Starting a Folk club

Subject: RE: Starting a Folk club
From: Kosmo
Date: 11 Aug 09 - 12:12 PM

This is all excellent, thanks.

I'm hoping for it to be a club for all kinds of folk as there's already a celtic/gaelic club at glasgow university (I got a rather snooty email off him telling me why it was best just to have that club so I told him that all cultures and countries have folk music not just scotland).

Anyway, thank you so much, I'm going to have a sort of committee (me being high Cheiffess) and then we'll be affiliating with the student unions and the representative council so we can get money, then a venue will be simple to come by.

Kosmo
x

Subject: RE: Starting a Folk club
From: Will Fly
Date: 11 Aug 09 - 11:45 AM

When I started running the old BBC Folk Club (Clanfolk) around 1969, I made on huge error - being very new to it all and not playing professionally myself - but I only made it once.

When the guests had finished the evening, I came forward with the club cheque book to pay them. Wrong! They expected cash, and I didn't have cash. Luckily the pub landlord, Danny, put his hand in his back pocket and gave me the cash to pay the act - and I wrote HIM a cheque. Red faced saved, but a lesson leaned.

Circumstances may be different depending on how you do the booking. If you go through an agent, very often the agent pays the performer, and a cheque to the agent is the appropriate thing to do. But, over the years, most club music transactions I've seen or been involved in have involved cash. Whatever you do, make sure the artist understands what the deal is before you shake hands on the deal!

Subject: RE: Starting a Folk club
From: GUEST,MtheGM
Date: 11 Aug 09 - 09:37 AM

I would, from my experience of running the Sawston [Cambridgeshire] FC 40 years ago, strongly endorse Mr Red's v valuable point 1 above - & go even further: I always started singing sharp at the appointed time even if nobody had yet turned up & I was just singing to myself & the girl waiting to take the money on the door. Then, when anyone did appear, they would come in & not assume the event was off & go away again, as might well have happened if all they had encountered was silence.

Another piece of advice: pay your guest the agreed amount when he/she arrives - have it ready for them in an envelope & give it to them upfront. Don't ever do what some iniquitous clubs tried on with me & say: 'Sorry, disappointing evening, will you just work for your exes?' - to which my answer was always, 'No, I didn't come all this way for nothing; the attendance at your club is not my problem'. It is a matter of honour and probity to pay what has been agreed.

Subject: RE: Starting a Folk club
From: GUEST,Mr Red
Date: 11 Aug 09 - 08:39 AM

If it is a music/singers club
1) start at the appointed hour every time, if there are only a few people in - be the brave one - start. Or people will poke their heads in, hear nothing and assume nothing happens - believe me.
2) smile
3) include everyone, those that don't sing/play talk to them in the break. Particularly new faces.
4) make sure there is someone to run the nights that you can't be there and tell them rule 1 - 4.
5) make it clear if you only run during term time etc.

If you are paying guest performers - there is a lot more to it and the same rules above will get you started. But contact with the guest during the week before to check all is as you expected would save any embarrassment and give you time to deal with eventualities/uncertainties like arrival time and picking-up from the station or navigation instructions etc.

Oh and use your free publicity channels, like posters, students union (flyers work - hand them out personally) , local radio, newspapers, TIC and any websites like mine I may have a link to your area (certainly Scotland).

And come back here and tell us how it is going.

Subject: RE: Starting a Folk club
From: Leadfingers
Date: 11 Aug 09 - 07:02 AM

I am ambivalent about being a Dictator , or having a committee - the committe lightens the load, and SOME assistance is mandatory - You CANT Be MC , AND sit at the door taking money
A GOOD Committee , where everyone knows what they are supposed to do AND does it without a reminder every ten minutes is good - A Committee that only want to 'Be On The Committe' is worse than useless .
If its IN the Univesity , parking shouldnt be a problem , and a decent bar is always useful . I personally would rather NOT use P A in a Club , but some artists DO NEED IT _ Mike Silver does an excellent job using effects on his guitar and DOES appreciate Sound levels .
And the VERY best of luck !

Subject: RE: Starting a Folk club
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 11 Aug 09 - 05:50 AM

1 Make sure you do what it says on the label so the punters know what to expect and will turn up every time - as the man said "Don't try to be all things to all people."
2 A club is only as good as its residents/regular singers - don't rely on guests otherwise it isn't a club, it's a concert.
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: Starting a Folk club
From: Hamish
Date: 10 Aug 09 - 02:34 PM

Yep - as per the 2005 thread, try here: myweb.tiscali.co.uk/lombardy/startingafolkclub/index.htm

Enjoy!

--
Hamish

Subject: RE: Starting a Folk club
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 10 Aug 09 - 02:32 PM

If you will be doing most of the work, do it your way, get musicians you like, set up song circles the way you like it. Decide ahead of time if you want good music or pleasant interactions. That will relate to blue book versus not blue book. Start out by thinking in advance what you want and don't want..a specific traditional kind of music...heartfelt people singing yellow submarine (and there is nothing wrong with that)...lots of singer songwriters, lots of sea shanties..very multicultural or very Scottish traditional.

Or it might not matter to you..whatever evolves evolves and that is probably great..But if you have something specific in mind get it right out in the open and put it in writing and talk about it openly. It is your right to set it up as you like. If others are going to be heavily involved, it is their right too. If one group likes blues, another likes hula, another likes Afrocelt, another likes Robert Burns and nothing else..let them take over specific functions on specific nights featuring those types of music. Don't try to be all things to all people. mg

Subject: RE: Starting a Folk club
From: Valmai Goodyear
Date: 10 Aug 09 - 01:28 PM

Good luck, Kosmo. You'll have a great deal of fun. A word of warning: don't promise to pay anyone money that you haven't got,and don't use your own money for anything other than a float. Can you get some sort of allowance from the University's Students' Union?

It's easy to get enthusiastic and assume that a wonderful performer will bring in a huge audience, but it doesn't always happen, so keep an eye on the funds.

Valmai

Subject: RE: Starting a Folk club
From: Banjiman
Date: 10 Aug 09 - 01:00 PM

Here's the thread from wharn I started KFFC. Just re-read some of it..... was I nauseatingly enthusiastic or what!

KFFC, New North Yorks Folk Club

Good luck with yours Kosmo, ours is still going strongly. It'll be back in September!

Paul

Subject: RE: Starting a Folk club
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 10 Aug 09 - 12:32 PM

This thread from 2005 might be of use: Starting a folk club. ;-)

~ Becky in Long Beach

Subject: RE: Starting a Folk club
From: SunrayFC
Date: 10 Aug 09 - 12:12 PM

Take a deep breath!

and go for it!

You ain't in Dorset so it will be a lot easier than, say the Sunray!

Subject: RE: Starting a Folk club
From: GUEST,ploppo
Date: 10 Aug 09 - 12:12 PM

Ask yourself:
Is it going to be
A) just a session - no cash needed;
B) with paid guests - membership with subscription? or just a whip-round?;
C) everyone taking a strict turn (1, 2 or 3 songs or tunes per go)? or a free-for-all;
D) once a week/month.......

Good luck
ploppo

Subject: Starting a Folk club
From: Kosmo
Date: 10 Aug 09 - 10:31 AM

I'm starting a new folk club for the university of Glasgow, hoping for some tips and tricks people are willing to bestow unto me about how to run it, I've run music nights and a few sessions before and I'm a member of a few folk clubs, but any additional info would be ace.

Cheers
x