Club Of The Month
Club Of The Month is a regular feature that gives a club a little extra space to sell themselves. Please contact us if you would like your club to be considered:
Barley Folk
Like every good Cornish story, the tale of Barley Folk begins with the words: “what happened was...” and what happened was that Gary Swift (AKA ‘Swifty,’) landlord of Liskeard’s most bohemian drinking establishment and one of Cornwall’s best pub rock venues, called up local folk musician Steve Hunt (AKA me) to discuss an idea. That idea was to turn the old upstairs function room into the ideal folk music venue, and then book some great artists to fill it with fine music and happy customers.
Having agreed that this was, indeed, a splendid idea, the pair quickly set about turning it into a reality. Swifty (and his partner Emma) spent the first couple of months of 2009 transforming the room, creating a really ‘homely’ environment with stone walls, wooden floor, soft lighting, sofas, armchairs, candles and even a little pot stove (which burns electricity, rather than ‘oily rags and coal’ for health and safety reasons!) Music-related features and details abound, from the table made from a timpani drum to the treble clef coat hooks, and the big, framed vintage poster of Joan Baez. Finally, they installed the PA system and stage lights and Barley Folk was ready to welcome it’s first audience.
While Gary and Emma were getting on with the sort of work that requires actual physical effort, I got busy with a telephone and a computer. Gary seemed keen to get a well-known act for our launch night in March, a task that proved to be incredibly easy, as my first choice - Jackie Oates, straight away said: ‘yes,’ to booking her and James Dumbleton, and then also had the decency to win a couple of BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards, just to ensure a bit more publicity for us!
Our bookings policy is very simple: we just book artists that we think are great.
This ‘rule-of-thumb’ approach applies equally to newer acts such as Forcenra (a fantastic Somerset group that I very recently came across on MySpace), and long-established and hugely popular performers like Steve Tilston. Both have great songs and musicianship.
Our evenings start with a couple of songs from our resident act - Corncrow (that’s Kim Guy and me), following which we have one support act and then our main guests. We have a raffle (does this make us a traditional folk club?!) with just one decent prize - simplicity is our watchword! Whilst our performances end at 23:00, folks can, if they wish, stick around for another hour for our late-night session to play a few tunes, have a chat and relax.
We’d love for you to come and see us, whether in person at The Barley, or by visiting www.myspace.com/barleyfolk where you can find out what’s on, and listen to tracks from our forthcoming artists.
Our e-mail address is: barleyfolk@yahoo.co.uk
Barley Folk c/o The Barley Sheaf, Church Street, Liskeard, Cornwall PL14 3AQ
Steve Hunt