The Lymm Folk Club Newsletter

4 September 
2014

GRAND NEW SEASON OPENING

with

THE ROVING CROWS

What a great start to our 2014-2015 season! Support for the Roving Crows was from Lesley & Richard, Janice and Bernard, with a pre-raffle-ite spot from poet Rob Barratt - no relation to Caitlin of the Crows, and NOT Joe Brown...! You needed to be there to understand that bit...!

Our guests had the room rocking from start to finish, with some of their supporters dancing at the back throughout... something of a first for Lymm! A pity, though, that these supporters chose to stay in the bar chatting loudly during the support, which Janice found particularly distracting as she was singing a-capella. We prefer our audiences to enjoy the whole programme rather than choose the bits they want!! Still, this seems to be the current trend at festivals, and the Roving Crows are better known as a festival act.

For the most part, the Crows performed their own material, mostly written by front-man Paul. Caitlin on fiddle, Greg on Trumpet, Loz on bass and Tim on drums provided a powerful sound without being too loud - thanks to Caroline on their sound desk!

11 September

(performers 80p)

18 September

COLUM SANDS

Colum is back!

Support for Colum this evening was provided by Janice & Mick, Stewart and Nelson Peach, with Bernard as our pre-raffle-ite.

Colum took a year out from touring to write some new material, some of which he gave us this evening along with old favourites - and there was a surprise guest, too! Adrianne Wininsky is a classically trained cellist who gets about a bit, to say the very least (she has appeared on Top of the Pops, The X Factor, and Parkinson!) - see her website to find out more! Adrianne joined Colum on some songs, an unusual combination that worked very well indeed!

As we expected, it was a great, laid back sort of evening, thoroughly enjoyable and memorable! Surprisingly, though, the audience wasn't as big as one would expect...

25 September

Singers Night BIG Spot

Tonight sees another of our 'Big Spot' offerings - performers being asked to do an extended spot after the beer break on a Singers' Night.

With quite a few regulars on holiday, we did well to have fifteen singers / poets / musicians plus nine in the audience!

We didn't manage to get around twice, but came fairly close - then after the break and raffle, Johnny reminded Bernard that they'd been friends for over forty years...! This went back to the early 1970s when Bernard, along with Reg Hardman and Roland Higson as the trio 'Haywain', used to appear every Wednesday evening at the House Without A Name ('The No-Name') in Bradshaw, Bolton.

Johnny gave us a wide variety of genres including some of his own material, a couple of John Denver songs, traditional songs and the like, all to the accompaniment of his upside-down Ovation guitar! Plenty of choruses kept everyone singing, which is the Lymm Folk Club trade mark!

2 October

(performers 80p)

9 October

FOOLS GOLD

Support was provided by Nelson Peach, Stewart, and Grass Roots (Janice & Mick!), with Bernard as our pre-raffle-ite.

Carol and Steve played mostly their own excellent material, and provided plenty of great choruses that our lot love to join in with! Another Lymm Folk Club 'feel-good' night!

16 October

(performers 80p)

23 October

BARRONBRADY

Support was provided by Nick & Lin, Richard and Bernard - Janice was our pre-raffle-ite.

Si and Ros deserved a larger audience... their mix of traditional, contemporary and own material made for a really entertaining evening. They shared the singing, with Si playing guitar, plus an appearance from a small harmonium! Ros also played an Indian-style hand pumped harmonium and whistles - though not all at the same time!

30 October

(performers 80p)

6 November

LITTLEST RACH

No introduction necessary - everyone knows Little Rach! The only question is... will there be biscuits?!!

Support was provided by Nelson Peach (minus Lesley), Stewart and Bernard.

The microscopic human dynamo, Little Rach, had the audience enthralled with her anecdotes and songs! Some songs were self-penned, but all of them were performed with energy and sincerity!

For her well-deserved encore, Rach chose to perform in complete darkness - earlier in the evening she had recounted the tale of Folk in a Box, where she performed 'one-to-one' in total darkness in a box...! Very atmospheric!

13 November

(performers 80p)

20 November

LOUISE JORDAN

Louise visited us on a Singers Night earlier in the year, so we booked her!

