folkmob.comCome along for a great night out
Folkmob began life in 1992 after a chance meeting of the late Mike Del Monte and our own Dave Kenningham, at the Tramshed in Woolwich. these music loving, real ale swilling, guitar players decided that it would be a good idea to start their own music club. It began as a small guitar club in Plaisted's wine bar in Woowich and then moved to an outhouse known as The Barn at The Fort Tavern in nearby Sandy Hill Road. The small mob were joined by Grant Davis, Sue & Mick Forde and Big Steve Ashman They began to attract a regular crowd and soon outgrew the freezing cold barn. After trying a couple of other venues they settled down at The Crown and Cushion
Pub where they were joined by such musical luminaries as Richard Phipps, Alec Gorham and Tony Petty. Here they remained in sunny Woolwich for about three more years. Then, after a brief residence at The Castle pub in Eltham High Street they moved in 1996 to the upstairs hall at Tudor Barn at Well Hall Pleasaunce where, over the next 13 years they evolved into one of the best folk clubs in the country. Sue & Mick Forde ran the club for the first few years but as the club grew, more people got involved and since 2002 the organisation has been undertaken by a committee of volunteers. Sadly 2008 saw the closing of the Pub at The Tudor Barn. There was a strong campaign
to keep the pub open and the council eventually did allow the club to carry on meeting there, but pushed the price of hiring the upstairs hall beyond what was realistic to ru
n a regular club, so we had to make do
with the cramped downstairs tea room, with no drinks on sale. The lease has now been transferred to new landlords and the building is due to close for refurbishment. It is still closed to the public and has now been empty for over a year! Fran Cotton who is the steward of Blackheath Rugby Club in nearby Kidbrooke Lane, offered us the use of their f
unction room from January 7th 2009. We decided to move there permanently. The club encourages local musicians to come along and share their music with others. We also welcome non musicians to the club. The strummers and s ingers are always glad of an audience! Every month or so we like to invite a top class act to perform and this year we have already had appearances from Martin Carthy, Wiz Jones and Kent's latest superstars The Dealers. We promise many more of that standard in the future. The large function room has adjacent bars, serving a range of real
ales, fine lager and wine. It is a perfect setting. The premises have recently been refurbished along with the welcome installation of a lift for disabled and elderly use. All in all it is a smashing venue ideal venue. There is ample parking space in the clubs own car park. Folk Club members are also welcome to the club any other night to just pop in and have a drink!On our Wednesday nights we run the club on a two week rotate of formats , One week it is an open Mike session where people put their names down for a 10 minute time slot and have the opportunity to perform on a stage with full PA equipment. with their sound mixed and balanced by our own resident sound engineer. Alternate weeks see us in "Sing-around" mode. This is a more informal acoustic session where the traditional folkmob stick is passed around in a circle. Whoever is in possesion of the stick has the opportunity to perform, if not they can just pass it on again! All great fun!!! We are not musical snobs and although we do encourage folk music, people are free to play and sing music of any genre they wish
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