Coventry Area Folk Clubs 1969

 

Coventry Area Folk Clubs 1969

by Pete Clemons

I recently came across a newsletter for freshers to Coventry from 1969. Within it was an article about the various folk clubs around the region at that time. Hopefully it will bring back a few memories.................

Over the last two years the Sunday night Folk Concerts have become one of the most popular institutions in the university sector.

With this in mind, three acts have been booked for the 'Freshers' weekend concert at Warwick Uni on Sunday night. The Strawbs will already be well known to many of their audience. They have performed here more than once and are becoming very well known throughout the country, through their performances, radio programmes and their very successful LP. The three original members have recently been joined by a girl cellist, so it should be interesting to hear the group in its new form.

Car drivers, Londoners or Strawbs addicts may be interested to know that the group now run a club in Hounslow every second Tuesday, with a wide variety of artistes

Tea and Symphony are a less well known group who have also been heard a lot on radio recently and have issued an LP. and two singles. Between them they play a vast range of instruments and have been described as something like a cross between the Incredible String Band and a jug band.

Finally for the beer drinkers and chorus singers, there is Ray Fisher, a long established traditional singer from Newcastle.

Those with a serious interest in Folk Music will no doubt want to visit some of the clubs in the surrounding area and real addicts will be able to find something on every night of the week.

On Monday there is the 'Village Pump' Folk Dance and Song Club (at the Bulls Head, Binley Road, Coventry). This is a definite must for folk dance fans but not for those who like a sit-down-and-listen type of club.

The Boggery Folk Club in Lugtrout Lane, Birmingham, meets several nights a week and is one of the smokey, beery, chorus-song type of clubs. On Tuesdays, 'Tuesdays People’ meet at 'The Factory', in Gas Street, Birmingham. It has a cabaret atmosphere and is slightly pretentious, with big-name artists. It's residents are the Heart of England and the Couriers and it is run by Mike Lloyd of A.T.V. John Betmead, a performer there summed it up by commenting, "Last time I sang there it was a folk club''.

The Cedars Folk Club meets on Wednesdays in Barker Butts Road, Radford, Coventry, and is Irish. The 'Rooster' club meets on Thursdays in the Biggin Hall, Binley Road, and is fairly new with enough backing to book big names like Derek Brimstone, Jerry Cochran, Magna Carta. Contemporary fans, especially should visit it.

The Red Lion in Stratford is closely connected with the Heart of England group. On Friday's there is the Mercer's Arms, Swan Lane, Coventry (near the football ground). It has some of the best guests but is a bit noisy.

The Fox and Vivian, in Leamington, has as its resident the one and only, your friend, Ron Healey and if you don't yet know him you soon will. It is shabby but cosy, crowded and has a great atmosphere.

The Coventry Folk Club, Gosford Park Hotel, meets on Saturdays and relies mainly on local talent. The Denbigh Arms, Monks Kirby, is 15 miles out in the wilds so it is as well to find out who is on before going. It usually has a well-known guest and its residents, The Gaels, are one of the best local groups.

If you get pissed off with the University club on Sundays, try the City Arms, Earlsdon but check who's on first and get there early. Apart from 'The Factory' which costs 10/6d, to join then 10/6 each evening, most of the clubs charge less than 5/- member- ship and even cheaper entrance. They generally advertise, in the Coventry Evening Telegraph or Birmingham Evening Mail, on the day of performance.

The University Folk Club hopes to be able to provide some kind of information service about the clubs and their guests.