Support was provided by Janice, Stewart and Nelson Peach, and our pre-raffle-ite was Bernard.

Louise certainly impressed the gathered throng with her musicianship, singing and songwriting! Some material was traditional, and some was written by others, but a lot was her own.

She engaged the audience from the very start with her somewhat self-effacing chat... "I'm useless at everything" seemed to be her theme! However, she proved not to be useless at singing, playing or choosing material, and was very pleased that our audience were keen to join in with everything - old favourites such as 'The Water Is Wide' and 'Bushes and Briars', and Louise's self-penned songs with equal enthusiasm.

27 November

Singers Night BIG Spot

Tonight sees another of our 'Big Spot' offerings - performers being asked to do an extended spot after the beer break on a Singers' Night.

We almost had a Folk Northwest committee meeting - Dave Jones is the Chairman, his wife, Anne, is Treasurer, John MacKenzie is Deputy Editor and Bernard is the Webmaster...!

Anyway, we had a really good turnout this evening, with 27 performers and 10 listeners... we almost made it round everyone before the break, but not quite!

Windmill Folk are Dave Jones and John MacKenzie, and they provided a rousing evening of songs for everyone to join in with! Needless to say, one such song was Alan Bell's 'Windmills'... They opened with 'Bonny Ship the Diamond', and closed with a rousing version of 'Will Ye Go, Lassie, Go?'...

4 December

(performers 80p)

11 December

HUGHIE JONES' CHRISTMAS

Hughie is back at the Rugby Club, and will be giving us a selection of his Christmas material! Rumour has it that 'Count' John McCormick is coming along, too...!!

Christmas with Hughie Jones and 'Count' John McCormick at the Rugby Club - an excellent evening's entertainment! Support was from Nick & Lin, Grassroots (Janice & Mick) and Bernard...

Hughie and John gave us a fine selection of old favourites with a few Christmas songs interspersed, which our audience sang with great gusto!

Hughie also sang a song he wrote when the Spinners were doing annual TV Christmas Specials... the song is 'Christmas Time Odd Job Man', and a video is on YouTube...

18 December
PLEASE NOTE:
This event will be at
The Saracen's Head, Warburton!

(performers 80p)

25 December

CHRISTMAS DAY

CLOSED

Thanks to everyone who has supported the club during 2014 - let's try to make 2015 even better!

1 January

2015

NEW YEARS DAY (from noon-ish!)

The annual New Year's Day lunchtime session
at the Sarries...

An excellent turn-out! Around forty people called in during the afternoon, most of whom stayed for the whole of the session! With around fifteen performers, we got around the room a few times!

We got under way at around 1.00pm; people were starting to drift away around 3.45pm, so we finished at 4.00pm with a rousing rendition of 'Will Ye Go, Lassie, Go?'!

NEW YEARS DAY (evening)

CLOSED

8 January

(performers 80p)

Another excellent turn-out for our first Singers Night of 2015 - seventeen performers and eleven listeners! We got around twice, with a few getting a third go... finishing with Fair Play and the Banks of the Ohio!

15 January

(performers 80p)

22 January

CARL CORBETT

Don't miss this opportunity to see Carl doing a full guest night!

Carl Corbett - as anticipated, an excellent evening! Carl gave us a few Jake Thackray songs, some of his own material, and other trad/contemporary songs.

Support was from Nick & Lin, and Nelson Peach, with Bernard as our pre-raffle-ite.

29 January

Singers Night BIG Spot

Tonight sees another of our 'Big Spot' offerings - performers being asked to do an extended spot after the beer break on a Singers' Night.

As always on a Big Spot night, our singers, poets and musicians 'raise their game', giving the guest something to think about!! We had a total of 22 performers, with 10 listeners, and got round everyone!

John Muskett was our big spot guest this evening, and didn't waste any time getting everyone involved! All musicians had been asked to keep their instruments at the ready, so it was John with his big band!

His choice of material ranged from traditional, contemporary and early 20th century popular music, often with a jazz twist. The double bass, inevitably, made an appearance (see the YouTube clip here), and John also gave us the amusing tale of Mrs. Peer Gynt...

