Folk Clubs London 1960s & 70s

Subject: RE: Folk Clubs London 1960s & 70s
From: The Borchester Echo
Date: 08 Jan 10 - 01:29 PM

I remember the Union Tavern best too, especially the occasional after- hours lock-ins whenever Luke Kelly was in town. Until the Critics disbanded in the early 70s, the annual Festival Of Fools was held along the street at New Merlins Cave in January. The later club (mentioned below) was fantastic and hosted the first UK gig by Dabriel & Marie Yacoub before the formation of Malicorne.

Subject: RE: Folk Clubs London 1960s & 70s
From: The Borchester Echo
Date: 08 Jan 10 - 01:27 PM

I remember the Union Tavern best too, especially the occasional after- hours lock-ins whenever Luke Kelly was in town. Until the Critics disbanded in the early 70s, the annual Festival Of Fools was held along the street at New Merlins Cave in January. The later club (mentioned below) was fantastic and hosted the first UK gig by Dabriel & Marie Yacoub before the formation of Malicorne.

Subject: RE: Folk Clubs London 1960s & 70s
From: Kevin Sheils
Date: 08 Jan 10 - 01:13 PM

The venue I recall most for the Singers club was the Union Tavern, Lloyd Baker Street but as Diane says there were many.

Although I never went whilst it was at "The Bull and Mouth" in Clerkenwell somehow the name seemed to have a certain resonance ;-)

Subject: RE: Folk Clubs London 1960s & 70s
From: The Borchester Echo
Date: 08 Jan 10 - 12:32 PM

Ewan MacColl's Singers' Club was at the Pindar of Wakefield in Gray's Inn Road but also at innumerable other hostelries throughout Holborn/King's Cross/Clerkenwell through the 60s and 70s.

Subject: RE: Folk Clubs London 1960s & 70s
From: GUEST,Brian Sweeny
Date: 08 Jan 10 - 12:25 PM

Further to my email of 7/1/10, I think my memory is letting me down re Ewan McColls venue.I believe The Pinder of Wakefield was the pub (not The Prospect of Whitby as I said).However I think he did have two different locations during the 60s.
Can anyone help?

Subject: RE: Folk Clubs London 1960s & 70s
From: Edthefolkie
Date: 07 Jan 10 - 03:10 PM

I passed the thread on to one of my old flatmates who used to go on these expeditions with me. He reminded me that while we were listening entranced to Sandy Denny at Merlins, Richard Thompson stood right behind us and did a typically unimprovable acoustic guitar accompaniment. Now THAT was a class evening!

Then there was the time that Karl Dallas got Alan Stivell to do a floor spot with his Celtic harp.....

Subject: RE: Folk Clubs London 1960s & 70s
From: GUEST,eric the viking
Date: 07 Jan 10 - 01:28 PM

The prospect of Whitby had folk on there in the late 60's. Saturdays often had an Hawian or similar band with a lot of slide guitar playing. Always a superb atmosphere.

Subject: RE: Folk Clubs London 1960s & 70s
From: GUEST,Brian Sweeny
Date: 07 Jan 10 - 11:47 AM

I haven't read all your entries but I'm sure you've discussed Ewan Mc Coll's club.Was it at The Prospect of Whitby ?.It was in North London.Ewan was a rather grumpy individual but June Seeger(his wife) was charming.A good- cop-bad- cop combination.Ewan was a Folk Fundamentalist,but what a songwriter.
I remember one night when The Mc Peakes played there as being particularly memorable.I was my first experience of this wonderful but largely forgotten family.
The Troubadour was a favourite (I lived in Earls Court).Shirley Collins,Alex Campbell,Lou Killen.
Not strictly Folk clubs were the Irish pubs that had traditional music sessions.I was a regular at The White Hart,Fulham Broadway on Sunday mornings.
Keep up the good work.

