One on SATURDAYS at the Lewes Arms in Mount Place, Lewes
The clubs work closely in harmony (musically and socially!) with one another
but both have seen confusion arriving when artists/agents/listing
magazines/email circulars etc. have announced a gig as being at "LEWES FOLK CLUB".
Could we ask that when you are announcing a date at either of these ventures
that you announce them as being at either
FOLK AT THE ROYAL OAK, LEWES
or
LEWES ARMS FOLK CLUB, LEWES

Vic Smith
Folk at the Royal Oak
Valmai Goodyear
Lewes Arms Folk Club
***********
3] 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:-

Stanley Robertson - "Auld Beggar Man" - (September 4th)
Joe Whelan, Liam Farrell & Reg Hall - "Paul Brock's / Mary MacNamara's -
(September 4th)
Matt Quinn - "Us Poor Fellows" - - (September 11th)
Steve Turner - "The Isle of St. Helena" - (September 25th)
Mandy Murray - "Drogheda Lassies/The Game of Love" - (October 2nd)
Bruce Molsky - "Wolves A-Howling" - (October 9th)

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:-

STEVE TURNER – September 25th
BRUCE MOLSKY - October 9th
PETE COE - October 16th
PETE MORTON – October 23rd
JEZ LOWE - November 6th
RORY McLEOD – November 13th
MARTIN CARTHY - November 20th
SULTANS OF SQUEEZE – January 8th
JIM ELDON – March 12th
TONY HALL – June 11th
***********
4] 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=LmQLe_Fz2UA
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 [e-mail]
***********
5] SUSSEX FOLK GUIDE WEBSITE - UPDATED
For all the listings of folk music, song club, dances, festivals in and around 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 September 2008.
***********
6] THE FOLK DIARY
Most of the listings on the Sussex Folk Guide website are taken from the paper magazine, THE FOLK DIARY. Issue no 232 covers the months of August & September 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 four 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 October/November 2008 has just passed and I'm afraid that some advertisers including some of our regulars missed getting their adverts included this time because they missed our deadline which had to be a very firm one this time, mainly because of holiday dates.
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 [e-mail]
VIC SMITH 01273 478124 [e-mail]
**********
7] 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 and, frankly, unless you are on broadband, the page will take too long to download. 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. 232 AUGUST - SEPTEMBER 2008
Page 1 (1578kb) Euro-Ceilidh Hassocks, White Horse Bodle Street Green (Mons) Acoustic Sussex
Page 2 (1166kb) Chiddingly Festival, Komedia Brighton
Page 3 (706kb) Lewes Arms Lewes (Sats), Royal Oak Lewes (Thurs) -
Advertising rates and copy dates
Page 4 (871kb) Rude Mechanicals Shoreham (Weds), Fee call Ceilidhs, Sussex Folk Association, Brighton Acoustic session (Mons). RSCDS Brighton, Beacon Tunbridge Wells (Mons), Seaford Live '08
Page 5 (759kb) Mainly Ceilidh Dance Club Horsham (Fris), Meltdown Ceilidhs (Sats), Six Bells Chiddingly (Tues), Soiree, Croydon folk club (Mons), Lammas Festival Eastbourne, Amberley Folk Club (Tues)
Page 6 (621kb) Horsham Folk Club (Suns), CD Reviews
Page 7 (602kb) Julie Roberts & Leonie Mansell, Willows folk club Arundel (Weds) CD Reviews
Page 8 (1785kb) Seaford Folk Club (Fris), Ram Club Claygate (Fris), Mid Sussex Folk Singers (Weds), Nick Hennessay, Sprinning Jenny Band
Page 9 (865kb) Brighton Cellarfolk (Tues), Footlights (Sats), Tenterden Folk Festival
Page 10 (1463kb) Brighton Early Music Festival, Barry Murphy banjos, Deal Maritime Festival
Page 11 (922kb) Piggies Open Mike (Tues), Brighton Singers Club (Weds & Suns), Eastbourne Folk Club (Weds), Hobgoblin Music, Eclipse Folk & Blues Hove,
Page 12 (3101kb) Electric Voices Guildford
**********
8] INSTRUMENTAL & VOCAL WORKSHOPS IN LEWES
LEWES ARMS FOLK CLUB WORKSHOPS 2008
The workshops last a full Saturday or Sunday and the tutor performs at the club in the evening.
20th Sept - Mary Humphreys & Anahata - Fenland tunes (any instrument)
18th Oct - John Kirkpatrick - Modes (any instrument)
25th Oct - Coope Boyes & Simpson - Vocal harmony
25th Oct - Georgina Boyes - Seminar on Wassails, Carols & Winter Customs (pm)
22nd Nov - Roy Clinging & Neil Brookes - Cheshire tunes (any instrument)
6th Dec - Paul Hutchinson - Accordion
6th Dec - Paul Sartin - Fiddle
The website for more details is
http://www.lewesarmsfolkclub.org/LAFC/workshps.html or contact Valmai
Goodyear on [phone] or email [e-mail]
The two workshops on 25th October will represent the 100th day workshop
that Valmai has organised in Lewes. Well done, that woman!
************
9] 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 [e-mail]
************
10] SHIRLEY COLLINS NEWS
The great contribution that Shirley has made has been recognised in a number of ways in the last couple of years. Firstly, Shirley was awarded an MBE in the 2007 New Year's Honours List and then she was also awarded the Honorary Degree Master of the University by the Open University for Notable Contribution to Education and Culture and most recently Shirley has been made President of The English Folk Dance & Song Society.