5 February

STEWART LEVER

Stewart's annual 'Back from Fuerteventura Charity Night' to help raise funds for Stewart's charity.

This year's choice of charity is the Motor Neurone Disease Association.

A good attendance and a plethora of raffle prizes ensured we were able to donate £366.00 to the Motor Neurone Disease Association, thanks to everyone's kindness and generosity!

Stewart had a little assistance from John Condy and Doreen Lehmann during his two sets! His material was a good mix of traditional and contemporary material along with a liberal dose of his own material.

Support was provided by Nick & Lin, and Nelson Peach.

12 February

(performers 80p)

19 February

ROY CLINGING

It's been a while, but Roy is back in Lymm!

A good turn-out, with support provided by Stewart, Grassroots Nick & Lin, and Nelson Peach, and Bernard was our pre-raffle-ite.

Roy was on top form, and gave us a great variety of songs accompanied by English concertina and guitar, with a few unaccompanied ones for good measure!

Many of his songs had choruses which were sung with great gusto... although one or two (including a tongue twister) where slightly taxing, even for our lot!!

26 February

(performers 80p)

5 March

BARLUATH

The 'At Dawn of Day' album launch tour!

Barluath are a diverse and innovative Glasgow-based Scottish folk band, who embrace both the traditional and contemporary music of Scotland, Ireland and America. The band consists of five young musicians who met whilst studying at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and has a line-up comprising Scots and Gaelic song, fiddle, whistles, guitar, highland and border bagpipes, bouzouki, guitar and piano/keyboards.

Our name Barluath (pronounced Bar-lhu-ah) comes from an ancient bagpiping embellishment used in a style of music called piobaireachd (pronounced peeb-ur-uch). The Barluath embellishment is no longer commonly played in modern-day piping and it consisted of 19 separate grace notes, which made it too difficult in practice.

Though there are no written examples of a 'barluath' in the surviving piobaireachd manuscripts, it is thought that it was used as an embellishment to the already challenging 'crunluath' and 'crunluath a mach' variations at the end of some piobaireachd.

An excellent turn-out, with support provided by Nelson Peach, Nick & Lin, Grassroots, and Stewart; Bernard was our pre-raffle-ite. We almost went into profit - one more person and we've have scraped through!! We kept ticket prices down tonight so that we could treat our regulars - this band are really going places!

From left to right they are Eddie, Ayley, Ainslie, Luke and Alastair, Despite being quite unwell, Ainslie (lead vocalist) gave a sterling performance - sadly, the following day both Luke and Alastair were also struck by the bug, so they had to cancel the last two gigs in the tour... we hope they all get well quickly.

They performed a wonderful mix of songs and tunes, some of the latter being penned by members of the band. The closed the first set with their unique arrangement of a popular favourite, the Bonny Ship 'The Diamond' (clip on YouTube), which we've heard many people perform at Lymm over the years, but this version takes the prize... well, it would if we had a prize to offer!

Eddie brough a selection of plumbing, Ayley is the fiddler, Ainslie sings divinely, Luke plays a very driving guitar, and Alastair is the band's powerhouse on keyboards (digital piano and harmonium). They are all excellent musicians, and so young (spit!!) - the average age of the band is 23, according to Luke's calculations!

12 March

(performers 80p)

19 March

BLAST FROM THE PAST

Blast from the Past are Chris Green (voice, keyboards and fretted strings) and Sophie Matthews (voice and woodwinds). Formed in 2005, they have rapidly established themselves as England’s foremost interpreters of music and song from the past. Chris Green still tours with Isambarde...

Between them, they play over 30 instruments and their repertoire extends from the Middle Ages to the early 20th century. Equally comfortable in period costume or modern dress, they excel at presenting the sounds of the past in an accessible, engaging and contemporary fashion.

Tonight's support was provided by Nick & Lin, Stewart, Grassroots, and Nelson Peach; Bernard was our pre-raffle-ite.

Chris and Sophie didn't disappoint! Great musicianship, great singing and a great variety of material from one of the earliest folk songs in Middle English through to WW1 and music hall...

