Black Swan Folk Club

E-Newsletter 11

Mid August 2003

  1. THE POOZIES LAUNCH AUTUMN CONCERT SERIES. Giving us a thrilling start to our Autumn concert programme at the Early Music Centre are THE POOZIES, one of the best women’s folk bands around and one which has been evolving for around a decade. From their beginnings with pop/rock singer Sally Barker, through their contemporary folk phase with Kate Rusby, The Poozies have reflected a range of folk/roots influences and with new recruit Eilidh Shaw on fiddle and vocals the band has now gone back closer to traditional Celtic music and song.
    Eilidh joins founder members Karen Tweed (accordion, vocals) and Patsy Seddon and Mary MacMaster (clarsachs, electro-harps, vocals). Karen is well known for her work with Swap, Chris Wood & Andy Cutting, et al, while Patsy and Mary also play as the duo Sileas and have collaborated with Dick Gaughan and many others.
    Irrepressibly imaginative arrangements, great musicianship and glorious harmonies − The Poozies promise an uplifting and memorable evening’s music. Let’s hope there is a capacity crowd to enjoy it! The date: Wednesday 10 September, starting at 7.30 with a half-hour opener by long-distance club resident Phil Cerny.
    Tickets are on sale now (£12, concessions £10) and can be booked:
    • by telephone, post or e-mail at the NCEM Box Office (01904 658338, boxoffice@yorkearlymusic.org)
    • on the Net at www.ncem.co.uk
    • in person at Cassady’s Records on Gillygate in York or at Thursday club nights
    • by post from me (50 St Olave’s Road, York, YO30 7AL)

  2. FUTURE AUTUMN CONCERTS. Next up at the Early Music Centre is JUNE TABOR on Wednesday 8 October. There has already been a lot of interest in this one and early booking is advised. SIMON MAYOR & HILARY JAMES promise us "Hoagy, Hornpipes, Handel and Hoedown" on Saturday 25 October. HARVEST HOME on Tuesday 25 November is a seasonal show of a cappella singing and narrative performed by Coope Boyes & Simpson with Jo Freya, Fi Fraser and Georgina Boyes, while Monday 22 December brings another seasonal delicacy − Artisan’s STUFF THE TURKEY Christmas Show.
    Booking is now open for all these events at the NCEM Box Office (details above) and tickets for June Tabor and Mayor & James are also available at Cassadys and at Club functions. Please remember that if you can book through Cassadys or the Club it does help us as we avoid having to pay Box Office commission and VAT!

  3. MEANWHILE AT THE BLACK SWAN. There’s plenty of grand music to be heard in our regular Thursday night club programme as well. This Thursday (Aug 21) it’s "goodtime, ragtime, blues and folk" with jug-band/skiffle trio THE HOT TAMALES - sounds like great fun - then we have the return of American troubadour DANA ROBINSON (Aug 28) following an auspicious debut a couple of years ago. You may have heard tracks on Radio 2 − Mike Harding is taking an interest in this talented songwriter and multi-instrumentalist.
    No introductions should be needed for the mighty ball of musical energy that is TANGLEFOOT (Sep 4). This is the only Thursday club meeting this season for which we are offering advance tickets, and they are already getting on for half sold. Quite a few have gone to die-hard Tanglefoot followers travelling in from far and wide. Local folkies − book soon or you may miss out!

  4. CITY OF YORK FOLK DAY 2004. There will be an Open Meeting on Monday 15th September (8pm at the Black Swan Inn) to discuss options for a City of York Folk Day for 2004. This could once again form part of a MUSIC LIVE event in York, possibly with a folk theme running through a whole weekend. If you have views on what, when, where, and how we do something next year, do come along to the meeting. I will issue a formal invitation to all the local clubs/sessions in due course, but meanwhile put that date in your diary NOW!

  5. CLASSIFIED ADS − SINGERS (SEA). "Yorkshire-based Sea Shanty Band requires an additional member. We sing traditional sea shanties and songs of the sea and want to enlarge the group to make it easier to fulfil more engagements. Experience is not needed, just a good voice, a sense of humour and an ability to get on with people".
    Now which band could that be? If you are interested and would like more details, contact me and I’ll pass your details on to them.

  6. FINANCIAL REPORT. The club was half-way through its financial year at the end of July, so I have again been looking at the books. Because there were several high-grossing concerts in the half-year our total income was £11,205 and our spending (which did include the purchase of a club PC, as reported in Newsletter 10) was almost the same at £11,196. A difference of just £9 on such large figures is truly amazing − equal to less than one concert or two club ticket sales!
    All of which goes to show that each and every customer is important. Even with our modest financial reserves a run of poorly supported club functions is worrying and a couple of big losses on concerts could put the whole enterprise in jeopardy. Thank you all for supporting live music − and keep on doing so!

  7. WEB SITE NEWS. After various overseas jaunts our Web master Stan Graham is now back in York for a while and promising to update the club website. Viruses permitting, the Picture Gallery should already have been revised, and we are thinking of revamping the Home page and making it much less wordy. Watch those screens!