At singarounds and music sessions, you can perform, sing along or just listen to suit yourself. All venues serve real ale, and all events are free, unless otherwise stated.
October ► Sunday 27th: singers night at the Bothy Folk Club, Park Golf Club, Park Road West, Southport from 8.00 pm. Free admission for performers. ► Monday 28th: song session in the Tap & Bottles, Cambridge Walks, Southport from 8.15pm.
November ► Monday 4th: song session in the Guest House, Union Street, Southport from 8.15pm.
► Sunday 10th: singers night at the Bothy Folk Club, Park Golf Club, Park Road West, Southport from 8.00 pm. Free admission for performers. ► Tuesday 12th: song session in the Lion, Moorfields, Liverpool from 8.30 pm. ► Wednesday 13th: singaround in the Grasshopper, Sandon Road, Hillsside from 8.15 pm. ► Monday 18th: music session in the Guest House, Union Street, Southport from 8.15pm.
► Sunday 24th: singers night at the Bothy Folk Club, Park Golf Club, Park Road West, Southport from 8.00 pm. Free admission for performers.
► Monday 25th: song session in the Tap & Bottles, Cambridge Walks, Southport from 8.15pm. ► Every Thursday: lunchtime singaround in the Belvedere, Sugnall Street, Liverpool 7. 2.00pm to 4.00pm.
A great afternoon concert hosted by Pete Rimmer.
Part of the Southport Festival - 10 to 12 May.
What they're saying about Bob Fox:
"Fox always was one of the scene's superior singers and his voice is as confident and ebullient as it ever was." - Colin Irwin - Folk Roots Magazine
"Bob, in my view, is a greatly under-rated singer and musician, if he were pushier he'd be up there with the Carthys and Gaughans and he could certainly teach the upcoming generation a thing or three!" - Raymon Greenoaken - Stirrings Magazine
"Bob Fox’s supreme voice is full of life and clarity." - New Zealand Folk Newsletter
"The most complete male folk artist on the British folk scene, his voice and singing style is envied by many of his contemporaries." - Colin Randall -The Daily Telegraph
"As soon as I heard him sing I realised that Bob Fox must have one of the best voices in England, he is an artist of great ability and integrity." - Ralph McTell
The song 'Whiskey in the Jar' is probably most associated with Thin Lizzy, but it is of course an old traditional Irish folk song, and before Lizzy got their hands on it, the Dubliners' version was probably the best known. Thin Lizzy never intended it for release, and were in fact just larking around in the studio when they recorded it. They consequently weren't too pleased when Decca released as a single anyway as it wasn't representative of their sound, although I expect they were to some extent consoled by the higher profile they gained when it reached number one in Ireland and six in the UK.
I remember it was on our college bar jukebox and one night at the student folk club, the club organiser got up and announced he was going to sing the song, "the proper version, not that abomination on the jukebox." I remember thinking that I rather liked the abomination on the jukebox.
With line-up changes, Lizzy dropped the song from their repertoire, and they never played it on the five occasions I saw them live. However, that wasn't the end of the line for the song. In 1990, the Dubliners re-recorded it with Celtic punk band the Pogues with a faster, more rocky sound. In 1998, Metallica recorded a version similar to Lizzy's, but heavier as you'd expect, even winning a Grammy for the song in 2000 for Best Hard Rock Performance.
The song has come a long way from Irish pub folk sessions to heavy metal recognition.
The video sows the original line-up of Thin Lizzy featuring drummer Brian Downey, lead guitarist Eric Bell and Phil Lynott on vocals and bass guitar.
From May, my acoustic song session, aka singaround, in the Lion Tavern will move from the second Thursday of the month to the second Tuesday. This is because something similar takes place every Thursday afternoon in the Belevedere in Liverpool, and one or two people have commented to me that they'd prefer the two sessions to be on different days.
No sooner said than done. Well, not quite, as people have been saying this for years, but Tuesdays weren't available until the new management took over the pub fairly recently.
The next session is therefore on Tuesday 9 May, beginning at around 8.30 pm. All welcome, including non-performers. The Lion has eight real ales and a real cider.
