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Sunday
Evenings at 8 pm (doors open 7:45) at:
The Normandy
Centre Denne Road, Horsham, West
Sussex RH12
1JF
Acoustic folk club - Licensed bar - Non members welcome
Admission varies between £2 and £8 (discounted for
members):
Under 21s get free admission to all events. |
For reviews
etc. look at:
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Go to our 'Contact Us'
page and click there to join the Horsham Folk Club
mailing list. You'll be kept up to date with Folk
Club activities and guests - and it's free! |
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(click
on a picture to see the bigger picture....) |
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| SUMMER! |
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Sunday 2nd September |
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Song and Dance |
Songs, tunes and poems from members & guests plus dancing to our excellent ceilidh band.
Beginners and experts alike are welcome and our experienced callers ensure everyone can work their way through the dances with enjoyment. Admission £2 (members £1) |
Sunday 9th September |
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Trials of Cato
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Hailing from North Wales and Yorkshire, The Trials of Cato returned to the UK from Beirut, Lebanon in the winter of 2016. Since then their feet have barely touched the ground as their eclectic brand of folk music – encompassing 18th century ballads all the way up to self-penned stomping dance tunes – has seen them booked out at folk clubs and festivals across the country.
The band’s live set includes both original and traditional material, delivered wholly on fretted instruments (and a few surprises) to achieve a musical presence not often heard on the modern folk scene. Praised for the diversity of their material and influences, The Trials of Cato live show ‘invariably stuns audience wherever they play.’
Admission £8 (members £5) |
Sunday 16th September |
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Open Floor - Spotlight on
Leonie Mansell
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Our open floor nights are an opportunity for anyone to try a song, a tune or a poem knowing they have a sympathetic audience, although there is no obligation to perform, and those who simply like to listen (and taste the excellent and inexpensive beer) are welcome.
Tonight the Spotlight is on two short sets by Leonie Mansell. Leonie began writing in childhood but only became a performance poet when she was old enough to know better. She appeared for some years (both solo and with another poet, Pippa King, under the name of Noovobrassik) at pubs and clubs, mostly in London, at arts venues and women’s festivals and performed with five other poets on the Edinburgh Fringe.
Whilst living in London she also worked as a part-time tutor of Creative Writing for the WEA and local adult education classes. Her work has been published in anthologies and magazines for over thirty years: a collection of her poems, The Tattooed Lady from Leamington Spa, was published in 2006 and a CD under the same title was released in 2007. Copies of both have found their way to the USA and Australia.
An evening not to be missed!
Admission £2 (members £1) |
Sunday 23rd September |
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Mean Mary
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A welcome return for the wonderful Mean Mary James. Known internationally for lightning-fast fingers, haunting vocals, and intricate story songs, Mean Mary travels the genres of folk-rock, bluegrass, and blues with banjo, fiddle, and guitar. Anything from ghost pirates to demon guitars could romp through a Mean Mary show!
"Startling talent" - The Tennessean
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Her personality and energy light up the room and the crowd goes crazy" - Chris Lash, Radio Veteran, Whiplash Radio LLC
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Fantastic. I had chills from hearing your wonderful playing! Five Stars for sure!" - Janet Deering, Owner/CEO, Deering Banjos
“Mary is a consummate performer with a bewitching voice that is at once sexy, vulnerable, and yet as powerful as any man’s.” -
Jack Montgomery, The Amplifier
“This young lady has a strong confident voice, as sweet, rich and full-bodied as sorghum syrup … Her playing can be fast – very fast – yet musical. No technical playing here just for the flashiness of it; Mary’s choices always make sense, musically.” -
The Lucky Lad, No Depression
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“Mean Mary” James, a Florida native now based in Nashville, began life as a musical prodigy—could read music before she could read words and co-wrote songs at age five. By age seven she was proficient on the guitar, banjo, & violin, and entertained audiences across the US with her vocal and instrumental skills. Her life has been one long road show interspersed with TV, radio, and film.
To date she plays 11 instruments and is known for her alluring story songs, incredible instrumental speed, & rich voice that can travel from deep emotion to sparkling trills. She is also an award-winning book author, and the fun loving star of Nashville TV show, Never-Ending Street.
Admission £8 (members £5) |
Sunday 30th September |
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Song and Dance |
Songs, tunes and poems from members & guests plus dancing to our excellent ceilidh band.
Beginners and experts alike are welcome and our experienced callers ensure everyone can work their way through the dances with enjoyment. Admission £2 (members £1) |
Sunday 7th October |
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Brian Willoughby & Cathryn Craig
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Cathryn Craig is from Virginia and has built a strong reputation as both performer and songwriter. She has sung with Chet Atkins, The Righteous Brothers, Shel Silverstein and Jorma Kaukonen.
Her great-grandfather Jacob Sowder was recorded by Cecil Sharp and is featured in Sharp’s book "English Folk Songs From The Southern Appalachians".
Brian Willoughby is best known for his virtuoso performances on electric and acoustic guitar, with progressive folk/rock band Strawbs and also with Mary Hopkin, Joe Brown, Roger Whittaker, Bridget St.John, Jim Diamond and Monty Python.
“They catch a mood that could produce goosebumps on sheet metal" -
(The Glasgow Herald)
“…sublime guitar work and one of the finest voices around” -
(Folking.com)
Admission £8 (members £5) |
Sunday 14th October |
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Stepling
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There’s nothing else quite like Stepling, a unique and exciting act that has burst onto the folk scene with their original blend of music, step dance, and song inspired by English traditions.