Sophie brought some of her plumbing with her, including English bagpipes, shawm, soprano saxophone and flute, and Chris brought mandola, guitar and accordion.

26 March

Singers Night BIG Spot

Tonight sees another of our 'Big Spot' offerings - performers being asked to do an extended spot after the beer break on a Singers' Night.

We had a comfortable turn-out of eighteen performers and thirteen listeners, so we were able to get round everyone! Fair Play launched their new CD, recorded and produced by DigiMoosik (Pat and Chris Blamires), a copy of which was won by John Cojeen in the raffle!

Andy's choice of songs was wide and varied, including 'Stolen Time', his recent re-work of 'Let no man steal your thyme'. It is dedicated to women's rights, and in particular the right to be spared from trafficking, and a recording of the song was offered to the organisation Womankind Worldwide for their recent marking of International Women's Day. The UK Government will match all donations to Womankind Worldwide made before 5th June, donations that will help shelter and protect women from violence both in the UK and far afield in many countries such as Zimbabwe.

Quite a few of our guitarists are seriously considering making a bonfire of their instruments after seeing and hearing Andy play with such virtuosity!!

2 April

(performers 80p)

An excellent turn-out of 31 performers and 12 listeners... we got around once, and had extras from Irene & Peter, Paul & Will, and Frank & Richard... the Marmite Easter Egg raffle prize was won by Stewart (as seen in the above photo!)... other prizes were also available!

9 April

RUTH AND KEN POWELL

Tonight's support was provided by Stewart, Nelson Peach (less Rick), and Bernard. Our pre-raffle-ites were John Condy and Bernice Carters.

It's been a while since Ruth and Ken visited Lymm, and it was a delight to welcome them back - even if it was only to relieve us of a few dozen jam jars!!

Ruth's beautiful voice, complemented by subtle accompaniment from Ken's hand made guitars (quite a few people are now playing Powells - including our Stewart) ensured that we had (as Ruth so eloquently put it!) 'a stonking night'!!

We were particularly pleased to see quite a few new faces, most of whom were friends of the duo, including Debra Cowan... Debra will be back around this time next year as a guest, you'll be pleased to hear!

16 April

(performers 80p)

23 April

THE HUT PEOPLE

The Hut People are constantly gaining more of reputation as one of the most entertaining acts to appear on the folk scene in a long while. In their surprisingly engaging and often hilarious show, they perform a truly unique high-octane blend of folk music from around the world - perfectly formed & embellished with a foot stomping accordion and mind-boggling array of exotic percussion (with some Quebecois foot percussion & dancing thrown in for good measure too!). A hugely entertaining duo getting unbelievable feedback from audiences, festival organizers and music press alike.

Tonight's support was provided by Stewart and Grassroots, and Bernard was our pre-raffle-ite.

Sam's accordion (and feet!) and Gary's bewildering array of percussion instruments (including a pair of flatulent plastic pigs!) were the perfect ingredients for one of the most entertaining concerts we've had! It would take far too long to describe all the weird and wonderful things that could be shaken, bashed or slapped in the name of music, but here's a photo which may give some clue as to what we witnessed!!

Sam had a very eclectic collection of tunes, and Gary's percussion was tasteful and appropriate - most of the time! Some of the time, though, it was simply hilarious!

30 April

(performers 80p)

7 May

BOB FOX

Bob is taking time out from WarHorse, and we're delighted to welcome him back to Lymm - his last visit was the night before his successful audition for WarHorse...!

Tonight's support was provided by Nick & Lin (back from a month in Fuerteventura), Stewart, Janice and Nelson Peach (minus Rick), and Bernard was our pre-raffle-ite.

A good-sized audience witnessed Bob on top form! A great, intimate atmosphere without the 'barrier' of a sound system, with plenty of choruses for everyone to join in with.

We had one of the songs from WarHorse during the first set - click on the pic (above) of Bob playing melodeon for a video clip! The second set was made up almost entirely of requests, including the ever-popular 'Sally Wheatley' as an encore!