This has been followed by EMI releasing a double album of tracks from the wonderful albums of the 60s and 70s that Shirley recorded for the Harvest label; The Harvest Years was released last month on the Harvest label and is already picking up rave reviews.

Shirley is continuing to present her show "America Over The Water" at
prestigious events and the next two events will be:-

Saturday September 6th
Festival Letteratura
20:45, Teatro Bibiena, € 8,00
Mantova,
Italy.
Website and then click
on Scarica il programma di Sabato
http://www.festivaletteratura.it/2008/programma.php
Saturday October 11th
Opera North
2:30pm West Yorkshire Playhouse £8 (£6 concessions)
Leeds
Tickets 0113 213 7700 or www.wyp.org.uk
Website http://www.operanorth.co.uk/ontperformanceinfo.aspx?productionid=68
************
11] BREMF - THE BRIGHTON EARLY MUSIC FESTIVAL
This year the Brighton Early Music Festival explores the relationship between
early music and traditional folk song and music – and their first two events
feature SHIRLEY COLLINS:-
SUNDAY 5 OCTOBER
Royal Oak Pub, 3 Station Street, Lewes BN7 2DA
11 am - 5.30 pm
Workshop on English traditional singing with Shirley Collins
One of the greatest living authorities on English folk song will guide singers to a
deeper understanding of this rich and varied heritage. As this is an aural and oral
tradition using no scores, no sight reading is necessary – nor is a 'great voice'!
Open to voices of all levels of experience – even the most timid are encouraged to
give it a try!
"Shirley Collins is without doubt one of England's greatest cultural treasures"
Billy Bragg

FRIDAY 17 OCTOBER
Pelham House, Lewes BN7 1UW
A Most Sunshiny Day
presented
by Shirley Collins with Pip Barnes
A fascinating and timely look at the remarkable song culture of the rural
labouring people of Sussex, illustrated with field recordings and pictures.
This music had a great effect on the work of Vaughan Williams and George Butterworth,
and remains a source of inspiration to many young singers today, being a direct and
essential connection to our roots and history.

SATURDAY 18 OCTOBER
St Mary's RC Church Hall, Surrenden Rd, Brighton BN1 6PA
8 pm
The BREMF Ceilidh
The Unitarian Church, New Road, Brighton With traditional band Rattlebone

SUNDAY 19 OCTOBER
Ralli Hall, 81 Denmark Villas Hove BN3 3TH
11 am – 5.30 pm
English traditional dance music
Workshop for players of all instruments - early, traditional and modern - and anyone
who enjoys dancing!
Led by members of The Carnival Band with Mary Collins dance instructor.
A day of spectacular fun, open to all ages and levels of ability.
Instrumentalists will have an opportunity to dance, and more expert
players will get a chance to play while the less experienced take a turn dancing,
and learn to feel the beat of this music with their feet! No previous experience of
dance necessary.

FRIDAY 24 OCTOBER
St George's Church, Kemptown, Brighton BN2 1ED 8 pm
Brighton Early Music Festival
Gala Opening concert
Meet the neighbours!
Celebrate the glorious traditional and medieval music of our fairest isles with
some leading performers from Britain and Ireland:
Róisín Elsafty, Siobhán Armstrong, Cass Meurig, Gwenan Gibbard,
Clare Norburn, Joy Smith and Hilary Michael perform songs in Gaelic,
Welsh and Middle English, with an array of lilting harps, dazzling fiddles
and the ancient Welsh crwth.
Informal 'bar' setting.

SUNDAY 26 OCTOBER
St George's Church, Kemptown, Brighton BN2 1ED 7.30 pm
Wandering Fiddlers
Elizabeth Wallfisch baroque violin
Gerry O'Connor Irish fiddle
Siobhán Armstrong Celtic and baroque harps
Virtuoso violin music from Italy meets
Celtic fiddling in 17th and 18th century
England - here played by three of the
finest virtuosi of our time.

SATURDAY 8 NOVEMBER
The Unitarian Church, New Road, Brighton BN1 1UF
1 pm
As part of our Young Artist Showcase series, the ensemble Emerald
will perform baroque and traditional music from Ireland.

To apply for workshop booking forms, join the mailing list or request a
full brochure listing all events, phone [phone] or visit www.bremf.org.uk

************
...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 2008 are being snapped up quickly.
Contact Tina on 01273 478124 or email her at [e-mail]   to book the band.
The band's website is at
http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~tinvic/pistols.htm and, yes, they also
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:-
[e-mail]
[e-mail]

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 WEBSITE
http://www.compoundsounds.com

Subject: RE: September Folk Music News from Sussex
From: Valmai Goodyear
Date: 17 Jul 09 - 03:55 AM

Vic, many thanks for including us in your news bulletin.

For anyone who isn't familiar with Lewes, I'll just point out that since the beginning of this year the Lewes Arms Folk Club has become the Lewes Saturday Folk Club.

We meet every Saturday night, not stopping in summer, at the Elephant & Castle , White Hill, Lewes BN7 2DJ. We were at the Arms for 21 years and it's a hard habit to break, but our new room is bigger, has better acoustics and excellent Harveys Best Bitter. I would go so far as to say that the beer is better too, as one of the new landlords worked at the brewery for four years and knows his business.

This Saturday our guest performer is the wonderful Irish harp player and singer Bonnie Shaljean. Bonnie leads a harp workshop for us during the day, for which twelve people have already signed up - it should be a wonderful sight and sound.

Valmai

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Valmai suggested I close this thread so others don't make the same mistake. -Joe Offer-