In June, I wrote that the classic Liverpool pub, the Lion Tavern, had closed, and in November that it had reopened; some of us had been worried that it might never open again. I'm pleased to report that the song session that I have run in the pub from July 2010 will begin again next week; the last one was in June, just before the pub stopped trading.
It is the same night as before, the second Thursday of each month, and it is completely acoustic - no amplification at all. The session is open to both singers and non-singers; anyone who just wants to come and listen is very welcome.
If you're free on Thursday 12 January, it's at the Lion Tavern, Moorfields, Liverpool, just across the road from Moorfields Station on the Northern Line, and starts at around 8.15 pm. The last train to Southport leaves at 11.40 pm. The Lion has a good selection of up to 8 real ales.
Liverpool Central Library, William Brown Street, Liverpool L3 8EW (less than 5 minutes’ walk from Lime Street Station).
The Traditional Song Forum (TSF) is a national organisation that brings together those interested in the research, collecting and performance of traditional song. The meetings are open to any who wish to attend. Donations from non-members are welcome, with a suggested amount of £5.
Starting at 9.30am with tea and coffee, the morning includes a round-the-room sharing of traditional song research and interest, which will include an opportunity to look at Liverpool Library’s collection of broadsides, and Mike Brocken will describe the newly-established folk music resource centre at Liverpool Hope University.
After a lunch break, the afternoon will feature the following talks and presentations on aspects of traditional song in the Merseyside region.
Frank Kidson in Liverpool – Alice Jones
Alice Jones is from Ripponden, West Yorkshire, where she has been involved with folk music, dance and song since childhood. She was greatly influenced by the Ryburn 3 Step team, and collaborated with Pete Coe in researching songs collected by Leeds-based Frank Kidson. This research led to concert and club performances and a CD, under the title The Search for Five Finger Frank. Earlier this year, Alice released her first, critically-acclaimed solo album, Poor Strange Girl. Alice will examine Kidson’s friendship with Liverpool resident and song source, Alfred Mooney.
The Miraculous Arm: William Armstrong and the Ballad Trade in Liverpool in the Early 19th Century – Matthew Edwards
Matthew Edwards is a retired social care worker living in Wirral who sings mainly traditional songs at song sessions locally and at festivals across these islands. A fellow singer, the late Fred McCormick, was a great inspiration for exploring song traditions, especially the connections between Britain and Ireland. Matthew will be talking about a Liverpool broadside printer, William Armstrong, who published a significant body of songs with Irish themes in the years after the Napoleonic Wars.
Southport - from Anne Gilchrist and Sea Songs to the Bothy Folk Club and Cork Jackets – Clive Pownceby and Derek Schofield
Derek Schofield is the former editor of English Dance & Song magazine, published by the English Folk Dance & Song Society. He has written two books on aspects of the folk revival. He has also contributed to fRoots magazine, as well as to the Folk Music Journal. He grew up in Crosby, Merseyside, and now lives in Cheshire. Clive Pownceby has been the organiser and a resident singer at the 51-year-old Bothy Folk Club in Southport for several decades. He has contributed to English Dance & Song and The Living Tradition magazines. He lives in Crosby. This joint paper will look at Anne Gilchrist’s time living in Southport when she collected songs from William Bolton, and the Bothy Club’s more recent promotion of traditional song in the town.
Stan Hugill and the Liverpool Shanty Tradition – Gerry Smyth
Gerry Smyth is Professor of Irish Cultural History at Liverpool John Moores University. One of his principal research interests is in Irish musical cultures worldwide; his latest book, entitled Celtic Tiger Blues: Music and Irish Identity, will be published by Routledge in January 2017. In this paper he will be talking about the Irish influence on the nineteenth-century Atlantic shanty tradition, especially as mediated by the great singer / collector Stan Hugill.
The Early Years of the Folk Song Revival on Merseyside – Mick Groves and Hughie Jones in conversation with Derek Schofield
As members of The Spinners folk group, Mick and Hughie were founders and resident singers at the city’s first folk club in 1958. Hughie sings and runs the Everyman Folk Club in Liverpool, while Mick is now resident in Exeter, where he also continues to sing.
