Colchester Folk Club

Subject: Colchester Folk Club
From: GUEST,Pete Proctor
Date: 27 Jul 00 - 12:23 AM

Anyone out there who was involved or went to the Colchester Folk Club from the Mid sixties through to the present day. I am an ex organizer and singer/muso(Jugfolk/trilogy/Rough Justice) now living in Perth Western Australia who wouldn't mind touching base with a few old folkies! I am still playing in a band called 'Hobsons Choice' check out our website on hobsons.perthwa.com and see if you recognise me!!

Waiting with interest,

Pete

Subject: RE: Colchester Folk Club
From: Bugsy
Date: 27 Jul 00 - 02:01 AM

G'DAY PETE!

Do check out the website and the CD. They're very good. Even if one of the lead singers is Vertically Challenged!

Cheers

Bugsy

(whoisstill"liveandkicking"inWA)

Subject: RE: Colchester Folk Club
From: GUEST,art
Date: 27 Jul 00 - 03:59 AM

Subject: RE: Colchester Folk Club
From: GUEST,artagain
Date: 27 Jul 00 - 04:20 AM

sorry it's a bit early here

yeah i ran colchester folk club in the 60's immediately after Brian Hughes and before (forgotten his name but he ran wood's social club)

i killed the club stone dead by putting on traditional act after trad act. am probably famous for refusing the incredible string band 'cos £25 was too much to pay for an unknown act! though i did have some success's arlo guthrie (first outing for alice's)

can STILL remember asking alex campbell to tell a few new jokes and drink a bit less an maybe sing a few more songs,he ripped me to shreds onstage. tho' at the time i was not old enough to be legally in the pub.

bob davenport was the first guest he's still a favourite of mine

bob roberts the captain of the last sailing barge to trade the east anglian coast came with his old mate fred jordan

the young tradition, barry dransfield, alexis korner(that was a bit of a shock,being electric an all)davy graham actually turned up,albeit 45 mins before the club shut having travelled from london on vespa scooter in february and it took 20 mins for his hands to defrost.john renbourn (what a gent)

thats 10 out of the 26 guests if you can remember any more from that time i'd be grateful for having my memory jogged

cheers

bill stephens

Subject: RE: Colchester Folk Club
From: GUEST,Pete Proctor
Date: 27 Jul 00 - 10:27 PM

Hi Bill, Nice to hear from you. You are obviously one of the pioneers of Colchester folk! The name of the bloke who ran it after you was Reg(can't remember his surname and it was Paxmans club he ran)and he did it in conjunction with Vince Rayner who played with the Williams Trio and who went on to pursue a solo career as a cabaret artist, he probably still is! At the time I was playing in a band called 'The Harvesters' who were one of the resident bands. The fiddle player in the group was Jill Roberts,daughter of Bob. Because of this I actually got to sail on the Cambria would you believe. When he retired he had a sort of 'old life crisis' left his wife and Pin Mill where he had lived for God knows how long, bought a Channel trader, shacked up with a (much) younger women and, did this for a number of years and then went to that big folk club/harbour in the sky about ten years ago. Last time I heard Jill was in South Africa. I took over running the club from Reg and Vince(by the way Reg died a few years ago) stayed at the 'Rec' for some time until the numbers started to drop and then moved it to the cellar bar in the George Hotel in the High street where it was very succesful for a few years. By this time it was being run by a committe one of which was the new director of the recently formed arts centre in St.Marys church so it was moved to there where it has remained to this day, being I believe one of the few solvent clubs in the country. right names from the past. I actually remember Davy Graham turning up on a scooter! Ian Cambell,Mike Harding,Jasper Carrot, Bernard Wrigley(who sang 'The Ballad of Knocking Nellie and souson neuf'(is that how you spell it?) which to this day is the most filthy song I have ever heard!) Gladstones Bag, Rev. Gary Davies, Julie Felix(first Guest,You Knew that!)Tim Hart & Maddy Prior(just seen her on tour here in Perth)Shirley collins Nic Jones(what a tragedy) Derek Brimstone to name a few! Hope this has bought back a few old memories for you. Where are you living now?

regards<

Pete

Subject: RE: Colchester Folk Club
From: GUEST,art
Date: 28 Jul 00 - 04:28 AM

pete ihave an email addy for you @psy.uwa will reply to that 'cos i can write offline(british net access is expensive given the speed i write letters)unless you want to send me a different addy via this page have some more info you might be interested in. are you 12 hours time difference in w.aus?

yours bill

Subject: RE: Colchester Folk Club
From: GUEST,Pete Proctor
Date: 28 Jul 00 - 10:43 PM

Yeah thanks for that Bill, You can email me at home as well as I am now on three weeks holiday. Address is [e-mail] We are seven hours in front of you at the moment. Look forward to hearing from you, I wonder if anyone else will pick up the thread?

