NUNEATON FOLK CLUB
  • Home
  • About Us
  • FORTHCOMING ATTRACTIONS
  • How To Find Us
  • NUNC & DRUNCMONKEY
  • NEWS
  • Gallery
  • Contact Us
  • Links
Picture
OTHER STUFF AT THE CREW 















Besides the monthly First Wednesday sessions held in The Queen's Hall,(details elesewhere under "Forthcoming attractions" button)  in May Julie Julie will be appearing with support from Paper Circus.



​

​In October 2019, The Ragged Bear Festival returns. Already booked in are Merry Hell, Said The Maiden and Trials of Cato. Below left you can see  the 2018 line up, as a reminder of what you can expect. 

Picture
       
​COMMUNITY FUNDRAISING

       Our Charity Night in December 2018 raised £200 thanks to the unpaid assistance from Paper Circus and Drunk Monkey, who did a set each side of the interval. Loads of other performers lent a hand too. We divided the collection between Nuneaton Foodbank (see below) and Anker Hospital Radio(above). Well done to all.  
Picture
Picture
FAREWELL BEDUFF?
November 2017 saw the last Bedworth Folk Festival in its existing format. Just look at the Guest List on the poster below! 
Picture

       CHANGE OF VENUE FOR ATHERSTONE FOLK CLUB
Our neighbours up the road at Atherstone Folk Club have relocated. They are now no longer based at the Church End Brewery Tap in Ridge Lane. Their new home is The Rose Inn, Main Road Baxterley. (Post Code CV9 2LE)  Their evenings remain on the third Wednesday of every month. 
Thank you letters  (see below) from the two  organisations which our November 2016 audience raised funds for.  
Picture

Picture
John Richards had a lot of enquiries about his instrumentation whilst recently on stage at The Crown. He explains for those who have asked :
 "Apparently a few people were asking what one of my instruments was at Nuneaton Folk Club last Wednesday. So would you mind sharing this on the club's website please ? The instrument in question is a flatback Bouzouki made by the wonderful Luthier Ralph Bown of York. Like a mandolin it has 4 pairs of strings and I also use it tuned like a mandolin (GDAE) as opposed to the favoured Irish Bouzouki tuning which drops the first string from E to D. It's remarkable how the Bouzouki has been so successfully adopted into UK and Irish folk music given that it was only really introduced by Johnny Moynihan in the mid 60s. Cheers! "                
Cheers, John. 
​   
Picture
Kevin Dempsey returns March 2017
​                THE HAWKESBURY TRAWLERMEN

-Is a tongue in cheek title for the Midlands latest Shanty Crew, who formed at a meeting in Nuneaton's Felix Holt pub in March. Their first public outing came round the corner in the nearby Lord Hop, featuring three local club organisers, Phil Benson (Atherstone FC) Geoff Veasey (Nuneaton) and Malc Gurnham( Bedworth). Also in the shanty crew that day were local singers Alan Stocks, Dave Webb and John Meechan
    England's most landlocked Shanty Crew might be appearing at NFC soon!
Here's a scan (below) of a Review of Nuneaton Folk Club published in the March 2016 edition of Folk Monthly Magazine.
Picture
Picture
 NEW BOARDS PULL 'EM IN!

Well done to Julian for brightening up The Crown interior. Externally, a sharp new
NFC board advertising  what's on has pride of place on the wall  outside where most of the town can see it! And the sandwich board out front (above) has had a makeover too. Ta, Jules! 

Picture
ROLL OUT A WELCOME MATT


For Matt Mallen Allen, (above) our latest Sound Man who took over from Tom Veasey (see item below) Matt has been twiddling the knobs recently and coming to terms with a new set of leads and DI boxes. A dark Horse, Matt has done a bit of Open Mic and made his NFC debut on stage in June 2016!


MEANWHILE.....IT'S...............

FAREWELL MR. TOM, OUR BRILLIANT SOUND MAN 
Tom Veasey's last stint at his beloved mixing desk came in January 2016. He left to take up a job working for Disney, on Cruise Ships out of Miami. A tough call between Florida and Nuneaton, but we wished him well, presenting him with a card a cake baked by The Tilting Kettle (see photo right) and several standing ovations.  Both Malc Gurnham and Phil Benson have helped us out by guest-mixing in the past, but it would be impractical to ask them to take over and they surely would not want to with all their other commitments?  
          
RICH McMAHON TRIBUTE RAISES  £ 242            September 30th 2015
     Rich was a well known and respected performer who had already played Atherstone Folk Club and was due to appear at Nuneaton this July, on the night Sean Cannon guested. Sadly, Rich died in May, tragically young. Bedworth, Nuneaton and Atherstone Clubs  felt it would be fitting to unite to put on an additional evening, to commemorate Rich McMahon's life, and raise funds for his favourite charity, SIFA Fireside.    Rich's partner  Maggie Matthews, and his sister joined us.  Nunc,   Bob Brooker, Finger In The Jar, Brian Phillips, Malc Gurnham and Gill Gilsenan, KC Jones and John Kearney did floor spots. The second half  featured the return of The Mac Awe On Tour Big Band, who played NFC  on Comedy Night, and also had a stormer at Nuneaton Beer festival in June. 