Saturday evening: there will be a singaround from about 7.00pm at the Cornmarket pub in Liverpool. The Cornmarket pub is in the Old Ropery opposite the Slaughterhouse in Lower Castle Street close to James Street Station.
Friday night 18 November: there will also be a mainly tunes session at the Pen Factory in Hope Street from 8.00pm.
Sunday morning: there will be a guided tour featuring some of the sites which are famous, or notorious, in song, finishing with a trip on the famous Mersey Ferry. The tour will start at 10.00am from the plaza in front of the Adelphi Hotel in Lime Street, opposite "the statue exceedingly bare"!
The meeting has been arranged by Matthew Edwards, Colin Batho and Derek Schofield.
The meeting is dedicated to the memories of Stan Ambrose and Fred McCormick.
I wrote last month about this festival, which runs this week from 15 to 17 July at Southport's Pleasureland. It is a joint enterprise by Real Ale Events Ltd, owned by Liverpool Organic Brewery, and Southport's Atkinson arts centre. I gave full details, including a link for tickets and a list of performers, here; the only change is that all the volunteer opportunities have now been taken. There will be three days of real ale to the sounds of folk and Americana music.
It's probably worth mentioning that it’s a family friendly event, with under 18s welcome, except in the bar area. Under 12s are allowed in free when accompanied by a paying adult.
Southport's Atkinson and the Liverpool Organic Brewery have teamed up to present a beer and folk music festival next month in Southport. Liverpool Organic Brewery have a record of running beer festivals in unusual venues, such as the old Christ Church in Waterloo, and in Liverpool at the famous bombed out church, the old Cain's brewery and St George's Hall. Now it is the turn of Pleasureland in Southport.
The festival will offer more than 200 real ales, ciders, perries, continental bottled beers, wines and Liverpool Gin, plus local food. Each session will feature live music from various folk and Americana acts:
Kaia Kater (Friday afternoon).
Flats & Sharps (Friday evening).
The Elephant Sessions (Saturday afternoon).
Elbow Jane (Saturday evening).
The Wilsons plus Treacherous Orchestra (Sunday afternoon).
If you're coming some distance, camping for campervans only is available at £10 per night. For more information and to buy your tickets on-line, click here. Tickets cover admission to the beer festival and live music for the session purchased.
The organisers are calling for volunteers. There will be five sessions, and you can volunteer for whichever one (or ones) you prefer. You will be required to work on the real ale bars and possibly do some stewarding. In return you will receive:
Free festival t-shirt.
Free souvenir half pint festival glass.
Discounted food from the festival vendors.
Free entertainment during the session you work.
Most importantly, free cask beer and cider.
You will be able to enjoy the real ales and ciders while you work and also in the break following the session. To find out more about volunteering, click here.
The festival will run from 11.30 on Friday 15 July to 19:00 on Sunday 17 July at Southport Pleasureland, Marine Drive, Southport, PR8 1RX.
I'm sorry to hear that the virtuoso violinist Dave Swarbrick has died today aged 75. He was best known for his pioneering work with Fairport Convention, particularly on the ground-breaking album Liege & Lief which combined traditional English songs and tunes with rock instruments. So used have we become to what became known as folk rock that it easy to forget how controversial this was at the time. Folk purists regarded it as selling out, and as an innovation it was as contentious as Bob Dylan going electric. He was proficient on several other instruments, wrote songs and tunes in the traditional style, was in demand as a session musician, and released a string of solo albums.
I first saw him with Fairport Convention in the Southport Theatre in the late 1970s in the tour that preceded the group's calling it a day, except for annual reunions at Cropredy; eventually those reunions led to the band reforming. I later saw him on tour with Martin Carthy, a collaboration that happened periodically over the decades, and finally a couple of years ago at Cropredy, the festival that Fairport still holds annually. He was musically brilliant live, infectiously enthusiastic and, until his health problems began to take hold, a highly energetic performer.