Subject: RE: Folk Clubs London 1960s & 70s
From: Anne Lister
Date: 07 Jan 10 - 03:42 AM

A few memories on this thread ... Rising Sun in Catford was my first folk club when I moved to London in 1974 - I had digs in Lewisham, so it was fairly easy to get there. Bonnie and I teamed up with some others to share a house after that.
The Enterprise - ah, yes - and the Florence ....We used the Enterprise for a launch party for the Anonyma album "Burnt Feathers" in 1986 and it was already heading up market then.
Someone mentioned the Sols Arms - that came later, in the 80s, and was a good venue.
But Dingles (at the Adams Arms) was another favourite haunt.

Subject: RE: Folk Clubs London 1960s & 70s
From: Eric the Viking
Date: 06 Jan 10 - 06:03 PM

John....wasn't Bruce also a debt collector or balif? He used to run the Phoenix folk club in Oxford Square before it moved (1968/69?) He once gave me free tickets to the Dubliners at the Royal Albert Hall as I had worked for him selling spare tickets for the gig.

If you knew Bruce did you know Trevor Warr/Wharr ? And or Brian Flax?

Davyr. The Melting pot moved from Streatham to Blackhorse Road at the bottom of Lambeth Walk in about 1969. I had left London to go to York in 1971, so it must have moved back. At that time of 3 day weeks etc I used to go to The York , Harrogate and Ripon clubs.

Subject: RE: Folk Clubs London 1960s & 70s
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 06 Jan 10 - 01:27 PM

Scot's Hoose was run, when I went there, by Bruce Dunnett. Now when you mention the politics of club organisers, they didn't come much more political than him.
Has anybody mentioned the Swan and Sugar Loaf in Croydon. Steve Benbow was involved with that one I seem to remember.

Subject: RE: Folk Clubs London 1960s & 70s
From: Kevin Sheils
Date: 06 Jan 10 - 01:16 PM

Singing Ref

Yes the name Pam is familiar from Enfield, if I was "guest" MCing then it was often back for a late session to their house/flat. And, as you say, I recall a small fee for resident/mc'ing.

Can't recall anyone in particular on the nights I was there as they were often the usual names seen elsewhere but I do recall MCing Hunter Musket, probably because UI hadn't seen them anywhere before that.

Subject: RE: Folk Clubs London 1960s & 70s
From: Mick Pearce (MCP)
Date: 06 Jan 10 - 07:25 AM

Just as an aside I'd mention that Colin Harper's biography of Bert Jansch, Dazzling Stranger, as well as detailing Jansch's career has a lot of information on the London folk scene in the 60s (before I got there in late 69). For me it was interesting to read about the scene leading up to my time there.

Mick

Subject: RE: Folk Clubs London 1960s & 70s
From: Singing Referee
Date: 06 Jan 10 - 05:32 AM

Kevin, I remember the Hop Poles in Enfield. It moved there in about 1966 from the Kings Head in Enfield market square, which sadly I believe is now empty. That was just a few weeks after my first visit there. It was run as I recall by a couple called Russ and Pam. I became a resident there after a while and attended regularly until the early 70's when I drifted away from folk music. Saw all the big names of the time there, and as we used to get a small payment (yes really!) for the residency, I often took my payment in the form of the artists's latest album. Got a lot of my collection that way, including Ralph McTell and the Dransfields.

I remember a couple of other local places, though I was a bit parochial in those days. Ventured occasionally into Wood Green to the Starting Gate, and remember seeing Ralph McTell at the Fishmonger's Arms.

Used to get into London occasionally, and in addition to other places already mentioned, used to visit an upstairs room in a pub on Cambridge Circus. I think it was called the Scot's Hoose. Jansch and Renbourn were sort of residents as I remember.

Steve Last

Subject: RE: Folk Clubs London 1960s & 70s
From: Will Fly
Date: 06 Jan 10 - 04:53 AM

GUEST,eric the viking; my thoughts exactly! Perhaps there were times when all of us with those memories were in the same pub/club on the same night at the same time.