Their richly varied performances combine traditional and new material, and blur the boundaries between music and dance. From high energy competition clog to carefully crafted tune arrangements and songs, many with foot percussion, Stepling are truly breaking new ground.
Furious fiddle, and not so furious vocals, from Deb Chalmers (Folk Dance Remixed, Bella Hardy); subtle guitar from Adrian Lever (Alma, Horses Brawl); sparkling percussion from Jo May (Against the Grain, Token Women); and captivating step dance from champion clog dancer Toby Bennett.
Admission £8 (members £5)
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Sunday 21st October |
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The Old Firm
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The Old Firm are Denise and Stuart Savage, Iris Bishop and Jim Ward. They
have come to life again after 37 years when they were in a band called
Gaslight Follies. They present a varied and entertaining evening of music
hall songs and monologues, instrumental intervals with English and Duet
concertinas, interspersed with English traditional songs.
Admission £8 (members £5) |
Sunday 28th October |
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Damien Barber & Mike Wilson
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Two of the finest exponents of Traditional Song in the United Kingdom; it is difficult to accept that these relatively young men, have a combined 40+ years experience of performing at folk venues.
Raised in Norfolk and heavily influenced by such earlier Norfolk singers as Walter Pardon and Peter Bellamy, Damien is a stylish and distinctive singer, either unaccompanied or using guitar or concertina. Though he has lived for a long time in West Yorkshire he retains a strong East Anglian identity.
Mike Wilson is the youngest member of the Wilson Family, the powerful Teesside singing siblings who have raised the rafters at many a festival or folk club event. His musical heritage is emphatically that of the North East – rural and industrial folk song both traditional and modern.
Damien and Mike have a rich shared repertoire of traditional songs plus the work of modern folk writers such as Bellamy, Ewan MacColl and Mike Waterson.
Admission £8 (members £5) |
Sunday 4th November |
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Song and Dance |
Songs, tunes and poems from members & guests plus dancing to our excellent ceilidh band.
Beginners and experts alike are welcome and our experienced callers ensure everyone can work their way through the dances with enjoyment. Admission £2 (members £1) |
Sunday 11th November |
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Jody Kruskal
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Jody Kruskal sings vintage American songs and plays tunes on the Anglo concertina. He is from New York City, yet performs regularly in the UK.
His concerts offer a warm and engaging solo presentation of traditional and popular American songs from yesteryear. From witty and humorous ditties to songs that explore the depths of the human condition, his singing tells American stories that are hilarious, gritty and true… stories of train wrecks and wrecked marriages, death row convicts and lonesome lovers, heroes, swaggering braggarts, lazy slackers and slapstick fools. Plan to join in on the chorus.
His love affair with the concertina goes back thirty years.He often plays at local New York contra dances with a number of bands. He has played extensively for morris and sword teams and also many Playford dances in NYC.
“What a refreshing sound!” – Sing out!
“Brilliant concertina player” – Vin Garbutt
“Technical fireworks… exceptional skills… very exciting playing… he’s able to make the anglo-concertina sound like a mouth organ… bending and blurring notes, so that his playing could never be mistaken for that of an English or even Irish player. ” – Rod Stradling, Musical Traditions
Admission £8 (members £5) |
Sunday 18th November |
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Steve Turner
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Steve Turner is known as a pioneer of highly sophisticated English concertina song accompaniments, stretching the boundaries of traditional forms, with one of the best voices in the business. He is a multi-instrumentalist, who also accompanies himself on the cittern, and also plays mandolin and banjo.
In the F/Roots August/September 2014 edition Nancy Kerr in her "Rocket Launcher" interview when asked "what was the best gig you ever saw?" answered "the best spot I've seen recently was Steve Turner - total intensive musical focus and a vast serious repertoire"
Admission £7 (members £5)
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Sunday 25th November |
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Open Floor |
Our open floor nights are an opportunity for anyone to try a song, a tune or a poem knowing they have a sympathetic audience, although there is no obligation to perform, and those who simply like to listen (and taste the excellent and inexpensive beer) are welcome. Admission £2 (members £1) |
Sunday 2nd December |
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Song and Dance |
Songs, tunes and poems from members & guests plus dancing to our excellent ceilidh band.
Beginners and experts alike are welcome and our experienced callers ensure everyone can work their way through the dances with enjoyment. Admission £2 (members £1) |
Sunday 9th December |
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Open Floor with
Henry Burstow and
Bellringers
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Our open floor nights are an opportunity for anyone to try a song, a tune or a poem knowing they have a sympathetic audience, although there is no obligation to perform, and those who simply like to listen (and taste the excellent and inexpensive beer) are welcome.
Tonight we'll be celebrating Henry Burstow - either his birth or death, one can never be sure which - and it's an excuse to sing some of the really old songs. We're hoping to be joined by the local bellringers, of whom Henry was once such a distinguished member.
Admission £2 (members £1) |
Sunday 16th December |
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Christmas party and
Open Floor |
It's party time!
Our open floor nights are an opportunity for anyone to try a song, a tune or a poem knowing they have a sympathetic audience, although there is no obligation to perform, and those who simply like to listen (and taste the excellent and inexpensive beer) are welcome. Admission £2 (members £1) |
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