In 1999, during one of his spells in hospital, the Daily Telegraph reported his death and published an obituary. Swarb was delighted with the highly complimentary nature of the tribute, bar the one obvious mistake, declaring "It's not the first time I've died in Coventry." He later told the Oxford Times: "I photocopied the obits, took them to gigs, signed them 'RIP Dave Swarbrick' and sold them for £1. After all, where else are you going to get a signed obituary? I had to stop, though, when The Telegraph got in touch and told me I couldn’t do it as they had the copyright."
He was received many awards for his work, including a lifetime achievement award, and saw Liege & Lief voted "Most Influential Folk Album of All Time".
Here is a masterclass of violin playing from 2014 with Richard Thompson who was in Fairport with Swarb in the early 1970s. After performing a set of tunes accompanied by Thompson, he plays along to Thompson's poignant song, Waltzing's For Dreamers.
I've just heard from my friend Sue Raymond that Susan Lambert, who plays the clà rsach or Gaelic harp, will be giving a concert at Edda this Friday 13 May. Susan, who hails from Cumbria, plays a varied mixture of ballads, classics, jigs and some unexpected covers; last year she performed on Hadrian's Wall on the One Show for BBC Music Day. She will be supported by various other musicians.
Edda is the community arts centre and library on Liverpool Road in Ainsdale, Southport, PR8 3NE. There is a small bar serving wines, bottled beers and coffee. The event begins at 8.00 pm and tickets are £5. Here is a short sample of what she can do:
Just a quick reminder that the regular 2nd Thursday of the month acoustic song session in the Lion Tavern will take place this Thursday 12 May from around 8.15 pm after a month off in April. The Lion Tavern is in Moorfields, Liverpool, just across the road from Moorfields station.
All welcome, whether you want to sing or not. The Lion serves eight real ales and a real cider too.
Please note that Moorfield station platform 2 (Northern Line} is currently closed for refurbishment. Merseytravel advice here.
This Sunday's guests at the Bothy Folk Song Club are Pete Coe and Alice Jones who will perform songs and tunes from the collection of Frank Kidson (1855-1926) from Leeds who was an early collector of what we call folk songs. His collection comprises ballads, broadsides and dance tunes and its influence on the first folk revival was inestimable, but he's often overlooked in comparison with better-known collectors such as Cecil Sharp and Lucy Broadwood.
Pete and Alice redress the balance with this presentation in word and lots of song - here is the show's website. This unique show is this Sunday at 8.00pm, and it is more than half sold out already, so get there in good time or buy on-line. Please note: an advance ticket ensures admission only, not a reserved seat, so an early arrival is advisable.
This Sunday 24 April at 8.00pm in the Park Golf Club, Park Road West, Southport, PR9 0JS, a real ale venue. Tickets on the door or on-line, subject to availability.
Many years ago, I was playing at a folk club down South and the person on immediately before me had everyone singing along with this song. When I was introduced, I said, "It's funny hearing that song because my father was from the Orange and my mother was from the Green", which is true.
The roomful of blank faces told me they hadn't a clue what the song they'd just been heartily singing was all about.
The Bothy Folk Club, including your truly, will be playing free sessions in the bar on both days at the following times: today - 6.45pm – 7.45pm; tomorrow - 1.35pm to 2.20pm and 5.30pm to 6.30pm.
Click here for more details of the festival acts; it's called Love Folk because this is the Valentine's Day weekend.
I've been asked to mention that Steve Knightley, known as half of the popular duo Show of Hands, is doing a solo gig in the Liverpool suburb of Childwall as part of his All At Sea Tour. Steve decided that in 2016 he'd turn his attention to maritime venues around the shoreline of England and Wales. The 'All At Sea' tour will find him playing in seaside halls, an Elizabethan Fort, on boats and in a rich variety of performing spaces all within sight of the waves and the tide.
Steve has said: "As a West country songwriter I have written so many songs of seafarers and wreckers, travellers and traders, pirates and smugglers. Now I'm going to be able to sing them with the sound of the sea in the distance - I can’t wait!"
Thursday 10 March.
7.00pm (doors) - 7.30pm (start).
Christ the King Social Club, Score Lane, Childwall, Liverpool, L16 6AW.
Tickets are £16 and are available by advance purchase only (non-refundable) from Mrs Lesley Scholes:
