Warwick club offers intimate folk and more

Popular performers Jim Crawford, Mick Ryan, Paul Downes and Les Barker are on the bill to perform on the club’s monthly concert nights, but Norman Wheatley, one of the three main organisers, says there is always plenty to look forward to every single week.

As well as the concerts, the club, every fortnight, invites anyone and everyone to “sing, recite or juggle” at its ‘performers’ nights’, while there are also ‘featured guests’ nights, at which artists from around the Midlands play two half-hour slots, introduced by a compere.

Norman, who has himself been singing and playing the acoustic guitar for audiences for 40 years, said: “We haven’t had any jugglers as yet but they are most welcome.

“Our performers’ nights are the most popular events we do. I feel so passionately that you have to have this kind of thing as if there hadn’t been something like this 40 years ago, I would never have got up and played before the public.

“We do have an astonishingly high standard, but no one should every think that they’re not good enough to play.”

The club is also run by Martin and Val Day, who have been part of the woodwork for many years, while Brian Night and Viv Wheatley are their regular helpers.

Although the word ‘folk’ is in their title, Norman and the others by no means run a limited venture.

Norman said: “If you use the word ‘folk’, you start to expect a certain type of thing, but that isn’t really what we are about.

“We cover as many ranges of music as you can using acoustic instruments.”

Among the highlights of the season is always Les Barker, who returns to perform without fail every November, on the last folk night before the club’s Christmas party.

Norman said: “He is the most astonishing bloke who writes funny poems. There is no music, but his act is always very popular and so well-known that people always join in when he recites.”

Other performers will include Philip Cockerham, Belzebub, Notts Alliance, Bianco and Revenge Of The Wrinklies - and there is even a children’s folk night in there.

Norman said: “All the performers say it’s a lovely place to be and that the audience always sits and listens.

“It’s a chance to see some top performers at close quarters. Most of the time, there is no need for a PA system because the room is so small.

“It’s just that person performing in front of you. It’s very intimate.”

Warwick Folk Club takes place every Monday at the Warwick Arms Hotel in High Street, Warwick, from 8pm to 10.30pm. The autumn season begins on Monday September 3 with a performers’ night, where anyone can just turn up and perform. Entry to performers’ nights costs £2, while it costs £4 for festured guests’ nights and £8 for concert nights.

To find out more and for details of the full programme, call 01527 401121 or go online.