folk club rooms i have dwelt in

Subject: RE: folk club rooms i have dwelt in
From: The Sandman
Date: 02 Nov 20 - 02:19 PM

interesting post, jim bainbridge

Subject: RE: folk club rooms i have dwelt in
From: Mark Ross
Date: 02 Nov 20 - 12:25 PM

When I worked as lighting and sound man, dishwasher, and semi-permanent opening act at The Gaslight in Greenwich Village in the late '60's I spent many a night sleeping on the Persian carpet on the lobby floor. That is when I couldn't find someone to take me home with them that night.

Mark Ross

Subject: RE: folk club rooms i have dwelt in
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 02 Nov 20 - 12:19 PM

The "Green Room" at the Troubador takes a fair bit of beating. An old coal hole (Coil oil ?) behind the stage, with thick glass tiles in the roof, that were set into the pavement above. That's where I first met The Watersons ;)
There was a club in the barn of a farm, where we all sat on hay bales, Oxfordshire, near Turville Heath I think, it was a very TV studio idea of a folk club setting. Can't remember the name at present, but I know me old mate Leadfingers used to there. It'll come back to me eventually.

Subject: RE: folk club rooms i have dwelt in
From: GUEST,jim bainbridge
Date: 02 Nov 20 - 05:51 AM

Dwelt in, quite a few. SLEPT in, only one.
   About 1980, while living in London, I went down to the Copper family's club in Peacehaven. Pub hours were quite strict 40 years ago it went on far too long & at a certain stage, even with dimmed lights, there was a rat-tat on the door.

    Bob was concerned, as the man in charge, and hushed everybody before answering the door to a couple of policemen!
    The club was full, and we all kept very quiet. I'm not sure how he managed it, but they left & we all breathed again.

Any other course would have been quite serious for Bob, and he cleared the club fairly quickly- most folk were local, so sneaked out the back way! We were driving & planned to go back to London, & Bob said that wasn't wise, so we spent a night on the floor in front of a lovely log fire.

I saw John Copper at Dartmoor about 2005 & he was delighted to meet someone who had actually been at the club lock-in, which seemed to have entered local folklore!

Subject: RE: folk club rooms i have dwelt in
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 02 Nov 20 - 03:45 AM

I forgot to say I was only a baby in those days, so I haven't dwelt in that room. BMC was using different rooms when I joined in 1997.

Subject: RE: folk club rooms i have dwelt in
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 02 Nov 20 - 03:43 AM

A story from the early days of the Bush Music Club, Australia's oldest folk club, est. 1954.

We shared use of the studio with the June Dally-Watkins Modelling Agency and Academy. They had an evening class which was supposed to end about fifteen minutes before we arrived. But rarely did. The crisis came one night when the Dally-Watkins lady organised her end-of-year graduation parade on our club night without consulting anyone. After a heated argument as to who was going to have occupancy that night, we hit on a compromise. The girls would model and while they were having their dozen or so changes we would perform, entertaining the models’ parents and friends with brackets of numbers lasting for 15 or 20 minutes.

It went off well, for we were entertained by all the young lovelies pussy-footing down the catwalk modelling swimwear, then sports gear, followed by formals, cocktail gowns etc. and finally, in a crash-hot finale; formal evening gowns. This is where we nearly wrecked the show. I’ve forgotten her name, but I can still remember the beautiful girl who made her stunning entrance, to the Dally-Watkins running commentary. The dress was black, backless and strapless; one of those creations that defy the laws of gravity. Dally-Watkins was just commenting that this was not the dress for every girl, that you must have the necessary physical attributes to support the thing...rhubarb, rhubarb..., when Jack Barry arrived, late as usual. He’d come straight from work, in his khaki overalls, with sports coats over the top, tea chest bass on shoulder. He walked in the door just as the mannequin had completed her walk and was doing her twirly bit, and just stood there, his jaw dropped and his eyes popping out like a lobster’s. Loughlin let out a guffaw and we followed suit. In a minute the whole audience roared with laughter, while the poor girl, who couldn’t see Jack, was visibly shaken and obviously thought something had come undone or fallen down which shouldn’t have. But Dally-Watkins, with her usual aplomb, broke off her resume; escorted Jack to his place and sent her pupil pussy-footing on her victorious, graduating way.

Subject: RE: folk club rooms i have dwelt in
From: GUEST
Date: 02 Nov 20 - 03:00 AM

The pub that shook when the trains went past was The Crooked Billet at Leigh on Sea.

Subject: RE: folk club rooms i have dwelt in
From: The Sandman
Date: 02 Nov 20 - 02:46 AM

the Potteries, also meets on a station at the terminus of he Foxfield heritage railway (or did do before lockdown). A LOVELY ROOM AND A GREAT CLUB I WAS THERE ST VALENTINES DAY 2020 A GREAT CHORUS SINGING CLUB

Subject: RE: folk club rooms i have dwelt in
From: The Sandman
Date: 02 Nov 20 - 02:32 AM

oh yes a folk club in south benfleet
where songs were periodically interrupted bythe claterring of passing railway trains,
then there was dartford folk club at the railway hotel where a dog regularly howled when free reed instruments were sounded

Subject: folk club rooms i have dwelt in
From: The Sandman
Date: 02 Nov 20 - 02:28 AM

Nic Dow mentioned the Ring of Bells at Middleton, that had a collection of butterflies and was apparantly haunted.
I remember a folk club in Penzance that was full of nautical memorabilia.
Any Other interesting rooms? Iam sure there was a club that was on a railway station somwhere near ashton under lyne