My pre-Cousins Allniter boozer of choice was the "Pillars of Hercules" in Greek Street. Sawdust on the floor, Younger's Scotch Bitter on draught, and Jansch and Renbourn very often getting pissed at a table on the raised bit at the back of the pub. Then over the road towards closing time to hit the Allniter. Al Stewart serving the coffee behind the bar, Alexis Korner and Duffy Power hobnobbing with Mox the harmonica player and offering little pastille boxes around. Karl Dallas in cowboy hat and beard chatting here and there. Then, later on, bodies lying around in and on sleeping bags, drowsily listening to Davy Graham do an extended ramble around some blues or other.

And was it around 4 in the morning when the kind lady rounded us all up and took us off to sleep at the Crypt until public transport was available?

Subject: RE: Folk Clubs London 1960s & 70s
From: Bonnie Shaljean
Date: 06 Jan 10 - 04:42 AM

I heard Prager & Rye at Catford (Rising Sun) too. Brilliant.

Subject: RE: Folk Clubs London 1960s & 70s
From: davyr
Date: 06 Jan 10 - 04:34 AM

"I remeber the melting pot very well. I went most weeks when it moved to Blackhorse road. My mate Pat and I would most often do a couple of songs or more there each week. There were two brothers that ran it. Steven? and ? I rather liked their political affiliations"

Erik, when I used to go to the Melting Pot in Streatham in the early 70s, it was run by a bloke called Chris Potts, who belonged to the Young Communists.

When did it move away, do you know? It was still in Streatham during the 3 Day Week in 1974, as I remember being there during a candlelit session in the middle of a power cut.

Was the guitarist you remember Simon Prager? He certainly played at the Melting Pot with Steve Rye on more than one ocaasion.

Subject: RE: Folk Clubs London 1960s & 70s
From: Kevin Sheils
Date: 06 Jan 10 - 03:38 AM

Waddon Pete and MCP have given the meaning of wayzgoose (sorry about the missing y MCP! sticky keboard.....) I'll just add that the club continued the tradition by having a Wayzgoose Wayzgoose every August where regulars went on a bus trip to various places, I recall Henley and Marlow, for a days singing and dancing (and drinking).

Subject: RE: Folk Clubs London 1960s & 70s
From: GUEST,eric the viking
Date: 05 Jan 10 - 07:17 PM

As I sit about 700 miles north of London and forty years or so later it's strange that many of us here must have been in the same place at the same time, might even have had a conversation in passing or queued at the bar togther. Been to the same gigs and joined in singing the same chorus songs.

Subject: RE: Folk Clubs London 1960s & 70s
From: Bonnie Shaljean
Date: 05 Jan 10 - 06:54 PM

Anybody remember the Shakespeare's Head in or around Soho? (I think that's what it was called.) I went and heard Pete Atkin there when I first hit the royal shores and all of these names (including Clive James') were new to me. Lovely, lovely gig.

Subject: RE: Folk Clubs London 1960s & 70s
From: GUEST,eric the viking
Date: 05 Jan 10 - 06:34 PM

I remeber the melting pot very well. I went most weeks when it moved to Blackhorse road. My mate Pat and I would most often do a couple of songs or more there each week. There were two brothers that ran it. Steven? and ? I rather liked their political affiliations

I can't remember many others, but there was a realy good guitarist who'd spent time in greenwich village, often played fixing to die rag.

Subject: RE: Folk Clubs London 1960s & 70s
From: Waddon Pete
Date: 05 Jan 10 - 12:59 PM

You beat me to it Mick, if memory serves it was the bun fight laid on by a master printer for his workers. Usually fell around August time.

Best wishes,

Peter

Subject: RE: Folk Clubs London 1960s & 70s
From: Mick Pearce (MCP)
Date: 05 Jan 10 - 11:51 AM

Bonnie - as far as I remember, it was a printers' jamboree. I think originally an annual feast given by a printer for his workers.

