From: Sheila Miller [sheilamiller55_at_yahoo_dot_co_dot_uk]

Sent: 04 September 2017 10:54

Subject: Cellar Upstairs folk club: programme for September 2017 to January 2018 (and update on Tom Paley's health, etc)

Here is the programme for the Cellar Upstairs for September 2017 to January 2018. I've filled the few nights that were not booked when I last wrote to you (though I've still not had confirmation of the 6th January booking).

I have, reluctantly, decided to do away with the concessionary prices. So many of our audience pay the lower prices that it is becoming quite a lot harder to pay the booked guests; on all but two or three nights of the year, many of our members pay only ?5. Folk club charges have always been a lot lower than for other musical events, but these prices are now making it hard for many of us to continue. It became a choice between putting the prices up and doing away with the concession, and I have decided to do the latter. I hope you will all understand. I know that not all of those who could have claimed the concession have done so, and I thank you for that.

All our evenings are still held in the upstairs room of the Calthorpe Arms, 252 Gray's Inn Road, WC1X 8JR (on the corner of Wren Street; tel: 020 7278 4732). King's Cross, Russell Square and Chancery Lane tube stations are about 10 minutes' walk away, and various buses go down (and up) Gray's Inn Road.

On Saturdays, I leave a message on my answerphone giving information about the club - who's on, the pub's address, times, prices, etc.

No tickets are needed for any of these nights: people just pay on the door for all of them. Floor-singers are always welcome.

I hope we'll see you at the club in the not too distant future.

All the best

Sheila

PS Various people have asked me how Tom Paley is, following his most recent stay in hospital (he had been sent home after his previous stay, and had almost immediately collapsed again and needed to be re-admitted). This time, they kept him in for longer and did an assessment to decide what would be best. To his son Ben's surprise, they decided to send him home with a care package, but that didn't work, and he went into a rapid decline, Ben said. Here's the latest news I've had from Ben: "On Thursday we moved him into a nursing home in Brighton and he is already improving, becoming something of his old self again, terrible puns making a significant come-back for instance. It's called Birch Grove, near Preston Park. The staff are great, and his room is small but sunny with a view of the small garden. We've been visiting every day and we plan to take him out for walks when he's settled in a bit, sessions, the beach, that sort of thing."

9 September: Robin Laing (Scottish singer of traditional, Burns and his own songs, with guitar; his specialist subjects are whisky and love)

16 Sept: Leon Rosselson (great British songwriter - The World Turned Upside Down, Battle Hymn of the New Socialist Party, Palaces of Gold, Don't Get Married, Girls, Voices, Song of the Olive Tree and many other great songs)

23 Sept: Beskydy (popular six-piece band performing a wide variety of songs and tunes from eastern Europe and beyond on many different instruments)

30 Sept: Stanley Accrington (very witty songwriter with huge repertoire; funny songs and a few serious ones - Sheep That Glow, Last Train, Join the Masons, History of England and many others)

7 October: Anne Lister (her songs - eg, Icarus and Moth- have been covered by various other singers, including Nic Jones, Martin Simpson and Jon Boden; with guitar)

14 Oct: John Conolly (songwriter of many fine songs, of which the best known is Fiddler's Green; among his other widely sung songs is Punch and Judy Man)

21 Oct: Andy Turner and Mat Green (great singing and playing of traditional English songs and tunes from duo from Oxfordshire; possibly a solo jig too)

*28 Oct: John Hegley (bespectacled performance poet from Luton, popular all over the country and on Radio 4, but rarely seen in folk clubs)

4 November: the Askew Sisters (traditional songs from Hampshire and other parts of Britain on fiddle and melodeon from Hazel and Emily; some tunes too)

11 Nov: Jimmy Aldridge and Sid Goldsmith (younger singers from East Anglia with sensitive musical arrangements of traditional and other songs on guitar and banjo)

18 Nov: Archie Fisher (great, popular Scottish singer of traditional and other songs, also an accomplished guitarist)

25 Nov: Harp and a Monkey (Lancashire group, very popular in northern England, on rare foray south; songs in the traditional idiom with banjo, viola, harp, mouth organ, glockenspiel and other instruments)

2 December: Andrew Frank and Michael Hebbert (great singer and virtuoso concertina player make up one of the most entertaining acts around - assorted songs of the music hall and the '20s, '30s, '40s and '50s)

9 Dec: Duck Soup (Dan Quinn, Ian Kearey and Adam Bushell - former members of Gas Mark 5, the Oyster Band, Flowers and Frolics and other bands - with assorted songs and tunes on various instruments)

2018

6 January: Ewan McLennan (mainly traditional Scots songs from excellent younger singer and guitarist) (to be confirmed)

ENTRANCE: Members: ?6, non-members: ?8, except on nights marked *, when it will be ?7 and ?9. Membership: ?4. Information: 020 7281 7700.

RESIDENT PERFORMERS: Gail Williams & Jim Younger, Peta Webb & Ken Hall, Sue Williams & Frankie Cleeve, Bob Wakeling, Katrina Rublowska

INFORMATION: 020 7281 7700

PUB (Calthorpe Arms): 020 7278 4732