It’s the start of an exciting week for The Mashers, the Flat Cap Folk Club opens its doors for the first time on Thursday 15th at
The Transport Club (Union Street) Rotherham. Click the link for full details.
....
We’re aiming to get underway at 8:30pm at the latest. ....
And our guests for this very first night could not be
better. The very first guests to perform
on the Flat Cap stage will be “Brother Crow”, award winning song writers, and accomplished
performers. They have a fantastic
traditional sound that will have your feet tapping and their songs tell super
stories.....
Taking equal billing on this first night is Rotherham’s own”Toein’ In The Dark”. Always popular and
always entertaining with a mix of songs from traditional to pop soundly
grounded in their unique roots sound.....
And we’re hoping that we’ll also have some quality support
from “floor spot” singers from around the Region. However, Floor spots will be limited, so get
your name down early. ....
Best of all the beer is cheap and the once the £1 Club Membership
has been paid the whole evening is FREE, which can’t be bad. ....
It’s always difficult
establishing a new Folk Club, and Flat Cap Folk has an initial three month run,
and we would like to thank the Committee of The Transport Club for their
Sponsorship which has enabled us to book some great acts. However, if we don’t get people in then it’s
a fact that we will loose the venue. ....
If we get the nod to proceed into the New Year then we hope
to bring top acts from the Northern Region to the Club. ....
So exciting times ahead. ....
We do need to support these venues brave enough invest in
live music. The Licenced Trade is going
through really difficult times, if the shutters are not already up around your
local, or a “To Let” sign is not hanging from the door, then you are a lucky
drinker. ....
Talking to some Land Lords though, I can’t help feeling that
the Pub Chain Companies, who lease the Pubs out have a lot to answer for. Some appear to be selling the impossible
dream. Seducing people to invest life
savings in running a Pub, and then weighing the new owners down with so much lead
that they cannot help but sink. ....
Apparently these Companies tie the Pub Land Lords down to
buying product direct from them, charging well above the price that might be
available from other sourcing. I was
told this could be as much as £100 on a barrel of beer. If this were not enough to stifle competition then
in some cases I’m told that these Companies then take a 50% take from the
gaming and vending machines! ....
For the Land Lord this must be like swimming with arm tied
behind their back. ....
Surely there is a case for a full Government enquiry into
the activities of these Property Owning Pub Chains, in terms of the way that
they impact upon the lives of their lease holders and onwards to the prices
that we have to pay at the pump for a pint of beer. ....
The week started though with some bad news. Chas and Dave are sadly no more. Dave has retired following the sad death of
his Wife. Apparently Chas is still going
to be out there with his Band, so their songs will not be completely lost. ....
While not making light of Dave’s loss, I heard a rumour that
the real reason for their disappearance from the scene was that they were just
fed up with The Mashers being compared to them.
Something that again happened when we visited The Yellow Lion on
Thursday. ....
It’s been a while since we popped into The Yellow Lion so it
was nice to meet up the Sessions regulars again. Unfortunately attendance was not at its best,
but the lack of quantity did not affect the superb quality of the evening, and
with some new faces putting on some very good performances. ....
Tuesday at The Black Bull had been a good evening as
well. A venue we had not been to for
some time, so it was good to catch up with old friends. ....
The attendance was really quite good with a mix of artists
and audience. But not as good as the old
days, when one couldn’t move in the place let alone find a seat. ....
But it was nice to make visits in the week to two venues
that we had not seen for some time. ....
Of course the week started with our Open practice at The
Monkwood. It seems we now share this
with the Committee of the local Ghost Hunting group, makes for an interesting
evening.
I was told that Mike Padfield's stand in stint for a holidaying Rudi on Friday night's Open Mic Night at The Monkwood was a huge success. I wonder if Rudi should take a few more holidays!?
....
Thanks to all for the birthday wishes during the week all
much appreciated. ....
I finished my musical week at, no prizes, Rawmarsh Trades
and Club where “Essential Journey” were playing, and no prizes again for guessing
what they play!! ....
The Band was much hyped in the local press and media as
being something special and for putting on a great show and The Club thought it
a feather in their cap that they had secured them for the night.....
Sadly this was a case of over hype. Some of us long time serving Club goers
remembered the key members of the Band as being Site and Sound who played out
of Birmingham and established quite a reputation for themselves, especially for
their vocal harmonies on a series of Chicago songs. ....
Unfortunately their performance as a Journey tribute band on
this night was poor. No light show,
which when you’re playing ninety minutes of music from the same band has to help to
keep a general audience interested and appalling sound. In fact the first song was nearly lost
completely as the vocal mics had not been turned on and from where I was
standing even after the mics were turned up or on, the vocal channels were
always too low, being submerged in a deep bass that made the room vibrate. ....
