Author Archives: bridget

French traditional music from Bof! on Friday 12 January

Posted on by

In 2000, Bof! started playing as a four-piece band specialising in traditional French and Breton tunes and songs for dancing or listening to. The band members are Val Woollard, Simon Haynes and Phil Lyons, who play diatonic accordions, bagpipes, recorder, flute and guitars, and Breton singer Gwendal Moële, who became a full-time member of the line-up in 2018. Their repertoire is mainly traditional music from Central France and Brittany, but also includes compositions by members of the band and others. Watch: Voile au Vent. 

Bof! have played in folk clubs, for dance groups and at festivals in England and France, as well as organising regular French and Breton dance workshops and public dances in East Anglia, as part of the Burybal and Prêt à Danser groups.

The concert will start at 7.30 pm. There will also be space for dancing. Bring your own drinks. Teas and coffee available in the kitchen, 50p. Tickets (£13 non-members, £10 club members) can be reserved by email via our contact page.

Steve Tilston on Friday 1 December

Posted on by

Steve Tilston is one of our most celebrated songsmiths, widely recognised within the world of folk and contemporary music – the words, arrangements and subtle, quite superb guitar playing could be no one else. “The more you listen, the more there is to discover.” (Bob Harris). The story of Steve’s “lost” letter from John Lennon thrust Steve into the

Photo copyright Shay Rowan

worldwide media spotlight and was the inspiration for a Hollywood movie. Danny Collins, starring Al Pacino in the title role, is now available to own on DVD.

Steve was also voted Fatea Awards Male Vocalist of the Year 2015 and Truth to Tell was chosen as one of The Telegraph’s top folk albums that year too. 2021 saw the release of Such Times and the continuation of the connection with Riverboat Records, begun with Distant Days, Steve’s solo acoustic retrospective, from 2018. In Such Times Steve takes on the role of social commentator and storyteller with 15 tracks of almost exclusively new material, recorded during the first national lockdown.

The evening starts at 7.30 pm. Tickets (£13 non-members, £10 club members) can be reserved via the email form on our contact page. Bring your own drinks – teas and coffee available in the kitchen for 50p.

The Rosie Hood Band on Friday 10 November

Posted on by

A folk singer/songwriter from Wiltshire, Rosie Hood is known for her strong, pure voice and captivating performances, as well as being a member of The Dovetail Trio. A BBC Performing Arts Fellow and 2016 BBC Radio 2 Folk Award nominee, Rosie has become more than purely a traditional singer. June 2017 saw the release of her first full-length solo album The Beautiful & The Actual, a collection of old and new folk songs, described by The Guardian as “a classy arrival” ****.

Rosie has toured the UK and Central Canada, both solo and as part of The Dovetail Trio, as well as collaborating and performing with a host of fellow musicians including Emily Portman, Jefferson Hamer, Cohen Braithwaite-Kilcoyne and the Andy May Trio. She is currently working with talented accompanists Nicola Beazley (fiddle/cello), Robyn Wallace (melodeon) and Rosie Butler-Hall (fiddle). Link to: A Furlong of Flight

The evening starts at 7.30 pm. Tickets (£13 non-members, £10 club members) can be reserved via the email form on our contact page. Bring your own drinks – teas and coffee available in the kitchen for 50p.

Richard Smith on Friday 20 October

Posted on by

Based in the USA, top thumb-picking guitarist Richard Smith drops in to Norwich Folk Club as part of this year’s European tour. English-born, Richard has won several national awards in the USA for his expert playing and was inducted into the National Thumbpickers Hall of Fame in 2009.

Richard’s other career achievements include playing with Chet Atkins, Les Paul, Nato Lima, Boots Randolph, Tommy Emmanuel, John Jor­genson, Marcel Dadi, Tommy Tedesco, Joe Pass, Biréli Lagrène, Mark O’Connor, Sam Bush, Stuart Duncan, Martin Taylor, Jorge Morel, Earl Klugh, Suzy Bogguss, Victor Wooten, John Cowan and countless more.

The guest night begins at 7.30 pm. Email us via our contact page to reserve your tickets (£13 for non-members and £10 for club members). Bring your own drinks – teas and coffees available in the kitchen for 50p.

Dan McKinnon on Friday 29 September

Posted on by

On Friday 29 September at 7.30 pm we are very pleased to be welcoming Canadian singer songwriter and guitarist Dan McKinnon to the club. Dan has been performing for over thirty years – it was hearing Stan Rogers’ music in 1979 that first encouraged him to start, and the importance of that influence can still be felt in his own songs. 

Dan ‘blessed with a gorgeous baritone voice and an exceptional command of phrasing, light and shade’ (David Kidman, The Living Tradition) continues to convey his finely crafted songs to audiences through his yearly tours in the UK and performances in and around the Canadian Maritimes.

Tickets (£13 non-members, £10 club members) can be reserved by emailing us via the contact page. Bring your own drinks – teas and coffee are available in the kitchen for 50p.  There is some parking for early arrivers – otherwise please park in nearby streets.

Anthony John Clarke on Friday 8 September

Posted on by

On Friday 8 September we look forward to welcoming Anthony John Clarke. Described by Fairport Convention as a National Treasure, this singer-songwriter has been an integral part of the UK music scene for 30 years. Originally from Belfast, AJ emerged there with his songs ‘The Broken Years’ and ‘The Only Life Gloria Knows’, but now presents as one of the most humorous and entertaining acts around.

Audiences cannot resist the musical invitations to sing from this true gentleman of the music world. Expect a degree of sentiment, but also songs covering topics from the Man From Uncle to Car Boot Sales, Presidents, Karaoke Nights, Nuns, Grandchildren and how to avoid them (he has at least five), Camping, Bigots, and Hitchhiking. This man is perhaps the funniest at serious songs and the most serious about funny songs. Enjoy the ride with AJ and everyone is advised to bring all necessary medication!

Tickets £13 (£10 club members) can be reserved by emailing via the contact page. Bring your own drinks – teas and coffee available in the kitchen.

Teyr on Friday 9 June

Posted on by

Described by Folk Radio UK as “High-energy brilliance”, James Patrick Gavin, Dominic Henderson and Tommie Black-Roff are three of the UK’s finest new breed of folk musician. Their folk trio TEYR (‘3’ in the Cornish language) evolved out of London’s thriving session scene; that, by combining bothy ballads, focsle shanties, folk tunes and Irish poetry, their trademark blend of voices and instruments draws links between the many sounds of the British and Celtic Isles, as well as the Nordic countries.

Having honed their craft over the best part of a decade, they thrive on weaving their diverse threads together by using close vocal harmonies, fiddle, uilleann pipes, guitar, low whistle and accordion, to characterise themselves and the influences of the great folk musicians who’ve come before.

To reserve your ticket (£13 non-member, £10 club member) email us via the Contact page. The evening kicks off at 7.30 pm. Bring your own drinks – teas and coffee available in the kitchen.

Christina Alden and Alex Patterson on Friday 5 May

Posted on by

Christina Alden and Alex Patterson have been playing music since they were children and were both raised in musical households in the Norfolk and Suffolk countryside. They are multi-instrumentalist songwriters and have been working together for seven years. Their music is firmly bedded in the folk tradition of story-telling and their writing often reflects on the relationships between humans and the wild.

Christina and Alex have toured extensively in the UK and Europe, including a 23-date concert hall tour with Show of Hands. They have headlined and played on the main stage at some of the UK’s most prestigious folk festivals. They have written and self-released four albums, composed music for a BBC Radio 4 documentary series and have had over a million streams on Spotify. Their 2021 album ‘Hunter’ was well reviewed and had lots of national airplay: ‘a bright, lively collection of songs that plays so sweetly it evokes the sensation of a summer folk festival’ (The Guardian).

Tickets (£13 non-members, £10 club members) are available for this event by emailing via our contact page. Please note that this event runs from 7.30 to our new finish time of 10.15 pm. Bring your own drinks – teas and coffee are available in the kitchen.

Tania Opland and Mike Freeman on Friday 14 April

Posted on by

Our guests on Friday 14 April will be Tania Opland and Mike Freeman. After over three years of pandemic inspired inertia, disruption and chaos, Tania and Mike are back on the road for their somewhat postponed 2020 UK tour.

In 30 years on the road together these two have played at art shows, boat shows, festivals, fairs, conventions, venues large and small and events both private and corporate. But most of the time they’ve been travelling back and forth across the Atlantic to perfom throughout the UK and North America bringing a car full of instruments, a jumble of multi-cultural folk influences, and a ton of fun to any audience they can reach.

They have recorded eight albums between them (including two collaborations with best-selling author Anne McCaffrey, in Ireland), and make numerous appearances as studio musicians on other recordings in the U.S., U.K. and Canada.

Expect songs and tunes from or inspired by americana, eurofolk, early music and global influences, sung and played with hammered dulcimer, 5-string violin/viola, recorder, hurdy-gurdy, clarseach, guitar, djembe and whatever else has been rediscovered when everything comes out of storage.

The evening starts at 7.30 pm. Tickets £13 (£10 club members) can be reserved via the email link on our contact page. Bring your own drinks and the kitchen will be open for teas and coffee (50p).

Martyn Wyndham-Read and Iris Bishop on Friday 10 February

Posted on by

Martyn Wyndham-Read has been involved with folk music for over 40 years. In his late teens he left his mother’s farm in Sussex and headed off, with his guitar, to Australia where he worked on a sheep station in South Australia. It was while he was there that he heard, first hand, the old songs sung by some of the station hands at Emu Springs and he became captivated by these songs and the need to know more of them and where they came from grew.

Martyn moved to Melbourne and became part of the folk song revival there and throughout Australia during the early1960s. Based back in the UK, he has toured worldwide, performing a variety of traditional and contemporary songs. Martyn is accompanied by fantastic box player Iris Bishop: Where Ravens Feed

The evening starts at 7.30 pm. Tickets £13 (£10 club members) can be reserved via the email link on our contact page. Bring your own drinks and the kitchen will be open for teas and coffee (50p).