February 2009

Newsletter No 18 - 24 February 2009

After being warned that the cheers of the football crowd may disturb, Pepper Street presided over a triumphant evening with not a whimper coming from the United supporters next door. Setting the tone, Don & Heather took us Down Where The Drunkards Roll with one of Richard's new songs, Who's The Fool Now, carrying on the theme. Later on Old Brown's Daughter was chosen from his rapidly extending repertoire. It was nice to see Kath & Stan back and in even better form with favourite Ring Ring The Banjo followed by New York Girls and Sleepy Desert. Similarly, Jan & Mark were early birds and reminding us that St David's Day is on Sunday 1 March she sang a couple of Welsh songs, The Ash Grove (translation) and Goch! Goch! Goch! and Mark celebrated Dai The Motorbike Man before they teamed for a Jug Of Punch. Robin then gave us an elocution lesson explaining about his clipped vowels, nothing to do with his masculinity, before singing Delta Dawn (not Don) then a cheeky Lay You Down, as in I would like to, and as the evening was coming to a close, Where Peaceful Waters Flow.

January 2009

Newsletter No 14 - 27 January 2009

A great walk round Malham including Gordale Scar and the Limestone Pavement at Malham Cove has delayed the newsletter but we are back in time to tell you that another good night brought in some new faces both as performers and listeners. Pepper Street led off the usual eclectic mix of music and verse with Killing The Blues and gave us a very enjoyable evening.

August 2009

Newsletter No 44 - 25 August 2009

There was a general consensus of opinion that Carl had suddenly become very attractive to many of the male members of the club last night and with his new pseudonym of 'Ann Lavell Jordan', he and Sue certainly won the night as frontman/woman! Actually, Carl was grateful that he could just concentrate on his singing, particularly as he had a problem with his toe and was not feeling completely A1 for running the club. He did, however, arrive the first to re-arrange the chairs with Ann and to remove the 'Quatermass' pot plant out of the way to the far corner of the room, which was an excellent idea.

December 2008

Newsletter No 10 - 30 December 2008

It's nice to know that the weather in Sale is cold like it is in Scotland as I write this newsletter. Despite the modest turnout there was another eclectic mix of top quality folk music which was enhanced by the arrival of old friend Pauline Jones who made a very welcome appearance at the club hopefully to become a regular.

John Condy conducted the proceedings while contributing several classics including Martin Simpson's The Devil's Partiality, Kerr & Fagan' s Anderson's Coast, Richard Thompson's Vincent Black Lightening and Carrickfergus before the Beatles' Here Comes the Sun. Carl paid tribute to the New Year with Singing Down The Ages before later adding The Band Played Waltzing Matilda, The New Moon's Arms (Jez Lowe) and Father's Song (Ewen MacColl). Carl also sang his own song about folk clubs Nights Round The Table.

November 2008

Newsletter No 5 - November 25 2008

Residents Ed Bentham and Terry McKenna took over on Week 5 running an excellent evening. Terry opened with the haunting Down in Mississippi which he does so well and then embarked upon a round of more than 40 songs led off by a request for Gypsy Woman from Don & Heather aided by anyone playing in C. Extremely talented newcomers The Idle Young, Richard, Debs and Inga whose normal playground is the Chorlton Folk Club, brought a note of surrealism with songs Metaphor and Wildebeest and Sexy Poo, don't ask! Fortunately they rejoined the planet with Blue Skies in which they reckoned maybe things will get better. Ged disagreed with How Can a Poor Man Stand Such Times as These and John Muskett, singing and playing his best ever, pleaded Brother Can You Spare a Dime? Even Mick remembered Ralph McTell's Factory Girl. In contrast John Condy took us Across the Borderline where the streets are paved with gold and Ian sang Isn't It Grand Boys.

October 2008

Newsletter No 1 - October 28 2008

Sale Folk Club's first night in the United Services Club was a great success and the room was almost completely full with 55 people of which 23 were performers. We were well supported by residents Bernice Carters, Mick Hare and John Condy as the "Anything Goes" band, Ed Bentham and Terry McKenna. Sue Bentham and Heather Kenyon held the raffle while Ian Marsden became our doorman.

An 8.00pm start enabled almost everyone to perform twice and 10 people came back for a third time which was very satisfying. Even more rewarding was the quality that everyone brought to the evening.