14 May

(performers 80p)

21 May

PETER & BARBARA SNAPE

Tonight's support was provided by Stewart, Nelson Peach and Bernard, and our pre-raffle-ites were Nick & Lin.

A 'feel-good' night with lots to join in with - Barbara has a great repertoire of songs ranging from pathos (The Coal and Albert Berry) through to sheer silliness (Scented Soap)...!! Needless to say, Peter's accompaniments were perfectly crafted to show Barbara's singing off to its best advantage.

As so often happens on nights like these, it was time to go home almost as soon as we'd started! 'Time flies when you're having fun', as the saying goes!

28 May

Singers Night BIG Spot

Tonight sees another of our 'Big Spot' offerings - performers being asked to do an extended spot after the beer break on a Singers' Night.

As always on a Big Spot night, our singers, poets and musicians 'raise their game', giving the guests something to think about!! We had a total of 15 performers, with 14 listeners, and almost got round everyone twice!

Lorraine was our guest this evening, and brought fellow ukulele band member Ian along for moral support - plus vocals, ukulele, bass banjo (yes, it's VERY BIG!) and foot jingles...! Sort of an eighth of a tambourine with elastic, that he worked with his foot...!

Well, we had a wonderful time with plenty to join in with! The bass banjo makes a very interesting sound - deep, yet subtle. Ian couldn't put it back in its case at the end of the evening until everyone had had a play on it!!

4 June

GRASSROOTS

Janice Bell and Mick Hare formed a duo last year, which is now known as Grassroots! Tonight promises to be a great evening, and tickets are likely to be in great demand - so get yours early to avoid disappointment!

Tonight's support was provided by Nelson Peach and Nick & Lin, and our pre-raffle-ite was Bernard.

11 June

(performers 80p)

18 June
to
27 June

LYMM VILLAGE FESTIVAL

Folk Events Programme 2015

Ticket Form RTF  << Downloads >>  Songwriter Form PDF

Festival 2012 Acoustic Concert		Kerry Smith Memorial Songwriting Competition 2015
Winner - Cockney Eric!		Winner: Pete Thompson with 'The Time is Right for Me'

2 July

(performers 80p)

9 July

NELSON PEACH

You don't really need me to tell you about Nelson Peach, do you?! Regulars at the Railway Folk Club who got together to play music over ten years ago... and they do it extremely well!!

The basis of their music is English Traditional, but also includes a mix of contemporary folk and pop, plus some American versions of traditional songs. Instrumental arrangements are lively and songs often complemented by two and three part harmonies.

16 July

(performers 80p)

23 July

Acoustic Concert 2015
Audience Choice

Watch this space to see who we have this year!

30 July

Singers Night BIG Spot

Winner of the
Kerry Smith Memorial
Songwriting Competition 2015

Tonight sees another of our 'Big Spot' offerings - performers being asked to do an extended spot after the beer break on a Singers' Night.

6 August

(performers 80p)

13 August

BERNARD CROMARTY

Bernard is a singer and a multi-instrumentaist who can take you from tears of laughter to tears of pathos - even within the same song!!

You can expect to see a rather large accordion, concertinas (English AND Anglo!), 6 and 12 string guitars, banjo, mandolin... maybe other stuff, too!

20 August

(performers 80p)

27 August

(performers 80p)

3 September

NICK & LIN

Our ever-popular husband and wife duo, Nick and Lin Tysoe, are back with more of their mix of Americana and traditional folk... unaccompanied harmony singing, or accompanied with an assortment of instruments - guitar, banjo, mandolin, autoharp and ukulele!

Thanks to all concerned, a donation of £250.00 is going to Cancer Research!

Residents' Support was from Nelson Peach, Grassroots and Bernard, with Brenda and Steve from Northwich Folk Club providing our pre-raffle-ite spot! They also joined in with a song or two during Nick and Lin's sets.

Along with some of their familiar material, Nick and Lin also included plenty of new stuff, resulting in yet another great evening's entertainment!

Oh, and there was a frog in the raffle! This time, one that Lin had knitted! See the website for a photo!

Download a venue listing here RTF or PDF  (RIGHT click and 'Save As')