Most welcoming folk club

Subject: RE: Most welcoming folk club
From: kendall
Date: 31 Aug 12 - 06:44 AM

It's been some time since I performed at a folk club, but I would mention that I felt right at home at the Cecil Sharp club in London.
Also Herga, and, of course, our own house concerts at Sinsulls.

Subject: RE: Most welcoming folk club
From: GUEST,Allen in Oz
Date: 31 Aug 12 - 05:02 AM

Dear FloraG

There have always been folk clubs in Sydney to my knowledge although they may not be named as such ...eg the Bush Music Club. We have the Folk Federation of New South Wales which has a web site I think.

There are indeed plenty of folk festivals out here in OZ. Oh yes. It is all "go" out here!
Best wishes AD

Subject: RE: Most welcoming folk club
From: GUEST,FloraG
Date: 31 Aug 12 - 04:38 AM

Allen in Oz - I shall add it to the list of ones to visit - but it might be a while.
Some years a go I had a chat with the gent from Cloudstreet - he said that there were festivals but not clubs as such. Is this changing?
FloraG

Subject: RE: Most welcoming folk club
From: GUEST,Allen in Oz
Date: 30 Aug 12 - 11:39 PM

You are all welcome to try out the Wisefolk Club and the Toongabbie Music Club, both located in Sydney, Australia . They are both very welcoming and will greet you with open arms I am sure.

AD

Subject: RE: Most welcoming folk club
From: GUEST,Blandiver
Date: 30 Aug 12 - 01:56 PM

I thought you played tenor, Les?

Subject: RE: Most welcoming folk club
From: GUEST,alex s no cookie
Date: 30 Aug 12 - 01:52 PM

All I can say, Big Banjo Man Les, is go and find out.....
Only modest egos at Burnley FC (and with much to be modest about)

Subject: RE: Most welcoming folk club
From: Les in Chorlton
Date: 30 Aug 12 - 01:30 PM

One is tempted to ask which folk clubs have "big willy contests" and what exactly goes on there.

I ask only out of general curiosity, although I do have quite a large banjo, so to speak.

L in C#

Subject: RE: Most welcoming folk club
From: GUEST,alex s no cookie
Date: 30 Aug 12 - 12:50 PM

Burnley Folk Club, according to Pat Sherry: "because there's no big willy contests"!

Subject: RE: Most welcoming folk club
From: GUEST
Date: 30 Aug 12 - 10:31 AM

Black swan york
Mansfield
Maidenhead
FSSGB ( Boston)
Wherwell ( Hampshire )
Faversham ( Kent)
Strand Hotel ( Dublin)
Bray Singers club ( Ireland)
Overton Hampshire
Seaford
CS House London
Tigerfolk Long Eaton
Robin Hood Long Eaton
Second Tuesday FC
Bedworth FC
Llantrisant FC
Halfpenny FC Gower
Warwick FC
Lyceum FC
The list grows. I've been to 3 of these - not looking for bookings or to sell cds- so Ive got lots more to do yet.
FloraG.

Subject: RE: Most welcoming folk club
From: banjoman
Date: 30 Aug 12 - 09:57 AM

Flora - Overton is in Hampshire not far from us -1st Wednesday of each month when I can make it.

Dave - the incident I refer to happened in a Liverpool Club which Has long since gone out of existence

Subject: RE: Most welcoming folk club
From: vectis
Date: 30 Aug 12 - 09:07 AM

Seaford Folk Club is always very welcoming to new faces and old. No-one arrives who is not greeted and talked to before the end of the evening.

Subject: RE: Most welcoming folk club
From: GUEST,Jim Morrison
Date: 30 Aug 12 - 08:09 AM

Of course it depends on where you live but in London without a shadow of doubt it's Sharp's Folk Club at Cecil Sharp House every Tuesday night. No residents, no favourites, different MC every week and if you put your name down you will be asked to sing!

Subject: RE: Most welcoming folk club
From: TheSnail
Date: 30 Aug 12 - 07:44 AM

Surely a club that isn't welcoming isn't going to last very long. If they've got a big enough clique to keep going, leave them to it and go elsewhere.

Subject: RE: Most welcoming folk club
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 30 Aug 12 - 07:38 AM

Since our club, Tigerfolk (formerly Traditions at the Tiger), and The Robin Hood Folk Club share the same venue, The Stumble Inn, Long Eaton, I would like to think that we are both equally welcoming as it is certainly our intention to be.
Dave, I'm sure that Tigerfolk is as welcoming. It's just that I'm never in the area on a Sunday night. I get to Nottingham once a year for a bowling competition, and am there Thursday to Sunday.
I may have been to Tigerfolk once, if it was a different evening, and a different venue (upstairs in The Tiger?)

Cheers
Nigel

Subject: RE: Most welcoming folk club
From: Dave Sutherland
Date: 30 Aug 12 - 07:19 AM

Since our club, Tigerfolk (formerly Traditions at the Tiger), and The Robin Hood Folk Club share the same venue, The Stumble Inn, Long Eaton, I would like to think that we are both equally welcoming as it is certainly our intention to be. We meet the first Sunday in the month BTW.
Banjoman does the club to which you refer still exist or are you perpetuating an urban myth concerning a club which has been closed for more than 20 years?

Subject: RE: Most welcoming folk club
From: Les in Chorlton
Date: 30 Aug 12 - 07:13 AM

Perhaps Guest, guest could join up or speak in person to those s/he didn't like?

Welcome to that point on here where it gets off topic and sometimes a bit unpleasant

L in C#

Subject: RE: Most welcoming folk club
From: Vic Smith
Date: 30 Aug 12 - 06:57 AM

Also never been to Maidenhead but been to hundreds of festivals and can't say that I agree with GUEST,Guest. The statement might have carried more weight if it been posted by someone with the courage to use their own name.

Subject: RE: Most welcoming folk club
From: GUEST,Guest
Date: 30 Aug 12 - 06:47 AM

Have not neen to Maidenhead FC - but have had the unfortunate experience of meeting some of them at festivals. Rude clicky bunch - think they are somehow special when in fact they they are quite average. Heard similar complaints from other people.

Subject: RE: Most welcoming folk club
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 30 Aug 12 - 06:42 AM

I wish I had not used the word 'most' just welcoming.
Okay, now we're just down to 'welcoming'
Lyceum Folk Club, Newport (S.Wales)
Llantrisant Folk Club(Pontyclun, not Llantrisant)
Halfpenny Folk Club, Gower
Robin Hood Folk Club
Warwick Folk Club
Bedworth Folk Club
Second Tuesday Folk Club (Cardiff)

The above have all been found to be welcoming (even if they've heard me sing before!)

Subject: RE: Most welcoming folk club
From: Vic Smith
Date: 30 Aug 12 - 06:41 AM

My wife and I sometimes start the evening at our club with that great song learned from Eddie & Gracie Butcher - Don't Come Again. How much more welcoming can we be than that?

Subject: RE: Most welcoming folk club
From: Les in Chorlton
Date: 30 Aug 12 - 06:38 AM

Would it count if I simply welcome evryone in the Known Universe to The Beech, Beech Road, Chorlton, Manchester, M21 9EG?

Songs 1st & 3rd Wednesdays, Tunes 2nd & 4th Wednesdays and Cloggin every other Saturday morning?

More info

L in C#

Subject: RE: Most welcoming folk club
From: Vic Smith
Date: 30 Aug 12 - 06:35 AM

Vic - the only curmudgeonly thing about you is that you refuse to moderate your Scottish accent while doing all that rap and hip hop stuff...

More secrets being divulged! I don't know how I am going to get people to come to our ghastly club.

Subject: RE: Most welcoming folk club
From: GUEST,Blandiver
Date: 30 Aug 12 - 06:35 AM

One of those Folk Clubs in that list serves as the location for an anecdote related by a couple of German tourists I met in York once who'd been to the Black Swan Folk Club the night before. When I asked how it was they said they couldn't compliment a resident on their performance without them trying to sell them their CDs. They even showed me the ones they'd felt obliged to buy. A singers night too. Strange but true...

Subject: RE: Most welcoming folk club
From: GUEST,FloraG
Date: 30 Aug 12 - 06:28 AM

Ill add Overton to the list. Where is it?

Subject: RE: Most welcoming folk club
From: banjoman
Date: 30 Aug 12 - 05:31 AM

I would like to see a survey of the most UN welcoming club. There are a lot of contenders for that role including one famous venue who ask floor singers to audition in the corridor before allowing them a spot,
In Hampshire, I have always felt welcome to any club I have been to, especially Wherewell and Overton.

Subject: RE: Most welcoming folk club
From: GUEST,FloraG
Date: 30 Aug 12 - 03:42 AM

So so far we have
Black swan york
Mansfield
Maidenhead
FSSGB ( Boston)
Wherwell ( Hampshire )
Faversham ( Kent)
Strand Hotel ( Dublin)
Bray Singers club ( Ireland)

I think the list is far from complete. I wish I had not used the word 'most' just welcoming.
FloraG

Subject: RE: Most welcoming folk club
From: Joe Offer
Date: 30 Aug 12 - 02:09 AM

Well, I went to two that were wonderful:

Song Central in Dublin: [e-mail] - meets on the third Sunday of the month in Dublin, but I'm not sure if it has found a permanent location yet.

Bray Singers' Circle: [e-mail] - meets on the third Saturday of the month at the Strand Hotel in Bray (Ireland)

Then there's my regular session, which meets on the second Sunday afternoon, 2-5 PM. It's called by the clumsy name of "In Harmony's Way Up In Auburn" to differentiate it from the equally wonderful "In Harmony's Way" gathering in the San Francisco East Bay area. The Auburn circle is http://www.elbowmagic.com/ihw.html. Look at the photos and see if you can guess which one is me.

In my experience as a singer of dumb camp songs, almost every folk club is welcoming if you come with the right attitude. Most folk clubs are very nice about tolerating my singing "There's a Hole in the Bottom of the Sea" - once.

-Joe-

Subject: RE: Most welcoming folk club
From: GUEST,Stan
Date: 29 Aug 12 - 07:11 PM

Maybe, if people don't find a club welcoming, it's because they walked in with a bad attitude. Just a thought!

Subject: RE: Most welcoming folk club
From: Abdul The Bul Bul
Date: 29 Aug 12 - 06:31 PM

You're always welcome at Faversham Flora.
Al

Subject: RE: Most welcoming folk club
From: Hesk
Date: 29 Aug 12 - 05:09 PM

I tend to agree with Georgian Silver. Most of us will think it is our Folk Club that fits the bill.
We reckon to be pretty welcoming at Wherwell in Hampshire UK, but strangers to our club have been known to last 10 minutes, or less, whilst regulars have been going for over 25 years. Folkies can be a pretty intimidating lot to casual visitors, even though they don't mean to be.
Songs about death and misery and a lack of extremely well known mainstream material can, often, speed the departure!

Subject: RE: Most welcoming folk club
From: GUEST,Stuart Reed
Date: 29 Aug 12 - 03:38 PM

Vic - the only curmudgeonly thing about you is that you refuse to moderate your Scottish accent while doing all that rap and hip hop stuff...

Subject: RE: Most welcoming folk club
From: Vic Smith
Date: 29 Aug 12 - 01:39 PM

Blandiver wrote:-
there always has to be at least one resident curmudeonly old tosser who manages to mess it up for everyone else.

How did you get the inside information on the club that I run?
"curmudeonly old tosser" - I'll have you know that I really object to being referred to as "old"!

Subject: RE: Most welcoming folk club
From: Doug Chadwick
Date: 29 Aug 12 - 01:27 PM

Thanks

Subject: RE: Most welcoming folk club
From: Elmore
Date: 29 Aug 12 - 01:18 PM

Folk Song Society of Greater Boston. (USA)

Subject: RE: Most welcoming folk club
From: Doug Chadwick
Date: 29 Aug 12 - 01:12 PM

FSSGB

what's that in English, please?

DC

Subject: RE: Most welcoming folk club
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 29 Aug 12 - 01:09 PM

The most welcoming Folk Club is the one YOU go to that YOU find the most welcoming...... It is not a competition! Some pubs are nicer than others, some cinemas are nicer than others but people tend to use them all anyway..... why compare?

Subject: RE: Most welcoming folk club
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 29 Aug 12 - 01:09 PM

The most welcoming Folk Club is the one YOU go to that YOU find the most welcoming...... It is not a competition! Some pubs are nicer than others, some cinemas are nicer than others but people tend to use them all anyway..... why compare?

Subject: RE: Most welcoming folk club
From: Leadfingers
Date: 29 Aug 12 - 12:01 PM

I am tempted to have a go at GUEST Peter , but I cant be bothered !
Or is that jus being rude ??