Mick

Subject: RE: Folk Clubs London 1960s & 70s
From: Bonnie Shaljean
Date: 05 Jan 10 - 11:40 AM

I loved Wayzgoose, though only got there a couple of times - funny, it just popped into my mind this morning for no clear reason (obviously Mudcat threads have a way of seeping into your brain unawares). What's the story behind that name?

Subject: RE: Folk Clubs London 1960s & 70s
From: davyr
Date: 05 Jan 10 - 11:25 AM

Staying with South London, does anyone remember the Melting Pot club that met at the Manor Arms in Streatham and afterwards at the White Lion further down the road?

Subject: RE: Folk Clubs London 1960s & 70s
From: Mick Pearce (MCP)
Date: 05 Jan 10 - 11:18 AM

I was just checking for another club and thought that it hadn't been mentioned. Then I see that Kevin also mentioned it, although with the wrong spelling - it was WaYzgoose in Stockwell, where I was also sometimes a resident. (It didn't have the upper case Y - that was to point out the spelling mistake! That sort of mixed case stuff didn't come along until later). Wayzgoose was another place, like Dingles, that used to have dancing as well as song.

Mick

Subject: RE: Folk Clubs London 1960s & 70s
From: GUEST,John from Elsie`s Band
Date: 05 Jan 10 - 11:09 AM

Tug the Cox,
             The club you refer to on Catford Bridge, every Friday night, was the one we ran in "The Railway Tavern". Dave Watts, Robin Gray and John Hutchison were the residents, "The Taverners" and I had the task of taking the money at the door. The club was started by Dave and Robin and by the time we were obliged to leave the artist list was endless. When I was with "Four Square Circle" we did "The Crypt" at Bayswater on a number of occasions as well as "The Fox" over the east.

Subject: RE: Folk Clubs London 1960s & 70s
From: The Sandman
Date: 05 Jan 10 - 10:29 AM

yes, I am playing there on April 12 2010.

Subject: RE: Folk Clubs London 1960s & 70s
From: Waddon Pete
Date: 05 Jan 10 - 10:13 AM

Well.....pity or pithy....it worked!

The Croydon Folksong Club is still going strong after 42 years!

Best wishes,

Peter

Subject: RE: Folk Clubs London 1960s & 70s
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 05 Jan 10 - 04:26 AM

Nice typo Ralphie :)
So perceptive too !

Subject: RE: Folk Clubs London 1960s & 70s
From: GUEST,Ralphie
Date: 05 Jan 10 - 03:52 AM

Anyone remember that pity catch phrase...
"Wadden makes wednesdays worthwhle" !

Subject: RE: Folk Clubs London 1960s & 70s
From: Kevin Sheils
Date: 05 Jan 10 - 03:36 AM

MCP

Sandra has just reminded me that the Fulham pub I mentioned is the White Hart not Horse! Silly me.

There is a White Horse nearby at Parsons Green, known locally as the Sloany Pony, but no musical connections as far as I know.

Subject: RE: Folk Clubs London 1960s & 70s
From: Kevin Sheils
Date: 05 Jan 10 - 03:28 AM

Will Fly posted "Don't get me started on ...... Klooks Kleek, the Marquee, ..."

Now that opens a completely different can of worms Will. I'm having enough flashbacks with the "folk" venues without the "other" places ;-)

Subject: RE: Folk Clubs London 1960s & 70s
From: Mick Pearce (MCP)
Date: 04 Jan 10 - 12:58 PM

Kevin - it was the other way round for me. Very occasional visits to the White Horse and the one on the other corner (The Starling? The Blackbird? can't remember now!).

Mick

Subject: RE: Folk Clubs London 1960s & 70s
From: Will Fly
Date: 04 Jan 10 - 10:15 AM

If anyone had popped in to the "Redan" on the corner of Queensway and Westbourne Grove any Thursday during the years 1970 to mid-1976, they would have seen a moveable feast of a band called The Egbert Sousé All Stars. I say moveable feast, because the band waxed and waned from between 5 and 8 people at any one gig, depending on who turned up. We played a mix of jug band music, blues and, in later days, 1920s dance numbers.

The main personnel (apart from me on guitar and tenor banjo) were: Pete Charlton (founder) on vocals and kazoo; Rita Foreman (ex-wife of John and mother of Chris) on washboard; Brian Catchpole on vocals, blues harp and kazoo; Robin Wayne (brother of Mick) on double bass; Stefan Dreja (brother of Chris) on jug and trombone; Pete Reid on tenor banjo and bass saxophone; Ian Chisholm on guitar and mandolin; Norman Picken on clarinet and alto sax and Lawrence (surname forgotten) on tenor sax. We also had, now and then, Diz Disley (who lived upstairs in the pub) on guitar, Bob Kerr on trumpet and a couple called Paul and Wink who played banjo and swanee whistle respectively.

The then landlord of the pub (the late) Johnny Watkins, had been a guitarist and singer with the Tito Burns Agency, and hosted several musical events at the Redan. Sunday lunchtime was jazz with the Denise brothers, Frank and Laurie.

Bayswaterites might like to know that the launderette across the road from the Redan was the very first coin-op launderette in Britain. we used to do our washing there and very often sat next to drummer and bandleader Ray Ellington of The Goon Show fame - he had "RE" embroidered on his smalls!

Don't get me started on the Cousins, the Horseshow, the Cambridge, Bunjies, Klooks Kleek, the Marquee, the Troubadour...

Subject: RE: Folk Clubs London 1960s & 70s
From: Kevin Sheils
Date: 04 Jan 10 - 10:00 AM

Doug Sherriff joined the Folk Shop at CSH to work with me sometime in early 1970 I guess, we had some good times and I was sorry to hear about his death a few years back. Diane was also working there around that time. Doug stayed on and worked with Marianne McKenzie, who took over after I left there.

Then a year or so later I was formally resident with Marian and Don Bonito at the Enterprise, having been a regular there for some years. Clive Woolf, who I used to sing with some years before had been resident and I took over when he left.

Lots of links and connections in the memories in this thread. I would have known some of the people posting but not from the mudcat names necessarily. There is still an Enterprise regular from the late 60s early 70s coming regularly to my latest haunt in Walthamstow.

I must have seem MCP in the Kings Head Fulham around that time but only remember meeting him a few years later. I may have spent more time in the White Horse opposite!

Subject: RE: Folk Clubs London 1960s & 70s
From: Bonnie Shaljean
Date: 04 Jan 10 - 09:20 AM

What a great post, Guest. Can you give some sort of user name (it doesn't have to be your real one if you don't want) because sometimes the moderators delete totally anonymous messages. That would be a shame, so type something in the From box - I'd also like to know if I've ever seen you anywhere -

Subject: RE: Folk Clubs London 1960s & 70s
From: Mick Pearce (MCP)
Date: 04 Jan 10 - 09:04 AM

Sorry to hear that Doug Sherriff died. In 71/72 I was living in Fulham and finished off most evenings in the Kings Head, which was more or less at the end of the road I was living in. Doug would come down sometimes to record John Bowe and John O'Shea, who played there at weekends, and I'd run into him from time to time (as well as at CSH of course).

Mick

Subject: RE: Folk Clubs London 1960s & 70s
From: GUEST
Date: 04 Jan 10 - 08:57 AM