Pete

Subject: RE: Colchester Folk Club
From: Lanfranc
Date: 29 Jul 00 - 06:45 AM

I helped run/was resident at/floorspotted at a number of clubs in the Colchester area in the 60's before moving up to London in search of fortune and fame in '68. My most abiding memory of Colchester Folk Club is the Easter Monday gigs of the Strawbs.

I also carried a torch for Jill Roberts for a while, but it sputtered and died in the gale of her indifference to the rather ungainly youth that I was then.

Saffron Summerfield and Keith Christmas are other names that come back from those days.

Remember what they say, though. If you remember the 60's perfectly, you weren't there!

Subject: RE: Colchester Folk Club
From: okthen
Date: 30 Jul 00 - 06:17 AM

jus refreshing this in case there's anyone else wants to continue

Subject: RE: Colchester Folk Club
From: GUEST,pete proctor
Date: 01 Aug 00 - 04:40 AM

Hi Alan, You must remember me as I can certainly remember you! Your nickname at the time was 'Geordie" for whatever reason. My name used to be Pete Smith before 1976 when I took my wifes name when we got married.One of the things I remember about you was a classic remark by you to one of the Barnacles. You were doing a floor spot in that club on St. Johns green which ws supposed to be a solely traditional one . You stood up to start your set(or bracket as they call them here in Oz!)and announced you wouild be singing Suzzanne by Lenard Cohen The Organizer stood up, I think it may have been Rod Giddings who unfortunately died a couple of years ago, and said'Only english here mate' whereupon you came back with'Well it is in English!! absolutely classic putdown. I am still in touch with a lot of the old singers from Colchester. Stan Harvey, Graham Alston, Phil Manchester, Jon and Monica Seath to name a few. Hope this has bought back a few memories.

Pete

Subject: RE: Colchester Folk Club
From: Lanfranc
Date: 01 Aug 00 - 05:45 PM

They called me Geordie because Alex Atterson gave me the nickname because he liked my version of that ballad. Nobody's called me that for years - Alex died some time back.

I remember the "Suzanne" incident. It was a long time ago now, but I still have a few hazy memories. Like the time a bunch of us from Clacton club spent the night in a cornfield after running out of road driving back to Clacton from Sudbury. I reckon we started the whole corn circles thing in that old Riley that night!

Nice to hear from you again, Pete. I'm still singing and playing but I've avoided running clubs for about ten years now. It's a lot more fun when the audience aren't just so many GBP3 s on seats. What are you up to these days.

Drop me an email sometime on [e-mail].

Subject: RE: Colchester Folk Club
From: GUEST,Graham Jones
Date: 05 Aug 12 - 06:35 PM

Found this thread because I was googling for Bob Roberts - I knew his daughter Jill (1967 this was) {I'd met her through playing fiddle in an amateur orchestra in Sudbury under Bertha Stevens}.

I remember the upstairs room at the rec - I think the club met on Monday evenings then. I used to cycle there ... I remember being really annoyed at missing Julie Felix!

There was a resident band that virtually kept the club alive - they had a song about lorry driving - the only bit of which I can remember went something like " ...cut his eye teeth on an old AC ..."

I went to other folk clubs since, but none was as good - except possibly sometime 1970/71 in Weybridge where Alex Campbell was really fantastic.

Subject: RE: Colchester Folk Club
From: The Sandman
Date: 05 Aug 12 - 06:47 PM

cut his teeth on an old AC , sounds like champion at keepin em rolling by MacColl.
I did a couple of gigs at that club, when it was at the Rec, and I remember Pete Proctor, I believe the club is in an arts centre now

Subject: RE: Colchester Folk Club
From: GUEST,elaine
Date: 06 Oct 13 - 04:29 AM

I'm the current organiser of Colchester Folk Club (held in Colchester Arts Centre) which is heading for it's 50th birthday Easter 2014 and I'm in touch with Pete Proctor but would particularly love to talk to Bill about his memories of the early days in the club. I'm trying to put together memories and guest lists. I have guest lists going back to 1982 and an incomplete 1978-9 but not before. I'm trying Essex folk news which started in 1973 to see if our dates are listed. Anyone out there got old programmes pre 1982?