Picture
   MAC AWE ON TOUR at NUNEATON BEER FESTIVAL
​                                   JUNE 17th 2016

John and Brendan Kearney,  Geoff Veasey and Flossy McDougal (from NUNC), and Jon Harrington gave the MOT  collective a big  NFC flavour as they serenaded drinkers at this year's "Thirst and Last" CAMRA Festival.  Sperrins Brewery named a beer after the band last year. Church End Brewery named one after one of their songs this time. (Above). 

Picture
     YOUNG PEOPLE SEEN IN FOLK CLUB SHOCK!
Here's a happy group snapped in a small corner at S
ean Cannon gig in April 2016. Is this allowed? Not if you read some Facebook posts!he 

Picture

                          MUSIC FOR MATT
  Bill Bates was our NFC guest last year. He  is a popular figure on the local scene. Bill's son Matt is seriously ill and the Folk World has been rallying round to raise funds to help his treatment.  Nuneaton Bedworth and Atherstone Folk Clubs combined to put on a joint event at Bedworth Rugby Club in March, adding £250 collected at Sly Old Dogs Wood Farm Brewery Session previously to a huge total collected. Similar events have since been held at Stockton, Warwick and Banbury Folk Clubs. 
SUE SANDERS has in the past played solo at NFC and with Mac Awe on Tour and BPS at other venues. She has been very poorly  but  by July 2016 she was   back up on stage at The Crown. 
    Gren Morris
We had hoped to include Sam Stephens and Gren Morris in our 2016 Guest List, but Sam is currently fighting a losing battle against a condition which has stopped him playing guitar altogether. Poor Gren died in January 2016 after a brave fight against life-threatening illness. A huge loss, and a great talent gone.

Picture
                    
APRIL 2015 COMEDY NIGHT raised £175.00 and also added 16.5kg of food to Nuneaton Food Bank. 



















   

    In March,  Malc Gurnham and Gill were our featured guests. Gren Morris and Sam Stephens joined us for the first time.  Nunc, Dave Webb, Sue Sanders, Finger in The Jar ,Dragonhead and Sly Old Dog , Bob Brooker all returned.

    Our February 4th session featured Phil Hare as our principal guest. Also making their NFC debut that night were Dragonhead. Big Respect to them, as they kept a Folk Club going in the Town before NFC arrived. On the same evening it was  a first time at The Crown too for The Somerville Gents, joining us from over Leamington way. John Kearney,  Nunc, John Kearney and Des Patalong made welcome returns.



TON UP FOR KRISTY!
A sensational night for our first Wednesday in 2015. Kristy Gallacher did two tremendous Guest spots, Kevin Dempsey just "dropped in" and we had debuts from Simon Veasey and Paul Moore, Alyson Bushell-Edwards and a young lad called Kane. Katherine Fear, John Kearney and Hilary Wilson returned, as did Mac Awe with  Dave Parr. At one point the audience had topped three figures, and the pot collectors were kept busy! See our  "Gallery" title page for a panoramic audience view!
http://www.coventrytelegraph.net/whats-on/music-nightlife-news/coventry-singer-kristy-gallacher-appear-8362396
MICK STANLEY

   Popular Comharsa Front Man Mick Stanley was bowled over by November's Club Session. Literally! He  got knocked over on November 5th, as he crossed from the pub to the Car park. He ended up in The Eliot with a broken leg. We were all relieved it wasn't any worse, but it must have been very painful.

   We'd just confirmed to Mick that Comharsa will be doing a Floor Spot along with Sean Cannon next July.  We reckon he was rushing to 'phone his agent. All NFC regulars wish him a speedy recovery
. Get well soon, Mick!

Launch Night is a tremendous success! 

14 different artistes-solo, groups, duos, trios-all dovetailed into one glorious show of two halves, launched our opening night on Wednesday October 1st 2014.  80+ people attended and it was standing room only by the end of the night. Our Resident House Band  Black Parrot Seaside had the honour of playing the first number-" It's All Over Now." But it wasn't. it had just begun....

*************************************
           NFC FACEBOOK PAGE

You have checked this out, haven't you? And requested membership?  80 members at the moment. More news views and opinions on there, too.

       November 5th goes with a Bang!

  An audience of Ninety plus again when Sly Old Dogs, (pictured below).  took to the stage upstairs at  The Crown Inn on Bonfire Night.  There were fireworks galore as The Craic cames to Nuneaton. Our first featured Guests played plenty of well-loved traditional songs across two sets. The P.A. went awol and we all went unplugged-but nobody seemed to mind!  Other guests included Finger In The Jar, Malc Gurnham and Gill Gilsenan, Maria Barham, Daisybell, John Kearney and KC Jones.
Picture
Our Guests in December 2014 were CAROLE PALMER and MARIA BARHAM. You can read more about them elsewhere or by following Links to their own pages. 
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.