Just found this thread, and haven't read every post - but it's bringing back memories:
My first folk club was the Jackhammer at a pub called The Angel in London Rd, Brentford (no longer there). Played my first gig there in 1966 (floor spot with 2 schoolfriends, I'd only been playing guitar 9 months). If I remember right, it was run by Alan Young. Also saw Steve Benbow, Don Partridge, Jo Ann Kelly, Gerry Lockran, Johnny Joyce & Mac McGann, Mike Cooper there, among others. (Residents were the Jawbone Jug Band, whom I joined briefly in 1970.)
I regularly frequented the Horseshoe in Tottenham Ct Rd, (just The Horseshoe, not Three Horseshoes as Borchester Echo said) through 1967, while Pentangle were getting their act together. I remember John Martyn MC'd most weeks.
A poster I have for April 1968 calls it the "Jansch/Renbourne club" and lists Stefan Grossman and John Martyn (7th); ditto on the 14th plus Panama Ltd; Ralph McTell, Clive Palmer and Wizz Jones on the 21st; and McTell with Mike Chapman on the 28th. (Entry was 7/6 for members, 10s for others - quite expensive in those days.)
Other posters in my collection:
The "Now" club at the White Hart, Southall, November 1966: Vincent Crane Combo, Roy & Val Bailey, Diz Disley, John Foreman).
Holy Ground (4a Inverness Place, Bayswater, every Wednesday), May/June 1968: Young Tradition, Mike Absalom, Dominic Behan, Ron Geesin (anyone else remember this mad Scots genius?), Diz Disley, Alex Campbell, Noel Murphy, Johnny Silvo.
In August they held a "Grand Blues Night" with Stefan Grossman, "Joanne" Kelly [sic], Mike Absalom, Simon Prager & Steve Rye, and the Classic Jug Band . (I was there and remember Alexis Korner, leather-jacketed and leather-faced, turning up for a floor spot.)
The listings for the rest of the year include Jackson C Frank, Al Stewart, the Strawbs and Martin Carthy & Dave Swarbrick.
My ephemera collection also includes membership cards for:
Les Cousins (naturally ;-));
The "Robey" folk club, Sir George Robey, Finsbury Park;
Hounslow Folk Club, White Bear, Kingsley Rd (later called "Grail Folk");
When I was with the Jawbone Jug Band, we once supported Accolade (Don Partridge and Gordon Giltrap's band) at Hornsey Art College, along with Cliff Aungier, Gerry Lockran, Dave Sewell and Jumping Jack (whose act involved tap-dancing in skis...)
From 1973, I was in a band playing clubs around Richmond, such as the Derby Arms in Sheen (where we supported Vin Garbutt), the Lamp, in a crypt in the Vineyard, Richmond, the Cabbage Patch and Barmy Arms (Twickenham), Half Moom (Putney), Packhorse (Staines). We ventured as far east as the Central Hotel, East Ham (not to mention outside London, which I guess is off topic...).

Subject: RE: Folk Clubs London 1960s & 70s
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 04 Jan 10 - 07:37 AM

Pistachio

Subject: RE: Folk Clubs London 1960s & 70s
From: Bonnie Shaljean
Date: 04 Jan 10 - 07:21 AM

Marine Ices is still there??!! YESSSSSSSSSSS !! :-D

Subject: RE: Folk Clubs London 1960s & 70s
From: davyr
Date: 04 Jan 10 - 06:59 AM

Whoops, I should learn to read - the BE mentioned both establishments in the same breath...

Subject: RE: Folk Clubs London 1960s & 70s
From: davyr
Date: 04 Jan 10 - 06:57 AM

I believe the Borchester Echo said it was the Engineer that had gone up-market (although for all I know the Enterprise may have done as well).

Nice to hear Marine Ices is still going, although IMHO they were always a poor second-best to Benigra Gelateria which used to be next door to Goodge Street tube station.

Oh for a double scoop of their home-made Zabaglione ice cream (even in this weather)...

Subject: RE: Folk Clubs London 1960s & 70s
From: Edthefolkie
Date: 04 Jan 10 - 06:55 AM

Left Peter Bellamy out of the Enterprise list, he did quite a few songs from The Transports via a little notebook on a music stand. We were so lucky, and we knew it.

Subject: RE: Folk Clubs London 1960s & 70s
From: Edthefolkie
Date: 04 Jan 10 - 06:39 AM

Blimey, lots of memories jogged there.

I think we saw a post dissolution Young Tradition at the Engineer some time around 1973. Certainly saw Sandy Denny, Mr Gladstone's Bag, Albion Country Band Mk II etc at the Howff. June Tabor, Nic Jones, Tom Paley, Ken Loveless, Bob Davenport and loads of others at the Enterprise. Shirley Collins got us in to Dingle's to see the Etchinghams even though the bloke on the door thought it was too crowded.

