Whitby 2015 - best places.

Subject: RE: Whitby 2015 - best places.
From: banjoman
Date: 16 Oct 14 - 05:21 AM

Daily lunch time session at the Last in First out if you can find it. Its somewhere in the housing complex near the station. Welcomed all & sundry last year although its a pretty small place. Might see you there

Subject: RE: Whitby 2015 - best places.
From: r.padgett
Date: 16 Oct 14 - 04:07 AM

Tha Ship front day time, The Middle Earth late pm and evening, Black Swan, Friendship club upstairs

Where you can get!!

Ray

Subject: RE: Whitby 2015 - best places.
From: GUEST,FloraG
Date: 16 Oct 14 - 03:57 AM

Take your lightest instruments to carry as parking can be a problem. Also try to book accomodation with parking if you are in the central area.
The pub opposite the ship does good lunchtime shanty sessions. We usually buy a season ticket as they are relatively inexpensive and it supports the festival, as well as giving the option of the odd workshop/ concert.
Don't forget the fish and chips Whitby is famous for.
FloraG

Subject: RE: Whitby 2015 - best places.
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 16 Oct 14 - 03:24 AM

Thank you Nick

Subject: RE: Whitby 2015 - best places.
From: Nick
Date: 15 Oct 14 - 11:43 PM

The other thing is that there tend to be quiet times in even the busy pubs when there is a lull - or people disappear off for food or a break.

eg The Ship is generally pretty busy (tunes rather than songs) but can go through times (teatime to early evening) when it can go quite quiet before the evening session gets into full swing. A bunch of people coming in can give it a shot in the arm

Subject: RE: Whitby 2015 - best places.
From: Nick
Date: 15 Oct 14 - 11:34 PM

I'd try outside The Fleece overlooking the river. I think you'd fit in fine. Usually a bunch of people there who join in together and sing and play. The Fleece usually has stuff going on in the front bar (small and busy), main bar and the outside terrace so lots of options.

You might also try starting something off in a less used pub and you might attract people to join. My wife and I had a really enjoyable evening some years back in the back bar of the Golden Lion. There were some members of Jacks Rake (band from Sheffield) who had 'commandeered' the place for the evening to enjoy some tunes together much to the enjoyment of a bunch of listeners but were happy to have other people join in so we did. Great fun. I looked in this year but nothing was going on there. So a 'band' or group of people can work well to set things off.

Station Inn is also welcoming and people join in together. Front bar is pretty small but had a fluid collection of upwards of 10+ musicians but with a basic nucleus of a group of people.

Even the Black Horse could accommodate 4 people easily. It can go through quiet periods and would work with a group of people. I shared a pleasant hour sharing some songs with a duo there this year.

Think you'll find it easy to find plenty of spots to fit in.

Subject: RE: Whitby 2015 - best places.
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 15 Oct 14 - 11:08 PM

No, I have not been to Whitby at all before.

No I am not Nigerian.

No we are not looking to fly-pitch as "performers", we much prefer song sessions, where we do some listening, some joining in (I quite like to add some mandolin accompaniment) and we play only the acoustic and unamplified instruments we can carry around for the whole day - Royston's guitar, Sam's dumbec if he cba, daughter's bodhran, and my guitar and mandolin. Sometimes one of us may do a solo turn (but never a drum solo) and sometimes one or more of us may join in with the other(s) of us. Or we may do a band set-piece. As I said "We may go to be audience some of the time but will definitely want participative song stuff".

No, I am not the famous didge player.

Yes, my home session pub is the Good Intent (Rochester, the big sing at Sweeps' Festival). Exactly the sort of thing we enjoy. No I am not running the Lower Stoke Winter Sings this year. Others may enjoy diddly and humpty but I don't. Daughter may well carry her bodhran and want to play it to some of that stuff, but is well behaved with it.

Thanks to the select few who have suggested places without curious assumptions.

Subject: RE: Whitby 2015 - best places.
From: tijuanatime
Date: 15 Oct 14 - 07:07 AM

I think you would find the Star to your taste: it's fairly similar in ambience to the Good Intent, as I recall it, and the landlord is an enthusiast (and participant).

Subject: RE: Whitby 2015 - best places.
From: GUEST,Fred McCormick
Date: 15 Oct 14 - 07:01 AM

Cheap Samuel Smith's and their barring of music.

Last year, on the night before the festival started, I wandered into a Sam Smith's and found the beer there incredibly cheap and incredibly agreeable.

I got talking to the landlord, who also turned out to be agreeable.

"Will you be calling in again?", he asked as I emptied my glass.

"Regrettably not", I replied. "I'll be that busy chasing pubs where they do allow music, that I just won't have the time."

Sam Smith's sure shot themselves in the foot over that one.

Subject: RE: Whitby 2015 - best places.
From: vectis
Date: 15 Oct 14 - 06:40 AM

Avoid the Plough. It used to really rock there and the beer was very cheap but Sam Smith stopped the music, a sad sight to walk past a silent pub during Folk Week.
As a group you will need to walk around and find a space early in the day, the pubs fill up quickly and stay full before lunchtime. Loads of fast Irish played everywhere. Good luck finding accommodation and a venue or two.

G/F may like to meet fellow unaccompanied in the side room of The Station Inn. Good evening session in The Endeavour every evening run by Maggie and Les very mixed bag there and your sort of stuff would be welcome, don't know about a whole band though.

Subject: RE: Whitby 2015 - best places.
From: GUEST,Raggytash
Date: 15 Oct 14 - 06:37 AM

Jack, the singing outside the Middle Earth has been serious curtailed this year. Whereas at one time sessions outside would spill onto the pavement and go on until the early hours the council have vetoed such usage. Jill, the landlady, only has a comparatively small area outside the pub and much more stringent restrictions on what can and cannot happen outside.

Subject: RE: Whitby 2015 - best places.
From: Dennis the Elder
Date: 15 Oct 14 - 06:37 AM

Richard, do you play a long wooden Australian thing or is that a different Richard Bridge?

Subject: RE: Whitby 2015 - best places.
From: Jack Campin
Date: 15 Oct 14 - 06:14 AM

Have they already booked their cottage?

If not they will probably be too late.

If you do manage to find somewhere to stay, the most anything-goes spots are outside the Middle Earth and the front left room in the Station Hotel. But as Kitty says there's stuff going on everywhere, and it's a small place, just wander around till you find something that suits.

Subject: RE: Whitby 2015 - best places.
From: GUEST,Fred McCormick
Date: 15 Oct 14 - 06:05 AM

I can't comment on places where bands could play. However, for the last two years, we have had a session of political songs in The Dolphin, midday, midweek.

And yes. The vast majority of the songs are left wing proletarian, with a fair few about the environment, women's rights, gay rights etc.

In other words, politically, it's all good stuff, and right up your street.

Subject: RE: Whitby 2015 - best places.
From: GUEST
Date: 15 Oct 14 - 05:47 AM

Richard you are having a laugh Its a folk festival not X factor

Subject: RE: Whitby 2015 - best places.
From: GUEST,Raggytash
Date: 15 Oct 14 - 05:40 AM

Firstly Richard how many of your daughters fiends are in the band. There are not many venues that can accommodate a fully set up band AND the influx of people that folk week brings. I.E If I were a landlord would I want X amount of floor space taken up with equipment or would I want drinkers in that space.
Secondly there are not many venue managers(landlords etc) that would accept that one group of people I.E your band could "hog" the music for an hour, session, day, week (delete as applicable)
Thirdly I have not heard your band and even if they are excellent I, as a punter, would feel disinclined to welcome them in the bar I tend to drink in if they thought they could hold court for an afternoon. The beauty of that bar, and most others, is the variety of performers and styles. Occasionally, over the years, small groups or bands have tried to monopolise certain venues. By and large they are very much frowned upon.
All that being said, Good Luck, I hope you have a great time next year.

Subject: RE: Whitby 2015 - best places.
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 15 Oct 14 - 01:44 AM

Richard - there are sessions all over the place, but the pubs get crowded (no surprise there). I suggest you have a wander round to find one that suits. The good news is that the 2015 festival doesn't coincide with the Regatta, so the crowding should be bearable!

Kitty

Subject: RE: Whitby 2015 - best places.
From: GUEST
Date: 14 Oct 14 - 09:45 PM

Are YOU ..Nigerian...Richard?

Subject: RE: Whitby 2015 - best places.
From: GUEST,Malcolm Storey
Date: 14 Oct 14 - 07:47 PM

Have you never been to Whitby for the Festival Richard?

Subject: Whitby 2015 - best places.
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 14 Oct 14 - 06:53 PM

I think that estimable daughter and fiends are getting a cottage for Whitby 2015 so my whole band (maybe not the drummer) will probably be there. We sing mostly but not all English 1954 definition folk, mostly fairly "arranged", probably more accompanied than unaccompanied. Some of the accompaniments are more "folk and roll" than "folk". We may go to be audience some of the time but will definitely want participative song stuff.

If G/F comes she may have some unaccompanied (unless I have learned guitar parts by then) songs, some Nigerian, some not.

Where should we go (other than "straight back down south")?