It has been a while since the last news blog owing mainly to the demands of organising Royston Arts Festival & Royston MusicFest and the recovery time needed afterwards! If you couldn’t get to the latter you can get a flavour of what you have missed by listening to the MusicFest podcasts which can be found on the Royston Radio website under ‘Filby’s Folk’ (scroll down to Shows 17 & 18 and try to ignore the horrible pictures you are presented with!) The weekly show goes out at 7pm on Sundays – listen HERE.
Looking ahead now, it may be too short notice to catch ‘The Trees’ at the Four Rivers Folk Club in Hertford tonight but put a date in your diary for 8th November when Pat Crilly (who runs the Four Rivers FC) and Peter Crossley will be joining forces to provide the entertainment. Both performed at Royston MusicFest last month.
Tomorrow evening at the Bishop’s Stortford Acoustic Club, another MusicFest stalwart, Bill Tarran, will be hosting their Young Players Night featuring Lily Martin and, as usual, all at the bargain price of £5 cash on the door. If you miss that you can always go the following Thursday and see Elliot Porter and no less than 8 support acts. Moving on to Friday 28th, if you are an Elton John fan then you must get down to Royston Live where John Reilly and Lewis Nitikman‘s ‘Your Song’ concert will celebrate the music and lyrics of Elton John and Bernie Taupin. John Reilly appeared at a special Grammy Awards 50th Anniversary concert alongside Gary Barlow and Alfie Boe and his show ‘Your Song’ has been presented across the country to standing ovations. It’s just £15 on the door and only £12 if you book in advance. Royston Live‘s next concert after that on Friday November 10th features the Ben Smith and Jimmy Brewer Acoustic Band supported by Vic Lennard and amazingly the advance tickets are just £9. If you can’t wait until then, at Watford Folk Club on November 3rd you can see Jon Bickley with the Invisible Folk Club Band.
If you are a folk fan living in Milton Keynes you must feel very lucky to have The Stables on your doorstep where you can see two very talented guitarists at the beginning of November. On the 1st it is Gordon Giltrap who played a memorable gig at Royston Folk Club a few years ago and on the 3rd you can appreciate Clive Carroll playing the music of the late great John Renbourn.
You are also very lucky if you live in Hertford where the organisers at St Andrew’s Church have put together a great programme of Winter concerts featuring Fairport Convention (sold out!), Kris Drever, and the Churchfitters in November and December with more to come in early 2024.
Just check the newly updated Unicorn Diary in the Listings on the main Unicorn Folk website for all the links to the above event details and lots more in the region.
If you are a young musician under the age of 25 who sings or plays traditionally based music you may wish to enter New Roots 2024. Whether your style is traditional or contemporary folk, roots or world music, whether you perform traditional material or write your own, the organisers would like to hear from you. There are two categories, under 18 and 18-24. New Roots has been running since 2000 and the standard rises every year. There is no overall winner and everyone who makes it to the final will win one or more performance opportunities. More details of New Roots 2024 can be found under OTHER MUSIC/USEFUL LINKS on the main Unicorn Folk website and the closing date is 31st January 2024.
Finally, there is a review of a brilliant album, Unanswered by Ward Knùtur Townes which you can find under CD Reviews on the main Unicorn Folk website with more to follow in the coming days including the latest from Show of Hands which is released on November 6th.
Unicorn Folk News 