The bass also managed to submerge some brilliant harmonies
that were just fighting to break through while the poor keyboard player when on
one of his keyboards was lost completely for any sort of sound.....
And what a pity. The
Cub was packed to the rafters at the start of the evening but by mid way
through the first set the Club had began empty.
By the start of the second set it was beginning to look like a Mashers
Gig. ....
I’m sure that there was a reason for the lack of lights and
dreadful sound engineering but it was not passed onto the audience. ....
My spy Myke was also out and about checking out local Gigs
this week. ....
Myke went to see Dave Swarbrick in concert with Kevin
Dempsey, who were appearing as part of the Rotherham Open Arts Festival. ....
Maybe it was the lack of publicity, I couldn’t find this
event listed on the leaflet download, but apparently attendance was rather
disappointing. Tickets were priced at
£10 and while two legends of the Folk scene should justify such pricing people
do need to know that the show was on. ....
The first I heard about it was at the Rother Folk event on
the Sunday afternoon and I like to think that I have my ear to the ground for
these sort of events. Far to late to change my plans for the Wednesday night.....
And I don’t want to sound too negative but to be honest the
general publicity around this years event has not been up to the standard of
previous years. Simply putting a big
tent up in the middle of town won’t do the trick and the Web Site this year was
a bit messy with the home page being immediately obliterated by a pdf file of
the Festivals Flier. ....
Myke also set off on Saturday to see Vice Squad, supported by
our good friends Leather Zoo for an evening of Punk. The show had originally been booked into Rudi’s
and was switched to The Dicken’s Bar when that venue closed down. And third time lucky it was again switched,
this time to Mondo on West Gate. I am
awaiting Myke’s report on the evening. ....
For those who have not been keeping up, all the Gigs booked into
Dicken’s Bar / No.10 have been moved to Mondo, so the best of luck to all those
involved with the venue, which up to now did not have a reputation for putting
on live music.
Keep up to date with most of what is going on by checking out the Gigs and News page HERE
....
Now regular readers will be aware that The Mashers are due
to go out to Germany in late November for a short tour. Unfortunately I’ve hit upon an unexpected
snag – Insurance! Because of the MS
Insurance Companies are wanting to charge me an arm and a leg for the privilege
of Insuring me against the unlikely possibility that I might grind to a halt on
our four day trip.....
If anyone has knowledge of an Insurance Company that specialises
in Band tours / health that I could speak to I would really appreciate it. It falls outside of our current range of
experience and I’m fed of talking to people who would like to take twice what
we expect to earn for the tour.....
Alternatively any advice anyone might have in respect to the
Tour would be appreciated. ....
The Acoustic Rotherham / Mashers Web Site will be undergoing
a slow transformation over the coming months.
We have been aware for sometime of the problems that some people have
had in loading some of the picture rich pages onto their computers, so having
taught myself a few new skills and found some very useful design programmes I’ll
be making improvements. ....
The first page to benefit has been the Open Mic / Folk Club
/ Jam Session Guide, which even my computer was having trouble in loading. It’s now relatively quite fast to load. Check it out HERE ....
And to those who have switched to Internet Explorer 8 and
might be suffering from Flash problems can we recommend that you switch your
default browser to Fire Fox, you’ll find that all your problems are
solved. I’m afraid that Microsoft seem
to have been far too clever for the average user with their security settings
etc with Explorer 8 and if your experience is similar to mine the whole thing
just crashes out. ....
And so onward to the week ahead.....
Besides our usual Open Practice at The Monkwood on Monday.....
15th October Flat Cap Folk ....
17th October at Nellie Deane’s – Myke Mashers
Rock alternative band "Earthtales" take to the stage for a rare outing. Well worth checking out.....
20th October The Mashers are in action at The
Handsworth Folk Club / Literary Festival for this month. ....
And not forgetting Acoustic Rotherham 5. I’m still having problems contacting some of
the artists who said that they were doing the event, so it’s going to be hit
and miss or controlled chaos on the day.
But you can expect, SHORT SUPPLY, CRACK TOWN, ACOUTSTICA, PETE HIGGINS,
GLENN COGGIN, BOB HUMPHRIES, BARBARA HELEN, THE MASHERS, STRING THEORY, + SOME
SURPRISES + SOME OTHER ACTS IF THEY CONFIRM. ....
OH!!! When is this great event? Why it’s the 25th October from
1:00pm . Be early, it should be a great
first birthday party for the event. ....
Full details should be up on the Web Site by mid week. ....
And have a good week folks and thanks for your continued
support.