Anybody remember The New Merlins Cave? Long time jazz club, but Steve Ashley started a new club there in Tuesdays in 1973 with Anthea Joseph and Heather Wood on the door, and Heather, Lea Nicholson, Steve, Simon Nicol, Richard and Linda Thompson, and Robin and Barry Dransfield as residents.

Oh yeah, must mention Kilburn and the Highroads, well known folkies, at the Greyhound, Fulham Palace Rd. About 4 of us walked in and did a double take. A little disabled bloke in a drape jacket, a DA and one glove? A black drummer with crutches? A bass player of restricted growth? What the hell IS this? At half time, the rest of the band buggered off to the bar and left the drummer marooned. Mr Dury used to say that if he had a fiver for every person who's claimed to have seen the Kilburns...but we really did, so that's £20 then Ian, wherever you are!

Sorry to hear the Enterprise is really up market now. Wouldn't allow me in then. Thank God, I understand Marine Ices is still going (catalyst of Haverstock Hill gentrification according to Jerry White in "London in the 20th Century" - you could have fooled me!)

Subject: RE: Folk Clubs London 1960s & 70s
From: davyr
Date: 04 Jan 10 - 05:30 AM

Yes, the pub was the Engineer and I think the club was called "The Cut". Saw Peter Bellamy there in about 1976 and remember he told a story about a couple of old Norfolkmen who used to sleep in their wardrobe during freezing winter weather as it was a little warmer than their beds.

Might try it tonight...

Subject: RE: Folk Clubs London 1960s & 70s
From: The Borchester Echo
Date: 04 Jan 10 - 05:27 AM

Doug Sherriff died a few years ago. His widow who lives in Salisbury was in touch a while ago seeking reminiscences of his life for their daughter.

The Engineer is an extremely upmarket gaffe these days, as is the Enterprise, up Gloucester Avenue and opposite Chalk Farm Station. The Howff at the top end of Regents Park Road is long gone too. Seamas Ewens was relating to me recently the tale of how the landlords reclaimed it. Just think, I once was able to afford to live just a few doors down from there, and Hedy West lived just over the road.

Subject: RE: Folk Clubs London 1960s & 70s
From: Bonnie Shaljean
Date: 04 Jan 10 - 05:15 AM

The North Circular Accidental Band! I used to work in C# House with Doug Sherriff, and a gas guy he was too. Anybody know what he's doing these days? The Rising Sun at Catford was one of my habitual haunts - which is where I first became friends with Anne Lister and Ralphie, among other folk. The late lamented Dave Bryant was also a regular there, I think; and that was the first place I ever heard Nic Dow and Tim Laycock sing, both of whom used to turn up fairly often, at least in my day. Ruth, who ran it in later years, is a Facebook buddy and I've just heard from her. (She has not lived in London in some years, and is keeping very well indeed.)

Anybody remember the club very near C#H in Gloucester Avenue, The Engineer or The Railway, or some name that reminded me of trains? That was the first British folk club I ever went to, to see Carolanne Pegg.

Yes Judy, those definitely were the days! O my friends, we're older but no wiser...

Subject: RE: Folk Clubs London 1960s & 70s
From: Kevin Sheils
Date: 04 Jan 10 - 04:47 AM

That's right The Springfield (obviously I had too many sandwiches)

The Starting Gate is near the exit to Alexander Palace Rail Station. The exit nearest Wood Green that is.

Subject: RE: Folk Clubs London 1960s & 70s
From: The Borchester Echo
Date: 04 Jan 10 - 04:40 AM

The club in Bounds Green was at the Springfield Park Tavern. Chris Foster (again) told me as we passed it - it's on the end of the road in which I now live - that he played there on his birthday in 1976. It only has a widescreen telly with football now.

Where was the Starting Gate? I remember the name but not where it was.