Subject: RE: Most welcoming folk club
From: GUEST,Peter
Date: 29 Aug 12 - 11:24 AM

Maidenhead F C IS very welcoming
Well it couldn't have got worse, I went once about 15 years ago and then it was the rudest club that I have ever visited in my life.

Subject: RE: Most welcoming folk club
From: Elmore
Date: 29 Aug 12 - 10:39 AM

FSSGB

Subject: RE: Most welcoming folk club
From: GUEST,Blandiver
Date: 29 Aug 12 - 10:38 AM

I'm happy enough - more than happy in fact.

Subject: RE: Most welcoming folk club
From: johncharles
Date: 29 Aug 12 - 09:57 AM

Bad morning at work Blandiver?

Subject: RE: Most welcoming folk club
From: GUEST,Banjiman
Date: 29 Aug 12 - 09:56 AM

Did you get out of bed the wrong side this morning Blandiver? Or has your Crwth malfunctioned?

Subject: RE: Most welcoming folk club
From: GUEST,Blandiver
Date: 29 Aug 12 - 09:31 AM

Most welcoming Folk Club? No such thing - Folk Law states that in every Folk Club (proper or otherwise) there always has to be at least one resident curmudeonly old tosser who manages to mess it up for everyone else. Off hand I can't think of any where this hasn't been the case, though I've always managed to ignore it, like one fellow resident of yore who made his hatred of me public knowledge on several occasions and thought that was somehow acceptable. Shame really, because he's one of my favourite singers & his photographs of agricultural avian-deterrent folk-art mannequins really are second to none (we still have one of his exhibition posters on our wall). I always try and abide by The People, Lord, Thy People rule, but I too am only human...

And there's no such thing as a benign dictatorship either, though there's something in The Folk Gene that lends itself to cringing deference to authoritarian rule - just look at the sycophantic fawning that goes on around here over Max and Joe. But another factor in my Folk is a Religion hypothesis.

Subject: RE: Most welcoming folk club
From: Leadfingers
Date: 29 Aug 12 - 08:51 AM

Nowt wrong with a committee , provided it was not designed by a camel . Maidenhead F C IS very welcoming (Mrs Admiral and a couple of others see to that) and though it does LEAN towards the tradition ALL sorts of song and music is appreciated .

Subject: RE: Most welcoming folk club
From: John Routledge
Date: 29 Aug 12 - 08:29 AM

The most welcoming clubs are those where the residents/regulars are happy to welcome performances which are not run of the mill and which may encourage the regulars to look at their own performances.

In reality I wonder how many clubs are really like this.

Subject: RE: Most welcoming folk club
From: GUEST,FloraG
Date: 29 Aug 12 - 07:59 AM

Club rules are non profit making - so ignored bythe tax unless they trade. Its me - I'm a bit ignorant about geography sp area helps.
I suggested formal as a lot of sessions start and then then just stop.
Peter, I wish it were so.
FloraG

Subject: RE: Most welcoming folk club
From: Musket
Date: 29 Aug 12 - 07:34 AM

The most welcoming clubs tend to be those without ruddy committees, rules, lists or tax arrangements.

The most welcoming clubs have a bloke who gets there early to arrange the chairs, a bar with a wide range of drinks including non alcoholic beer for the drivers, a regular decent musician who will gladly help out and provide accompaniment to a singer who is interested in being helped, a few other singers an musicians who turn up regularly, a few who love to sit and listen and a landlord who appreciates the community service he / she is helping by providing a room for little reward, as heavy drinking seems to have dropped off since I started going to clubs..


ps. I used to go to Mansfield years ago too. The Brown Cow was one of my haunts 30 odd years ago, but moved away on now, sadly.

Subject: RE: Most welcoming folk club
From: GUEST,flush
Date: 29 Aug 12 - 07:07 AM

Having just played at the Mansfield Folk Club I would have to put them up at the top of the list for being welcoming and very friendly, and by gum they can sing really well too
Iain G

Subject: RE: Most welcoming folk club
From: GUEST,Peter
Date: 29 Aug 12 - 05:45 AM

Most clubs are welcoming if you take a guitar case for a walk, the test is how they treat the listening public.

I find it difficult to judge these days as there are familiar faces at most clubs that I am likely to visit.